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Metal Gear Solid (1987 - present)
WillardWhyte
Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
I still remember the day back in 1998 when I first played the PS1 demo for Metal Gear Solid. I had never heard or played the original games on msx2. But playing the demo of MGS gave me a new thrill of gaming. you gotta imagine a 12 year old kid trying to understand the game for the first time and enjoying the challenge of not being spotted by enemies in their territory (which can be a hard time). So I immidetely got the full game and began playing it non stop. And I loved every second of it. To date no other game besides Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has given me such a thrill in gaming. And there are alot of factors that go into that. First being the characters. Solid Snake is the greatest hero to come out of a game since maybe Mario. The way he talks and acts are special in every scene. Second, Snake's allies and his enemies all have unique story lines. At first sometimes it was hard to understand everything that was going on in the games universe, but after several replays of the game you can always learn something new. And its special to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together (this applies to all the MGS games). It's amazing how much I can understand the story so well now, looking back at it, I never knew how much one game would change my life forever. The games become a part of you, and you embrace the messages that Hideo Kojima has offered over the years. His games are truly pieces of art and that to me, that is one of the best things about this series.
Here is my ranking of the games:
1) Metal Gear Solid (PS1) No matter how bad people think the graphics are this game will go down in history as one of the best games ever made.
2) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2) An amazing journey set in the cold war, as you play as Naked Snake who will eventually become Big Boss after defeating his mentor and teacher, The Boss. This mans journey is quite interesting.
3) Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) It hard to put this game in 3rd place because it is such a fine game. The adventures of Old Snake and Otacon are special because you see these two guys battling time and time again to try to leave this world a better place for future generations.
4) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (PS2) Not a bad game at all, but I now know why Kojima had us play as Raiden. And it was kinda cool to perceive Solid Snake in other characters mind.
So now I am curious, who else has played the games, loved the fantasy, or just loves sneaking around in enemy territory?
Here is my ranking of the games:
1) Metal Gear Solid (PS1) No matter how bad people think the graphics are this game will go down in history as one of the best games ever made.
2) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2) An amazing journey set in the cold war, as you play as Naked Snake who will eventually become Big Boss after defeating his mentor and teacher, The Boss. This mans journey is quite interesting.
3) Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) It hard to put this game in 3rd place because it is such a fine game. The adventures of Old Snake and Otacon are special because you see these two guys battling time and time again to try to leave this world a better place for future generations.
4) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (PS2) Not a bad game at all, but I now know why Kojima had us play as Raiden. And it was kinda cool to perceive Solid Snake in other characters mind.
So now I am curious, who else has played the games, loved the fantasy, or just loves sneaking around in enemy territory?
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Now, I've played 90% of this series, and have beaten that same 90%, I can give the following rankings.
In decending order
18.) Metal Gear Sold Portable Ops Plus - This is, hands down, the weakest game in the series because it's just a bad add-on pack. Even VR Missions was more fun. Hell, even Document was more fun. This game had no reason to be released.
17.) Metal Gear - Much as I love this game, and respect it for the creation of the stealth genre, it has been surpassed. The story integration was very poor in this game, even though it far surpassed other games of its time.
16.) Metal Gear Solid Mobile - A neat little spin-off, somehow managing to take the MGS gameplay and put it into a cellphone game (with a little non-canon story about Snake being used for a VR simulation), but this game suffered from one major flaw: it was too short. Even for a mobile MGS game, it was too short.
15.) Metal Gear AC!D - An interesting little side-step into another genre, combining stealth with strategy RPG. It's main problem was that no one wanted to play this kind of game.
14.) Metal Gear AC!D 2 - Again, interesting, and this one even experimented with 3D imagery to some extent, but still, no one wanted to play this kind of game.
13.) Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes - One thing-ONE THING-sets this game this low: Bullet time. When Bullet time makes sense (Max Payne, The Matrix, even the Wesker fight in Resident Evil 5), I don't care. When a guy who, in one version of the game, can barely jump out of the way of a tank shell can somehow dodge/hold his own/surpass a guy in a futuristic exoskeleton WHO CAN SURVIVE BEING STEPPED ON BY A SIXTY TON WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION... well, I just draw the line.
