Metal Gear Rising
Posted: 2013-01-23 05:30pm
I've had the demo for ages because I bought the ZOE HD collection but it is now available to the rest of you plebs so
My experience was really positive. I felt the combat was tight and blade mode really satisfying. I like chopping up stone pillars yo. In terms of the combat I thought it was pretty challenging. I've played through on both easy and normal and even on easy enemies are aggressive, active and do decent damage. Normal is actually kind of unforgiving. Parallels can understandably be made with Bayonetta. Like in Bayonetta, enemies in Rising telegraph their attacks with a visual effect* but the actual execution of their attack animations seem faster. I found defensive moves were more more of a challenge to execute, particularly because parries and dodges aren't tied to a single button like in other brawlers. To execute a parry in Rising you need to tilt the stick towards the incoming attack and hit the light attack button. In the past I've described it as 'skill-based' which is a little daft, but the difference becomes evident really quickly in combat with LQ-48i, the demo's boss - his attack animations are multi-hit, so it's not enough to just execute the parry once. Defence is pretty involved as a result.
Something the demo doesn't communicate is that there is different timing for parries. Normally if you parry you'll deflect the attack and the enemy will jump backwards, making it difficult to follow up. I thought this was weird, because the similarities with Bayonetta made me feel that executing the main defensive move should open them up to counterattacks. It niggled for a while until I realised the answer was I just wasn't good enough: if you execute a parry with perfect timing it will actually open enemies up to counters. You don't need perfect timing to win, but it adds an additional layer of challenge for those of us aiming for the ultra-fast no-damage combat required for S-ranks.
I really like blade mode. It's really, pardon the use of 2010's preferred buzzword, visceral. Admittedly the cuts are so clean and so easy that it can feel a bit strange, but it's still cool to go chop chop chop car falls into bits chop chop chop tree branches flying everywhere chop chop chop bridge collapses. The pieces can sometimes lack the mass you'd expect but weight in video games is often wonky.
The game isn't without it's issues. The camera could do with being tighter, especially given how quickly you can move. I noticed some strange David Lynch-esque camera angles during the Zandatsu animation, but it was rare overall. Precision aiming with the right stick during blade mode was tetchy. In the tutorial I couldn't consistently hit the precision targets. In the game proper it was solid when it comes to hitting target points, I just felt quite clumsy and I'm not sure this, specifically, was my fault. For the most part I rely on quick slashes in blade mode (with the attack buttons), and only use precise slashes when I'm feeling fancy. In sum I was really impressed by how it actually plays, enamoured with Raiden's freaky hand-foot swording animations, and felt it had that 'Metal Geary' feel, from the hidden giant watermelon to the codec calls about silly codenames and the more dramatic content about the feelings people have in combat. I'm looking forward to it.
*Like with Bayonetta's Non-Stop Infinite Climax difficulty I expect that Rising's hardest difficulty (Revengeance, of course) will remove the telegraph just to fuck you up.
My experience was really positive. I felt the combat was tight and blade mode really satisfying. I like chopping up stone pillars yo. In terms of the combat I thought it was pretty challenging. I've played through on both easy and normal and even on easy enemies are aggressive, active and do decent damage. Normal is actually kind of unforgiving. Parallels can understandably be made with Bayonetta. Like in Bayonetta, enemies in Rising telegraph their attacks with a visual effect* but the actual execution of their attack animations seem faster. I found defensive moves were more more of a challenge to execute, particularly because parries and dodges aren't tied to a single button like in other brawlers. To execute a parry in Rising you need to tilt the stick towards the incoming attack and hit the light attack button. In the past I've described it as 'skill-based' which is a little daft, but the difference becomes evident really quickly in combat with LQ-48i, the demo's boss - his attack animations are multi-hit, so it's not enough to just execute the parry once. Defence is pretty involved as a result.
Something the demo doesn't communicate is that there is different timing for parries. Normally if you parry you'll deflect the attack and the enemy will jump backwards, making it difficult to follow up. I thought this was weird, because the similarities with Bayonetta made me feel that executing the main defensive move should open them up to counterattacks. It niggled for a while until I realised the answer was I just wasn't good enough: if you execute a parry with perfect timing it will actually open enemies up to counters. You don't need perfect timing to win, but it adds an additional layer of challenge for those of us aiming for the ultra-fast no-damage combat required for S-ranks.
I really like blade mode. It's really, pardon the use of 2010's preferred buzzword, visceral. Admittedly the cuts are so clean and so easy that it can feel a bit strange, but it's still cool to go chop chop chop car falls into bits chop chop chop tree branches flying everywhere chop chop chop bridge collapses. The pieces can sometimes lack the mass you'd expect but weight in video games is often wonky.
The game isn't without it's issues. The camera could do with being tighter, especially given how quickly you can move. I noticed some strange David Lynch-esque camera angles during the Zandatsu animation, but it was rare overall. Precision aiming with the right stick during blade mode was tetchy. In the tutorial I couldn't consistently hit the precision targets. In the game proper it was solid when it comes to hitting target points, I just felt quite clumsy and I'm not sure this, specifically, was my fault. For the most part I rely on quick slashes in blade mode (with the attack buttons), and only use precise slashes when I'm feeling fancy. In sum I was really impressed by how it actually plays, enamoured with Raiden's freaky hand-foot swording animations, and felt it had that 'Metal Geary' feel, from the hidden giant watermelon to the codec calls about silly codenames and the more dramatic content about the feelings people have in combat. I'm looking forward to it.
*Like with Bayonetta's Non-Stop Infinite Climax difficulty I expect that Rising's hardest difficulty (Revengeance, of course) will remove the telegraph just to fuck you up.
