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[Digital-Hero]

My favorite MGS game for sure. It was cohesive, to the point, and fun to play.

 

[fvng]

I was 3. I think I was wearing a diaper.

I know

 

[Sciz]

\but their's no excuse for the key card backtracking, it's utterly pointless, time-wasting filler, and the biggest flaw in an otherwise great game.

I'm convinced that Kojima recycled that particular MG2 gimmick to intentionally bore the players a bit and lower their awareness so they wouldn't see the punch coming at the other end of it.

 

[Agnosia]

I think I addressed this already: if you are saying a game is poor at the time in which you play it, then it is poor. The game's age has nothing to do with the actual content of the disk.

My argument is not relative at all. Something X will be something X ten years later. You keep talking about context and relativity, but again it is all relative to the player and not to the game (or to other games).



No, I don't agree with this. A game aging and someone's impression of a game changing over time are two very different things and are the core of the argument I am making right now. They are plainly not the same thing; one is clearly game-centric and the other is player-centric.

Games like Doom 3 (I'm not going to engage you on Crysis. That game has fantastic gameplay.) were evaluated critically at their time of release by intelligent tastemakers who knew at the time that it was a shallow, repetitive, overlong game with pretty graphics. There were plenty of people saying that on day one; it has little to do with the reflective capabilities of time.

If I understand correctly, you say games don't change through time, which is true. It's the same code, same textures, same audio, same everything.

What I'm saying is, even if a game doesn't change, its value does. Imagine MGS1 was never released in 1998 and instead it's released today, with the same graphics, same gameplay, same everything. Do you think they would score it as high as back in the day, that people would enjoy it as much? I don't think so, many of its elements would be punished for being outdated. But how is that possible if it's exactly the same game? Because its value changed. The game didn't change, but the reference or scale (informed by all the games played so far) to which is compared against did, it's a different measurement now.

A game being great today will not be as good decades later because time will allow other new games to appear and keep improving the medium, thus changing the scale again. I mean, it will be as good in the sense that nothing will change in the game, you will get the same content, but it will not be as good in terms of perception/enjoyment, which is what really matters since that is how you experience a game.

So it's perfectly reasonable to say that a game didn't age well, because its value lowered. Of course this will vary from person to person since everyone's scale is different.

 

[Red Blaster]

mgs1 is especially fun if one speeds through the game shoulder throwing all the guards, none of that caution mode bs slowing shit down

 

[Cozmogramma]

I'm really surprised that the game holds up so well. I started playing it a couple of months back (if you don't count the demo I played 15 years ago) and it's great. Looking forward to play some more and finish it as soon as possible (so many other games to play though).

 

[Armoured Titan]

MGS1 is the one of the finest experiences I've had the pleasure of playing on the PS1. I remember initially playing the demo and I was hooked. I must have completed that demo a good 10-15 times. It ended right on a cliffhanger which made you want more which is a testament to how engrossing and the rich the narrative was.

When I finally got the game not that long after, it was unlike anything I had played before. The cinematic scope and narrative was probably a first for its time, for me atleast anyway. It really felt Hollywood-esque. The gameplay was fun and simple with a short learning curve. I loved the different approaches you could take to a given situation and then trying those opposite approaches on multiple playthroughs.

Definitely my favourite of the series. Would love to see a remake on PS4.

 

[Graphics Horse]

I'm convinced that Kojima recycled that particular MG2 gimmick to intentionally bore the players a bit and lower their awareness so they wouldn't see the punch coming at the other end of it.

At least Liquid is polite enough to apologise for it.

 

[EarsOfASnake]

Here's the backflip scene in all its glory...

Hold up...Correct me if I am wrong but does Snake jump off a missile then fire the same missile back at Liquid?

 

[HI. BILLY MAYS HERE]

I played MGS again a few weeks ago loved every minute.

 

[Sn4ke_911]

Hold up...Correct me if I am wrong but does Snake jump off a missile then fire the same missile back at Liquid?

You're wrong.

 

[Betty]

Hold up...Correct me if I am wrong but does Snake jump off a missile then fire the same missile back at Liquid?

Not the same missile, he fires one from his Stinger launcher.

 

[fuzzyreactor]

It has aged very poorly, and has been bettered in every single facet by MGS games and others, but for its time, you're right.

