By Graham Osborne
First of all, if this review were based on titles alone, this game would fail in every single way. Revengeance is not a word… But I digress. From fuck you to bad-ass, Raiden’s journey has been an interesting one and this game is certainly no exception.
Set four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4 and the destruction of the Patriot AIs, the game follows Raiden as a cyborg ninja, working for a PMC company to help bring peace to war-torn countries, until a terrorist organisation (also filled with cyborg ninjas) attacks an African President’s convoy and Raiden is injured in the ensuing battle. He then goes on to fight the PMCs who attacked him and bring them down before they can unleash another attack that will rival 9/11.
First of all, if this review were based on titles alone, this game would fail in every single way. Revengeance is not a word… But I digress. From fuck you to bad-ass, Raiden’s journey has been an interesting one and this game is certainly no exception.
Set four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4 and the destruction of the Patriot AIs, the game follows Raiden as a cyborg ninja, working for a PMC company to help bring peace to war-torn countries, until a terrorist organisation (also filled with cyborg ninjas) attacks an African President’s convoy and Raiden is injured in the ensuing battle. He then goes on to fight the PMCs who attacked him and bring them down before they can unleash another attack that will rival 9/11.
The story itself is like a watered down Metal Gear game, all the style and crazy plot lines, minus the hour long cut scenes giving us exposition we don’t understand. The heart is there, but it just lacks something. Raiden’s story was changed during development, with the mechanics altering to match. As a result, the game has little to no stealth mechanics and just devolves into a standard hack and slash affair incredibly reminiscent of Platinum Games’ Bayonetta and Vanquish. Whereas Solid Snake was given various ways into an establishment without alerting the enemies, Raiden appears to take the opinion that the best route is through the front door, with a pile of dismembered corpses behind him. The one time you are given a ‘required’ stealth section and the worst thing that happens if you get spotted is a stern warning advising against getting seen.
That being said, the gameplay is entertaining. The levels are linear, but diverse enough that you don’t grow fatigued and the upgrade system allows you to improve your health, attacks and weapons. Quite possibly, the most diverting thing is discovering that you have the ability to cut almost any scenery into increasingly smaller chunks. This gets even more fun when you have your bosses telling you to get to the next objective but you want, nay HAVE, to cut the last tree in the area whilst singing Monty Python’s Lumberjack song.
That being said, the gameplay is entertaining. The levels are linear, but diverse enough that you don’t grow fatigued and the upgrade system allows you to improve your health, attacks and weapons. Quite possibly, the most diverting thing is discovering that you have the ability to cut almost any scenery into increasingly smaller chunks. This gets even more fun when you have your bosses telling you to get to the next objective but you want, nay HAVE, to cut the last tree in the area whilst singing Monty Python’s Lumberjack song.
Also, this doesn’t happen again, so hooray for that.
However, the boss fights themselves feel cheap, with the only tactics being slash at them with your sword with a driving rock track playing in the background and are a chore to beat. One boss fight involves a character who can separate themselves and become immune to all attacks until you perfectly block all their attacks and leave them open. Combine this with the fact that you can be stun-locked with frightening ease and if that happens with one of the more powerful enemies in the game, you can see your health whittled down to next to nothing quicker than you can blink. This is made worse by the spacing of various boss fights which means you could use up all your health kits, then run into something even worse ten seconds later, without any items in between. It’s a far cry from Snake Eater’s tactical boss fight with The End, or Guns of the Patriot’s Screaming Mantis fight.
This game had so much potential. It seems a shame for it to be wasted in such a fashion as this. If you want a game that gives you the Metal Gear experience in a more condensed fashion, this won’t disappoint. But if you want the full-blown thing… maybe wait to see how Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain turn out.
This game had so much potential. It seems a shame for it to be wasted in such a fashion as this. If you want a game that gives you the Metal Gear experience in a more condensed fashion, this won’t disappoint. But if you want the full-blown thing… maybe wait to see how Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain turn out.
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