Hispanic! At the Disco
Member
In the last 4 months I have played Metal Gear Solid 1-4, one a month, in preparation for MGSV. I was supposed to do a LTTP for each, but idk I just never did. I have seen people argue which game is best, MGS2, or MGS3, and MGS4 won GAF's game of the year... twice? If I'm recalling correctly. And so I present to you my personal experience and opinion of completing each a month a part. Spoilers: 2 > 1 > 3 > 4.
It should also be known that my favorite thing about MGS1 is how each boss seemed to have as much of a part of the story as everyone else. So the fact that ocelot, just one of the bosses, would pull the rug on Liquid was a big twist for me. No one seemed to take up more of the spotlight than anyone else though yet everyone seemed pretty important.
(also bonus perspective from my wife who periodically watched me play the games)
Metal Gear Solid 2
I need scissors! 61!
Somehow I've read internet forums since the gamecube days and read about this "tanker" scene many many times, but never had it spoiled. That is until the day before I played MGS2 when my friends told me I don't even play as snake after the beginning area. So uhhh thanks people of the internet for being so good about it and boo to my friends.
This game man. Never played anything like it and may never play anything like it again. Tanker scene was really, really awesome. I kept asking my friend when it was going to get that awesome again. No answer from him except "keep playing". Well it took a while to say the least. Hmm beginning seemed like a clever nod to the first game...
Did not like the struts and backtracking. More struts. More cutscenes. More Backtracking. I guess fatman was fun, but hunting for his bombs was not. Key card, gun hunting, backtracking. Sneaking around in the uniform wasn't even fun. It was a chore to say the least. Terrible compared to MGS1. Like there seemed to be nods everywhere to MGS1 that I had been noticing but it was like a shell of its former self.
Then came the connecting bridge. After dealing with the bombs on the bridge (I had to go back for the sniper of course) and dealing with my tiny tv, it got good. Like really good. Carrier fight was fun. Solidus? What? IT'S RUNNING ON WATER! Slipping on bird poop. Watch for the peeing guy!! Trap doors on floors! Save the president! I keep telling my wife the entire time who never saw MGS1 "Hey this is just like the first one!" "If only you had seen the first game, this is just LIKE THAT ONE! Except different..."
Then came the next slog. After vamp came escorting E.E. Wow. talk about boring and frustrating. Just for her to do... nothing? Die? Her dying wish? CALL ME EMMA! "But why E.E.!?" Nice bro-fist though.
Then colonel starts getting weird. Like woah man. I'm sitting there trying to squeeze a few min of the game in before work standing in front of my tiny tv and I get told by THE GAME not to sit so close to the screen. Freaky. At this point I'm super into the game. Sword! Fighting along side THE SOLID SNAKE! Infinite Ammo! So fun, yet so strange. And so awesome.
Then came the Rays. worst boss fight. I was about to watch the rest on youtube or something. Thankfully I didn't because the ending was what made this game so amazing. I'll have you know after pointing out that every scene was just like MGS1, the plot twist blew me away. It's like this game was just a Big Shell of MGS1! Talked about it for days. So good. I was wishing it ended that way. It ended perfectly. I wanted to pretend the series stopped there.
If only it did...
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
What a thrill...
I think I must've went into this game with the wrong expectations. If I could described my experience with MGS3 in one word it would be underwhelming. Now it's not a bad game at all. It's a very good game! But like I had said, I think I came in with the wrong expectations. My favorite thing so far about Metal Gear was how the bosses were these awesome characters woven through the story. The stories were created on the backs of the characters and every boss!
What a lame bunch of bosses. Boring boss after boring boss after boring boss. (BIG NOTE: I skipped The End! Sorry!) Most of them had no input in the story. They were only there so that I had bosses to fight. Sure they had a back story, but they didn't influence the main story at all in my opinion. It really killed the game for me. The story as a whole was kind of boring to me as well :/ The relationship between Snake and Big Boss had absolutely no impact on me. The final boss fight was really easy and weak in my opinion and I had no sympathy, and when it comes to stories im the sappiest and easiest swayed person I know for emotions.
You're pretty good.
Now that the bad is off my chest, on to the good! I did really like the boss fight between The Fury A LOT. If you've read Hiimdaisy's Let's Destroy The Shagohod, that's exactly how I felt fighting The Fury. It was intense and I was very afraid. Wish his character was more fleshed out and had an influence on the overarching story.
