Casual fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise may associate the series with stealth gameplay and government conspiracies, but Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a whole different animal. The new trailer released in anticipation of Revengeance’s appearance at E3 2012 delves into the troubled past of protagonist Raiden, and shows off more of that fantastic slicing and dicing.
Raiden’s participation in the first Liberian civil war as a child was the subject of the game’s earlier viral marketing, and succeeded at piquing our interest in the man beneath the metal. From the trailer, it seems that a youth that horrific has had more than just physical impacts on the enigmatic lead character. If nothing else, it certainly explains his desire to slash apart everything in sight.
Aside from providing even more hints at the twisting plot and timeline of the game, the newest trailer emphasizes Revengeance’s reliance on frantic QTE’s and cinematic cut-scenes. There has already been plenty of that shown in previous trailers, so it’s the brief looks at the more open-world, navigational aspects of the game that we’d point out to viewers. With this game being admittedly all about action and insanity, one fact can’t be missed: it looks stunning in motion.
As much as we hope Revengeance will be a strong addition to the Metal Gear catalogue, it’s getting harder to ignore just how much of a departure it is from every other installment of the series. That’s not exactly a complaint, since we now know just how close the game came to being shelved permanently.
The pedigree of Platinum Games is on full display in Raiden’s fluid traversal, acrobatics and swordplay. If we didn’t already know that the Main Programmer of Bayonetta was directing the project, we’d strongly suspect a connection.
Of course, there are sure to be Metal Gear Solid fans who are outright appalled at what Platinum has created, using such a highly-revered brand name to bring attention to what looks to be an over-the-top, QTE-riddled hack n’ slasher. Well over half of this trailer is footage of what can’t possibly be actual player-controlled animations, so unless Revengeance is following the Asura’s Wrath school of design, there is a lot left to show.
A more detailed look at the game’s design will be shown at E3 2012 soon, but until then, what is your take on Revengeance’s frenzied footage? The dense story that is clearly being told brings some weight to the action, but is Raiden’s sword just too slim to win your attention?
Konami confirmed that a playable demo of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be included with a retail purchase of Zone of the Enders HD coming this October. The game is expected to release on Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime afterwards.
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Source: GameTrailers
