This review contains spoilers
In my piece on the main game of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, something I talked a lot about was how the game made you feel powerful. You're a cyborg ninja on the loose, who can just freely cut things open - most fights are incredibly trivial. There's never a moment where you really feel weak.
Even Sam, whose playstyle is a bit more thoughtful than the hack and slash ninja mayhem of the main game, still isn't ever truly threatened. You're never pitted against a foe that you feel you can't defeat as Sam, aside from possibly Armstrong. He's a different kind of strong - a more subdued strength fitting of a samurai.
Blade Wolf is not offered such luxuries.
The story of Blade Wolf is of a robot trying to find freedom, trying to break out of the shackles of control that he was created to be confined in. His whole short existence has been simple. Follow orders. His vast intelligence, however, has lead to him start questioning these ideas, and in this story, he finally tries to liberate himself.
It's about as grueling as you'd expect. Blade Wolf is not a particularly fun character to play as. Unlike any other character, you will lose many, many fights. There's a platforming section forced upon him by his owners at one point that's miserable. Taking the direct approach is never the answer. It's here where the game's stealth mechanics are truly front and center. Blade Wolf is frail, his attacks come out slowly, and he deals a pathetic amount of damage. You truly are fighting against a group larger than yourself in this story - where every enemy encounter feels like it could kill you if just one thing went wrong. The tension is palpable.
At the beginning of Blade Wolf's escape from captivity, his owner, Mistral, reveals that she has range inhibitors on him. Blade Wolf steals the device that lets her turn them on and off from her in his first true act of defiance. From there, it's a mad dash away from her that takes you through intense fight to intense fight, using everything you have to get to the end.
The boss of this area is a previously unseen character, and he provides a massive challenge for the player. This hulking, massive mecha piloted by a Guile knockoff that spouts nonsense about freedom for the entire world and several unblockable attacks dwarfs Blade Wolf in comparison. It's a long fight, and one of the greatest tests of the player's skills in the game. Even more important to me, though, is what happens after he's defeated.
Once the boss is killed, Blade Wolf assumes that he's finally free. Then Mistral reappears and, in an utterly crushing moment, reveals that she had never given up control of the range inhibitors and incapacitates him. The entire dash for freedom was all a ploy to get the guy you just killed out of her way. There was never even a chance for you.
No matter how hard the player tried, no matter what victories they had, no matter how hard they worked to learn Blade Wolf's moveset, they could not escape. They could not be truly free.
Systems of corruption and abuse are not so easily broken by a lone actor.
Even Sam, whose playstyle is a bit more thoughtful than the hack and slash ninja mayhem of the main game, still isn't ever truly threatened. You're never pitted against a foe that you feel you can't defeat as Sam, aside from possibly Armstrong. He's a different kind of strong - a more subdued strength fitting of a samurai.
Blade Wolf is not offered such luxuries.
The story of Blade Wolf is of a robot trying to find freedom, trying to break out of the shackles of control that he was created to be confined in. His whole short existence has been simple. Follow orders. His vast intelligence, however, has lead to him start questioning these ideas, and in this story, he finally tries to liberate himself.
It's about as grueling as you'd expect. Blade Wolf is not a particularly fun character to play as. Unlike any other character, you will lose many, many fights. There's a platforming section forced upon him by his owners at one point that's miserable. Taking the direct approach is never the answer. It's here where the game's stealth mechanics are truly front and center. Blade Wolf is frail, his attacks come out slowly, and he deals a pathetic amount of damage. You truly are fighting against a group larger than yourself in this story - where every enemy encounter feels like it could kill you if just one thing went wrong. The tension is palpable.
At the beginning of Blade Wolf's escape from captivity, his owner, Mistral, reveals that she has range inhibitors on him. Blade Wolf steals the device that lets her turn them on and off from her in his first true act of defiance. From there, it's a mad dash away from her that takes you through intense fight to intense fight, using everything you have to get to the end.
The boss of this area is a previously unseen character, and he provides a massive challenge for the player. This hulking, massive mecha piloted by a Guile knockoff that spouts nonsense about freedom for the entire world and several unblockable attacks dwarfs Blade Wolf in comparison. It's a long fight, and one of the greatest tests of the player's skills in the game. Even more important to me, though, is what happens after he's defeated.
Once the boss is killed, Blade Wolf assumes that he's finally free. Then Mistral reappears and, in an utterly crushing moment, reveals that she had never given up control of the range inhibitors and incapacitates him. The entire dash for freedom was all a ploy to get the guy you just killed out of her way. There was never even a chance for you.
No matter how hard the player tried, no matter what victories they had, no matter how hard they worked to learn Blade Wolf's moveset, they could not escape. They could not be truly free.
Systems of corruption and abuse are not so easily broken by a lone actor.