This is to action games what Heisenberg's blue meth is like to the meth market. A clumsy analogy, perhaps, but an apt one.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the action game. It's nothing but epic fight after epic fight. Katans clang whilst badass metal rips. Giant robots, damning critique of neoliberalism, iconic characters and dialogue. It's all here. I know it's an old meme at this point, but Revengenace makes you feel like the biggest badass in the world. Raiden is a great protagonist and controlling him in combat feels like a privilege - that is when the camera is not shitting the bed. Seriously, if there's one glaring issue with the game, it's the camera. You're never looking where you want to be during a fight, but oh well.

I usually don't much care for cutscenes, but man oh man does this game have the COOLEST fucking cutscenes. Raiden squaring off with Sam, Raiden slicing the giant robot, Raiden slicing the other giant robot, Raiden slicing the OTHER giant robot... it's all so epic. I felt giddy throughout.

I hope one day people will look back on this game and see it for more than just its meme potential and banging soundtrack. I hope they will see that a game can insane over-the-top action, absurd dialogue, AND a thoughtful story, and I hope those people will be able to translate this meaningful combination of properties to other mediums like film and television as well. It seems to me that MGR:R was the zenith and the end of the awesome action media that raged through the 00's. Might just be me though. After all, memories broken, the truth goes unspoken, I've even forgotten my name...

NOTE: I haven't done anything outside of the main campaign yet, so I'll have to come back for the side stuff later.