MGR: Blade Wolf DLC (PS3) Review

The next piece of downloadable content for Metal Gear Rising, called Blade Wolf, has been released on the PSN and XBL Marketplace.  It retails for $6.99 (or equivalent in Microsoft Points) and has players using the dreaded boss from the base game, Blade Wolf.

Despite being four-legged, Blade Wolf controls just as well as Raiden and Sam.  He (it?) can jump, dash, dodge and parry.  It has been a bit since I last played MGR, so parrying took time to work off the rust.  I didn't get much practice since I was favoring stealth kills to open combat.  The quick attack uses the claws, while the strong attack has Blade Wolf grabbing the chainsaw on his back and using that.  It's pretty much the attacks he uses to destroy you in the base game.  If you do the full combo with the chainsaw, he will even say "combination attack" and "combination complete".  Nice touch!  If you use the strong attack while dashing, he will do the spiral dash.  A jumping strong attack is a very powerful and useful spinning saw-like attack.  Overall, some nice moves to cut up your enemies.

The scariest part of the story was seeing other blade wolves running around.  They are not boss fights, so they aren't very hard.  They can still do tons of damage to you though.  Blade Wolf is pretty mobile, so it wasn't too hard to run around and dodge attacks from the enemies I did fight.  Also, I only really ran into the dreaded camera issues on the final boss fight, which was a relief.  That was the hardest fight in the story, and did take me a try or two before I won the fight (at first I had forgotten to equip the rations).  It did feel as though Blade Wolfs Zandatsu didn't reach as far as Raiden or Sam.  I'm not sure if that's true or I was just crazy.

Most parts of the story can be completed without ever entering combat.  Like the main game of MGR, you have the option of straight up fighting all the enemies, or stalking around and stealth killing them.  This is my favorite part of the DLC.  I love sneaking around and stealth killing guys, and did so at every opportunity.  It was something I really missed in the last DLC (Jetstream Sam), and was very happy to do it again.  Playing it this way made the whole thing much easier and less frustrating, so I was able to have lots of fun.  I learned my lesson with the last DLC and set this one to easy, but I didn't need to.  Being able to sneak around and kill enemies instantly negates much of the difficulty in fighting them.  On a second go around, I set it to normal and so far haven't had any trouble spots.

The Blade Wolf scenario is pretty short, as my final time clocked in at just over 1 hour and 15 minutes.  This doesn't count cut scenes or retries.  Except for the VR missions, I only had to retry once.  Given that I prefer to use stealth and my final finishing time, I am strongly considering trying to beat it on Revengeance difficulty in under an hour.  I feel it's possible for me to do it, which is not something I say very often.  I don't like playing on the hardest difficulty or speed runs, but I want to do it for Blade Wolf, which is surprising.  I could easily knock down my time since I won't need to search for things.  The only real difficult part would be the final boss fight.

Just like Jetstream Sam, the VR Missions can only be done when they are found in the story mode.  I prefer the main story where they are just unlocked and can be done later.  When you access one, it will reset the checkpoint, so any enemies you killed will be back.  At least in this DLC, I could do some of these VR Missions.  All the ones I ran across in Jetstream Sam were combat related.  Thankfully, the Blade Wolf ones have stealth and platforming ones.  These are much better for me, personally.  The first sneaking one I ran across was infested with targets to avoid, but was still doable.  The combat ones seemed harder, mostly because Blade Wolf takes a lot of damage from attacks.

While it was pretty short, Blade Wolf was really fun.  It was less frustrating than Jetstream Sam due to the ability to sneak around (or kill) most of the enemies.  If you are a completionist or willing to go through multiple times, it will probably be worth the money to you.  If you weren't a fan of sneaking around and assassinating enemies, you might get less out of it, but it should still be fun.

MGR: Revengeance Jetstream DLC (PS3) Review

The base game of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was fun, sometimes hard.  The new DLC, Jetstream, allows players to play as Sam, "the Brazilian Wind", in events leading up to the main game.  This is a good way to flesh out another character while still keeping the story true to the base game.  Story-wise, I am a fan of playing as the villain at some point, since it gives another perspective on the events of the game.  Granted this is more prequel than another perspective, but it is still something that interests me.

Just like the base game, the graphics are great.  The controls are pretty spot-on.  The difficulty still seems all over the place and the camera is still horrible.  So what does the DLC do differently?  Thankfully, Sam plays a little bit differently than Raiden.  He cannot do the "ninja kills" (unfortunately), but can taunt and you can charge his strong (triangle/ Y button) attack for his unique "quick draw" skill.  I like the attack, but I found it hard to use, since enemies don't like to give you time to charge it.  If you could hold the attack until you let go of the button, I think it would be better to me, so I could charge it early.  As it was, I would frequently get attacked while trying to use it.  I also realized too late (just before the end boss of the level) that the charge attack was really effective on most of the enemies I struggled with.  Taunting is supposed to make the enemies more aggressive, which is crazy since they are already pretty bloodthirsty.