Really, I just beat it like 6 months ago and think it still plays and looks great. Has aged better than the majority of early 3D games

 

[dalin80]

''In nature there is no such thing as boundless slaughter, there is always an end to it. But you, Snake, are different. The paths you walk on have no end, each step you take is paved with the corpses of your enemies. Their spirits will haunt you forever. You shall have No peace''.

 

[atr0cious]

I think Blaustein obviously deserves tremendous credit for keeping the writing in the game crisp and realistic. I half remembered to expect the crazy, over the top hilarity that we get in modern MGS games but it (mostly) isn't in MGS1. Sure, you've got love blooming on a Battlefield and "METAL GEAR?" but mostly...it's just cool. The text has an air of authenticity to it without going overboard, and the plot itself...just so exciting and fast moving. It feels like the game looks...dark, cold, metallic...it's perfect.

I don't get the hate with this. Kojima's prose is so deliberate, you can tell he has always seen him self as an auteur. I think the whole furor over that phrase, is what led to MGS2, but then he had gone too far in the other direction for some, so we got MGS3. Obviously his best, but I wonder if the reception had been different, would MGS3 been about the Boss instead, as people would've been willing to let go of Snake.

I see Kojima as an unrefined Edgar Wright, a revisionist in love with all forms of art firmly rooted in their homeland's culture. Both use them as mirrors to society; Wright points to the difference between ideal and reality and how we deal with being raised to believe the former, only to be dumped in the latter, while Kojima points to society trying to pretend their realities could ever match-up with the ideal, and the things society will allow to in order to achieve it.

If Kojima can actually juggle the topics hes' got going in MGSV is a mystery, but I'm personally rooting for him to pull off Chiet.

Here's the backflip scene in all its glory...

This is canon, and you can't tell me different.

 

[eyeball_kid]

It's up on Youtube

It's a great listen that every MGS fan should listen too. Blaustein is indeed very candid about his experience with the game and working at Konami. He only worked on the first MGS, and his absence in the later games is definitely noticable.

Great man.

Wow, thanks for the link; this was a great interview. The changes in quality of voice acting and dialogue between 1 and the later titles make a lot more sense now. It's a shame that Blaustein was railroaded due to political machinations within Konami and perhaps no one in Kojima's inner circle who would question him.

On a happier note, I love MGS1's color palettes and use of lighting. I often think that technical limitations produce better art because it makes developers focus and refine.

 

[RedSwirl]

It's kind of weird how many games from the PS1/N64 era have aged so poorly, but how many games from the NES/SNES/Genesis era are still fun and great to play.

The reason a lot of those games age poorly is because they were the first flawed steps into 3D for most console developers. They hadn't figured out things like camera controls yet. MGS1 on the other hand mostly sticks to 2D gameplay with an overhead camera. The game is very nearly a remake of the second MSX game but rendered in polygons.

I actually think MGS2 has aged worse than MGS1. It makes much greater use of fixed camera angles, oftentimes feeling like the classic Resident Evil games. This is especially bad when you don't have the soliton radar, as those camera angles (as well as an overhead camera in a 3D game) only really work when you can see the whole area with radar.

The pacing is great...except for the two instances of backtracking that bring the game to a grinding halt. "Oh you want to save Meryl and kick this sniper chick's ass? Well too bad, you have to go back to almost the beginning of the game first". "You want to stop the bad guys and beat this game? too bad you have to backtrack, come back, back track again, and then come all the way back again".

At least the quest for the sniper rifle had new areas and challenges for you to go to, and it was satisfying to come back to finally get the battle started, but their's no excuse for the key card backtracking, it's utterly pointless, time-wasting filler, and the biggest flaw in an otherwise great game.

Stuff like this, especially the key cards, was done better in MG2. MGS1 feels like a linear path you have to backtrack through sometimes. MG2 feels a little bit more like an open environment you have to keep exploring.

 

[Fancy Clown]

Stuff like this, especially the key cards, was done better in MG2. MGS1 feels like a linear path you have to backtrack through sometimes. MG2 feels a little bit more like an open environment you have to keep exploring.

Yeah I still need to play MG2. I actually really like the way MGS2 handles backtracking. The hexagonal nature of the struts means you're never very far away from your objective, and the struts and bridges are really small so it doesn't take a long time. Also, the struts are so well designed that they change up the guard patrols, and objectives so often that it never feels like you're doing the same thing each time you go back somewhere you've already been.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

I played through just after Xmas and was really shocked at the level of backtracking and padding the game has.
Hey thanks for progressing, now go back and get X card to progress through this door. it happens over and over, then the game pulls the trick again with the PAL cards right at the end.

