Written by LvlUpUK Editor Rob Harris

So, the game that very nearly never was made its debut appearance at Eurogamer, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (yeah, they’re still calling it that) sliced its way into our hearts at the show, but is it the return we’ve been waiting for?

It is, and it kind of isnt. From the get go, you have to forget what you know about the general standard that is Metal Gear gameplay. All out swinging your sword around like a loon replaces your traditional sneaking and makes for a whole new set of rules.

The demo has us take Raiden through a city full of goons chopping wildly as we progress. The standard control scheme resembles that of the original DMC game with keeping the buttons simple and easy to navigate, no bat "naughty word alert" combos or button sequences to learn. After slicing through the enemies in each area we were then reintroduced to the Gekkos from MGS4, fighting one alone was a managable challenge, though when faced against two and a handfull of guards this is where I got a good idea on how the game is going to treat you. ‘Like its beeeyatch’ would be too light of a statement.

Now, the combat didn’t get too ruthless but it definitely began to prove a challenge. What made it harder was the fact I was always trying to test out the ability to slice and chop in your preferred way. These powered up swings were what gave you the ability to chop straight through enemies, cars and whatever else was in your way. And in quite a cool looking fashion too. This was also shown off well in the tutorial by having you cut enemies in half holding a human shield allowing you to aim correctly to keep the hostage safe. Whether there will be hostage slicing situations in the game weve yet to find out, but until then, cutting through cars keeps me more than happy.

It wasn’t til the end demo boss where I realised how the difficulty curve would really test you. If you were there and managed to finish it, good on you.

In the end though, Rising is a fresh new style of gameplay with just enough to compensate for the lackof traditional stuff in there, it works well, throwing the occasional platforming segment in too, but will Rising be enough for fans? Lets face it, nobody really liked Raiden in Sons of Liberty, but is his Ninja style enough to bring players back for an entire game?

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3