Sadly, I struggled a lot with some of the fights in the DLC level.  At first it was working off the ring rust and remembering the timing of the parry.  Once I was better at the timing, it seemed like the parry just wasn't as effective.  Enemies tended to jump out of the way (or counter parry) more than I remember in the base game of Revengeance.  Also some of the more damaging attacks will hit you when you are on the ground, leading to more damage and frustration.  The enemies are pretty competent killing machines.  As mentioned earlier, I found out near the end that the charge attack seems to be the cure to those woes, so I should have practiced that instead of parrying.  Doh.

That said, there were still fights that were incredibly hard (and of course the camera didn't want to cooperate).  The sword and rpg wielding solders were ridiculous, but are a lot easier if you can land a quick draw on them.  The big gorilla-like soldiers were a lot tougher than I remember them being in the base game, and the quick draw didn't seem particularly useful on them.  The hardest fight by far is against Blade Wolf.  I'm really confused as to why they put one of the most aggravating fights from the base game in again.  This time it seems even harder, since I was only able to effectively parry one of its moves.  The only strategy I found that worked for me was to spam the dodge (square + X) and attack quickly during the way too brief moments it stopped moving.  This took a bit, I still needed the auto heals, and it hurt my hand.  The other two bosses weren't nearly as bad.  Sure, the final boss took 2 or 3 tries, but it still wasn't as bad as Blade Wolf.

The Jetstream DLC is one long level.  My total completion time was just over an hour and a half, but you may know that it doesn't add the time if you die and continue, so it actually took me almost three hours to complete.  The trophies it adds will take a lot of effort, since there is a speed run on the hardest difficulty and beating the last boss without taking damage on hard.  Yikes, not ones I am going to get.  Thankfully there isn't one for doing the VR missions, since Sam's are accessed during the mission.  I wish they were just unlocked and not "do them right here and now".  I was pretty bad at them, since I only ran across combat-related ones.

If you loved the base game of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, welcomed the challenges, and ran through multiple times on the harder difficulties, you will like the Jetstream DLC, and likely get your $10 worth.  It offers enough familiarity (good and bad) but adds in some new mechanics to keep it fresh.  If you are a beat it once and leave it kind of person, you may want to wait for a sale.  Either way, it's a good addition to the game.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3) Review

Wow does this game look good.  The models just look fantastic with the amount of detail in them.  The scenery is good too, and I didn't see any graphical issues.  No pop-in, no muddy textures and no frame rate issues.  There are nice explosion effects, and the electricity on Raiden's sword looks cool.  The cinematics look even better.  They are a step up from the game graphics, but it's not a very big step.  I'm actually really impressed with the look of this game.  The only odd thing is when viewing the codec screens.  Yes, they are supposed to harken back to the ones in Metal Gear Solid, but it's kind of funny that this society can build super powered cyborgs and transforming tanks, but have codec video that looks like it was from the 90s.

The voices sound good.  To me, the accents sound convincing and all voice actors involved did a good job.  All of the lines are spoken, which is to be expected from the very cinematic direction the Metal Gear games have taken.  The music is pretty good too, albeit a little strange when in the middle of combat it starts playing some "angry alternative" music or something (I probably sound old now).  Not too jarring, and it did fit the game, but you knew you were in for a fight when it came on.

If you played the demo or saw any of the various gameplay videos, you know that it's primarily an action game.  Kind of strange that it isn't a "tactical espionage action" game, but I was surprised that there is stealth in the game.  There are times when you can sneak by enemies and avoid confrontation, Solid Snake style.  I enjoy sneaking around, but I was always sure to get a stealth kill on the enemies, since it's so fun.  You don't get many hiding options if caught, so you either fight or hope you can run.  Since the game's focus is on blazing ninja action, fighting is usually the better option in those cases.

They have tutorials in the beginning, and they help.  They tell you the basics of attacking and how to parry, which is pretty much mandatory to kill the stronger enemies.  That's on normal difficulty, too.  You'll want to master it as soon as you can, since it makes the fights a lot easier...and look a whole lot cooler.  One thing that will help a lot is knowing when to parry.  Most games, you guard right before the attack hits you.  In Metal Gear Rising, you have to actually attack to parry, so you have to start it earlier than you might be used to.  Once I realized this, it became easier.  Not as easy as it is in other action games, but it works fairly well.  However, it's annoying that parrying some attacks does not actually stop the attack or give you a counter, meaning you have to somehow dodge it.  I really wish there was a proper dodge move, as it would make the combat much easier.

See?  Very pretty.

You can use the points acquired to buy new combo moves and various upgrades.  They are pretty self-explanatory, so no confusion with what I was buying.  I want the moves to tell you how to perform them when you purchase them, or at least on the description of the attack.  As it is, you have to pause the game (outside of the upgrade screen) and check the help option to see your moves.  It's pretty cumbersome and I didn't figure that out for a bit.  The moves you buy are pretty cool, but didn't feel as important to me as buying more attack power, energy and health.  My favorite thing to buy has to be the mariachi costume from one of the funny scenes in the game.  Yes, there was actually some humor in the game, which I liked and did not expect.

