Players assume control of Raiden, protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and supporting character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Like previous titles in the Metal Gear series, Rising is a stealth action game, however creative producer Shigenobu Matsuyama notes that development is focused less on stealth and more on swordfighting action, giving players the opportunity to engage enemies in direct battle if they wish. Players will still have a degree of freedom to play the game as a stealth title, though the stealth sequences will emphasize Raiden's considerable speed and agility.
Director Mineshi Kimura has also stated that Rising would carry on the series tradition of encouraging players to progress through the game without killing, noting that there is a moral difference between attacking cyborgs or robots and attacking human beings, and that there's a "certain virtue to simply disabling your enemies instead of killing them."
A key gameplay feature for the game is titled zan-datsu (斬奪 lit. "cut and take"), which involves "cutting" through enemies and "taking" parts from the bodies of dismembered cyborgs and robots.Things which can be taken include life, energy, parts, ammunition, items, and occasionally information. For example, in the E3 2010 trailer, Raiden tears a battery — in the form of a glowing mechanical spine — from a dismembered cyborg enemy, which he then crushes after absorbing energy from it to heal himself.
"Cutting" entails sophisticated swordplay that lets players engage in third person melee combat, as well as precisely slash enemies and objects "at will" along a geometrical plane using a "free slicing" mode. Virtually any object in the game can be cut, including vehicles and enemies, though elements of the environment were intentionally limited to structures such as pillars and walls to better facilitate gameplay.
The free slicing mode is similar to other aiming modes in previous Metal Gear Solid titles, but produces a special targeting reticule in the form of a transparent blue plane which can be rotated and moved, tracing orange lines across the surfaces of objects to indicate exactly where they will be cut; it can also be used to enter a bullet time state, giving players the opportunity to precisely slash targets during moments of action, such as slicing through a falling target from multiple angles before it hits the ground.
These features can be employed strategically, for example disabling opponents, finding weak points and gaps in armor, severing support columns to collapse ceilings or walls onto enemies, or cutting through objects to remove enemy cover.
This is particularily important when facing cyborgs and robots, as cutting through different areas of their bodies will allow you to take different mechanical parts from within. Although Raiden's main weapon will be his katana, he will also have "sub-weapons", Kimura revealed.