I love and respect the options and play styles that this game encourages! The variety of techniques and approaches for each area was very open but not overwhelming. I could stick with what I knew or experiment. It was not punishing for trying new things and it didn't force any type of play on me.
Gameplay wise the game is amazing. Character and story wise it was sorely lacking, boring, and did not grab me at all.
Metal Gear Solid 4
MGS4 was a mistake, it's nothing but fanservice.
My opinion of this game for this game up until Act 4 was "what a piece of garbage. At least the boss fights are cool."
Seriously what was Kojima thinking? Must've been really easy to make a game where you just reference other games the whole time. This is like one of those Dolan memes. *walks in* *walks out* everything was MGS1 and 2. Sunny and Drebin were both really annoying to me as well.
What was this Ocelot thing? Was I supposed to think that he was really liquid? Not once did I ever think he was anyone but Ocelot. I guess he was able to fool the computer system at least? It's like they thought "maybe if we just keep calling him Liquid, the players will think he'd liquid!" He hypnotized himself? I could hardly call that a twist if that was supposed to be this game's big Ocelot twist. I did like that he tricked Snake into saving Big Boss and Big Boss's dream, and "became" Liquid Snake to pull it off, but it didn't stand out very much.
Still, besides the constant nostalgia pandering getting really annoying and stupid the game did have a lot of really cool and fun moments. The Raiden fights were fun, Akiba was silly, all of Act 4 was AWESOME (although still lots of nostalgia pandering but i'm a big fan of things being recreated in new engines and being all old and being revisited that way. So in this specific taste I thought it was cool, but was still degrading to the story and originality of the overall product). Also act 5 was uhhh short and long at the same time. Gameplay wise it was very short but the mantis fight was fun (with more nostalgia pandering and lacking the slew of super creative ideas that MGS1's mantis had. This was more of the run of the mill kind of boss fight, but still fun), and the ocelot fist fight was HYPE. Like seriously. Again with the nostalgia but at least it was hitting all the right notes for me. Ocelot's my favorite character and they're playing such awesome music and I was totally remembering the basics of CQC. Dat MGS3 ocelot hand wave tho! (hey! I thought he was supposed to be liquid?)
In short, MGS4 was a lot of fun but in terms of characters and stories it was garbage nostalgia pandering fanservice, too dependent on magic nonsensical themes like self-hypnotism and nanomachinesfixeverything, and cut scenes could almost all be cut down and better focused and succinct. Not a bad game, none of them are, but in terms of story it was the least creative and tried too hard to tie up loose ends. Hopefully in MGSV he goes the route of the first 3 and just throws in a bunch of fun unique ideas with a lot of creative freedoms on the player's part in terms of tackling situations.
Oh and before I forget. As opposed to the feelings I should've had but didn't for The Boss and Snake, the feels I got for Old Snake's own integrity and his self-conciousness for his rapid aging had all the feels on me. I didn't want him to be old! I wanted him to live! Be respected and honored! Be the awesome butt-kicker he is!
The Wife's Concensus
METAL GEAR!?!?!
My wife watched me play parts of each game and had different opinions on certain things I had no opinions on and some opposing opinions.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Wifstance
At first I thought this game was a train wreck. The whole thing was stupid and felt more like a Saturday morning cartoon. As the game went on I found myself watching it more, adding input and almost playing along with him, giving him my thoughts on what to do next. By the end I had invested more of my time and energy into this game than I thought I would have, but I still think its a train wreck in the sense that I don't think it's amazing, but I can't stop watching it.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Wifsistence
I understand that it's based on old spy movies like James Bond but OH MY GOODNESS ONE BIKINI AND SNAKE IS COMPLETELY UNDONE. He acts as if he's never seen cleavage and just the side of cleavage has him acting like a fish just brought to the surface. But, I thought The Boss was probably the best written female character i've ever seen in a game. She's still feminine but she still has the strength that you would expect from someone in such a high position. No one ever makes any qualms about her being a woman but fears and respects her for the B.A. that she is.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Wives of the Patriots
Snake's a jerk. I understand that he probably has no experience being around a child, but could you be a little nicer about her eggs? Also, Ocaton should never be close to anyone because they all die. I do like how the game dealt with Snake's relationships with each character with Ocaton and Meryl and how they properly showed a love that had died but there is still respect and friendship and the friendship with Otacon though being through extreme's there's still a strong respect and bond between them. The relationship between Meryl and that one dude was so stupid.