12.) Metal Gear Solid (Metal Gear Ghost Babel, in Japan) - A cool little game, managing to put some of the PS1 MGS gameplay into a 2D setting, and putting in a pretty good story as an alternate sequel to Metal Gear. Main problem: being a Gameboy Color game.
11.) Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 - A nice "special features" disc, with what basically amounts to a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance included (you get 5 of the game's VR Missions), but this game suffers from obscurity: no one knew it existed.
10.) Metal Gear Solid VR Missions - A neat little expansion pack of sorts for MGS1 on the PS1. 300 missions to keep you occupied, and a nice photography mode to keep your inner voyeur satisfied (c'mon, we're Bond lovers, we all know we have an inner voyeur). The difficulty of some of the simple sounding missions puts this one here.
9.) Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops - Part 2 of the Trilogy of games centered around Solid Snake's genetic father, Big Boss. This was a pretty solid (pardon that, please) entry into the series, with some unique guard capturing gameplay. The only problem you're gonna find with this one is the lack of voice acting in certain places. And the repetitive nature of the guard capturing.
8.) Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake - The first part of the series with a definite "story", this game stands basically as a prototype for the later games in the series. In fact, most of MGS1 was taken directly from this game (the Metal Gear wiki contains a list of these items). The tap codes necessary for advancement in some areas place this game here.
7.) Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty - This ranks lower than Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance because Substance has more goodies (for this reason also does Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater rank below Subsistence). In fact, the lack of goodies is the only problem I have with this game. This is early PS2 perfection, and in many ways this surpasses later PS2 games because of the level of interactivity (you can enter a kitchen and shoot every bottle, plate, condiment, etc; and it all produces some kind of effect).
6.) Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater - A damn good game with only one problem: Some parts of the game get too long, too boring, and just too meaningless. I say this, of course, by keeping this game separate from the series. If you haven't played other parts of the series (particularly MGS4 and Peace Walker) the past of The Boss is useless, but she still feels the need to explain her past to Big Boss (this is the first of his trilogy, after all).
5.) Metal Gear Solid - The first game I played, via demo disc in 1997. I loved this game, because of the story presentation. Video games and movies barely, at that time, intermingled, and this allowed me not only 3-5 hours of great gameplay, but 4 hours of great story as well. For an ADD suffering 8 year-old, this was a great way to pass the time.
4.) Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence - The addition of the 3D movable camera enhanced MGS3 like nothing else. If you buy this game for no other reason but this camera, I understand. It had an online mode, but I never played it. It featured a demo theater, for those of you who wanted to watch the cutscenes rather than play the game (helped me through dishes many a time). And, the two extra levels of Snake vs. Monkey were a welcome addition.
3.) Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance - This game has the most extras after Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. It came with 350 VR missions, 250 Alternative Missions, 5 Snake Tales, Casting Theater, Boss Survival... the list goes on. It even added 2 new cutscenes to the main game itself (Fatman breathing and Raiden crossing the pontoon bridge), as well as enhanced the graphics a little (some characters had movable fingers where in Sons of Liberty they did not).
2.) Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots - Wow. As a series finale (which I hope this remains), this game ties together loose ends, gives most characters a good ending and settles the Snake vs. Big Boss thing with a very touching scene at the very end. Couple this together with dozens of weapons, a good 12 hours of gameplay to go alongside those 16 hours of cutscenes (at least), and you've got yourself a winner in this game.
1.) Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker - The most recent game in the series, the final game in the "Big Boss Trilogy", and the best game on the PSP, Peace Walker stands here, at the head of this list. Here is a heartfelt tale of a soldier unable to let go of the woman he loved, and desperately trying to save a world that would reject him and his ideals in a moment's notice. Jam-packed with close to a hundred weapons, over a hundred extra missions in addition to the game's 40-some main story missions, Portable Ops guard capturing - this list definitely goes on, making this the best Metal Gear game to date.
This is my ranking of the Metal Gear series, which is now 24 years old and still standing tall (Metal Gear Solid Rising will probably be released on the series 25th anniversary). Many pretenders to the throne have appeared in those 24 years, but (this is still a Bond forum) Nobody Does It Better.
Rising looks like a fun game, but the long wait is going to be tough as it is slated for release on December 31st, 2012.
