Love to Hate: Metal Gear Solid
This is going to be a recurring segment where i talk about franchises i absolutely hate that other people love. First up? Metal Gear Solid. You know there was a time i loved Metal Gear. The first MGS on the playstation was fantastic. That’s why i chose it to be the image for this post. However, it should have been a clue to the direction things were going.
“What direction is that?” You might ask. The answer is ENDLESS FUCKING CUT SCENES. Do we really need cut scenes that are 1 hour long? Do we even need cut scenes that are longer than 5 minutes???? I say NO. however, all of you metal gear loving japan-o-philes say YES (when you’ve got Kojima’s dick out of your mouth for longer than 2 seconds)
So going along the cut scene route…. if you ask a metal gear fan what it is they love about the game what do they say? The great story. Really??? Crime and punishment, war and peace, 1984, atlas shrugged, these are great stories. Metal gear solid falls somewhere BELOW the level of a comic book. I’ve seen B movies with better and more comprehensible stories than the metal gear solid franchise. Again the first metal gear solid was decent (until liquid snakes 20 minute exposition at the end), sometime around Metal Gear Solid 2 and the introduction of the Lalilulelo and the patriots the entire story took a sharp right turn towards batshit insane-ville. Suffice it to say the story is not great, it’s not even good. It’s somewhere between stupid and cheesy/melodramatic.
The kicker is, the gameplay is actually good. The problem is that you only get to PLAY for 5 minutes at a time between cut scenes ranging from 5 mins - 1.5 hours. Yes you can skip them, but the way it goes is cut scene starts , cut scene 2 (otacon is crying like a little bitch) , cut scene 3 (sunny’s making eggs) , cut scene 4 (otacon’s still crying like a bitch) , you’re in the game! Codec call from otacon! STILL CRYING! , move 3 steps, another codec call. I think you get the idea. What Kojima really needs is a very skilled editor that can pare down the verbal diarrhea without injuring his fragile ego. As for you fanboys that love this series so much. WHY? Is it because metal gear solid 4 was a playstation 3 exclusive? Perhaps it’s the homo-erotic subtext? Cause i doubt it’s the 4 hours of gameplay mixed with the 10 hours of cut scenes.
A review site with a slightly negative bent. In other words, we love to hate.
Totally agree, Kojima is lucky that Snake is such a badass character. I for one definitely wanted the PS3 to play MGS4 but got a little turned off after you told me about all the cut scenes. After seeing the gameplay though the MGS nostalgia hit me and I finally got the game. SNAAAAKKEEEEE!
1I find it quite ironic that you cite Atlas Shrugged as a great story, which it is, but then trash Sons of Liberty for it’s very unconventional storytelling.
Not sure how old you are, but I was a senior in high school when Atlas Shrugged was released and you know what everyone was saying? While Ayn Rand’s previous work, The Fountainhead was considered exceptional, they were ripping Atlas Shrugged apart. While it was obvious that most of them had an issue with the powerful ideas that were presented in the book, often the criticism would be the way the story was presented.
Atlas Shrugged is a very long book. There are parts which seem to be long to the average reader, especially the sixty-page speech made by a character near the end. Likewise some of the dialogue by the heroes seem very unreal and by the time you get half-way in, things start getting more bizarre when the events that have and will take place are somewhat revealed.
In comparasion, Sons of Liberty has faced similar scrutiny. The game was meant to be a message about the gaming industry’s reliance on game sequels as well as a philosophical look at digital statism as well as free will. Sure, there are long cutscenes but like Atlas Shrugged, they have their purpose. Sure, the plot is somewhat inconclusive but like Atlas Shrugged, the author meant for the reader to use reason to make the right conclusion. Atlas Shrugged was never meant to have a sequel. Neither was MGS2.
Over time, people decided to ignore the pundits and critics and decide for themselves. Atlas Shrugged is now one of the most sold American novels. Sons of Liberty is out of print but there seems to be a much larger understanding of it now than in 2001 when everyone was complaining about not being able to play as Solid Snake. Talk about fanboys.
I do agree though that the storyline did turn for the worst but this actually started with MGS3: Snake Eater. MGS4: Guns of the Patriots hit the nail on the coffin though. Why Hideo Kojima decided to go against his wishes and continue the series is beyond me. His literary genius is now a thing of the past in titles such as Sons of Liberty and Policenauts.
2Talk about being butthurt.
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