The best part of the combat system is blade mode.  If you have enough energy, you can enter blade mode, which slows down time and allows you to precisely aim your slashes.  If you played Afro Samurai, this may sound familiar.  It's ridiculously awesome to start slashing and see all the tiny pieces fall apart in slow-mo.  It's fun and practical.  I say practical because if you slice enemies in certain places after they are weakened, you can grab their power core and it restores your health.  It also looks cool, since he shatters it in his hand.  There is some in-game justification for it, but who cares when it looks cool?  When enemies take enough damage, their limbs or parts of their body will glow blue, and can be easily removed in blade mode.  This really helps on the tougher guys, as it can cripple their offense.  Other times there will be a button prompt on screen that can lead you into a great blade mode opportunity to finish the enemy off.  Once you get used to it all, you feel like a true badass destroying enemies of all sizes.

The difficulty can be pretty uneven at times.  The normal troops can get in a few hits, but provide little challenge.  Most larger enemies have a lot more health and seem to shrug off most things you can throw at it. They can be stunned by amassing several hits, but it can be really hard to hit it enough before it starts laying into you.  Parrying them is near mandatory, but it can be really tricky to do it on multi-hit attacks or projectiles, often resulting in a loss of health for me.  Sometimes it was me missing the timing, and sometimes it was the game giving me a horrible camera angle so I couldn't see the attack to attempt to parry it.  Also, if you get swarmed, it can be very hard to fight your way out.  Thankfully, if you can cut the critical point on an enemy, you can grab its nano paste and restore your health, which helps a lot more than you might think.

I could muddle through most fights without suffering critical damage, but some of the mini-bosses would punish the snot out of me.  The robot dog (that you fight at the end of the demo) destroyed me several times before I got the hang of fighting it and figured out what to do.  A few of the other mini-bosses were fairly tough and did chunks of damage.  However, one of the main bosses was dispatched in my first fight with it (I won't say what so I don't accidentally spoil anything).  It struck me as odd that the any of the mini-bosses would take more time to beat than one of the main bosses, so I felt there was some unevenness to the difficulty.  Of course, fighting the camera also made some fights much harder than they had to be.  Locking on helped when it was a mini-boss or solo enemy, but that doesn't help when fighting multiple guys.  People could sneak up on you while you were trying to rotate the camera, and if you were near a wall, your best option was to take the damage and run away from it.  I still feel that a dodge roll would have helped a lot.

You can stealth kill even the Gekkos.  Awesome.

There's a fair amount of collectibles, and it's interesting that not all of them are "go find a box".  Yes, there are many that are just hidden around the environment and need to be located, but some are retrieved from the left hand of certain enemies.  I was really bad at getting these, often resulting in restarting checkpoints or replaying levels specifically to hunt them down.  The ones in boxes (sometimes cardboard boxes, hahaha) were fairly easy to locate, but I know I missed some of them.  Also, some are special metal boxes that I couldn't cut open and left them.  On the third one of them I encountered, I tried blade mode and it cut it open.  I was pretty annoyed, since I had already passed two and couldn't get them to open.  Good thing I was going to go through the level again to get other things, I guess.  Looking around in the game's AR mode makes it easier to see the various boxes and who's ID you can acquire from their hand.  A handy tool indeed.

If you like to get trophies or achievements, take a look at the list before you start a stage.  There is the standard "beat x stage" ones, but also each stage contains at least one extra one for doing something unique in it.  I missed the first one by a few minutes because I didn't check first.  No big deal, but something to watch out for.  Getting the best rank on the hardest difficulty and the best times in all the VR missions (yes, they make a return, so don't tell my wife) will be true tests of skill.  I know I'm not going to get them, but it is something to shoot for.  One last note I want to make on Metal Gear Rising-- the loading.  There isn't very much, which mystifies me.  The game looks gorgeous, but only has loading when switching menus or reloading a checkpoint.  The game transitions right into cut scenes from gameplay with a quick fade out.

I admit that I was a little worried about this game.  I'm not a huge fan of the Metal Gear Solid series (I do love the first one, though), and wasn't sure how this would fit with it into the whole Metal Gear continuity.  I thought it might end up as an action game that just had the Metal Gear name slapped onto it to increase sales, but I don't think that after playing it.  It's a really fun game (even if I hate the camera at times) and I think the backdrop of the Metal Gear world ties in pretty well, so it feels like an extension of that world, not just a name on the box.  If you like over the top action games, or slicing robots into tons of tiny pieces, give Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a chance.  It's an action game made by Platinum Games, and it shows in every flashy kill.  It's gorgeous and fun, even with the frustration some fights would bring.