 

[mrklaw]

Probably my favourite game of all time.

I thought the MGS4 car crash would have retrospectively ruined it for me, but it hasn't.

I don't know if it holds that for me (I have soft spots for Warhead and Stunt Car Racer on Amiga), but it is certainly up there. It has a simplicity that I miss from later games, and the story is nice and straightforward.

I also love the presentation - the simple vision cones, overhead perspective etc work really well for me.

 

[aLaxLuthor]

I'm pretty close to finishing it for the first time. (PS1 Disc played on a PS3).

Having played games since the Atari era, I remember what other games from this time felt like (I was an N64 kid not a PSX kid so never got the chance to play it earlier) so the controls feel appropriate for their time, but comparatively a little clunky (the movement feels grid based, the shooting feels imprecise).

I had tried to play it before, but, and I hate this turn of phrase, I hadn't been playing it right. I had treated it more like Splinter Cell (which was the only other spy game I had to compare it to). But it is it's own beast and once I realised this, I got sucked in.

You have to act more like a spy. If you get stuck, call back to base, speak to the right person and get them to help you get through it.

There are some parts that I think are a bit over the top. Every woman Snake talks to falls at his feet. Vulcan Raven talks for quite a while, despite being eaten by Ravens at the time. But as I said above, the more into the world you get, the less these things bother you.

I dig the bosses, they have all felt different. I'm hoping a later game explores how these individuals all ended up together, as they do seem to come from a variety of backgrounds.

Now if you'll excuse me, I accidentally activated Metal Gear Rex, so now I have to go stop Liquid (again!) before he nukes China.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Totally agree with the OP. There's a magic to MGS1 that might be hard to see if you played it for the first time today, but I still see it. It was a landmark release for video games in a lot of ways, both good and bad. But the game itself is just plain awesome.

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

Totally agree with the OP. There's a magic to MGS1 that might be hard to see if you played it for the first time today, but I still see it. It was a landmark release for video games in a lot of ways, both good and bad. But the game itself is just plain awesome.

Agree with this and OP. No other games in the series have made me feel the magic that the first one had. I need to track down an original copy soon.

 

[1970 Chevelle SS]

Here's the backflip scene in all its glory...

You should have used my newer TS scenes to make that gif. That was my older noise remover filter i put on the older versions so long ago.

 

[1970 Chevelle SS]

It really really is.

I LOVE the soundtrack as well...I think that plays a BIG part of why its such a great game.

That Snake vs Gray Fox duel was fantastic,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIW_HG9bzn0&feature=player_detailpage#t=250

This is a better looking version from the PC. Here GrayFox kicks my ass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xes51yNGfG0

 

[jimi_dini]

Here's the backflip scene in all its glory...

Still awesome.

I actually liked that remake because of stuff like this.

Except the new voice for that ninja. The original MGS had an awesome "Hurt Me More" sample and the one in the gamecube remake sucks compared to it.

 

[R-User!]

I know

(The probability is higher that you're male but you could be female too; I don't want to know and I'm not asking, but

Are you saying that your his Daddy? Lol

(implying that you "know" because you were there when he was 3)

Spoiler

If you're female, I think it's just as funny to think that you're saying that your his Momma, lol.

Or I could be completely taking your "I know" statement out of whatever context you intended...... >_>

 

[fvng]

(The probability is higher that you're male but you could be female too; I don't want to know and I'm not asking, but

Are you saying that your his Daddy? Lol

(implying that you "know" because you were there when he was 3)

Spoiler

If you're female, I think it's just as funny to think that you're saying that your his Momma, lol.

Or I could be completely taking your "I know" statement out of whatever context you intended...... >_>

What? In a previous post he said he was wearing a diaper in 1998. You can do the math on how old he is now, and kids usually wear diapers until they are about 3 years old.

Source: I have family members with children

I have no idea why this was important enough for you to inquire.

 

[R-User!]

What? In a previous post he said he was wearing a diaper in 1998. You can do the math on how old he is now, and kids usually wear diapers until they are about 3 years old.

Source: I have family members with children

I have no idea why this was important enough for you to inquire.

