My first slice of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

When I first saw that they were naming the next Metal Gear game Metal Gear Rising Revengeance I was a bit put off - but after getting my hands on the E3 2012 build of the game, it's starting to make sense. It's a goofy name for a goofy game - and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

The demo opens with Raiden - the much maligned protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 - testing out his new body. A tenuous reason to make the cyborg ninja relearn the basics, but an effective one nonetheless - slashing as Raiden takes some getting used to.

Holding the L1 button put me in "Blade Mode" where time slowed, allowing me to to precisely aim my attacks with the right stick. The best analogy I heard for this compared it to skate. - as soon as I resolved this in my mind, slashing things dozens of times became a cinch. And by things, I mean watermelons and cyborgs. And cars, supporting struts, helicopters, tables... just about anything you could think of (except for cats. Cats can't be sliced).



Boy does this game make slicing things look good. Raiden's vibroblade effortlessly glides through cyborg bodies, and when you're done the parts slide away from one another the way Taye Diggs face departs his head in that movie where Batman kills Eddard Stark.

You've only got so much Blade Mode energy though, so a lot of what I played involved 'normal' extreme action gameplay. This means wide and heavy attacks timed to create combos, and instead of a dodge button it seems that Raiden can only parry - which adds an element of timing into the combat I usually avoid by simply getting out of the way.

Attacking enemies is the key to building up more Blade Energy - and against some enemies it can be extremely important. A knowledge of the Metal Gear universe is also helpful - when I came up against a Gekko I remembered their weakness from MGS4, and so I leapt behind it to chop its organic legs out from under it.

They fell like massive piles of sausage, mere moments before the walking tank fell on top of them.



Later I killed a helicopter by running up a stream of missiles before slicing it to pieces, but it was the Gekko encounter that stuck with me. There's something fantastic about being able to solve a problem like a AI-run armoured weapons platform with a little knowledge an extremely sharp sword.

I've made my own fair share of jokes at the game's name's expense - I'll cop to this - but after getting hands-on I'm definitely a convert. It's goofy and gory and I love what I've played so far - hopefully the full game combines all of this with a classic Metal Gear style plotline to accompany the esoteric nature of the gameplay.

We also got a brand new trailer for the game today, if you want to see Blade mode in action for yourself - I've embedded it below. The game is out on PS3 and Xbox 360 at the start of next year.