Back to normal Monday Updates about video games and stuff! Yay!
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Jetstream Sam DLC – I honestly haven’t played MGR:R since a few weeks ago. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but playing a JRPG tends to remove all other options for a time (White Knight Chronicles…). Still, I’ll use any excuse to get back into the games I love, and this remained no exception – enter the Jetstream Sam DLC package. Somewhat pricey for anyone but the hardcore fan ($9.99), I’d still recommend it for those delving into the intricacies of the game’s systems. But still, just to be safe, I’m gonna slap this SPOILERS tag here just in case you think there’s something to spoil (which, as a prequel, there’s not).
Basically, you’re paying for one ginormous level with an entirely new playstyle, five new VR Missions, and a step-up in difficulty. I played through on Normal so far, and I found it heinously tricky in spots. Those VR Missions reflect the upgrade – I didn’t even bother with them yet, as I’m not skilled enough or upgraded enough to make a good crack at it. Sam, for his part, plays like a more precise version of Raiden – he’s faster at attacking, has an enormously good roll-dodge (seriously, crazy-good) and his parry requires more precision but does more damage. Yet, he barely does any damage overall, meaning that most enemies require quite a lot of hits to eliminate. You also never receive any weapon upgrades or customization options for Sam, although you can find health and electrolyte power-ups scattered through levels (or as rewards for VR Missions).
So yes, for the casual player, it makes no sense to take up the mantle of Jetstream Sam. For those into the mechanics, however, there’s a rigorous challenge here to be savored. Sam’s playstyle requires lots of good timing and figuring out the best time to release charge attacks. He has an air-dash and the ability to charge air attacks as well, and you’ll find yourself using this quite often. Far as I know, he cannot parry in the air, meaning that his increasing air movement also means he’s more vulnerable. Ninja run still reflects bullets, but his run does not automatically traverse obstacles; Sam gets a double jump instead, which becomes incredibly useful. Basically he gets increased mobility options and speed at the expense of health and attack power – a fair trade, but definitely one requiring some massive adjustments to your play. As Sam actually didn’t have many cybernetic implants at all, this makes perfect sense from a story perspective as well.
As far as other elements of the demo go, the enemy configurations frequently place you in close quarters combat for whatever reason. As you might read from my review, the camera in MGR:R remains a problem here, except making mistakes with Sam feels much worse than doing the same with Raiden. He’s simply not as durable, and missing a parry due to a swing of the camera doesn’t do my patience any favors. Furthermore, the DLC does not introduce anything fundamentally new – Sam’s still a swordsmen, so it looks pretty similar overall, but it re-uses stages and designs from Chapter 4 (and 2, a little bit) pretty liberally, if not literally. Then again, if you know anything about this game a simple re-use of stage design shouldn’t concern you so much as the camera issue.
This camera crops up especially in every one of the boss fights: one against the robot dog, one against Metal Gear Ray, and one against Senator Armstrong. They’re not all re-dos of the previous; the attack patterns were modified heavily, and it seems they all follow the old “boss fight” adage of making a boss quicker, faster, harder to predict, and stronger as they lose health. HOWEVER, and here’s the problem, they all take place in tiny areas NOT suited for the boss patterns. To take a quick example: The LQ-84i fight takes place in a narrow sewer, whereas the original took place in a wide open area; same goes for the Ray fight, which now takes place in a tiny hangar. It makes the camera swing around for no reason while the boss attacks you relentlessly – clearly, not a recipe for success. Both of these seem quite doable, though!
However, it’s the Armstrong fight that put me in a rage, and not for a good reason. Armstrong’s a reasonably difficult fight in the normal game, but you can learn his pattern rather easily if you put any effort into it (even on higher difficulties). Not so much here – you fight Armstrong on the same platform on which you fight Sundowner – if this sounds like a good idea with all of Armstrong’s charging attacks, you are completely and utterly wrong. When Armstrong dashes to the “edge” of the helicopter platform, the invisible wall doesn’ t makes him stop. Instead, he dashes back towards you as the camera swings around – don’t be surprised if you get hit repeatedly, and not even by your own reckoning. Doesn’t help that 1. my controller started malfunctioning during the fight or 2. that Jetstream Sam actually stops after certain charge attacks, because both of those get you killed. Armstrong new and incredibly dumb fire charge (think Bison’s Psycho Crusher ) makes the camera issues all the more apparent and jarring. Armstrong also starts doing attacks incessantly at the end, to the point where you need some perfect reflexes to get hits – it’s a shame, really, that the fight’s so buggy. It’d be really fun without the camera issues, but now it’s a complete memorization fest at higher levels.
As for the story? There’s not much here for you fans except some more dialogue about memes and stopping war or something. It’s suitably “Metal Gear”, and gives you a hint of why Sam fights against (and then for) Desperado, but not in any depth.
All in all, it fit like a glove for me, and I’m eager to play more, but that last boss really spoils the experience (to give you a quantified reason, I used no health powerups at all until him – yes, I am good and I am tooting my own horn about it) at times. Still, there’s lots of good to override the bad for those dedicated to the task of dissecting the mechanics. Here’s to the success of the Blade Wolf DLC next month!
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That’s it for this week’s Monday Update. More PAX stuff down the line (somehow!).
