15. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Unleash your vengence

Sparsely backed by its namesake, this Metal Gear game managed to surface and break through out of the series’ shadow by embracing a single mechanic: Blade Mode.

As Raiden, a katana-wielding cybernetic “super-soldier”, your precision and reflexes are such that you can pinpoint and slash away at your enemy’s weaknesses. While utilizing Blade Mode, Raiden obtains speeds beyond perception and can unleash dozens of cuts a second obliterating flesh and heavy armor alike. You do not have to worry, however, because there are more than enough cookie-cutter soldiers to sate that blood-lust.

The events of MGR are set four years after Metal Gear Solid 4 and launch you across continents while you create a path of destruction from Africa to Denver, Colorado. While not the traditional Metal Gear gameplay, new players will become familiar with the humor that the series offers as well as its overarching theme of “government evil.” This was not the Metal Gear game that fans expected yet it remains a success for the franchise.

What stands out:

• The Metal Gear-verse from a different perspective
• Blade Mode – hack’n’slash with devastating precision!

Overrated armor

The Zandatsu technique

14. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Explore the depths of reality

Every now and again we are reminded that every developer is an artist and artists love to explore. They love to take chances. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a chance taken by artists, a chance to stand out and tell a story unlike any other told via games. A fair warning: this game is a narrative action-adventure involving long cinematic sequences and story-driven puzzles. However, while presenting much more puzzle solving and movie-like psychological storytelling, the combat in this game is complex and gripping. Enemies are few and far between but not to be trifled with. Though the combat is not entirely hack-and-slash, it takes many elements from the genre emphasizing precision, careful defense, and variety to flawlessly execute your opponent.

You’ll want to be buckled in for this ride as it is a long and arduous one. Fail-states are aplenty, but you feel rewarded after each state and you will not want to put this game down until it reaches its completion. In short: buy this game, love this game. If developer Ninja Theory can make more like this, we want more like this.

What stands out

• Story-telling and narrative. A cinematic adventure.
• Jaw-clenching combat. Look Death in the eye.

Face fear head on

Explore the depths of reality