E3 2012: 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance', Cutting Has Never Been So Fun

When the doors swung open on the first day of E3 a few of us only had one thing on our minds. Barely flashing our badges to the doorman we made a beeline directly to the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance booth in the hope of being the first in what would later be a very long line.

If you listed to our E3 Day One podcast you might have an idea of how things went from there. We were first treated to two videos, the first of which provided a bit of an origin story for Raiden and the second which acted as a primer for the demo up ahead. Unfortunately both were equally terrible on a scale that would make even year one film students weep and quickly turn to bath salts after seeing their one true passion be assaulted in such a way.  The problem wasn't necessarily with narrative, but with execution. The first resembled a cheaply made movie you would find on the Syfy channel at 3am, and the second was even worse, reminding me of those ultra-cheesy videos you are tortured with before getting on a ride at Epcot Center.  Unless I was home with my pants around my ankles about to get treated to a video of Raiden getting nasty with a pile of female Russian snipers, these intros were completely antithetical to anything we were about to see.

Luckily what we were treated to next successfully cleansed our palette of the putrid feast from before.

The demo we played could essentially be described as a tech demo. It took place in a fairly barren piece of ruined building beach-front property that was segmented into areas where the player was slowly introduced to the mechanics of the game.  Starting with basic movement, the tutorial slowly unveiled the free-cutting mechanic that is essentially Revengeance's creme dela creme. I won't bore you with basic movements and attacks other to say that it reminded me of a melee Vanquish. Light and heavy attacks, double jumping and dodging are all in effect, but it's the free-cutting that really puts an entirely new spin on things.

Free-cutting is done by holding down the left trigger, which slows down time, and then using the right trigger to aim. By sliding the right trigger around the outside of the circle you aim the cut in the direction you want and then simply release the stick. Raiden will make the cut but remain in the mode so you can do it again, and again, and again. And you'll never be able to cut just once. Something about the mechanic will turn even normal gamers into a complete psychopath as they cut enemies up into as many little bits as they can, and your enemy is reduced to nothing but a fleshy, bloody cascade of oozing slivers.

The freedom of the mechanic also adds to the wonderfully psychopathic tendencies as you'll try to cut enemies in the crotch, or just for arms or legs, simply because you can. At one point we sliced an enemy from groin to neck, but never completed the cut up through the head, causing the enemy to fold apart, outward and down like a Hellraiser-esque experiment on a poor unknowing banana.

The mechanic works the best when it is tied into combo attacks. For instance, you can begin to chain light and heavy attack combos and then click into free-cut to finish an enemy off. The great thing is, you can chain it at any time. Brad was in the middle of a special move that sent Raiden and an enemy up into the air. In midair, Brad went into free-cut mode and proceeded to cut up the enemy, slow mode style, during the juggle causing the slices to rain down upon the ground below.

Free-cut is used strategically as well. At one point we were faced with a hostage situation that had an enemy using a civilian as a human shield. In free-cut, we had to cut the enemy without harming the hostage. My first attempt was as hilarious as it was horrific as I accidentally sawed the entire right side off of a civilian in my attempt to save them. My second try was much more successful as I was able to slice off the right side of the enemy's head, like slicing an apple, and saving the hostage in the process.

As interesting and fun as free-cut can be in gameplay situations, it should be noted that the mechanic is just fun all around. I spent way too much time just cutting up watermelons, barrels, and pieces of building than I should have to the point that I ran out of time before getting to the later phases of the level. It just fun as all hell to cut stuff up, and is a mechanic that we've never seen before in such detail.

We still haven't seen much of Revengeance, but so far it's founded on some very strong ground to be a fantastic game when it is released. If it can uphold our expectations in other areas, expect it to be a truly fantastic, fun, and even slightly homicidal experience.