Metal Gear Solid: Rising Impressions

Producer Shigenobu Matsuyama shows off a trailer for Raiden's upcoming action game at Microsoft's E3 2010 press conference.

You always know something exciting is about to happen when Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima takes the stage. He did so to great applause at Microsoft’s 2010 E3 press conference, but he unfortunately didn’t spend much time in front of the audience. He did, however, state that what he was there to show was something new and unique. Kojima also mentioned that just as Metal Gear hero Snake passed the torch to the androgynous Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, Kojima would now defer to Metal Gear Solid: Rising producer Shigenobu Matsuyama. And with that, Matsuyama took the stage and introduced an intriguing new trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the upcoming action game featuring a part-cyborg Raiden slicing up some of the freakiest automatons you’ve seen this side of those mooing gekkos from Metal Gear Solid 4.

The trailer begins with a simple pan from the hilt of a long blade to its point. We see the Kojima productions logo, and the scene cuts to a first a shot of multiple grungy industrial fans, and then gives us a glimpse of the floor, which is covered with empty shell casings. We then watch a creepy mechanized foe stalk about the environment as if sniffing out its prey. This robotic menace looks legitimately scary—a frightening sight in this dilapidated futuristic environment. A fleeting shape whizzes above several times, before dropping in front of this hulking threat: it’s Raiden, proudly displaying his metallic physique and mechanized jaw.

What follows is a grand fight scene in the dramatic Metal Gear tradition. This snazzy fisticuffs shows off Raiden’s skills with his blade, which is sharp enough to apparently slice through the most resilient metals. Raiden emerges victorious, and the bot explodes in a disgusting gusher of white goo. Raiden picks up the neon skeleton of the felled freak, and after a brief moment of consideration, crushes it in his hand. A montage of melee combat follows, showing off Rising’s location-based damage. We watch Raiden slice up limbs and vehicles, as the word "Cut" is spliced in. The word weaves into various phrases that pop up: "Cut at will," "cut what you will," and "what will you cut?" The trailer ends with a display that would make comedian Gallagher proud, though Raiden didn’t smash a watermelon with a hammer: he sliced it into delicious, easily-handled chunks.

Clearly, Metal Gear Solid: Rising will center on carving enemies into disgusting pieces of flesh and electronics. While we don’t know much about how Rising will play, the short trailer we saw on Microsoft’s stage whet our appetite for a flurry of location-based damage and furious swordplay. For now, we’re left wondering just how many things there will be to cut in Kojima’s upcoming action game--and left considering the game’s tagline: "Lightning Bolt Action."