GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

What if we got a Batman game set in feudal Japan? Ghost of Tsushima would literally be it. The entire point of Sucker Punch’s samurai epic is to give players a vast and versatile toolset to use in both stealth and combat, which you then use throughout the game to strike fear in into the hearts of your enemies. No matter how many times you clear out a camp with lethal precision, it just never loses its luster.

Developed by PlatinumGames (with Kojima Productions assisting), Revengeance focuses on Raiden four years after Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Cyborg soldiers are more common, and he’s at odds with rival PMC, Desperado. Unlike the mainline series, Metal Gear Rising focuses heavily on fast-paced hack-and-slash action.

Those who pick up the PC version can avail of various armor options for Raiden, from his MGS 4 armor to the Cyborg Ninja from Metal Gear Solid 1. It also includes downloadable content like VR missions and story content featuring Blade Wolf and Jetstream Sam as playable characters. Of course, there are also options to face off against the bosses only via the Chapter menu, rewatch cutscenes and codec conversations and more.

However, there are games which turn out even better than expected. Even if they looked good, the final result is something truly special. Here are 15 games that are way better than they initially had any right to be.

Inside

Coming off the success of Limbo, Playdead Games began work on Inside, a spiritual successor of sorts. Many praised the former for its presentation and gameplay in 2010. However, despite starting development on Inside two months later, it was a long journey for the studio. Revealed in 2014, it faced some delays, which wasn’t enough to create overwhelming concern. At the time, many expected Inside to be good, but not that good.

And it was more than good on release in 2016. Earning near-universal praise from critics, its dark mood and storytelling were arguably superior to Limbo. The short length also exemplified how a video game could deliver pitch-perfect pacing with compelling puzzles and mechanics, on top of an incredible plot that didn’t hold the player’s hand.

Several years later, Inside is remembered even more fondly than Limbo, transcending its indie identity to become one of the best games ever made.

GLEEFULLY ABSURD

Calling the Metal Gear franchise over the top would be the understatement of that century, but even in that group, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance prides itself on a very unique and unhinged brand of insanity. This is a game where being absurd was almost the point, and it did that in ways that set it apart from other games in the franchise. Metal Gear Rising has a personality unlike any other game we’ve ever played, and from its story to its cast of characters (more on that in a bit) to its dialogue to its high octane action, it embraces that absurdity in truly exceptional ways.

INCREDIBLE COMBAT

Unsurprisingly, this was the highlight of Metal Gear Rising. That’s unsurprising, of course, because that’s true of pretty much every game PlatinumGames has ever developed. The studio has a mastery of action combat systems like very few other developers in the industry do, but even when compared to other excellent Platinum titles (of which there’s more than a few), Metal Gear Rising’s combat remains peerless. Every single action in the game is an example of mechanical perfection- every slash, every dodge, every block, every parry, all of it comes together to deliver one of the most thrilling and satisfying combat systems we’ve ever experienced in a character action game.

PARRY

There’s something about parrying mechanics that appeals massively to fans of action games (when they’re implemented well, at least), and you’d be hard-pressed to think of many games that do parrying better than Metal Gear Rising does it. What makes it stand head and shoulders above the vast majority of other games who have similar mechanics is how incredibly satisfying parrying feels in this game- which, in turn, is primarily down to how perfectly balanced its challenging nature is. Even on standard difficulty, nailing the parry window in Revengeance requires a lot of practice, but once you do get the hang of it, nothing beats the swelling satisfaction of getting it right and turning enemies’ attacks on themselves.

BLADE MODE

Another defining trait of Metal Gear Rising’s combat system that sets it apart from its peers is Blade Mode. This was something that was billed as one of the game’s biggest hooks long before it came out (when it was supposed to be called Metal Gear Solid: Rising, in fact), and though there were initial doubts behind the scenes over whether it could be properly implemented, PlatinumGames was able to do just that. It allows players to slow down time and hack and slash at enemies with a flurry of quick attacks, with minute control afforded over the direction of every single swing, only to see enemies (or whatever it is you’re slashing at) cut down into literal ribbons as soon as time starts moving again. It’s as incredibly fun as it sounds, and yet another example of how overtly absurd this game is.

EXCELLENT BOSS FIGHTS

Both Metal Gear as a franchise and PlatinumGames as a developer have always been known for delivering memorable boss fights, so it’s no surprise that a Metal Gear game developed by Platinum had plenty of those as well. Obviously, given the game’s very nature, Revengenace’s boss fights were very different from what you’d ordinarily expect to see from such encounters in a Metal Gear game, and yet they still rank as some of the best the series has ever delivered. Epic, high octane, mechanically sound, appropriately challenging- they had everything they needed to serve as the memorable highlights of the experience that they were.

GREAT CHARACTERS

Metal Gear Rising may not have been developed and plotted out by Hideo Kojima, but the game still had an excellent cast of characters. The likes of Jetstream Sam and Sundowner, to name just a couple, dominated every scene they were in, and were perfect examples of how the cast’s best and biggest personalities could quickly embed themselves in your memory. Of course, there were a couple of characters in particular who deserve special mention…

SENATOR ARMSTRONG

It’s easy to forget that in terms of pure screentime, the game’s main antagonist, Senator Armstrong didn’t have a massive role in Metal Gear Rising. But boy did he have a massive presence, to the point that he may very well be one of the best villains we’ve seen in a game in the last decade. On a fundamental level, the threat he posed to Raiden was a formidable one, as evidenced by the gruelingly punishing final boss fight he starred in. On a narrative level, meanwhile, he may very well be the most memorable personality in the entire game, and has single handedly given birth to some of the best gaming memes you’ll ever see. Hell, he gave us “nanomachines, son”- what more could you ask for?

