Metal Gear Solid: Worthwhile?

[Infernai]

MGS 1 and 3 are 2 of the best games of all time. MGS2 is a quality game, you'll get plenty of fun out of it.

MGS4 is a good game but for an MGS game it is a piece of shit whose only reason for existing is to end the plot. It is a turd which has only 2 chapters of real gameplay out of 5.

I hear Peace Walker is good fun.

I'm in agreement with this. Although, MGS 2 and 4 are the weakest games of the main series for different reasons.

2 simply for the fact you're going to be screaming out 'WHAT THE FUCK!?' an awful lot and a few too many breaks in basic laws and rules of reality. Ok yes, this series is not 100% realistic and i have acknowledged that but..yikes, some of the shit in 2 REALLY pushes it. Thankfully, the fourth entry had the decency to hand-wave and retcon these very silly events or explain them properly to make them fit properly (And, strangely, i seem to be the only human being who actually Liked the retcons and hand-waves...due to it being better then No explaination and being forced to accept they 'just happened'). However, the gameplay is still VERY good, the voice-acting/soundtrack is still very amazing and there are some very great moments if you can get past a bit of the bullshit. I'd recommend playing it after you have played 3 and 1.

MGS 4 is ultimately good for concluding and it is still a good game in the gameplay department. However, there are some moments that are a bit weak and the cutscene overload is a bit jarring at times. It's still a good game, it's just not AS good as the 1st and 3rd entries by any margin.

 

[00slash00]

So, in looking for something different to play, I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to pick up the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and MGS 4. I've never played these games before, but I have always enjoyed in-depth plotlines in my games, and what I've heard of MGS tells me that I will find this. However, stealth games aren't usually my thing (I usually play JRPGs). So, I'm wondering what you guys think of the games. Are they worthwhile, especially considering that I wouldn't be playing the first game?

i hated stealth games before i played the first metal gear solid. its pretty forgiving and the story is very interesting. i dont really like stealth games but metal gear and metal gear solid are my favorite game series, so that should tell you something.

 

[Jfswift]

Play Metal Gear Solid 1. It's a great game. Decent voice acting, not bad story and a great sound track combine to leave you satisfied when you finish it. At least that's how I remember it. I only beat it once, back when it came out.

 

[daveman247]

play

Don't forget peacewalker Its the best one after mgs 3!

 

[daveman247]

I never understood how people could say 'Metal Gear' is the grand daddy of stealth, when the camera is as fuck all as Resident Evil shit.

They also say it has a great plot, when it doesn't really have anything. The scenes have no meaning, and have no continuity. They also have no logic and or meaning behind them. It's just lame eye candy for mecha nerds.

@ Splinter Cell fan = Me

The camera was only a problem up to 2, 3 and onwards had a proper 3D camera

The rest of what you say is untrue!

And people say its the grandaddy because it is the first one that got it right.

At least metal gear (so far) has stuck to stealth, something which splinter cell (which i love also) has not done lately...

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Do you like watching a game more than actually playing it? If the answer is "yes" then MGS is worthwhile.

Sorry, I over-simplify. The series does have some great story points and solid (no pun intended) gameplay, but it does wrestle the controller from you to the point it can be annoying.

 

[peruvianskys]

Be prepared for some of the most ridiculous, self-indulgent, poorly written, awkward, overly long cutscenes in video game history. How anyone could play MGS1 or 2 without feeling like they were watching someone written by a paranoid eighth grader is beyond me. The gameplay, however, is really pretty great if you can get past the hideous camera and the half-hour cutscenes that bookend every ten minute sequence.

If you like JRPG's, you're probably a fan of style over substance so you might enjoy them.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

I take the first Tenchu over MGS anyday. I always disliked how those poor genetic enhanced soldiers are in need of strong glasses.
I recently tried to watch a let`s play of MGS4 and it was just painfull to watch, not because of the cutscenes (yeah those were anoying too) but i really can`t stand the writing. It seemed so awkward to me and i had to stop watching.

However, try the ps1 MGS as a starting point. Some people recommended the third as a start which is ok storywise, but for the camera/gameplay it`s maybe better to force yourself through the first two and be kind of relived with the third.

