You can still shine through the darkness

Weve had a few encounters with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance over the past year, slicing up guards and watermelons in short, sweet demos. But we knew that blood-filled slicing would work well--its Platinum Games, after all--the real test would be how it stands up when were allowed to actually play a large chunk of the game. Last week, we were given just that opportunity, and as expected, it was a bloody good time.

What sort of stuff did we cut up? How many pieces did we slice enemies into? Weve put together a list of some of the coolest things that we saw and did during our time with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to give you an idea of just how fun the game is shaping up to be.

Saw our new hero get ripped apart

The opening of Rising is a gruesome display of blood tech that pushed our squeamishness limits. During an attack, Raiden lost his arms, took a sword through the chest, and had his eye sliced out. It was brutal.

Sliced a cyborg guard into countless pieces

In case you hadnt noticed, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a bloody, violent mess of a game in which you, in slow-motion, slice and dice other humans into a dozen pieces, and thats what makes it so great.

This was displayed perfectly during one-on-one battles with armed cyborg guards. After a few sword strikes (to break down their defenses) we were able to use Blade Mode, which let us slow down time for precise chops. It was pure bliss, and we slowly dismembered the guard, taking away limbs one at a time before we finally ended his robolife. It was oddly satisfying.

Chain-harvested the spines of our enemies

Thats right, we didnt just slice up enemies into dozens of pieces, but we actually ripped out their cyborg spines and harvested their power. When we entered Blade Mode and sliced down an enemys back vertically, a button prompt appeared. If we timed it right, wed rip out and crush their spine, using its power to restore both health and blade power meters.

This was incredibly useful in larger combat scenarios, as our health didnt recharge automatically, leaving us more likely to get killed quickly. If we managed to get two spines free in the same slice, we could even chain them together for a quick harvest.

Discovered Platinum Games love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

At the beginning of the second chapter, Raiden takes a trip to Mexico to infiltrate an organ harvesting facility. Unsurprisingly, the only entrance that he can seem to take is by fighting his way through the enemy-filled sewers, because this is a video game, and thats just how things work.

Unlocked and wore hilarious costumes

For a series that has always taken itself so seriously, it was a bit odd to see that we could make Raiden wear a mariachi outfit, complete with a half-poncho that barely covered half of his cyborg body and a comically-sized sombrero. But, yeah, thats a thing you can do in this game.

Theres no outfit creation, so we were stuck to found costumes, but seeing Raiden in different silly outfits really sold the tone of the game. Nothing says were having fun" better than allowing your main character to wear ridiculous outfits and have no one else say anything about it.

We laughed more than we expected to

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance might be the funniest Metal Gear to date, and not in an ironic way, either. Theres bountiful humor, from Raiden calling out the weirdness of acronyms like DOOMP to a character that continually fails to plug a USB cord in the right way.

Its the little stuff like this that sets Revengeance apart from past games in the series. Metal Gear has always been funny, but its never embraced the insanity of the franchise as much as it does in Revengeance. It manages to ride that fine line between serious and silly just right.

Actually played the game

Perhaps the greatest improvement in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is that it manages to keep the cinematic presentation that the series is known for without the need for hour-long cutscenes. The longest cinematic we saw was under 15 minutes, and we were told that they dont get any longer than that. 15 minutes is still lengthy by non-Metal Gear Solid standards, but it works in Revengeance, keeping the story flowing without constantly pumping the breaks for movie time.

Metal Gear Solids long cutscenes were enjoyable, but they kept the series from being accessible to new fans who might not find joy in watching an hour-long documentary about a fake war. Now, with the shorter and less frequent cutscenes, the story flows, and makes it so we can keep our hands on the controller, rather than setting it down and making some popcorn.

Broke a stack of crates into 3,000 pieces

While exploring the sewers in Mexico, we stumbled upon a room that had a stack of crates in it. Entering Blade Mode, we started slicing the crates into as many pieces as we could, watching the pieces" counter in the corner start to add up. After a minute or so of slicing, there was hardly anything left to slice, but it was still counting up. We hacked and slashed until we hit 3,000 pieces--that was enough.

Sadly, it didnt actually show all 3,000 pieces. After a while, chunks of wood and splinters started to disappear, but it wasnt that noticeable, and anything that we could still slice stayed around until it wasnt useful anymore. It became a self-made challenge to see how many pieces we could cut random objects in the environment into.

Noticed plenty of jokes about Snake

Speaking of boxes, Platinum Games was sure to sneak a few jokes about past Metal Gear games into Rising, and most of them had to do with Snakes weird obsession with cardboard. Theres a few boxes scattered throughout levels that resemble the one that Snake used, and sometimes they have people inside of them who pop out when we sliced them.

Raiden usually utters something along the lines of Hes doing that wrong..." or What a silly place to hide," clearly poking fun at Snake. He can also hide in a box, but when he moves, it rises to an obvious level above the ground and is easily spotted by enemies who cant help but wonder what a cardboard box is doing in the middle of an industrial complex.