13 awesome things we saw and did in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Fought a lady with a bar made of hands

As if Metal Gear didnt already house some of the industrys weirdest enemies, Revengeance takes it to a whole new level with a lady who fights you with an armbar made from actual arms. Fans of the series will note that this isnt the first time an enemy has used a weapon that exists solely for a pun: Its all extremely reminiscent of the foe who made a gun out of bees that shot bees in Metal Gear Solid 3.

Once we managed to defeat her, we could purchase and equip the armbar as our secondary weapon. We found it to be extremely effective at attacking enemies from a long distance and setting them up for combos. Were still having a hard time getting over the fact that were beating people to death with a weapon made of arms though.

Cut off plenty of left hands

Dismemberment is key in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, both in terms of success and fun. In an effort to give some weight to the aimless slicing, we needed to cut off the left hands of key members through the game.

For some reason, this is where their information is stored, which makes it vital to discovering new tech and earning upgrades through Doktor, the scientist who put Raiden back together after his incident with Jetstream Sam early on in the game. Theres also times where youll need to cut off the hands of commanding officers to gain entrance to certain areas, but that was mostly limited in the time that we spent with it.

Nearly broke a controller because of QTEs

Not because they were bad, though, don't get the wrong idea. The Metal Gear series has always been one to test the strength of your gaming abilities, but Revengeance goes even further. This is mostly due to the players deeper involvement in the story. Instead of sticking everything behind cutscenes, quicktime events take the reins for some of the larger battle set pieces.

It isnt out of control with quicktime events, but there are certainly more than youll find in your average game. Raiden will get stunned occasionally and the only way to recover is to move the left stick as much as possible. Since this usually happens when we were engaged in combat, it was even more vital to break out of it, often resulting in mashing the control to near-destruction.

Got into absolutely massive battles

Metal Gear has always been about small, intimate encounters. Revengeance, on the other hand, ramps things up quickly, and throws some huge action Raidens way regularly--especially in the second chapter when Raiden makes his way to Mexico.

Things started to get bloody as Raiden expressed his rage by killing absolutely everything. We werent fighting one or two enemies at a time anymore, but hordes of guards and mechs. It turned into an all-out battle--everybody against Raiden. It finally clicked with us that Revengeance has the potential to be the most exciting Metal Gear to date.

You were the lightning in that rain

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is shaping up to be a real departure from the rest of the series--mostly due to Platinum Games influence--and thats one of the best things that could have happened to it. Its exciting and funny in a way that no Metal Gear has been before, and youll definitely be pleased.

new screenshots and gameplay

recently released information on character and story beats