Rising is a strange spin-off. In many ways it's the exact opposite of what people expect from Metal Gear Solid. But in other ways, it shares a lot in common with Metal Gear in how bizarre it is. From Raiden stabbing himself to prove how nuts he is to the final boss against professional wrestler Glenn Beck, this game is weird in so many good ways. But it's a different kind of weird, the Platinum Games weird. Yet, it actually fits really well with Metal Gear and ended up being second only to 3 in the series for me and my favorite of Platinum's games.
The thing I really love about it is the parry system. I had such a hard time going back to other action games after this, dodging and blocking are so much less fun than parrying. It also takes a lot of practice, while the instructions are vague as to what exactly you need to do, it is easy to pick up. Once I did, I really saw myself improving as I played through the game. By the end, there was a huge satisfaction in parrying an eight attack combo.
Aside from that, it's Platinum action at its finest. Cutting enemies up is a great way to perform a finishing move, with a nice health restoration if you cut in the right spot. Pulling these off between the normal combos has a really nice flow to it. The game uses the health pickups to its advantage also, allowing for some tougher encounters that games with regenerating health (in theory at least) like to employ while still making the player work for their health.
Boss battles also make you work for it. I didn't beat any of these on my first time, it would usually take three or four to get past them. Each of them, however, I was getting better and really getting how the boss' patterns work better. The bosses were not as memorable as 1 or 3's in terms of personality, but they were up to the series standards in terms of fun.
Batman Arkham Asylum is still my favorite action game, but I prefer Rising's combat. Batman's stealth, Metroidvania setup, and all those secrets are what put that game over the edge. If you just like fun, I'd really recommend Rising. I remember how people were comparing it to the Devil May Cry reboot when they came out and I don't know how all those people preferred DmC.
Cheater. MGR doesn't count. Go play Ghost Babel, then come back.
Just kidding (but still, play Ghost Babel if you haven't). Didn't seem like many people preferred DmC from what I've seen. MGR came away as the hack and slash champ of 2013. I know a few game "journalists" were dickriding it hard, which I knew they would because they always do for dumbed-down reboots.
It may just be the people I personally saw, but I actually saw more people prefer DmC which struck me as so bizarre. Still, the ones whose opinions I give a shit about preferred Rising, so I guess that's what matters. I should get around to Ghost Babel one of these days. They really need to put it on the eshop.
Why is Glenn Beck in this game? Metal Gear games tend to be political, so is there like a right wing conspiracy message hidden in this game, or is there an actual characters called Glen Beck? I remember reading comments about players not knowing about the parry system and got through the whole game without ever parrying. I haven't played it yet. I enjoyed Arkham Asylum. Still my fav of the bat games.
Glenn Beck isn't actually in the game, but it's impossible to not imagine him when you see the final boss. I couldn't imagine getting through without parrying.
I'm playing this game at the moment, the camera and targeting control sucks, but otherwise It's really cool
This game is phenomenal. It's finally on PC, so I've been playing the crap out of it.
Glad you like it too. It definitely is a really replayable game, something Platinum's really good at.
This game looks great, another one to add to my mental list of games to at least try out sometime.
Anything Platinum is worth a shot except maybe Madworld
It really looks interesting, but do you recommend this game for people who haven't played games of the franchise?
It doesn't it spoil much and what it does is not that big a deal so give it a shot. 3's in the same boat too btw if you ever want to try the 3DS version
Another game to add to my wishlist. It's amazing how much the game changed from it's inital build to what we got today. It makes me wonder if the game would've been any good with it's original build we saw before Platinum was given the reigns.