metal gear Metal Gear Thread

[Ertrick36]

I was spurred on to create this thread due to the release of the most recent game, Metal Gear Survive, being today.

Anyone else fans of this series?  I myself have played MG 1 & 2, all of the numbered Solid titles (including the $40 demo that is Ground Zeroes; curse me for being a loyalist), Peace Walker, and a bit of Acid and Portable Ops.  And I've actually been trying to consider whether or not to get Survive, as I've heard good things from those who've played it.

My personal favorite games from the series are - in order of favor - MGS 3, MGS 2, and MG Peace Walker.  Though I've thoroughly enjoyed every game I've played, even controversial ones like 4 and Phantom Pain.

[Slumber]

It's a shame this and Silent Hill will never have proper releases ever again. 

MGS3 is one of my all time favorite games. The only mainline MGS I don't like is 4, and even that has some great moments. 

Edited February 20, 2018 by Slumber

[Shiki]

On 20.2.2018 at 7:06 PM, Ertrick36 said:

I was spurred on to create this thread due to the release of the most recent game, Metal Gear Survive, being today.

Fixed that for you.

Played every "Solid" entry besides Portable Ops and before its demise by the hand of its publisher it was one of my favorite game series of all time, even though I'm not a huge fan of stealth games.
Snake Eater is my clear favorite because it is the only Metal Gear game besides maybe 1 (I only played the Twin Snakes version) that balances out its narrative and gameplay, creating one of the greatest experiences in gaming.
The original is a very close second thanks to its story moments which are well documented nowadays. Twin Snakes had more familiar controls so I don't know how clunky the original would be in terms of gameplay.
Peace Walker was very good and the added resource management was pretty fun.

The other games have some pretty hefty flaws on them, however.
Phantom Pain's story is really awful in context to the other games but has easily the best gameplay in the series.
Guns of the Patriots on the other hand is more a movie than a game (seriously I spend more time watching cutscenes than playing the game).
Sons of Liberties had also some questionable design choices and really frustating segments (*cough* Emma *cough)

... still don't know what Revengeance was supposed to be.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Zeratul

[Ronnie]

Metal Gear Rising was the only interesting game in the series for me. Also think it's the most fun gameplay wise. I prefer crazy combat with loud kickass music instead of cinematics and stealth.

[Ertrick36]

9 hours ago, Slumber said:

MGS3 is one of my all time favorite games. The only mainline MGS I don't like is 4, and even that has some great moments. 

Same here on the MGS 3 front; it's one of the few games that actually brought me on the brink of tears near the end.

MGS 4, oddly enough, was my first game... and let me tell you just how confusing that was.  It's like if I stuck my head in sand, and then when I pulled it out I was on top of a destroyed tower made of solid glue in the middle of a crater on the moon.  That was also where I first got really involved in online gaming; I made some friends playing that game's online, and we didn't even play it as intended.  Though damn if it didn't ruin some plot elements...

7 hours ago, Zeratul said:

Fixed that for you.

I'm trying to be open-minded.  I'll give that game a full month to grab my attention enough for me to want to try it out.  And this is only because I've actually heard some folks praise it, something I never even imagined would happen.

Though even if I ended up liking it... there's just no way I could call it a Metal Gear game.  Metal Gear isn't about zombies and survival; such things would only be secondary to stealth and technological monstrosities for you to fight, which even MGR had.

MGS 2's flaws, for me, are mostly due to the acting.  Quinton Flynn just never sounded like how I imagine he was supposed to, though I'm glad his role with Raiden was redeemed in later games.  Hal's backstory with his family was... different.  I'm not sure if there's a point to it besides just making his backstory more fucked up than it already was.  Though after playing Phantom Pain, I actually feel a little sadistic pleasure in knowing how Huey ultimately met his fate.

I've scarcely played Twin Snakes; I played through the original Metal Gear Solid, which is quite different from MGS 2's gameplay.  I liked the original's voice acting better than the remake's, even Mei Ling's grating accented voice if only because I've grown accustomed to it, making the other voice even more jarring to listen to.

6 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Metal Gear Rising was the only interesting game in the series for me. Also think it's the most fun gameplay wise. I prefer crazy combat with loud kickass music instead of cinematics and stealth.

I think Rising was pretty much just them finally going all out, off the walls with their ideas.

I've never played it personally, but I love all the memes that came out of it.  Heck, I love that the word "meme" is actually spoken in that game in a serious fashion.  I know it's just a word, but the connotation attached to it nowadays makes it a difficult word to take seriously.

The thing you have to recognize, though, is that it's a fundamentally different game from Metal Gear.  It's scarcely even a Metal Gear game, tied to the series only through its characters and the fact that a stealth mechanic even exists at all.  I mean, it's obviously a good game, but it's not much of a Metal Gear game.  That's overlooked because of how much fun it is, I reckon.

[Etrurian emperor]

Looking back I really regret missing the boat on this franchise and Konami burning their video game division to the ground makes me being able to go back and play these games incredibly unlikely. 

Its ironic that this famed playstation franchise isn't getting its old games rereleased on the PS4 while there is a special edition of several games on the Xbox360....which I sold before I got interested in the series. 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Played 1-4 all before I even started high school. But now, a decade later, Revengeance has been in my backlog for years while 5 is a recent addition. I have played no new Metal gear games besides checking out Metal Gear on MSX through the HD collection. I think 1 and 3 are great standalone games. 2 I couldn't fully appreciate until the long form video essays showed me the meta-narrative of the game. And 4 is probably something I'll never be able to put my finger on.

