GOOD GAMES VS BAD GAMES: A METAL GEAR RISING REVIEW

30FPS or 60FPS?

A lot of people don't exactly know what makes a game good, and what makes a game bad. The majority just go by word of mouth, popularity, etc. But how many know the difference between a game that is well programmed, free of bugs, balanced, has an amazingly stable frame rate, and is still a crazy amount of fun? Not too many I think because a good 90-95% of the games being released lately don't have any of the substance that I just previously mentioned yet hardly anyone thinks that's a problem. Today I will both be discussing what I personally think makes a game good, and why Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the best game that I've ever played since 2009.


GAMEPLAY:
I'll start things off by going over the game-play because that's what matters most in a "game". When I buy a game, I'm looking for just that a game, not an interactive movie (Story is nice, but too much defeats the purpose of calling it a game in the first place.) and while the Metal Gear Solid series is known for lengthy cut-scenes, Platinum Games did a great job at balancing out the cut-scenes and the game-play. Not once did I want a cut-scene to be over and done with so I can get back to the awesome game-play. While there are some lengthy scenes they are tolerable because they usually come after I've actually played the game for much longer than the cut-scene would be.

Stylish fluid game-play.

For starting things out discussing game-play I sure haven't mentioned much of it have I? Well I'll start with that now. Metal Gear Rising runs at a solid 60FPS at all times this game practically never drops a single frame even with it's gorgeous visuals and huge amount of action constantly happening on the screen. Why aren't more games like this? It obviously isn't console limitations if Platinum Games was somehow able to pull it off when they made this game. But anyways combat in this game is fast, brutally challenging(I did my first play-through on Hard Mode), and *gasps* has a learning curve?! I can't even remember the last time I had to properly learn how to play a game just to beat regular enemies and not even boss battles.

 There are multiple weapons in this game similar to other action games such as Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, however there is one thing lacking in Metal Gear Rising that those games have and this game doesn't, projectiles. Sure projectiles do exist to a certain extent but in the form of rocket launchers and grenades, but I honestly felt like they weren't very relevant except for a few areas to take down airborne opponents but even then, aerial combat is much more efficient.

If you can't beat me, your doing it wrong.

Did I mention that so far this game is insanely balanced? I have yet to find anything incredibly broken in this game. I've heard that the famous Fox Blade is broken, but that was a preorder bonus DLC from a specific retailer that I am not aware of at the moment. When I'm fighting enemies in this game everything feels so freaking fair, if I'm losing it's not the games fault, it's mine. Platinum Games made Raiden extremely powerful, and gave you all the tools you need to win but at the same time created the AI to also be extremely powerful, and gave them all the tools they need to win. Nothing broken, cheap or whatever you want to call it, they can just put up a fight and it's done much better than most games. This is where the learning curve comes into play.

MUSIC:
Amazing soundtrack, there's not a single song in this game that I didn't like especially the boss themes, words can't even describe how amazing they sound. To add on to the already amazing music, they made all of the music adjust to the climax of a battle. They all begin as instrumentals and as your nearing the end of a battle the vocals start to kick in and the music turns up a notch. This sounds and fits so amazingly well in the boss battles and feels like your playing an epic action movie. (Do note that I said PLAYING and not watching.)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:
NO, I'm not going to list every memorable moment in this game and spoil it for you guys, but this game has something that I've missed for far too long in a video game, memorable moments. (Go figure) I remember when I was younger I would beat a game feel satisfied, reflect back on the entirety of the game and think to myself or discuss with others, "Hey, remember when this guy did this?, or this guy said that? Well this game has that. The last game I played with memorable moments like that was Tales of Vesperia, a game that released  back in August of 2008.

CHALLENGE:
I wanted to write about how challenging this game is but I seemed to have already done that in the game-play section, so I'll just state why challenge is good. The reason why challenge is worth every penny in a video game is because, 1. It keeps you thinking and not just mashing buttons(You would be amazed at how playing challenging video games changes the way you think in the real word), 2. Adds replay value, and  3. Makes the game enjoyable unless you just enjoy beating the crap out of punching bags, or taking kids lunch money....

REPLAY VALUE:
Why do so many games lack replay value? A great example of a game released recently that has no replay value is Resident Evil 6. Once you beat the game that's it, game over man. Yeah, you can replay the game on higher difficulties, but what if you already played the game on the hardest difficulty setting on your first play-through? Play it again? Well that works in some cases but it didn't with Resident Evil 6 because kill enemy, move forward, get interrupted, by cut-scene, attempt to kill enemy but get interrupted by cut-scene over and over again just is not fun.

However something Metal Gear Rising does have is replay value. With five difficulties to choose from; Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Revengeance, there's a lot of room to improve both your in game character skills, and your personal skills as a player. For comparison sake I would say that playing hard mode on your first play-through is equivalent to playing Devil May Cry 3 on Very Hard, while Very Hard in Metal Gear Rising felt like the equivalent of Dante Must Die mode in Devil May Cry 3. I haven't tried Revengeance mode yet but am really looking forward to it.

Aside from difficulties there a ton of hidden collectibles in the game and unlockables, then there are 20 VR Missions, which are similar to the Mission Mode that was present in Ninja Gaiden Black, for the Xbox. More VR Missions are also being released as DLC within the next month as a pack of 30 for approximately $3.00. Further DLC to be released after that also includes two new characters to play as which I would assume have their own story segments.

Bullseye!

FINAL VERDICT:
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is so good that it has officially taken the spot of my favorite video game of all time surpassing Tales of Vesperia in more ways than one. The game is solid, runs at a stable frame rate of 60FPS, is challenging, visually stunning, amazingly fun and never dull, and sounds spectacular. I usually don't give game ratings but I'll go ahead and rate this one anyways. I give Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a 9.5/10 because no game is perfect.