by Sload Soap Sat Oct 17, 2015 2:41 am
And with that my Metal Gear marathon is done. Some brief thoughts.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (Xbox 360)
Metal Gear 2 is a weird game and probably my least favourite in the series. It's not bad at all and in some instances is disarmingly forward thinking but it is also beholden to a lot of plain irritating gameplay design (that swamp) which kind of muted the accomplishments elsewhere. For an early nineties MSX2 game it is mighty impressive but as a Metal Gear game all the quirks and innovations kind of rub up badly against the basic game design of its predecessor.
Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
Metal Gear Solid is still a stone cold classic and as far as the series goes only recently surpassed. Every single part of it is etched onto my memory, every part is so well known and remembered it's become part of the texture of the medium. I think it's also the only time that the story and gameplay were in perfect balance with each other. Yeah the stealth is actually pretty terrible but it still feels so fresh. The art direction is incredible, there are moments of genuine emotion and you generally get pulled into this outlandish and kind of campy world that's like James Bond crossed with anime. It's full of little quirks and tricks and I think it's one of the more replayable games of its era. Really, along with Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy VII I see it as one of the games that really shaped the destiny of the Sony gaming brand and therefore gaming on the whole.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Xbox 360)
MGS2 however is a mostly decent game before a last act curtain pull turns it into an extraordinary one. I hadn't played this game in more than a decade and it was the title I was least looking forward to playing as part of this marathon. Pleasingly I did rather enjoy it overall. Obviously what gets people talking these days is that final chapter but I found the rest of the game pretty agreeable as well. Some of the stuff I recalled being my bugbears with the game such as the bomb disposal and underwater section really weren't all that bad. And I like Raiden. It's funny how, for a guy who eventually becomes a superhero cyborg, he's probably the most human character in these games. There's all this madness going on around him and he essentially cannot handle it. It's a shame then that Kojima kind of decided to retcon the ending to MGS2 (which is kind of fair enough) to give Raiden a schmaltzy happy ending in MGS4.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
Ah yes, MGS4. I'm glad I've played it (and I absolutely tore through it) but it is definitely one of weaker entries in the series. It's not even just down the the excessive length of the cutscenes or the many bizarre attempts at humour (monkeys and poop) or romance (Hal getting his heart broke by someone he only just met again, the WTF Meryl and Johnny Sasaki wedding). It's the fact that the gameplay is actually very good but its many interesting facets are sidelined while the plot is pushing Snake and Ocelot into that climatic fist fight. There's some great stuff early on when you are required to sneak through an citywide battle, the Octocamo is a really cool and well thought out tool and there are moments when the nostalgia for the past that the game is drenched in actually hits home. There's some very silly but hugely enjoyable sections (Rex vs Ray) that really get you pumped up for the finale.
Unfortunately there are also times when that apparent need to tie-up every plot point, to have every character have their moment as well as spotlight, including those who don't deserve it like Vamp, as well as the new characters means that the game runs close to being a 50/50 split of gameplay to cutscene. I'm not even joking. It results in a situation where you are in control of Snake for as long as you would be in say MGS2 or 3 but with an additional 4-5 hours of cutscenes or mission briefings or codec calls on top of those games already lengthy intermissions. MGS4 wants to simultaneously be a sequel to all of the three prior MGS games regardless of the timeline and spends so much time explaining things from those titles and spinning more plates than it can keep its eyes on, it often loses track of itself in the process. That said, the CQC bro-hug is pretty cool though. Manly tears.
I have to say though overall Metal Gear is one of the more consistently high quality long running series I've ever played, especially considering some of the risks it has taken along the way. The nine canon games (with the exception of Ground Zeroes) all manage to be unique both from a gameplay perspective and a storytelling one, while also keeping the core themes and sneaking gameplay as the groundwork.
It all comes back to one man: Hideo Kojima, one of gaming's few true auteurs. He took what could have been a reasonably good but pretty generic stealth action series, spiced it up with some world building, some fourth-wall breaking playfulness, some downright weirdness and created a franchise that is truly memorable while also fully utilizing the medium to tell its story. I used to think Kojima was someone who seemed like he'd be more comfortable making movies than games, but now I see Metal Gear wouldn't work as anything but a game. Think of Psycho Mantis reading your memory card, or Big Boss telling you to "turn your MSX off now", or Snake telling Raiden he has "infinite ammo" while pointing at his headband. None of these moments, the ones that really stick with you would work outside of the medium. Truly a wonderful series. Shame we'll probably never get that WW2 set MGS where you play as the Boss.
Anyway, here is my pointless and subjective order of preference for the series.
Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid
Snake Eater
Peace Walker
Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear
Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear 2
Ground Zeroes
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 (Xbox One)
I also played Pro Evo 2016. It's not as good as last year. That is all.