[Shiki]

@Ertrick36
I mean Survive is probably not a bad game since it is based on Phantom Pain's engine and gameplay. It is really hard to mess up a game if you have that foundation.
But that's the problem with Survive. I cannot recognize it as a Metal Gear game since it lacks the typical charm or narrative (aka the lunacy of Hideo Kojima). Phantom Pain was already quite lacking in that regard and Survive just ignores all together while throwing typical archetypes like zombies into it.

If this didn't fed on MGS I think it would be a fine game but as it is it can only be seen as a poor attempt from Konami to separate Metal Gear from Kojima.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Zeratul

[Ertrick36]

On 2/22/2018 at 6:57 PM, Glennstavos said:

Played 1-4 all before I even started high school. But now, a decade later, Revengeance has been in my backlog for years while 5 is a recent addition. I have played no new Metal gear games besides checking out Metal Gear on MSX through the HD collection. I think 1 and 3 are great standalone games. 2 I couldn't fully appreciate until the long form video essays showed me the meta-narrative of the game. And 4 is probably something I'll never be able to put my finger on.

Those are pretty much all the ones you really need to play.  The only other important entries are Portable Ops and Peace Walker, though the former is only semi-canon at best and the latter is a more basic and episodic (as opposed to open world) MGS5 whose story is covered in the overly expensive demo that is Ground Zeroes.

MGS2 has a serious issue with communicating its narrative to the player, at least in the English version, which is a combination of poor voice direction (resulting in the infamous "I've managed to avoid drowning!" line that sounds way too happy for what it was supposed to be), an already convoluted story, and some cut content.  But you if you really dig past all of that and some of the awkward stuff, you find in it a rather compelling and tragic story that copies the exact same formula from MGS1 intentionally for a rather clever spin and, like you said, a sort of meta-narrative.

MGS4... I like for the gameplay, honestly.  And also that Akina poster on the ceiling in the South American mansion and certain... magazines when I was a teenager.  I hated how the cutscenes would drag on, though.  That, and the one fucking bike chase segment... ooh, how I hate that part with a burning passion.  Nothing in the series is more hellish than that part if you're going for Big Boss emblem.  Except possibly the bike chase segment in MGS3 if you're pursuing the same goal.

I liked MGS5 (at least the Phantom Pain) while I was playing through it, and the gameplay gets a lot better with mods, but... well, I don't understand why Kojima felt the need to throw in that twist at the end save for him just being his usual "I wanna fuck with the fans" self.  I just see it as another needless retcon.  Barring that, however, I did find myself immersed in the story.

 

@Zeratul Well, and now with the whole "buying saves" nonsense, I'm getting really turned off by it.  That shit is not okay, and I'm not about to subscribe to the notion that these bullshit microtransactions are the way of the future.  I don't care if it's good or bad anymore, the only way Konami will get me to even consider buying their game is if they remove that crap, and I doubt they ever will.

[Jedi]

Seems fitting to drop this here 

 

[Ertrick36]

3 hours ago, Jedi said:

Seems fitting to drop this here 

 

Heh, Dunkey's dunking on it.

This is the first time I've seen actual footage for it.  I mean, I did say that Konami has a month to grab my attention.  That doesn't mean I'm gonna actively seek out details on the game.

And obviously Dunkey doesn't like it so he'll show the worst parts of it in this review... but I do genuinely have to wonder if there are better parts to this game and if those better parts don't come too little, too late.  The reason why I liked classic Resident Evil (can't believe I'm comparing that to a Metal Gear game, by the way) is because while it did restrict you, it didn't restrict you to a point where everything was exceptionally tedious.  I mean, at least in the games where the save rooms saved your inventory.  Or in the games where I could hold, like, eight assault rifles at once.

Spoiler

Praise Yoko Suzuki and her backpack of infinite-finite space ヽﾉ

It seems like the issue is that they restrict you without any thought put into how it actually affects you.  As if they merely thought of a bunch of different restrictions to implement and were just like "yeah, let's throw all those in", which resulted in the amazing meta-gaming experience that is... jabbing zombies with a stick behind a fence.

Gonna just stick with Mod Nexus 5: The Phantom Waifu Collecting Side Ops until I hear brighter news about this game or the franchise.  Which at this point, would probably be Konami going bankrupt and some other company acquiring the licensing rights to Metal Gear.

[ObeseCity]

On 2/20/2018 at 11:17 PM, Ertrick36 said:

 

 MGS 3 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I haven't played MGS 4 yet, but I feel like I'd just be crying through it. MGS 1 was a blast, and MGS 2, despite being my least favorite in the "Solid" series, is still a great and mind-blowing game. Now I'm doomed to watching Pachinko remasters of these games and crappy mobile games until Konami inevitably loses business and a competent studio gets them back (Hopefully Kojima Productions)

[Moblin Major General]

On 2/25/2018 at 6:38 PM, Ertrick36 said:

And obviously Dunkey doesn't like it so he'll show the worst parts of it in this review... but I do genuinely have to wonder if there are better parts to this game and if those better parts don't come too little, too late.

  Hide contents

 

 

Angry Joe gave it a 2/10 plus an Epic Fail Seal of Disapproval. Only a handful of games are worse in his eyes than that.

[Corrobin]

Metal Gear?

[Magical CC]

Metal Gear Survive is probably the best game in the series, not only the story and the characters are compelling and interesting, it all come together in a way you cant predict. Gameplay is superb, breathtaking and intense. Nah just kidding, screw Konami. It's one of the most boring zombie game I have ever played in recent years. If I want intense combat, great graphic, detailed world, I would play Dying Light. Also Dying Light has great multiplayer section. Also, I dont have to pay 10 dollars for another save slot. 

Edited March 6, 2018 by Magical CC