I thought you were using really dry humor to imply he/she is beneath you because he's young... Obviously I was wrong but I wondered if you were going in that direction... N/m

 

[Error]

I still have the original PS1 release with the original case and manual :nostalgia

 

[R-User!]

I still have the original PS1 release with the original case and manual :nostalgia

In Ocelot voice: "As do I Snake!"

 

[fvng]

I thought you were using really dry humor to imply he/she is beneath you because he's young... Obviously I was wrong but I wondered if you were going in that direction... N/m

no, I said I know because he doesn't need to say that he was wearing diapers at 3, it's sort of understood.

And my previous post I did say "you never know when you're debating a teenager online" because in normal everyday offline life I wouldn't be engaged in a debate with a teenager, so it's funny how forums facilitate those discussions that would normally not happen.

 

[Nightshade]

I would love to see a gameplay-centric HD $15 re-release of MGS1, but made using fluid versions of Shinkawa's original concept art.

Think Okami style calligraphic strokes with a minimalist aesthetic. Small strokes come up from every step to represent sound, and onomatopoeia flutter by the sides of gun barrels.

 

[J-Roderton]

I thought the fist fight with Liquid was pretty cool.

 

[Randam]

Here's the backflip scene in all its glory...

TTS looks so bad in comparision to SoL.
and mgs2 is a year older.

sometimes I almost cant see if it is a pic or gif of mgs1 or TTS.

 

[LTWood12]

It really is fantastic. In the context of when it came out, it was absolutely mind-blowing. I was 13 and only really played games on consoles. I couldn't wait to get home from school every day to play it. My dad would just sit and watch and go on and on about how cool it was. That meant a lot to me because my dad really wasn't into my gaming habit.

 

[william_557]

The only part of this game i recall seeing is the ketchup prison escape section but unitl recently i played the game through for the first time.

Such a great game.

"Your pretty good"

 

[old manatee]

Is there any way to reload quickly when you are seen? I'm finding it easier to just find a corner and choke out 20 dudes than restart.

 

[Exploratory]

I just played this game for the first time and I'm absolutely floored by how well it holds up. How is it the codec conversations, using pictures, have more expressive faces than fully 3D rendered ones in MGS2? I just loved everything about this game.

Playing MGS2 afterwards I had a new perspective on everything too. Really made me see things in a different light. And in currently playing MGS 3 and I'm thinking wow this guy is the genetic father of SS and LS. I've played 3 and 2 before but 1 really changes everything.

 

[tanooki27]

it really is awesomely entertaining. it sucks you in so completely. the pacing is fantastic.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

I just played this game for the first time and I'm absolutely floored by how well it holds up. How is it the codec conversations, using pictures, have more expressive faces than fully 3D rendered ones in MGS2? I just loved everything about this game.

Playing MGS2 afterwards I had a new perspective on everything too. Really made me see things in a different light. And in currently playing MGS 3 and I'm thinking wow this guy is the genetic father of SS and LS. I've played 3 and 2 before but 1 really changes everything.

Play Metal Gear 2:Solid Snake next, you will be shocked that a game that outdated can easily match MGS1.
Its basically a prototype for MGS1 about 8 years ahead of Solid.

I played it after MGS1-3 and it still amazed me. Ended up my favorite game of all time.

 

[Pharaoh 117]

MGS is a masterpiece. I remember the first time I played it in 1998. A breathtaking experience.

 

[ryushe]

In my mind, MGS3 is my favorite.

But my heart is where MGS1 reside.

 

[EnVy_CaLiBeR]

Agreed. It's the best MGS.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

The first game was soooo good. It was like 10% over the top (compared to say, MGS4's 90% over the top). Story was grounded with moments of disbelief. Got damn, amazing game. The intro with the submarine--blew me away back when the game was released.

No MGS sequel, not even MGS3, tops the original in my book.

 

[TheCthultist]

Snake Eater remains my favorite videogame of all time, but MGS was integral in getting it there. Such a great game, setting up a story that I still can't get enough of even this far down the line.

 

[Ljwinter]

Really wish we could get a remake of this game using next gen graphics.

 

[Lion Heart]

The entire series is near perfection, with MGS2s post-tanker sequence being the blight. Nothing compares.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Haven't played MGS in years, still own the PS1 copy but I might get it on PS3 at some point. A high point before Kojima seemed to go off the deep end.

 

[NateDog]

Snake Eater remains my favorite videogame of all time, but MGS was integral in getting it there.