I see you have played Twin Snakes. I actually rank this game as a terrible failure. How on earth could have even though about changing the game play and cut scenes to supposedly make it better... no no they made it terribly worse. Even the music which is part of the essence of the original, failed to carry over in Twin Snake, and of course we cant forget about the voice changes. A travesty Twin Snakes was. Hopefully when Kojima decides to re do MGS, he keeps everything the same besides the graphics. I don't want the cut scenes, music or voice actors to change.
The level of effort, detail and passion put into these games are remarkable. Kojima consistently pushed the boundaries of what the consoles were capable of and in doing so created cultural masterpieces that narratively stand the test of time, exploring themes that are forever relevant and giving us a gaming experience that not only cascades a wealth of information but challenges and encourages one to think beyond the control pad.
The graphical and technical achievements of the games are still amazing to this day, the voice acting is first class and one of the series' crowning achievements is to have the player be immersed into this weird world of war in a way that grabs you by the throat and pretty much bullies you into being emotionally invested into the characters, heroes and villains alike.
All 4 MGS games are masterpieces imo, however, I'd rate MGS4 the lowest simply because as great as it is, I found the game lacking in, being too open for my tastes, losing a sense of the claustrophobia and feeling too Americanized, losing a lot of that eastern sensibility compared to MGS1-3.
The cinematics, the sound effects, the score (harry gregson-williams is a legend his music gives me goosebumps!) are all first class stuff. The villainy of Ocelot is admirable, the badass in all the snake sons and BB is just...well badass.
I'm disappointed with Kojima back tracking on what he had established with the first 3 games and opted instead for a slightly more realistic explanation for some of the bizarre elements of the previous games which felt like a copout but nevertheless, MGS4 did an amazing job tying things up.
However, a lot of the revelations in MGS4 for me take away some of the more interesting components of the previous games, which make them just that little bit hard for me to want to replay them but I'm too much of a fanboy to not play these games every onve in a while where I complete a marathon.
Rounding things up, my favourite is probably MGS2, it's just so epic and philosophical. It's a real thinking man's game and although dead cell aren't as legendary as the rogue foxhound group, they're still an interesting lot. Solidus was amazing, a complex character, shrouded by mystery and although misguided and villainous his aim was the same as what everyone else wanted who just so happened to be a protagonist. MGS2 was a landmark achievement for gaming in general.
As for which game is the best, it's probably MGS, it's a cult classic, everything is just so amazing. Snake is the epitome of badass and liquid, Liquid was just perfect. I can go on forever about this game.
MGS3 and MGS4 are probably the most emotional, great games and with MGS3, it redefined the stealth factor with the camouflage, awesome characters and the origin of where it all began....and young ocelot is a cocky git, love the guy haha!
The MGS series is a wonderfu series. It's not for everyone and for me, I find that I need to be in the right mood and be in the right atmosphere to play them, which is usually on a crappy weathers day. I can't wait for the hd collection as I havnt played peace walker yet.
You absolutely right about the score though. Tracks like "Introduction" in MGS1 is the type of stuff that gives me goosebumps.
2. Metal Gear Solid
3. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty
4. Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions
Those are the MGS games i've played, and in the order of which I liked them. But at the end of the day, I prefer the Splinter Cell series (the first 4 games) by far. SC: Pandora Tomorrow alone leaves the MGS games in the dirt, searching for a cardboard box to hide in.
Fisher > Snake
I also must say, "Introduction" from MGS1 is by TAPPY, not Harry Gregson-Williams. Harry didn't come on until MGS2, and then did MGS3 and MGS4. He was not involved with Portable Ops, or Peace Walker, but both games have superb soundtracks as well.
MGS3, Portable Ops, MGS4 and Peace Walker all have outstanding ending themes, with Peace Walker's "Heaven's Divide" standing as the best. The best moment it shows up is in a near-end level where you have to fight a helicopter. I have no idea why, but I was damn-near crying when that happened. It sparked so many emotions for no reason whatsoever.
And, MajorDSmythe, clearly you have NOT come inside the box. You have no idea as to the sense of inner peace the box affords (if you've played MGS3, call Sigint with the box equipped, and you'll know what I'm talking about).
