Rising is a strange spin-off. In many ways it's the exact opposite of what people expect from Metal Gear Solid. But in other ways, it shares a lot in common with Metal Gear in how bizarre it is. From Raiden stabbing himself to prove how nuts he is to the final boss against professional wrestler Glenn Beck, this game is weird in so many good ways. But it's a different kind of weird, the Platinum Games weird. Yet, it actually fits really well with Metal Gear and ended up being second only to 3 in the series for me and my favorite of Platinum's games.
The thing I really love about it is the parry system. I had such a hard time going back to other action games after this, dodging and blocking are so much less fun than parrying. It also takes a lot of practice, while the instructions are vague as to what exactly you need to do, it is easy to pick up. Once I did, I really saw myself improving as I played through the game. By the end, there was a huge satisfaction in parrying an eight attack combo.
Aside from that, it's Platinum action at its finest. Cutting enemies up is a great way to perform a finishing move, with a nice health restoration if you cut in the right spot. Pulling these off between the normal combos has a really nice flow to it. The game uses the health pickups to its advantage also, allowing for some tougher encounters that games with regenerating health (in theory at least) like to employ while still making the player work for their health.
Boss battles also make you work for it. I didn't beat any of these on my first time, it would usually take three or four to get past them. Each of them, however, I was getting better and really getting how the boss' patterns work better. The bosses were not as memorable as 1 or 3's in terms of personality, but they were up to the series standards in terms of fun.
Batman Arkham Asylum is still my favorite action game, but I prefer Rising's combat. Batman's stealth, Metroidvania setup, and all those secrets are what put that game over the edge. If you just like fun, I'd really recommend Rising. I remember how people were comparing it to the Devil May Cry reboot when they came out and I don't know how all those people preferred DmC.
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