Game of the week
Metal Gear Solid fans and action aficionados alike have something to look forward to this week with the release of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The latest title from developer Platinum Games features the company’s trademark enthusiasm for all things over-the-top, albeit in a far more familiar setting.
Revengeance takes place four years after the events of 2008’s Metal Gear Solid 4, and this time around Raiden finds himself in the spotlight. The katana-weilding cyborg ninja stands in stark contrast to usual protagonist Solid Snake. Revengeance does feature moments in which stealth remains an option, but more often than not Raiden prefers face-to-face confrontations.
Metal Gear Solid creator/director Hideo Kojima did oversee some of the game’s narrative development, but the real appeal of Revengeance is the adrenaline-pumping combat system, courtesy of Platinum Games. It’s fluid, fast-paced and features a unique cutting mechanic in which both enemies and environmental objects can be sliced in a number of ways.
Feedback for Revengeance has been largely positive so far, though some reviewers have mentioned the game’s short playtime as a notable downside. Personally, I value an entire video game experience over some kind of dollar-to-hour ratio, so in that sense it seems like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an easy recommendation.
This week in news
By the time The Aggie readers see this column, Sony will have unveiled the PlayStation 4 (or whatever other name the company decides to call its newest console). However, at the time of this print that had not happened yet. So instead we look back to the weekend to highlight some big news from Bungie, the creators of Halo.
This past Sunday marked the first official reveal of Destiny, Bungie’s newest project. It’s another first-person shooter, but the company is referring to the game more specifically as a “shared-world shooter,” in which players cooperatively interact with each other online without traditional matchmaking menus and systems.
The term MMOFPS has been has been thrown around a lot in the wake of Destiny’s reveal, but publisher Activision did state that the game will not feature subscription fees. An internet connection will be required to play the game, though.
Few specifics were given in terms of gameplay mechanics, but Bungie did mention a class system and the inclusion of magical abilities. These abilities come from The Traveler, a huge sphere looming over the sole remaining city. Not only did The Traveler grant special powers to certain individuals, but it saved humanity from ultimate destruction.
Players will traverse the post-apocalyptic world and journey to other planets in an effort to fight off various alien species. This means access to ships, and Bungie left open the possibility of space combat.
I often admit that I’m not a huge fan of the Halo series, but Destiny strikes me as a hugely ambitious and exciting game. It won’t be coming out until 2014, but I look forward to hearing more about Bungie’s latest project in the coming months.
ANTHONY LABELLA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.
