Incoming 2013: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

What we know: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game that might revitalize the franchise it is part of by bringing in a new audience, but it also has the potential to drive the traditional fan base away.

Born as a spin-off handled by Hideo Kojima himself, with a focus on Raiden and his new cyborg abilities, Revengeance has morphed into an action driven game that benefits from the experience of Platinum Games in this area.

The game will ditch most of the stealth that has characterized Metal Gear so far in order to constantly push the player forward, towards a new battle with bigger numbers of enemies or more powerful bosses.

Raiden will use both cyborg powers and his trusty weapon to deal with them, collecting upgrades to develop his own abilities and getting the information that he needs in order to complete his revenge quest.

Platinum Games has promised a deep and engaging combat system and plenty of enemies to dismember and cut in a myriad of innovative and diverse ways.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is set to arrive on the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft on February 19 in North America and three days later in Europe.

Why it matters: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is one of the those weird projects that shifted gears in the middle of the development process and that means it could be an instant hit or one of the biggest failures of the year.

Both Platinum Games and Kojima Productions have very solid pedigrees but they have different aims for their titles and the quality of the resulting product might lead to a long and fruitful collaboration or a quick and very public split.

The full Incoming 2013 series of articles can be read on Softpedia right here.