E3 2012: Platinum details Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

The undisputed star of Konami's pre-E3 broadcast was Platinum Games' Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, with a new trailer showing how the game has changed since development duties were passed to the Bayonetta studio earlier this year.
Set nine years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, players control Raiden, the cybernetic warrior last put in players' hands inMetal Gear Solid 2. "Now, Raiden has grown up," said Kojima Studios writer Etsu Tamari. "But he is still sutffering from the wounds of the civil war he fought. He's become a hero with a dark past, one constantly haunted by this guilt."
The game retains the focus on directional slashing that was in the original trailer for the game, unveiled in 2009. Footage showed Raiden jumping towards a helicopter, time slowing down as he slices it into pieces with his katana - though players will have several weapons to choose from. The mechanic can also be used to clear a path through obstructions, and game director Kenji Sato said players would be able to slash certain background objects and use them as weapons.
Rising, Sato said, is "first and foremost an action game," a logical consequence of it being in Platinum's hands: studio producerAtsushi Inaba said he believed his firm was "the best action game company in the world. Our goals are simple: we want players to enjoy our games, and for that experience to be as easy and intuitive to control as possible."
Raiden's movement is clearly as important as the slashing mechanic. There are air combos, and a Ninja Dash system used for traversal through the game's environments. With the HUD stripped away, it was often hard to tell just how much of the action was realtime as opposed to an in-engine cutscene, but it's fast, fluid, bloody stuff.
Kojima Studios creative producer Yuji Korekado, who was Rising's producer before the game was passed to Platinum, said: "Within the series, Raiden has always been a really cool character with incredible action scenes, but they were always cutscenes. Rising will allow players to control Raiden, and really enjoy those amazing action sequences for the first time as a player.
"When the decision was made to outsource the game, there really was only one choice. We knew it had to be Platinum, a company that has brought so many great action games to the world."
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be released for PS3 and Xbox 360 in early 2013, with rumours building that a Vita version is also in the works. A demo will be included with the Zone Of The Enders HD Collection, and the game will be playable for the first time at Konami's E3 booth.

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