I am about to say something radical guys, I like Raiden. I like him as a character, I like him as a ninja, and I like him as a protagonist. Now to say something less radical. I like Platinum Games. Though I have never beaten one of their games, I have enjoyed all the time I have spent with them. So imagine my dismay when I did not enjoy my time with Metal Gear Rising Revengeance .
My demo began about mid way through a mission and so I was not treated to the tutorial explaining the controls, but they were not hard to figure out. Raiden has your standard light attack, heavy attack, block, dodge, etc. What he has beyond that is a function called Blade Mode. During Blade Mode your right stick acts as a sort of sword slingshot; as you pull back on the stick a projection of the blade trajectory is shown, and upon releasing the stick the blade travels through that path, and your enemies. Fighting normal soldiers was arguably the most fun I had with the demo, considering everything else felt stiff and unwieldy.
The last half of my demo with Revengeance was spent failing to cross a bridge and then beating up a helicopter. As soon as you start crossing the bridge it starts collapsing and you start running. Now, I have played games before, I have run off my fair share of collapsing bridges, but I probably ran through that section ten or more times. The problem was that ,even though Raiden looks and fights like a ninja, he by no means moves like one. On this bridge there were broken down cars and in order to survive you had to avoid them, simple. But instead of jumping over them, like any self respecting ninja would have done, you had to run around them. Why you ask? Because Raiden jumps like an idiot.
When you press the jump button Raiden does a super high spin flip that ends in him coming back down about three inches from where he once stood. Sure, he would probably be great a ninja basketball dunking but for jumping past cars in a timely manner, this method does not work. I wish that this was an exaggeration but it really is not, you move forward so little with each jump it almost seems pointless to have a jump button in there at all. So now I had to navigate the cars on the bridge, of which there were three, and die repeatedly as I get caught on them. I sure feel like a deadly cyber ninja now.
Eventually I was able to make my way off the bridge, except wait; no I died yet again. This time it was not skill, or a lack there of, on my part, it was UI. At the very end of the bridge a QTE is activated and you must jam on the Triangle(Y) button the avoid death. The problem was that when the prompt came up, it was unclear that I was supposed to beat on that button, instead of just pressing it once. Behind the button prompt was a slightly pulsating orange circle, and I mean very slightly, so I guess I should have known. But in the chaos of missile fire, ninja electricity, and falling debris it was a little tough to tell the difference between slightly pulsating and not pulsating. So as a coup de grâce to my unending bridge turmoil I died from a poorly executed QTE, great.
Once I finally crossed the bridge I had to fight a helicopter, with a sword. Yeah, games are dumb, it is ok. This last section of the demo was a mix of things I enjoyed from Revengeance, and things I did not. On one hand I could wail on the attack buttons on the helicopter. On the other hand I usually had to chase the chopper across disconnected platforms, which means I had to jump, a lot. Chasing this boss around the designated arena with a jump that felt like gravity was trippled was not fun, not at all.
I still have high hopes for Revengeance, but I can not ignore the problems that got into may way during the demo. I wanted to have fun, I wanted to believe that this game would be good, despite the development issues. But if the demo I played is any indication of the coming game, I am afraid. It has the potential to be a fantastic gem, but it also has the potential to be a pile of trash.
[…] “first chapter” although it does seem like it might be a it further in than that. While my first experience with the game was a little less than stellar the demo available reinstilled my faith in the full game. And now […]
[…] takes on Metal Gear RAY. If you’re interested in how it feels to actually play it, here is Chris Lock’s preview of it. I still have hope for Metal Gear RR since Platinum Games the developer for it. If […]
[…] The release date of the Zone of the Enders HD Collection has been announced by Konami today, It will release October 30th on the PS3 and Xbox 360. The collection will also come with a demo of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. Fans who have been unable to check out MGRR will not get their chance, should they purchase ZoE HD. Chris checked it out at PAX Prime, here’s his preview. […]
“My demo began about mid way through a mission and so I was not treated to the tutorial explaining the controls, but they were not hard to figure out.” – I guess you couldn´t figure out the Ninja Run huh. I haven´t played the demo, and even i know about ninja run. That´s why on the collapsing bridge you had to go around cars instead of just jumping over them. And couldn´t you find the rpg to take that chopper down? I guess that this is not your type of game, because for what i learned the gameplay of this is awesome. And your talking about Platinum Games, you never beaten one of their games but have you at least tryed any? They are all about gameplay.
Yes in fact I have played several hours into both Bayonetta and Vanquish. Yes I am aware of, and used, the Ninja Run. Yes I did find the Stinger used to take down the Chopper.
Here is what you do not know. During the bridge sequence you will die if you even touch the cars for a second, or at least I did, even if you are using the Ninja Run. It is also almost impossible to not hit hit the cars because of the strange camera angle presented within this part of the demo. I can imagine my experience being much worse if I did not know about the Ninja Run because I would have died immediately every single time.
Also the Stinger only spawned once in a while. When it did spawn, it had one bullet. Believe it or not it takes more than one missile to knock the chopper out. So the rest of the time was spent chasing it down on platforms that were very difficult to ascend.
And as I have stated, I loved the combat. It was fluid and fun. My problems lie within anything that could be considered “platforming” and the unintuitive UI.
I have to get my hands on a demo, because what your saying goes against what i’ve seen so far. On the bridge sequence i´ve seen raiden jumping over cars always on the move; they compare ninja run to parkour and some say is a little bit like AC. On the stinger part, i assumed you could hold more than just one ( but since it´s a demo it doesn´t worry me). I hope that on the final product some of those problems are fixed, because it´s just stupid if their ninja run won’t do what they say it should do. And the jump button must have a pratical use, because it doesn´t make sense just being the way you said it was.
Are you certain the controls were that awful? Maybe you missed something? Even with the controls being awful, did enjoy any part of it?
The controls themselves were fine. Combat was smooth and even the jumping happened quickly. It was just that every time I did jump noting really happened. He went straight u[p and strait down.
As far as the QTE was concerned, there was no excuse for that. A player should be able to understand the prompts with little to no effort. Revengeance was confusing.