Metal Gear Rising Trailers Make Me Need the Game More

Here we are, about to enter the final month of waiting before Metal Gear Rising finally hits store shelves on the 22nd of February. In all honesty I simply can not wait. I’m a fan of Metal Gear and the entire convoluted universe it has created. I’m also a fan of Platinum games, especially after the excruciatingly stylish combat of Bayonetta and hilariously fun Anarchy Reigns. Basically, mashing these two things together is best video game super group this side of the names behind Shadows of the Damned.

Unfortunately a month is still a very long time to wait, and it isn’t helped much by the sheer spectacle that’s being fed to us in the form of trailers for the game.

As the above trailer shows, boss battles in Revengeance  are going to be incredible pieces of ultra-violent swordplay. With opponents that can borrow arms from Scarabs (the little black ball robots with three arms), separate parts of their body to avoid attacks, or attach a second blade to their elbow each battle looks to be a unique and interesting occasion, not to mention the almost classical confrontation at the end of the trailer. These aren’t the only bosses in the game however, with Metal Gear Ray already having been shown off, as well as the well publicised dog robot which is included in the demo that came with Zone of the Enders HD (and will soon be available to download to every who decided they could live without one of the greatest over the top mech combat games there is). I can tell you now that these battles can be vicious, though that may just be my currently limited grasp of the more advanced control technique required to really make the combat flow. The bosses are all well and good, but what about the bulk? What about the in between stuff and the story?

Yeah, no, that’s looking just as bats**t intense as well, I think you’ll agree. With minor enemies being little more than toys with which to attempt the Guinness world record for the most amount of cuts on a single being (a stat the game gloriously displays as you start to dice your way through). Here the game really seems to shine, with the basic combat being pure platinum – that is to say simple to pick up but deceptively deep and complex to master – and with blade mode, similar in style to Afro Samurai’s slow motion aimed slashes but being much more fluid and precise in execution, providing an almost psychotic level of satisfaction and intuitive input. Quite frankly there is nothing to dislike about this title right now. Even the story, which while maybe not perfectly fitting in with the Metal Gear canon, does a lot to reference back to past events (pretty much everything Raiden says in the Jack the Ripper trailer is about his back story from MGS2) while still maintaining a certain over the top flair to go along with the balls-to-the-wall insane action on display.

This is Metal Gear with a Revengeance (sorry, had to), and with a Grey Fox skin coming as standard with EU copies of the game Ill be happy to ask it to hurt me more. Colour me all kinds of excited.