Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Areas of Concern

Everyday I'm slicing-ing. *Cue funky music*
Reviewed By: Kyle van Rensburg


Name: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Release Date: February 2013 

Platform(s) Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Intro: Raiden's back, with a blade and a bad attitude....and a man with a blade and a bad attitude doesn't do wanders for a game's age restriction.

Raiden's second starring role sees him going to some African country, getting his rear end handed to him on a silver platter, and then going straight back into action, slicing apart anyone who gets in his way. That's the basic plot. There are several other plot points, but I won't spoil them for you........if you can stand the violence and play this game, that is.

Below is a complete Areas of Concern on just how intense the violence gets, and if there's anything else Christians, or Christian parents, have to be concerned about. I hope you enjoy! 

Areas of Concern:

Violence:

Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Ban-worthy

General Violence:

--Many enemies are sliced with a sword: Large amounts of blood sprays out, staining the environment, cries of pain are heard, and dismemberments occur, which are focused on in slow-motion with a precise cutting feature, in which you strategically chop up enemies into several pieces, which is focused on for long.

We see lots of detail in the gore, and enemies arms, legs, torsos, and heads can be cut off and sliced in half, with  a lot of blood spraying, staining the environment, and ragged flesh is shown. Some of the enemies crawl around after losing their legs, and still try to attack you.

The Cyborgs have artificial spines, which your character grabs after cutting them in half, and he crushes it with goo spraying.

Some of the enemies take chainsaws and swords to your character in close-up, with a lot of blood spraying on the camera.

--One type of enemy is a robot with organic legs filled with blood. Your character can slice the limbs apart, and jump on the robot's head and stab it multiple times in rapid succession, with blood spraying everywhere and on the camera. 

--There is also a lot of violence against robots, with pieces of them getting chopped off with explosions occurring.

--When the player is killed, he simply falls over, dead. 

Storyline Violence:

--The detailed dismemberments also occur in the storyline, with numerous characters inflicting injury upon each other. There are some very sadistic enemies who take pleasure in the extreme killings.

--A man has his eye sliced out, with blood spraying and dripping on the floor, and his arm is cut off, with the limb being sent flying and blood spraying from the bloody stump in slow-motion. He stumbles around for a while, blood dripping from his arm for an extended period of time.

--In one scene, a man "shaves" a guy with a blade, and blood leaks out onto it. He then stabs the guy, and a lot of blood bursts out in slow motion, staining a man's face.

--A man suddenly flips out and dissociates into another personality, one that enjoys killing. He is stabbed in the abdomen with a sword, but he pulls it out with a lot of blood spraying and chops a few people up with more blood sprays. 

From then on, you can activate the mode which makes your character super-aggressive and eager to kill. 

--Two men have a long and drawn out fight, with lots of stomping, punching, and cries of pain. After a while, the fight gets a lot more intense, and lots of big objects and wreckage are thrown around, and they punch and hit each other hard.

When the fight reaches it's climax, one man stabs the other with a sword, pulls it out, slashes him, and then punches him in the stomach with blood spewing out. He then pulls out his fist, and we see a mechanical heart with bloody sinew on it. He crushes the heart, and blood sprays on his face.

--There are several sequences where explosions occur, knocking people back and sending them flying, and several over-the-top sequences with giant robots getting cut in half, buildings flying around, (No, that's not a typo) and your character runs over missiles to destroy robots and helicopters. (No, not a typo either.)

--It is implied that an organisation has been harvesting organs from kids. In one later scene, we see a few kids choke and pass out from a chemical, and it's implied that they died later on.

Sex/Nudity:

Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Ban-worthy

--A man stares at a few suggestive anime pictures, but no nudity or anything is shown. 

--A woman wears a very form-fitting suit, and the camera lingers on her a bit.

--A man mentions that people are too busy fretting over sex (amongst other things) to care about children getting killed.
 

Language:

Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Ban-worthy

Swear Words: Infrequent Strong Language. Uses of F**k, S**t, D**k, B**ch, A*s, B**t**d, H**l, and D**n.

--God and Jesus' name is used in vain on occasion.

Spiritual Content:

Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Ban-worthy

--We see the lightning symbol. (Probably should explain what it means: It is symbolic of Lucifer falling from Heaven)

--An enemy makes a remark: "Free will is a myth, Religion is a joke." 

Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking:

Mild Moderate Heavy Very Heavy Extreme Ban-worthy 

--We see some advertisements for wine.

Morality:

Abysmal Bad So-so Okay Good Very Good

While Raiden has good intentions, it's kind of hard to justify his extreme methods of killing, even if it is for the greater good. Raiden himself states that he was a killer from the beginning, and gets off by killing people.

Themes:

Child Soldiers, Violence, War, Morality of Violence towards enemy soldiers, Memes, War Economy, Conspiracies.

Thoughts & Impressions:

Okay, so first thing's first: The game is super-fun to play, that much I can say....even though I just watched the entire game's playthrough. Well, I may need to play it first, but impressions like this are almost never wrong. It looks amazing.

And then there's the conflicting moral statements. At one point in the game, it tries to guilt you about what you've done, the morality of your character, and it's actually pretty deep and powerful......and then the game just goes on and you're back to slashing mooks apart in glorious slow-motion.

It's contradictions like these that break the game's otherwise solid story. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has the touches of Metal Gear, but without the unnecessarily long cutscenes.

To top it all off, it looks like the final boss fight is actually challenging and epic, which is really something since most games feature easy final bosses.

So, is this game good? Well, it certainly looks that way. Filled to the brim with fine action, this game definitely succeeds in it's goal to entertain you.

Moral Conclusion

This is a bit of a tricky one. I'm generally less harsh towards violence, but in this game, it's gratuitous, but to the point of being just plain silly. There's a lot of blood and gore, which will deter most people. Additionally, the combat is set to punk/hard rock, so that may be a cause for concern for very conservative people, as the game looks like an all out bloodfest with no mercy.

Regardless, this game should be okay for people who can stand the violence.......the few that can.

Verdict: 17+

Mature Gamers Only (MA)

(For Exaggerated Gory Violence and Infrequent Strong Language)

Outro:

So that's it, I hope Raiden's second solo game will please the few Christian fans that can stand the violence, and that you enjoyed the review.

I will see you guys next week with some more reviews, right here, on KGR!

(Yes, yes, the logo needs changing.)  

Writer Bio:

Kyle van Rensburg is the Editor-in-Chief of Kyle's Christian Video Game Reviews. (KGR) He likes cookies.

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