Doubleoego, I have to tell you that Big Boss is probably the best character in the series. SPOILERS ABOUND HEREAFTER:
What sets Big Boss so far above the rest is his arc, particularly MGS3-Portable Ops-Peace Walker. Here we have a tale of a soldier who is slowly turned away from the country he loves by the woman he loves. Big Boss (as Naked Snake) starts out as this simple US soldier who is so loyal to his country, that if 9/11 had happened back then, he would have volunteered to stop the planes with his beard.
Over the course of MGS3, however, he slowly comes to realize, because of the Cobra unit and because of what The Boss tells him, that the country he serves isn't really as noble and just as he once thought. They let the Cobras rot because they didn't need them; they forced The Boss to kill her lover, The Sorrow, just because he was a Soviet; they ordered The Boss herself killed.
Now, some of this takes a left turn when Big Boss is told that The Boss never defected to the Soviet Union, as it seemed, but that she was ordered to do so by that very government that The Boss herself turned Big Boss away from. And, after that, he's a broken man. He realizes that he killed his lover not because HE was ordered to KILL HER, but because SHE was ordered to DIE BY HIS HAND.
It was all for nothing.
Now, presumably because he had nowhere else to go, Big Boss stayed in the special forces for six more years, but he kept seeing soldiers being abused, and it all came to a head when his own unit was ordered to steal a secret US weapon (Metal Gear) and use it against the Russians. Big Boss stopped the unit, then led by the enigmatic Gene instead of Big Boss' friend Major Zero, but once again he was devastated by the lengths his own government would go to cover their asses. Building a secret weapon and then having a "rogue" unit steal it? He couldn't stand it.
Then came 1974, and his little "War for Peace" in Costa Rica. By now, Big Boss is living semi-comfortably in Columbia, avoiding the CIA and the rest of his government, and he's built his own private army, Militares San Frontires (Soldiers Without Borders). His one problem is that no matter how much his government has screwed him and other soldiers over, a part of him still can't shake that loyalty that he had for 29 years of life.
But, once he sees what his government has done, he loses it. The US has taken his lover, The Boss, and turned her memory into a war machine. Despite her current posthumous status as a "war criminal", The Boss was still the "Mother of the Special Forces", and one of the most revered military operatives in history (the woman gave birth on the beaches of Normandy, for chrissakes), and the US didn't want to lose that asset, so in order to achieve a true state of nuclear deterence, they design a program that will launch a nuclear weapon if it truly believes that it's the right choice.
Naturally, they based it on The Boss.
Big Boss, probably still suffering from some kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from having to kill the woman he loved, is now torn apart because he feels that he's about to kill her again. Yes, it's only a ghost of a memory of The Boss, but it's STILL The Boss. And now, The Boss is nothing but a weapon of mass destruction, a quadrapedal metal monster known as Peace Walker. She's an AI (Artificial Intelligence), but she is undeniably The Boss.
This AI was built by another lover of The Boss, a woman known only as Strangelove (let's see, first came The Sorrow, who gave her a child, then comes Strangelove, then comes Big Boss - this woman seems to have spent at least half her life in bed with different people, and she still managed to become known as the greatest US soldier of her time), who became infatuated with The Boss when she was a tech at NASA, and The Boss was their first astronaut. Strangelove must have spent quite a lot of time with The Boss, because the AI she creates is so close to the real thing that it scares Big Boss. She just left one thing out, and only because it's a question she didn't have the answer to:
Why would The Boss betray her country?
This final question plagues Strangelove, so she tortures Big Boss to find out the answer. This is why he finally gives up on her. The Boss died for a country that she knew was corrupt, and that he knew used its soldiers for nothing but conquest.
So, by the end of Peace Walker, Big Boss finally understands: The Boss threw away her gun. She gave up. On her country, on her past, on HIM. The reason she took that final mission was because she was done with all of it.
This, ALL THIS, is why Big Boss changed from the hero who was even greater than The Boss to the villain who would lead the world down its eventual path from Outer Heaven to Outer Haven.
SPOILERS END HERE.
