Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

***Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance*** is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Konami. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February 2013, Windows and OS X in January and September 2014, and Nvidia Shield TV in January 2016.

Revengeance is a spin-off in the *Metal Gear* series, set four years after the events of *Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots*. In the game, the player controls returning *Metal Gear* character Raiden as he confronts a private military company that intends to destabilize peaceful nations for profit. The gameplay focuses on fighting enemies using a sword and other weapons to perform combos and counterattacks. Through the use of "Blade Mode", Raiden can dismember enemies in slow motion and steal health items from their bodies. The series' usual stealth elements are also optional, serving as a means to avoid combat.

Since 2022, the game had resurfaced in internet popularity due to its direction and has become a staple in contemporary meme culture. Peter Tagg contributed to its internet popularity through his Senator Armstrong compilation videos, the first of which received 1 million views and remains his most viewed video.

## Plot

While providing security detail in an unnamed African country for its prime minister, N'Mani, Raiden and his team are attacked by rogue PMC Desperado. While Raiden fends off their forces, their leader Sundowner kidnaps and executes N'Mani. Raiden is badly wounded in a duel with Sundowner's lackey "Jetstream" Sam Rodrigues, but Boris saves him as Sundowner and Sam escape. Doktor later upgrades Raiden with a more capable cyborg body.

Two weeks later, Raiden infiltrates the breakaway state of Abkhazia after learning that Desperado is leading a military coup there. He plans to capture Andrey Dolzaev, a Chechen extremist leading the forces, to force Desperado into standing down. Desperado anticipates the move and assigns a prototype AI robot designated LQ-84i to stop him. Raiden defeats the LQ-84i in combat and later has it rebuilt as an ally, naming it Blade Wolf. He faces further opposition from Mistral, the commander of Desperado's forces in Abkhazia. After Raiden kills Mistral in combat, Dolzaev commits suicide by blowing up an oil tank he is standing on.

Maverick assigns Raiden and Blade Wolf to investigate a research facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. There, Raiden meets an orphan named George, who was brought to the facility to have his brain—along with the brains of several other orphans—surgically removed and shipped to the United States.He learns that Sundowner inspected the facility in the company of Senator Steven Armstrong, creating an alliance between Desperado and World Marshal, a major PMC Armstrong has invested in. World Marshal plans to condition the children to become killers through VR training and place them inside cybernetic bodies to create new soldiers, similar to Raiden. Raiden rescues George and the unharvested orphans and takes them to Doktor.

Furious, Raiden resigns from Maverick and, with Blade Wolf by his side, launches a one-man assault on World Marshal's headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Though no longer Raiden's employer, Maverick unofficially provides discreet support throughout. As he fights his way through the city's privatized police force and soldiers, Raiden becomes morally conflicted over the dozens of people he has killed. He begins regressing towards his repressed aggressive child soldier persona, "Jack the Ripper", before finally embracing it when he encounters Sam and another operative named Monsoon. He kills Monsoon and infiltrates World Marshal's headquarters before locating and killing Sundowner. There, he learns that Armstrong brought World Marshal and Desperado together to exploit Raiden's desire to avenge N'Mani's death. Armstrong used Desperado to distract Raiden while readying "Operation Tecumseh", a plan to assassinate the President of the United States during peace negotiations with Pakistan to ensure another war on terror.

While Doktor recovers the children's brains, Raiden seeks help from Sunny Emmerich to reach Pakistan in time to stop Armstrong. He encounters Sam on the way and the pair engage in a final duel, from which Raiden emerges victorious. Sunny helps Raiden travel to Shabhazabad Air Base in Pakistan, where he is attacked by Metal Gear EXCELSUS, a hexapedal mecha piloted by Armstrong. He reveals that Operation Tecumseh was a false flag operation, and that his true plan was to frame Desperado for killing American military personnel at the base to turn the American people against them and in favor of World Marshal. Armstrong, being a primary shareholder of the latter, would win the subsequent Presidential election in a landslide, giving him free rein to realize his vision of a social Darwinist society, where the strong will thrive and the weak will be purged. Raiden destroys EXCELSUS, but discovers that Armstrong has augmented himself with nanomachines that give him incredible strength and near-invulnerability, destroying Raiden's high-frequency blade. Blade Wolf intervenes and gives Raiden Sam's sword, which allows him to defeat and kill Armstrong.

Maverick receives approval to create a new cyborg staffing firm, allowing them to shelter the orphans' brains and potentially give them a chance at a better life, while George and Blade Wolf go live at Solis with Sunny. Although Desperado is defeated and the brain-taking operation defunct, World Marshal remains in business. Raiden decides against rejoining Maverick, resolving to fight his own war.