When i think back over (almost literally) a lifetime of games i have played, there are only a certain select few that i have followed religiously. Somewhere in the top three of those few games sits, the Metal Gear series. It has been way to long ago that i played the first Metal Gear for NES, so even though it was the first, i have not included it in this review. This instead will be about the more recent games from PSX, PS2, and PS3.
Back in probably the summer of '97 I read in (the now defunct) Official Playstation Magazine about a game that was coming to the PSX. Just from the name alone i knew that i wanted to purchase and play this game. Metal Gear Solid. It was a name that i hadn't heard since the late 80's but i knew that given the amount of fun i had with the first i would no doubt enjoy the next installment. I remember reading about how it would use the PSX graphical prowess to the max, and would also use something that was all together new to Playstation gamers... Rumble Feedback. (It also, if i am not mistaken, required you to have at least the PSX controller with the two analog sticks on it.) The game featured a full voice cast, a very strange yet intriguing story, and some of the best in game cut scenes in that Gen consoles.
Metal Gear Solid would go on to sell millions of copies, and make it's way across several systems, including the PC, and Gamecube (as Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes). It also was easily one of my favorite PSX games ever. I kept the discs all the way up until i sold my entire collection about a year ago. Hideo Kojima (the director) introduced some really fascinating things during the game that many developers have since mimicked in their own games. Probably one of the best and most memorable ones was Psycho Mantis' ability to "read your mind". When in fact all it was doing was checking the information on your memory card and telling you what Konami games you had been playing. It didn't so much add anything to the story, but more to the feel of the game. You felt like you were actually being told by a damn video game what you had done in the past. It was a nice effect in the middle of a heated battle.
After Metal Gear Solid's release on the PSX, fans of the game and the series would have to wait four years to get their grubby little hands on the next installment: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty. "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to decieve." This game is bubbling over with controversy, from almost the very start of the game. The first 15-20mins of the game (and the full extent of the demo) you played as the well known hero Solid Snake. However immediately following that first mission, you played through almost the entire rest of the game as... Raiden? Who was this whiny, platinum-headed, wanna-be that was thrust into the hands of players? Gamers everywhere (myself included) were totally taken by surprise with this second rate Snake.
Only two years after the release of MGS2, came the next installment, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Kojima, probably hearing the backlash from some of the (not so) fans of MGS2 decided to take this game back to its roots, literally. In part three you play as Snake... Naked Snake. The game also takes place before any of the previous games, story wise, in the mid '60's during the height of the Cold War. The story, boiled down to its most basic elements, is pretty simple. You play as Naked Snake and are sent into the jungles of the Soviet Union to rescue a defecting scientist, Dr. Sokolov, who was working on a sort of armoured tank ("Metal Gear") called Shagohod. Things quickly take a turn for the worse when your "Boss" turns out to be a double agent and you have to fight off members of the "Cobra Unit" and stop a potential nuclear attack on the US. Isn't that always the way, just when you think shit is going your way, you slip on that inevitable banana peel of life.
This time around Kojima turned sneaking missions from previous games on their ear. This time you have to use camouflage suits, face paint, and your surroundings to pretty much hide in plain site. Depending on what you were and where you are, you have a "Camo meter" that will show the percentage of how well you blend. It's a simple but very effective game play mechanic that almost totally changed the way you play the game. Also most of the boss fights were more believable, if ever so slightly. I still have a problem with "The Pain" who can control hornets, and "The Sorrow" who is a ghost of a dead medium that, well really doesn't do anything.
Well they would have to wait another four years for the release of the next adventures of Solid Snake. In June of 2008 Konami released worldwide on the PS3, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. As a side note, this game is the reason at least initially that i got a PS3. Now granted i got one 2 weeks after the release of the game, it still was the reason i went out and purchased the system, truly making it, at least for me, a "system seller."
*Spoiler Alert*... I guess... I dunno. Has it been long enough??
This installment of the series again followed, Solid Snake. Set seven years after the events that occurred at "Big Shell" in MGS2, placing it in the year 2014. The years have, well to put it bluntly, have not been good to Snake. In fact he is called "Old Snake" almost from the start of the game, and rightly so. Though he is physically only in his 30's i believe, he looks like he is well into his late 50's early 60's. Why is that... well because of that damned "Foxdie" that Snake was injected with back at Shadow Moses Island. Oh and guess who is also back, sort of... Liquid Snake. Yeah the dead brother you never knew you had. Oh and it's really only b/c Revolver Ocelot grafted his [Liquid's] hand onto his own. There is much much more as far as story goes to this one, insane amounts more. I won't go into it all in detail. However i will say this, many of the friends from the past come back to pay a visit one way or the other. Also surprisingly enough, Kojima actually manages to sew up pretty much EVERY loose end in the past four games. Even all the crazy stuff that happened in part 2 that turned everyone off. Love it or hate it, the story from this game is simply put, amazingly crafted. Personally i loved the way that everything came together at the end.
The game reached Corinthian heights as far as critical and public acclaim. It scored a perfect 40/40 from Famitsu magazine, which is almost unheard of, and still sits as one of the highest rated games on most aggregate game rating sites. As of the end of 2008 (just 7 months after release) it had sold over 4.5 million copies. Unfortunately, Kojima has made it clear (has he really?) that he is NOT going to work on another Metal Gear Solid game. Speculation has already started burning like wild fire that he will take on some other character in a MG'esqe type story. The people in the know, if they truly know, aren't speaking and probably won't until Kojima himself speaks on the matter.
Metal Gear Solid the series has been running for ten years now, and has a following of millions of people. It has spawned countless spin off series games, re-releases, and special edition (including a LE PS3). The Metal Gear Solid "brand" is also viable for several different markets. There have been action figures, soundtrack releases, even a comic book. It is one of those games that you can mention almost to anyone and they will know something about it, or have heard about it in some capacity. As i said before, to this day it stands as one of my all time favorite series. Even now i wish i could go home and play through some of it. Kojima-san may not ever do another game based around Snake, but i for one certainly hope that his next game at least keeps the flavor of MGS alive.
Log in to comment