Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance is a beat`em-up spin off of its tactical stealth parent franchise.
It both pleasantly surprised and disappointed me at the same time. For starters, despite being an action game, it still has a fairly well-written, albeit cheesy, story concentrating on modern war politics and advancing technology. Codec conversations with your weapon scientist are particularly mind-blowing, at times reaching the hardness of sci-fi comparable to that of Arthur C. Clarke. On the other hand, the action game-play, while fascinating from the first glance, uses such an alien control scheme and does such a poor job at explaining itself that at times it feels the game is downright unplayable on higher difficulties. I still can`t believe they thought it was a good idea to make attack and block commands respond to the same button; not to mention that dodge command is an easy-to-miss unlockable. Anyway, while boss fights are flashy and very well designed, the battles with trash mobs are usually more tedious and frustrating than they are fun.
All in all, Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance is a mixed bag, but it`s worth playing just for the codec conversations alone. The beat`em-up part might be a bit disappointing at times, but good writing and over-the-top action scenes still mix very well to deliver a memorable and quite enjoyable experience.
Positive: | Negative: |
Amazing over-the-top action scenes | Awkward control scheme |
Interesting, likable characters | Does a terrible job at explaining its game-play mechanics |
Thought-provoking on war, politics and new technologies | Fighting trash mobs is more tedious than it`s fun |
Good boss fights |