Story : In MGR you play as Raiden who originally made an appearance in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots it was found that Raiden had replaced almost his entire body with a cybernetic body and wielded a sword. MGR takes place after MGS4 where Raiden is working for a private security company for an African leader. The leader is then assassinated by a private military organization known as Desperado Enterprises. Raiden after almost being killed by one of the Desperado's cyborgs has his body replaced with an improved one. The story in MGR revolves around Raiden trying to foil the plot of the Desperado's.
Gameplay: MGR has similar hack and slash gameplay to the Devil May Cry series. In MGR you unlock combat skills with points you earn from killing enemies picking up items, and finishing missions. I was quite disappointing with the number of skills you were able to unlock and when you did they didn't actually explain how to use the skill. Raiden collects a new weapon after almost every boss battle with its own skills. The points you collect can also be used to improve your weapons abilities. The combat in the game really makes you feel like a badass. It is extremely fast and requires quick thinking. Blocking in the game requires you to push the analog stick forward and use a light attack for every single move you block. This takes some time to master, but once you do it is really fulfilling. The game is split up into a number of missions each with a boss battle at the end of it.
There are enemies throughout the level that you can kill or must kill at certain points and sometimes a few mini bosses. You can choose to use stealth throughout a mission where you sneak up behind an enemy and one hit kill them or you can just battle everyone in open combat. My favorite gameplay aspect of MGR is the slashing mechanic. In the game you have an energy bar and when it is used time slows down and Raiden is able to slash enemies freely. You can literally cut enemies and some objects into hundreds of pieces. This slashing mechanic is mandatory in all boss fights and almost all mini boss fights. The slashing mechanic is also required to heal because if you slash regular enemies in half you can rip out their healing nanobots to heal your self. Overall I loved the gameplay in MGR and I think it its most impressive factor.
Graphics: Honestly the graphics are pretty in MGR, but not too impressive. As with other MG games everything has a lot of detail put into it. A lot of objects move into each other and the game seems to have worse graphics than MGS 4. The most impressive thing I found in graphics was that the game never seemed to lag when processing action and graphics.
Overall I would give Metal Gear Rising Revengeance an 8/10. The only drawbacks I saw for it were mediocre graphics, short length, lack of skills, and an alright story. I would suggest it for a rent or for hardcore fans who can enjoy replaying it to collect everything.
