The Last Great Metal Gear Game Turns 10

Metal Gear Revengeance is ten years old today. The last great (full) Metal Gear game is a decade old. How depressing is that?

After Metal Gear Solid 4, it was unclear where the franchise would go. Backwards seemed the easy answer – Big Boss’s adventures started to stretch and stretch. But the character action game following Raiden’s next adventure was an unexpected pleasure, and it gave a hint at what the world looked like following the events of the PS3 classic.

But it was so much more than that. It was a brave new direction for a series known entirely for its stealth gameplay. Letting Raiden live out his potential as a Grey Fox style ninja made perfect sense, and a sequel was sorely needed by fans.

It was no easy thing. Revengeance was originally announced in 2009, and was being worked on by Kojima Productions. The famous 2010 trailer showed human dismemberment and WATERMELON SLICING ACTION!

Honestly, the original game sounds like it would have been amazing, although maybe a little hampered by Xbox 360/PS3 technology. It would have retained the action of the eventual release, but with a bigger focus on stealth too. Players would never be forced to kill human enemies, but would use Raiden’s speed and dexterity to avoid combat, rather than Snake’s regular stealth.

Obviously, that never happened. It was canceled by the end of 2010. The project got binned and shipped to Platinum.

Revengeance released to decent reviews, scoring in the low 80s on Metacritic. For context, most of Platinum’s previous efforts – including Vanquish and Mad World – had scored around the same.

Metal Gear Rising: A Lighting Bolt Classic

And then nothing happened. The game got some DLC. A teaser image was released for a sequel, although it may not have been a teaser image and no concrete explanation has ever been given.

It appeared in a PS4 sizzle reel at the Taipei Game Show and while it’s clearly referencing Metal Gear Rising, whether such a project ever existed, or whether this was wishful thinking on behalf of a video editor, it doesn’t seem we ever found out. It was quickly confirmed a follow-up was not in development, but whether that was smoke and mirrors that eventually came true or if a sequel was in development will be a mystery. Platinum later said the image was just to celebrate two years since the release of the first game but given the context, that is very unusual.

Metal Gear Rising’s reputation has gotten better in the years since release. This is in part thanks to its soundtrack, which was very popular during a recent re-release, and memes. Whether that means we’ll ever get a follow-up, or even a remaster, is unclear. Hell, if we never get another mainline Metal Gear game, it wouldn’t be massively surprising.

Bu suffice to say, Revengeance is a sleeper classic. Other Platinum games, like Bayonetta, have enjoyed new success due to sequels and re-releases. But this one, like too much of its parent franchise, remains stuck in the past. Playable, but not quite as well as it deserves.