RAIDEN

Raiden’s trajectory throughout the Metal Gear franchise is fascinating to follow. He started out as a wimpy kid in Metal Gear Solid 2, before returning in Metal Gear Solid 4 as a badass (and painfully tragic) cyborg, only to complete his transformation as an excellent action hero in Metal Gear Rising. No, he’s obviously no Solid Snake, but Revngeance’s Raiden is still an incredibly compelling protagonist that most players found very easy to root for. All too often, god protagonists are taken for granted in all forms of storytelling, so we’ll take every chance we get to point out just how excellent Raiden was in this game.

BANGING SOUNDTRACK

That really is the perfect way to describe Metal Gear Rising’s soundtrack- it’s banging. It freaking slaps. It suits the tone of the game perfectly. It’s bombastic, it’s explosive, it’s full of adrenaline. This is a game that’s all about over the top action and giddy violence, about stakes so high that it’s hard not to laugh at them- and it’s all too self aware about all of these things. Nothing exemplifies that better than the soundtrack, which keeps delivering one excellent piece of music after another (especially when it comes to the boss fights).

DLC CHAPTERS

Even if you just play through the base experience of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you’ll be in for one hell of an action game, but if you still want more once you’ve rolled the credits (and you probably will), there’s additional content to dive into- which, typically enough, is also excellent. PlatinumGames released several DLC chapters for the game in the aftermath of its launch, which collectively add a healthy chunk of gameplay, and they are all well worth diving into.

Taking recently to Twitter, PlatinumGames announced an event to celebrate Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s 10th anniversary. Set for February 21, the developer says it will unveil new anniversary art for the game. Whether that will be the extent of the celebrations remain to be seen, though fans will be hoping that the studio has a little bit more up its sleeve.

Recently, Quinton Flynn, who voiced the character Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, seemed to hint at an upcoming announcement related to Metal Gear. Meanwhile, Konami has also hinted that more of its beloved franchises will follow in Silent Hill’s footsteps with long-awaited reveals. As per leaks, that will include a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3, developed by Virtuos.

https://twitter.com/platinumgames_j/status/1620618199921483776

That’s as per actor Quinton Flynn, who voiced the character Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Responding to a tweet from a fan inquiring about the possibility of a Metal Gear Rising sequel being announced in the near future, Flynn recently said, “Stay tuned for things to be announced in the coming weeks.” Cheekily, he followed the message up with a winky emoji. Check out his tweet below, or a screenshot of it through here, in case the tweet gets deleted.

Reports have claimed for over a year that Konami is preparing to revive Metal Gear, with a ground-up remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater allegedly in development at Virtuos. Several subsequent reports have added fuel to that fire- though of course, Flynn would be unlikely to voice Raiden in that project, since the character isn’t part of the game’s story. Whether that means there are multiple Metal Gear projects in the works, similar to Silent Hill, remains to be seen.

Interestingly, veteran Metal Gear producer Noriaki Okamura recently said that Konami will be making “long awaited” announcements in 2023. Leaks have also claimed that Sony will be announcing new third party content soon.

https://twitter.com/quintonflynn/status/1615284297056788481

Metal Gear RAY – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Armstrong’s death is constantly brought up as one of the more epic boss deaths in video games. Don’t get us wrong – it’s a great choice – but there’s also the massacre of Metal Gear RAY at the start of the game. Essentially, Raiden goes one-on-one against it, systematically taking it apart. As the music builds and he dodges lasers and gunfire.

He then proceeds to toss it into the sky before dicing it apart and splitting it right down the centre before it explodes all around him. If any sequence could leave such a huge first impression, it’s this one.

KARAOKE (YAKUZA 0)

Anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time with iYakuza 0 (or most other Yakuza games, really) has most likely given its karaoke minigame a go as well. A rhythm game in all but name, these visits to karaoke bars are always a blast. Regardless of which difficulty you pick or even which song you pick, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has a talent for musical timing in QTEs. So much so that we’d almost like to see them make an entire rhythm game.

LICHDRAGON FORTISSAX (ELDEN RING)

Lichdragon Fortissax – well, look at it. The thing’s massive, and with that and a bunch of deadly attacks in its moveset, this dragon is the most formidable enemy you’ll fight in the entire game. Of course, this is an optional boss fight, but you will have to seek it out if you’re going for the Age of Duskborn ending.

Phylaks, the Warrior – Destiny 2: Beyond Light

Much of the story in Destiny 2: Beyond Light focuses on harnessing the power of Stasis. Before that though, the player encounters Eramis in Riis-Reborn as she bestows Stasis powers to her followers in the House of Darkness. Upon being discovered, there’s no other choice but to run. Phylaks, the Warrior, also appears to stop you but is completely immune to any damage. Eventually you’ll come back and use the power of Stasis to defeat her before taking down Eramis herself.