As a fan of everything that Platinum plays a part in and the story and dynamics of the Metal Gear games, this was exactly what I expected. You get fast gameplay with an in depth story and a lot of character customization that gets you hooked and coming back for more. Speaking of gameplay, with the new 'ZanDatsu' feature, you are able to slow time and precisely slice enemies and the environment at will in a form of “free slicing”. Along with gameplay that racks up high combos and rewards you with points for customization at the end of each level are huge boss battles and a story line that Kojima Productions are known for. Throughout Revengeance, you get an in depth story that takes place after the events in Metal Gear Solid 4 with a world full of cyborg crimes and terrorism, and the main character being a child-soldier turned cyborg ninja on a mission for both justice and revenge. When I say missions, I also mean VR missions, that's right, throughout the game you are able to unlock VR missions to complete for for additional unlockables.
It isn’t a Metal Gear game without beautiful and long cutscenes. While they do take you away from the action I quickly got hooked on and yearned for, I did want to skip as we all know they can drag on, but luckily none have seemed as long as those found in previous titles, but if you do opt to not skip them like I did on my first playthrough, then you get a strong storyline that does a good job at introducing conflict through real world unethical political issues. The other thing that I felt was as much of a battle as the gameplay was trying to determine what you can or cannot slice and dice throughout the environments. Cutting stuff up from fruit to cardboard boxes, the are some items you can approach, but when you try to release some steam, you will be disappointed that some don’t fall to pieces.
I had an absolute blast with my time spent playing MGR: Revengeance, while I was a bit on the fence while stumbling through the Free Slicing in the demo, the actual game does a good job and walking you through the motions so that you can easily execute some incredible combos. There is a lot a replay value, much like any other Platinum title, but I actually found the story more engrossing than that of the Devil May Cry titles, while also enjoying the faster gameplay with the Metal Gear storyline. I feel that this is great collaboration in which I can only hope that there will be more to come. While it is a single player title, the unlockables and various difficulties are what kept me hooked after my initial playthrough.