Closing:
From what I've seen MGSV is taking everything I like when it comes to gameplay and I hope the story and characters are developed and that all the characters are more fleshed out in the overall story. Now I shall start PW and restart Ground Zeroes in anticipation for MGSV!
It should also be known that my favorite thing about MGS1 is how each boss seemed to have as much of a part of the story as everyone else. So the fact that ocelot, just one of the bosses, would pull the rug on Liquid was a big twist for me. No one seemed to take up more of the spotlight than anyone else though yet everyone seemed pretty important.
(also bonus perspective from my wife who periodically watched me play the games)
Metal Gear Solid 2
I need scissors! 61!
Somehow I've read internet forums since the gamecube days and read about this "tanker" scene many many times, but never had it spoiled. That is until the day before I played MGS2 when my friends told me I don't even play as snake after the beginning area. So uhhh thanks people of the internet for being so good about it and boo to my friends.
This game man. Never played anything like it and may never play anything like it again. Tanker scene was really, really awesome. I kept asking my friend when it was going to get that awesome again. No answer from him except "keep playing". Well it took a while to say the least. Hmm beginning seemed like a clever nod to the first game...
Did not like the struts and backtracking. More struts. More cutscenes. More Backtracking. I guess fatman was fun, but hunting for his bombs was not. Key card, gun hunting, backtracking. Sneaking around in the uniform wasn't even fun. It was a chore to say the least. Terrible compared to MGS1. Like there seemed to be nods everywhere to MGS1 that I had been noticing but it was like a shell of its former self.
Then came the connecting bridge. After dealing with the bombs on the bridge (I had to go back for the sniper of course) and dealing with my tiny tv, it got good. Like really good. Carrier fight was fun. Solidus? What? IT'S RUNNING ON WATER! Slipping on bird poop. Watch for the peeing guy!! Trap doors on floors! Save the president! I keep telling my wife the entire time who never saw MGS1 "Hey this is just like the first one!" "If only you had seen the first game, this is just LIKE THAT ONE! Except different..."
Then came the next slog. After vamp came escorting E.E. Wow. talk about boring and frustrating. Just for her to do... nothing? Die? Her dying wish? CALL ME EMMA! "But why E.E.!?" Nice bro-fist though.
Then colonel starts getting weird. Like woah man. I'm sitting there trying to squeeze a few min of the game in before work standing in front of my tiny tv and I get told by THE GAME not to sit so close to the screen. Freaky. At this point I'm super into the game. Sword! Fighting along side THE SOLID SNAKE! Infinite Ammo! So fun, yet so strange. And so awesome.
Then came the Rays. worst boss fight. I was about to watch the rest on youtube or something. Thankfully I didn't because the ending was what made this game so amazing. I'll have you know after pointing out that every scene was just like MGS1, the plot twist blew me away. It's like this game was just a Big Shell of MGS1! Talked about it for days. So good. I was wishing it ended that way. It ended perfectly. I wanted to pretend the series stopped there.
If only it did...
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
What a thrill...
I think I must've went into this game with the wrong expectations. If I could described my experience with MGS3 in one word it would be underwhelming. Now it's not a bad game at all. It's a very good game! But like I had said, I think I came in with the wrong expectations. My favorite thing so far about Metal Gear was how the bosses were these awesome characters woven through the story. The stories were created on the backs of the characters and every boss!
What a lame bunch of bosses. Boring boss after boring boss after boring boss. (BIG NOTE: I skipped The End! Sorry!) Most of them had no input in the story. They were only there so that I had bosses to fight. Sure they had a back story, but they didn't influence the main story at all in my opinion. It really killed the game for me. The story as a whole was kind of boring to me as well :/ The relationship between Snake and Big Boss had absolutely no impact on me. The final boss fight was really easy and weak in my opinion and I had no sympathy, and when it comes to stories im the sappiest and easiest swayed person I know for emotions.
You're pretty good.
Now that the bad is off my chest, on to the good! I did really like the boss fight between The Fury A LOT. If you've read Hiimdaisy's Let's Destroy The Shagohod, that's exactly how I felt fighting The Fury. It was intense and I was very afraid. Wish his character was more fleshed out and had an influence on the overarching story.
I love and respect the options and play styles that this game encourages! The variety of techniques and approaches for each area was very open but not overwhelming. I could stick with what I knew or experiment. It was not punishing for trying new things and it didn't force any type of play on me.
