Played: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
It’s strange to have played this just as Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was released, as I’m participating in a franchise that is now responsible for one of the most cack-handed sexual violence narratives I’ve ever heard of (more in this review, with the proviso that I’m attaching a massive trigger warning to it). That’s not present here. At times, I questioned the wisdom of a series as ridiculous as the Metal Gear franchise trying to handle a story that involves child soldiers, but that’s not really the focus here; instead, the narrative often takes a backseat to absurd levels of violence, all spine-ripping mania and ludicrous bosses.
That’s - honestly - a good thing.
I haven’t played any of the Metal Gear games; that said, I would have to have spent the last decade living under a rock to avoid the morass of cultural references and the terrifying fandom around its manchild creator, Hideo Kojima. This game was developed by Platinum Games rather than Kojima Productions, and at times it openly mocks the style of its stealth-based predecessors. A character called Boris frequently pleads with you to avoid enemy soldiers, despite the fact that the game rewards violence - the more it escalates, the better. You usually find yourself ignoring him, and the Raiden portrayed in cutscenes is meant to be perceived as massively superpowered. There’s a scene in which he literally slices through an enemy drone, almost posing in front of the camera as he does so, and it’s clear that you’re supposed to laugh (and you do). This is a game that knows it’s over the top and is funnier for it.
It’s a relatively short experience - about six hours if you plough through it (as I did, though there’s plenty of background for those heavily invested in the MGS mythos) - but it’s fun from start to finish, with a perfect escalation of difficulty and some amazing lines. I still find myself muttering “don’t fuck with this senator” every now and then, and I don’t see myself forgetting it any time soon.