Now, there's some things I left out for the sake of my sanity (I'm quite certain I'm already too far past the point of no return). There is a group known as The Philosophers who The Boss was attached to, and Big Boss was later a founding member of another group known as The Patriots, but neither one is really that important to the story of MGS3 to Peace Walker. And, obviously, I left out the tale of Big Boss' final denouement, but again, my sanity is involved. I know far too much about this series, I've taken its story apart and put it back together again in so many different ways... Just know, that what I've just told you is but a fraction of what awaits should any of you decide to play the games.
@Agent007391 keep fighting the good fight!
Agent007, as mentioned, the only game in the series I have not played is, PW. Your explanation of a particular point doesn't match up with how I have interpreted the significance of the Boss' death or that of the character's own motivation for her part in operation snake eater. The epilogue of MGS4 also doesn't hint at the Boss simply giving up on her country either. I'm not going to dismiss your notion on this becAuse I have not played PW yet but it does sound interesting and adds another dimension to jet legend.
However, you're right about BB being the best character in the series; he's definitely the most explored and developed character which is interesting as the shift of focus from solid snake to BB wasn't initially expected, with BB initially being recognised as the famous antagonist from which all these uprisings stemmed from.
However, I also love ocelot, he's just so damn cool. The crazy skills with his revolvers, his theatrical hand gestures and the level of skill it took to be a triple agent on the level he was operating at and let's not forget his grand speeches, particularly in the epic MGS2. The taking back of metal gear speech promptly followed by the theatrical killings of gurlucavich and some of his men and them the speech where he reveals every thing before he gets away yet again with mg ra
I want the series to come full circle and by that I want to see fleshed out remakes of metal gear 1 and 2.
Jesus, I love this game series so much. The wealth of information, themes, sensibilities, philosophical and hypothetical ideologies is rampantly woven spectacularly through out the games.
One of the best moments of my life was when I met, shook hands and took photos with yogi shinkawa, hideo kojima and yumi kekuchi at hmv during the promotional tour for mgs4 in which all 3 signed my cover sleeve for the game.
Now, when he shows up in MGS1 through to MGS4, he's far better. In MGS1 you think he's a simple sadist working for Liquid Snake, then you find out he's working for President Sears (aka Solidus Snake), THEN you find out in MGS2 that he's really working for The Patriots, and in MGS4 you find out he's a founding member of The Patriots (remember what I said above about my sanity?).
But, sadly, only his motivations after the founding of The Patriots are revealed or even explored. Before the founding, you really have no clue as to why he does anything. Why did he work for The Philosophers? Who knows? Why all that bull about caring about his comrades if he's just going to betray them? Got me!
And even if he is inspired by his biological mother (The Boss), why would he drop his admiration of her for admiration of Big Boss? The little time he spent with Big Boss, he was constantly getting his ass kicked. With the amount of pride Ocelot has in himself, in addition to the many, MANY people he's betrayed over the course of the series, I'm surprised Ocelot didn't kill him in his sleep.
But, for some reason, Big Boss is the one man that Ocelot not only trusts completely, and he would also never betray him. No. Big Boss is the very reason Ocelot instigates his private little war in MGS4. So, if it wasn't for Big Boss kicking Ocelot's ass all over MGS3, THE WORLD WOULDN'T BE A WAR-TORN HELLHOLE IN MGS4!!!
I love writing long-winded posts about the Metal Gear series. It's fun, and I give people a little bit more insight into the series.
MGS3 did show notions of a mutual respect that BB and Ocelot had for each other even though they were on opposing sides but during their unseen time together as members of the patriots I guess their bond and friendship grew.
It's amazing how every single event, every plan, every death from MGS1 onwards was primarilly all in aid of Ocelot wanting to free BB. I'm more surprised with all the crap thAt went down between zero and BB ocelot didn't do the whole world a favour and just kill zero back in the 70s as the poop was really starting to hit the fan. I guess BB wouldn't have wanted that otherwise he probably would have killed zero himself after the LET project.
I agree with you both though, that Big Boss is by far the most dynamic character. In a way I think everybody can relate to Big Boss at the end of MGS3. I am very excited to play Peace Walker, as I hear it is a terrific game.
And as far as I'm concerned, Big Boss is the main character of the whole series. His love of The Boss, conflict with Zero, and assumed "mentorship" to Ocelot is at the heart of the entire story.