OSCAR COOPER
"On paper this game would have looked like hands down the best thing to have ever graced the earth since Jesus did that thing with the wine and fish"
So I finally finished the bloody thing, 6-7hrs at max. I am going through it on hard of course but will breakdown why I think it’s both a good and a bad game. Its more good than bad, my usual Platinum fanatic fanboy stance does come into to play here, but its not without some faults.
On paper this game should be hands down the best thing ever to grace the earth since Jesus did that thing with the wine and the fishes. The merging of a great studio and the Metal Gear IP was serious stuff and was only picked up by Platinum after a previous developer decided it was all too much. They kept the original selling point of a samurai sword welding Raiden from MGS2, which was a bit of a risk as that guy was hated by fans over the internet for a long time after he featured as a playable character in the main plot. I didn’t mind him too much however and he seemed to fit the glove for a melee based third person action title quite well.
Platinum stuck to the Metal Gear concept through out, keeping some rudimentary stealth elements in and also featuring some of the sound effects and in game cosmetics. It plays like it should and looks as it did in the demos we saw all those months ago, fast and quick response reaction speed is needed, coupled with a 'simple to learn tough to master' control system. The AI works as it should and Raiden really does look stunning, swinging around that devastating sword in all directions, one move sees you attach the weapon to your high heel style shoe (my only raised eyebrow in regards to his outfit) and launch a kick with the sword protruding from your stacked footwear, giving you some welcomed added range.
I do like the game, the first boss fight is truly massive in scope and in true Platinum style plays wells and looks good. After getting my teeth into the meat of the game I started to think that it was a bit skinny on depth. If we lived in a world without Bayonetta, I won’t have had this doubt, I don’t think, because that what it is, a re-skinned dumbed down version of the hack'n’slash classic. It suffers from some crazy difficulty spikes also, with some boss battles becoming 'Darksouls like' hard. Don’t get me wrong it does exactly what it says on the tin and I wasn’t expecting any gut wrenching story or character detail. But it does feel rushed and I think the top dogs at Platinum didn’t have a huge involvement in it as It lacks that magic dust they seem to sprinkle on other titles. Enemy types are fun and you have this Viewtiful Joe style warning from them and varied attack patterns, it has a brilliant challenge mode in the form of VR missions which I found myself in before the main campaign to get back into the controls, they are collectable and littered at various pionts throughout the main campaign.
The slowdown mechanic is smooth and feels powerful, they have spent a lot of time making the cutting system work well and it shows, you can slice away at any particular body part by adjusting the angle of the blade, when in this mode however the controls are inverted and I never got used to it, never ! not even in the final boss battle where mastering this technique becomes essential. It is a short game but packed with action so you don’t feel cheated. The achievements however are a different case, I have only racked up about 365G and have even been back through certain levels to get a few cheeky ones.
I could be being a bit harsh as it’s well worth playing, the bar was set so high with Vanquish and Bayonetta that this poor game was never going to match them on performance. Some DLC came out that sounds interesting but I haven’t looked at yet and if you are a Platinum Games fan it won’t fail to deliver (on high heels).
Regards Oscar