Before we start I found this earlier: http://xkcd.com/657/large/ and thought it was cool. xkcd is by no means new or even a comic I have in my webcomic reading list (Not that I think it's bad or anything) but someone linked this and while there is a joke at the end of the various movie time lines, the fact that the guy put that much time into the LoTR one is astounding.
Anyway, without anymore delay, Metal Gear Solid!
Metal Gear Solid
Overall:
Metal Gear Solid is a stealth 3rd person shooter (that has a weapon or two that takes you to first person) that played a significant part in creating the stealth genre. I am reviewing the Playstation version though a remake of it was made for the Gamecube called Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. In MGS you are Solid Snake (there is a tendency for phallic references throughout the series), a retired agent of Foxhound called out of retirement to stop a group of genetically enhanced super soldiers that formed the current Foxhound that have taken over a nuclear disposal facility on the Fox archipelago in Alaska. They're threatening to launch a nuke unless the American government gives into their demands and hands over the remains of Big Boss (a legendary mercenary from the original Metal Gear and later prequel MGS3). Snake is going it alone but has several contacts who have useful advice he can talk to via "codec". Originally your objectives are to rescue two hostages and find out whether Foxhound is bluffing about being able to launch nukes but things aren't what they seem and the story gets much more involved. I could go into more of the opening story but one could write a large blog entry (or several) on the story of MGS by itself so I'll move on. The game has you infiltrating a heavily guarded facility and you must find all of your weapons on-site cause you have to swim in and bulky weapons would have made that hard. You must sneak your way to various objectives and bosses who you have to fight and defeat in different ways meeting new enemies and allies along the way.Pros:
This game has a strong story, easily the best of the games I've reviewed and one of the best I've played period(+1.00). There are always new plot twists and every time you think you've figured everything out something else throws you off and keeps you guessing. This is due in part to the strong characterization as most of the characters, even some of the bosses, have elaborate back stories and change as the game progresses, in many ways the game is a mystery that you unravel as you progress(+1.0). So this game gets high marks for story and characters.The bosses all generally have a different way you fight them, the first boss involves a simple pistol fight to get you used to your side arm as well fighting a boss. Later bosses involve ones that have to have grenades used, melee, rockets, sniper rifles, and so on so you end up using most of your arsenal at some point and get a feel for all of your weapons(+0.25). The game also does a good job of making many of the boss fights stand out and feel epic (Anyone who has played the game remembers the trick to the Psycho Mantis fight) as well as plot important conversations(+0.50).
The game introduced stealth gaming to a wide audience and made people play the game in a way that many at the time had never done before (you could not go in guns blazing as even a single soldier could be a threat, especially in the beginning when you had only a tiny bit of health(+0.25). The game even had some laughs and often broke the 4th wall to good effect. That CD case confused the hell out of me the first time I heard it(+0.25).
The voice acting is really good as well and all the voices fit the characters as well as the VAs putting in emotion where it needs to be overall adding to the characterization mentioned early on in the pros section(+0.25). The music also added a lot and was quite well done, from the music for being spotted to post-boss fights to the escape scene. I still like the music after you beat Sniper Wolf to this day. The fact they changed it in the remake (along with redoing some of the voices) is one of the chief reasons I prefer the original (and the remake is less stealth based)(+0.50).
The little touches they added were cool too, at the time few expected footprints to be left in the snow much less for guards to notice them and follow them to you. The knocking one walls to alert guards was also useful and a nice touch. The infamous cardboard box was both funny and a helpful item, giving you another way to hide from your enemies. They paid a lot of attention to details like this, even in cases where it wouldn't be used much and they could have just skipped it to save time in development(+0.50).
+4.50
Cons:
Admittedly the gameplay with the socom (pistol) and famas (rifle) against regular guards is a bit awkward since the first person scheme they go with in later games is an improvement (though it does make the games more action oriented and less stealth based) and here you can't really see the guards from too far away(-0.75). You can look in first person, but unless you're using the PSG-1(sniper) or stinger rocket launcher you can't see them in the first person (or the guided missile I suppose) and attack and none of those are exactly good weapons to fight non-bosses with(-0.50).
The graphics are not anything to write home about nowadays of course and you can't really make out eyes or mouth movements in the character models (though some of the cutscenes still managed to be impressive such as those involving REX)(-0.25).
I honestly don't have many complaints with this game.
-1.50
Overall Rating:10/10
They had a remake?
ReplyDeleteYou know, I had a much easier time playing after I realized that you could use the analog sticks, but I still preferred to do most of the action with the d-pad.