We’ve seen how AI is getting smarter all the time, particularly with Sophia the robot, and we know how well trying to keep them in line has worked in the rest of popular culture… Not to mention the Artificial Intelligence character known as “Wolf”, a super smart robot killer, but one who is beholden to follow orders, for fear of termination.
With all the possibilities of VR opening up as the tech gets better every day, the future it heralds may be pretty close to what MGR predicted. There’s also the subplot of the game, where, again SPOILER ALERT, orphan children from third world countries are being kidnapped, having their brains removed, and placed into VR simulations to receive military training. blew my leg off, signing up for this job was the only choice I had.” Some scary truths are thrown into stark reality. “I’ve almost saved up enough money to bring momma to the States.” “I.E.D. While these cops attack Raiden with reckless abandon, Raiden hears their fears and insecurities, and it’s quite harrowing. There’s a powerful scene where Raiden is forced to fight police officers while being able to hear their inner thoughts, thoughts that are blocked out from the people’s own minds by emotion-suppressing nanomachines. MGR looks at the implications of this technology on people. Of course, Metal Gear has always tried to mirror reality to an extent, and with the growth of drone technology and the technological tools of destruction the military have at their disposal, cybernetic soldiers seem like the next obvious step. If this sounds a little like a conspiracy theory, then you get where this game is going.Ī core concept of the game is that cybernetic technology has become so advanced and so widespread, regular soldiers, and even police officers, are given cybernetic enhancements, in order to become ‘super soldiers’. Armstrong would use this momentum to catapult himself into the Presidency and would use the war economy to save America. Within minutes of the story being broken, the American people respond with calls to wage war against Pakistan.
The main villain, US Senator Armstrong, who wants to jumpstart America out of its recession, stages a situation where it would appear that Pakistani rebels have killed a handful of American soldiers at an airbase in Pakistan. BIG SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED THIS GAME. The clearest possible parallel you can draw between reality and the game would have to be the big plan revealed in the last mission of the game. The game’s story deals with the protagonist, Raiden, going up against a private military company, Desperado, who are hired to destabilise regions of peace, incite war, and then make a profit off the subsequent conflict. Now, no one is going to argue that MGR is a deep game in terms of story, but Platinum tend to not shy away from trying to say something meaningful in their games, even if it’s just a simple action game biting off more than it can chew. The game is set in 2018, and since it has a strong political and societal undercurrent in the narrative, we thought it would be fun to look back and see what Platinum got right about 2018, what they got wrong, and the legacy that MGR has left on the action game genre. MGR:R pretty much represents the apotheosis of this design philosophy. PlatinumGames has since carved out its niche of delivering wildly fun and wacky action games, with a lot of emphasis on fast but accessible combat, and crazy spectacle.
They had worked on some fun original titles like Anarchy Reigns and Bayonetta, but when they acquired the Metal Gear license of all things, people really started to take notice. It proved to be a big win for the relatively unknown gaming studio. As you can probably tell from the title of this article, PlatinumGames’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was released five years ago.