Metal Gear Rising (MGR) always experiences some sort of resurgence every few years. Following the most recent one that occurred just a few months ago, it sparked my interest as it just seemed like a game with extremely flashy and fast-paced gameplay and cutscenes. But lo and behold, MGR actually contains clear-cut political messaging for anyone who bothers looking just a bit closer at this overtly goofy and flamboyant title in the MG series. It made me wonder if it earned its status as a masterpiece because of the way it handled politics. To say the least, mixing cyborgs, superhuman senators, and building-sized robots with its political messages is an interesting choice. Seeing that the title recently went through another resurgence, I thought that I would talk about the game and voice my views on its presentation and effectiveness for getting messages across.
To understand this article, you need to know what this game is about. Here is a summary of the game: MGR is a spinoff of the popular Metal Gear Solid game series, a series of stealth games which Rising greatly differs from as it is a hack and slash with minimal stealth mechanics in it. The main plot begins as Raiden, a cyborg mercenary working as a bodyguard, and his team are attacked by rogue PMC Desperado. While Raiden fends off their forces, their leader Sundowner kidnaps and executes the prime minister. Raiden is badly wounded during a duel with Sundowner's comrade, Jetstream Sam, but Boris, one of Raiden’s allies, saves him as Desperado escapes.
From this point onwards, Raiden’s journey as he fights against Desperado leads him into many battles. His ideology and morality are repeatedly questioned. Every single boss that is fought in this game has their own philosophy about the world that Raiden has to overcome both physically and mentally in order to progress. From Sundowner’s unfiltered bloodlust to Monsoon’s nihilistic view of the world and Jetstream Sam’s loss of identity, the game not only offers extremely fun bosses to toil against, but also includes messages that prompt players to wonder if these monstrous cyborg mercenaries have a point after all.
Firstly, I will be examining the effectiveness of the deliveries of political and philosophical messages in the stories told. I think everyone agrees that “subtle” would be the last word used to describe this game. Everything about the game is over-the-top, goofy, and absurd. Indeed, the writers could not have made the messages they wanted to get across more obvious, having already made many of the characters outright say them. Even the codec, where you can have conversations with your allies, contains discussions about the validity of certain philosophies; all of which are presented purely as they are: an ideology.
This is because the writers know exactly the kind of game they were making. Hack-and-Slash games are known for how flashy they are, with brightly colored HUDs (Heads Up Display) and combo counters. It could be said that there isn’t a real way for a Hack-and-Slash to be subtle about its messaging, when the real focus is on the fast-paced gameplay and not the story. The player’s attention is focused on getting the highest combo, learning boss attack patterns, and tools which will help them the most in combat. Without watching the individual cutscenes, the messages will likely not bother most players, but they need to be clearly presented such that the player will not miss it completely. Players are much less inclined to look for subtle hints and themes if they were to play, for example, a Role-Playing-Game (RPG) instead. A good story might supplement the experience, but it is never going to be the center of attention.
When people are that enamored by gameplay mechanics, the only way to get messages across is to shove it into players’ faces. Sure, it might feel clumsy and painfully obvious, but MGR knows this and owns it completely. This game wears its flashiness and lack of subtlety like a badge and is extremely aware about what it's doing. It is a game that does not take itself too seriously, and that aloofness and self awareness is what makes it charming. It does not care if people think it’s cool, because it knows it is.
People like games that are self-aware. It means the developers are poking fun at their own flaws and are grounded without too big of an ego. The developers chose the method that would give them the least problems and it worked. People had absolutely no way of avoiding the messages included in the game and resultantly discourse surrounding these messages arose in online gaming community forums.
This is the best outcome that could have occurred for the game: it got its audience thinking and talking about the ideas proposed. Many of these ideas were political issues, such as the rise of PMCs (private security companies) and the warmongering of the USA. These ideas are undoubtedly compatible with MGR, where there is already involvement with mercenaries and the military industrial complex, and whose spinoff was on a series known for its political commentary. These ideas are right at home in MGR, which is another indication of how effective it is.
Now, all of these ideas in MGR are as well-delivered as can be, but is that really a good thing? One could say that giving the audience such an in-your-face experience with your ideas is detrimental to the experience. After all, people play video games to escape from reality. In other games that talk about philosophy and real world issues, they are subtle, so players can choose to ignore them if they so wished. But in MGR, the philosophies and ideas featured bombard the player in every cutscene. Is forcing players to confront real world issues in their escape from reality a good choice?
If you really ponder hard enough, there is no fiction without some form of non-fiction in it. All made-up stories are built on the basis of reality – it's the only thing that we humans are able to draw experiences from. These real world themes also exist in other more subtle forms of fiction, but are just less obvious.
Games that incorporate world events into their storytelling usually end up enhancing the experience instead of taking the player out of it. This enhances relatability and immersiveness, which is extremely important in gaming because it helps players perceive that they are actually in the game. As such, video games where you actively participate in the events that occur tend to be more immersive than other forms of media like a book or a movie. This is what makes video games a better platform for pushing out ideologies – this feeling of connection makes the experience much more memorable and powerful, allowing messages to stick much longer.
We have already established that MGR is littered with political messaging, but is this the rule or the exception? Have politics always existed in games, just less explicitly? A good example of another game that contains political and philosophical messaging is Bioshock, a survival horror game set in a submerged city with no government. It ended up destroying itself, since individuals, being only concerned with self interest, cannot uphold a society — an open critique of the idea of objectivism.
It would seem that even the game industry cannot escape from the influence of political issues. If a game as old as Bioshock contains politics, it's likely that video games have been used as a platform for political messaging for as long as they were able to. It is similarly likely that a game industry that is apolitical will never exist and has never existed. After all, games are considered media: a way in which you can express yourself freely through story-telling. And where the media is concerned, politics certainly will be.
It would seem that the reason MGR stayed relevant all these years is due to the way it was created, with effective, straightforward, and memorable storytelling accompanied with excellent gameplay. One can only hope that this trend will finally compel the developers to create a sequel. Until then, we can only appreciate this masterpiece for how good it truly is.
Written by: Wang Haoran (22S75)
Edited by: Peh Jia Qian (22S6B), Widyayuki Triyono (22S6D)
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