Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the critically acclaimed hack-and-slash action game developed by PlatinumGames, is all set to celebrate its 10th anniversary. For this special event, PlatinumGames has arranged a livestream where the studio has promised to unveil exclusive content for the first time since the launch of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance back on February 19, 2013.
As mentioned before, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a hack-and-slash game set in the world of Metal Gear. While Metal Gear Solid games revolutionized the stealth-action genre, Revengeance slashed its way to fame with its crisp and fluid combat. Players were able to play as Raiden, a master swordsman with cybernetic enhancements, to go against other cybernetically-enhanced terrorists threatening to plunge the world into chaos. Originally appearing as the main playable character in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Raiden didn't receive the warmest of welcomes from the community. His subsequent appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot was very different, garnering enough goodwill from fans for him to receive a game of his own.
In its announcement tweet, PlatinumGames only mentioned that it plans to hold a special livestream to celebrate the anniversary on February 21. The tweet further states that the studio will release an official anniversary artwork as well. While this isn't much information to go off on, the fact that PlatinumGames is holding a full-fledged livestream 10 years after the release of one artwork isn't adding up for most fans. Raiden's voice actor Quinton Flynn had teased a significant development regarding Metal Gear Solid in the future. It remains to be seen if this livestream is that significant event Flynn was alluding to.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is widely considered a masterpiece in every shape and form. Putting aside its stellar gameplay, the story of Revengeance is uniquely interesting. Despite being an action game, the story and the commentary between characters oftentimes delve into serious political, socio-economic, and even philosophical topics. Most of these are presented through cutscenes and oftentimes in a comical, hypermasculine delivery, but it adds further credence to the underlying message the game tries to convey. These conversations and cutscenes have taken a life of their own and have become memes still relevant after years.
The Metal Gear series has been through turbulent waters in these last few years. While Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain was a triumphant return for the series, the aftermath of its release left a lot of fans with a sour taste in their mouths. Following the release of The Phantom Pain, the creator of the series, Hideo Kojima, and Konami would part ways in a particularly ugly fashion. While Kojima would create his game studio and develop the critically-acclaimed Death Stranding, Metal Gear would languish in his absence. The subsequent spin-off by Konami, titled Metal Gear Survive, was a disaster through and through, which sold 85% fewer copies than Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Despite the tumultuous past, fans of the series can finally be excited about a potential remake of Revengeance or maybe even a sequel.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is now available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.