The Best Surprise of 2013
Platinum Games, the studio behind Metal Gear Rising, is no stranger to high-excitement hack and slash. One of the members of the development studio, Hideki Kamiya, is known for directing Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta. Metal Gear Rising was not directed by Hideki, but it takes influence from some of his games, while crafting a unique and extremely entertaining combat system. The game is challenging, but not to the point of being unforgiving, as a well placed slice can replenish your life bar. Parrying is perhaps the most important aspect of combat, and it works brilliantly. The game is constantly outdoing itself with progressively more insane set pieces and boss fights. Throughout the entire game, I never lost interest, and only stopped to make a meal or go to bed. One main complaint directed at the game was it's fairly short four and a half hours of gameplay (not including cut scenes and conversations), but I found the length to be perfect, and the rating system places an emphasis on replayability. The story makes a lot of sense for one in the Metal Gear series, and even if there are a ton of silly moments, I found that Raiden's motivations were sound, and the player even gets to see his weaknesses at times, making for a more realistic character. I have never had any problem with Raiden, be it in MGS2 or this, and I enjoyed the way his character developed Rising. Metal Gear Rising is quite simply, the most fun I've had with a game this year, and even after beating it, I don't think I'll be done with the game for quite some time.
