In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, prepare to face hundreds of aggressive cyborg enemies who have a variety of powers and skills at their disposal. Some buzz around in the air and shoot at you from afar, while others beat their chests like Silverback gorillas before pummelling you into the ground. Some scuttle around your feet making a complete nuisance of themselves, while others whip out their electrically-charged batons and batter you into submission. With such challenging opposition looking to make a fool of you, it pays to know how to deal with them.
Here are some helpful tips to give you a head start…
Keep an eye on your health bar
This may sound obvious, but the action can be so fast and furious that you barely have a moment to glance at your health metre. Larger enemies can drain your health bar extremely quickly so it pays to watch it closely. When you’re at about 25% health, pause the game by tapping left or right on the d-pad to access your equipment. Use a nano-repair unit to refill your meter. You can collect more repair units from chests and from fallen enemies. Always scour an area before moving on as some of the goody chests can be tucked away out of sight.
Use secondary weapons sparingly
Ammo is scarce for secondary weapons such as rocket launchers and homing missiles, so don’t waste them on weaker enemies that you can simply tear apart with your sword. Use them only when you face tougher enemies or if you’re overwhelmed by multiple foe. You can only carry five grenades too, so use them only when necessary, and target a group of enemies for maximum impact with the blast radius. You can find extra ammo around the environment, so it’s always worth keeping on the move during battles and examining every nook and cranny for a precious rocket, missile or grenade.
Study the behaviour of enemy AI carefully
Enemies vary greatly and have different strengths and weaknesses. Watch them while keeping your distance to see what their special attacks are and the signals they make prior to them. All enemies have a cooldown period, or a period of inactivity, which is the perfect chance for you to Ninja Dash, get close to them and pummel away with light and heavy attacks. Be prepared to block too as you’re not going to win every fight by button-mashing. By watching their behaviour you’ll spot the attack signals. As soon as it begins then block and you may well pull off a satisfying counter move.
Run like the wind with the Ninja Dash
Ninja Dash is perfect for getting out of a situation quickly and moving out of the firing line. You also don’t have to fight all enemies. In some areas you’re locked in until all enemies have been defeated, but sometimes you can bypass large groups of foe to get to the next objective without any damage. The Ninja Dash slide is also brilliant for bringing some of the weaker enemies to their knees. Run and slide at their legs and send them to the ground, and then get up close with the Blade attack to cut them to shreds.
Stealth kill and examine your environment
You don’t always have to rush into the action sword blazing. Examine the environment and use Augmented Reality Mode to survey the surroundings and pinpoint the position of enemies. You can sometimes find vantage points above enemies and then activate a stealth kill to take them down silently (there’s a trophy that you get for achieving a certain amount of stealth kills). Don’t underestimate the power of using any cardboard boxes you might have in your possession either. They allow you to sneak up on unsuspecting enemies more silently than when you’re on foot.
Become a master with your Blade
Target limbs as a priority. Take off the arms of a Silverback and his only attack will be to run at you. Slice the legs of a mechanical hound and it will be flapping on the floor like a fish out of water. Whenever you get up close and personal, make frequent use of Blade Mode. It slows down time but still allows you to furiously slash away and weaken enemies extremely quickly. Watch out for weak spots in enemy armour that glow grey. This means that this particular limb is ready to be sliced off so target it. Remember that left arms are the most precious limbs as they reward you with more points. Practice with Blade Mode frequently to become more precise with your swordplay and get a feel for slicing left limbs clean off.
If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to check out our Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance review.