Gameplay wise the game is amazing. Character and story wise it was sorely lacking, boring, and did not grab me at all.
Metal Gear Solid 4
MGS4 was a mistake, it's nothing but fanservice.
My opinion of this game for this game up until Act 4 was "what a piece of garbage. At least the boss fights are cool."
Seriously what was Kojima thinking? Must've been really easy to make a game where you just reference other games the whole time. This is like one of those Dolan memes. *walks in* *walks out* everything was MGS1 and 2. Sunny and Drebin were both really annoying to me as well.
What was this Ocelot thing? Was I supposed to think that he was really liquid? Not once did I ever think he was anyone but Ocelot. I guess he was able to fool the computer system at least? It's like they thought "maybe if we just keep calling him Liquid, the players will think he'd liquid!" He hypnotized himself? I could hardly call that a twist if that was supposed to be this game's big Ocelot twist. I did like that he tricked Snake into saving Big Boss and Big Boss's dream, and "became" Liquid Snake to pull it off, but it didn't stand out very much.
Still, besides the constant nostalgia pandering getting really annoying and stupid the game did have a lot of really cool and fun moments. The Raiden fights were fun, Akiba was silly, all of Act 4 was AWESOME (although still lots of nostalgia pandering but i'm a big fan of things being recreated in new engines and being all old and being revisited that way. So in this specific taste I thought it was cool, but was still degrading to the story and originality of the overall product). Also act 5 was uhhh short and long at the same time. Gameplay wise it was very short but the mantis fight was fun (with more nostalgia pandering and lacking the slew of super creative ideas that MGS1's mantis had. This was more of the run of the mill kind of boss fight, but still fun), and the ocelot fist fight was HYPE. Like seriously. Again with the nostalgia but at least it was hitting all the right notes for me. Ocelot's my favorite character and they're playing such awesome music and I was totally remembering the basics of CQC. Dat MGS3 ocelot hand wave tho! (hey! I thought he was supposed to be liquid?)
In short, MGS4 was a lot of fun but in terms of characters and stories it was garbage nostalgia pandering fanservice, too dependent on magic nonsensical themes like self-hypnotism and nanomachinesfixeverything, and cut scenes could almost all be cut down and better focused and succinct. Not a bad game, none of them are, but in terms of story it was the least creative and tried too hard to tie up loose ends. Hopefully in MGSV he goes the route of the first 3 and just throws in a bunch of fun unique ideas with a lot of creative freedoms on the player's part in terms of tackling situations.
Oh and before I forget. As opposed to the feelings I should've had but didn't for The Boss and Snake, the feels I got for Old Snake's own integrity and his self-conciousness for his rapid aging had all the feels on me. I didn't want him to be old! I wanted him to live! Be respected and honored! Be the awesome butt-kicker he is!
The Wife's Concensus
METAL GEAR!?!?!
My wife watched me play parts of each game and had different opinions on certain things I had no opinions on and some opposing opinions.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Wifstance
At first I thought this game was a train wreck. The whole thing was stupid and felt more like a Saturday morning cartoon. As the game went on I found myself watching it more, adding input and almost playing along with him, giving him my thoughts on what to do next. By the end I had invested more of my time and energy into this game than I thought I would have, but I still think its a train wreck in the sense that I don't think it's amazing, but I can't stop watching it.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Wifsistence
I understand that it's based on old spy movies like James Bond but OH MY GOODNESS ONE BIKINI AND SNAKE IS COMPLETELY UNDONE. He acts as if he's never seen cleavage and just the side of cleavage has him acting like a fish just brought to the surface. But, I thought The Boss was probably the best written female character i've ever seen in a game. She's still feminine but she still has the strength that you would expect from someone in such a high position. No one ever makes any qualms about her being a woman but fears and respects her for the B.A. that she is.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Wives of the Patriots
Snake's a jerk. I understand that he probably has no experience being around a child, but could you be a little nicer about her eggs? Also, Ocaton should never be close to anyone because they all die. I do like how the game dealt with Snake's relationships with each character with Ocaton and Meryl and how they properly showed a love that had died but there is still respect and friendship and the friendship with Otacon though being through extreme's there's still a strong respect and bond between them. The relationship between Meryl and that one dude was so stupid.
Closing:
From what I've seen MGSV is taking everything I like when it comes to gameplay and I hope the story and characters are developed and that all the characters are more fleshed out in the overall story. Now I shall start PW and restart Ground Zeroes in anticipation for MGSV!