Edit:

...

Damn, i`m to slow. You kind of ninja`d me there.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

play

Don't forget peacewalker Its the best one after mgs 3!

Haven't played it, but its an excuse to get the HD collection.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

It's definitely an acquired taste. Which is hardly a compliment. But once you get into it, it'll suck you in so far you'll not be able to see the light of day for hours. The plot is batshit bananas, but it's the kind that makes you want to keep playing to see what happens next (as apposed to the kind that makes you yell at the screen for the madness to stop). The gameplay is... it's alright. On the lower difficulties you'll feel like it's too easy, but playing on Hard and above (there's like fifty variations of "Very Hard"), you'll find that there is a fuckton of depth to the games. You can do an awful lot of stuff and the levels are open-ended enough that there's plenty of room to experiment with skills and gadgets, and it's entertaining once you get to grips with the control scheme.

Oh wait, you say it gets better after 3 eh? Who cares! After the first few, why even bother??

I can't speak for either MGS or MGS2, but I can say that, because MGS3 is a prequel, it is basically the jumping off point for the entire series. MGSHD even goes so far as to list the games in chronological order, starting with 3, so it agrees.

Also, I don't know how much of MGS you've played, but saying "it's an arcade shooter" makes me think you really haven't played enough. There's a rather awful difficulty setting called "European Extreme" in which you have to navigate every level without being noticed at all. Like, if a guard so much as thinks you're there, it's Game Over. The game has a habit of not holding your hand at all, so discovering what's hidden beneath all the layers can take some time, but once you do, it's one of the most satisfying sneaking games ever.

Splinter Cell, you're basically told the essentials in the first level. Being seen, bad. Snapping necks, good. Metal Gear Solid 3 doesn't even tell you that you can snap necks unless you make the effort to find out, and I think that's why I like MGS. It rewards persistence and concentration, both in its plot and gameplay. You could play on Easy and run through the story and skip all the cutscenes, but you get about as much as out as you had put in. It's a game that has gold buried beneath its surface and expects you to go looking - and makes games like Splinter Cell look downright shallow as a result.

 

[Redingold]

[HEADING=1]DO NOT BUY OR PLAY MGS4 FIRST![/HEADING]

I did that! I was confused as fuck, but it was still good fun. After MGS4, I played MGS3, then I borrowed my friend's copy of MGS2. I've still not played MGS1, but I have watched a playthrough of it.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

[HEADING=1]DO NOT BUY OR PLAY MGS4 FIRST![/HEADING]

I did that! I was confused as fuck, but it was still good fun. After MGS4, I played MGS3, then I borrowed my friend's copy of MGS2. I've still not played MGS1, but I have watched a playthrough of it.

It took me 2 runs to fully get everything of what happened in that game. 2 runs and a complete replay of 1 2 and 3. This, from me, a guy who had played all the MGS games multiple times, and who essentially bought a PS3 just to play MGS4.

MGS4 is a disaster of a game for people to just drop into, in regards to plot and characters. But yeah, its a fun game none the less (shame the multiplayer is done for).

It must be weird figuring out certain elements of MGS4 retrospectively as you play the earlier games. I can't even imagine being able to piece together that mess.

EDIT: The biggest thing that dropping into MGS4 damages is all the throwbacks that feel out of nowhere otherwise.

 

[Woodsey]

If it was to try a stealth game with a good story, I'd rather recommend the first 3 Splinter Cell games

I'd second that motion. Although I think 'decent writing' is more accurate than a 'good story'.

Other then providing a lesson in how to never, ever do storytelling in games, ever, I can't say I see the appeal of MGS.

 

[BrotherRool]

Oh, it's so hard. You just cannot recommend MGS to anyone. The series is easily a contender for best game franchise ever but it's also just as possible to pick them up and hate everything about them.

I'm not even sure if you can tell ahead of time which it's going to be.

Okay factually, things you can say, the series as a whole is years ahead of the whole industry in terms of gameplay, story and combining them, even now. This is a series where style and creativity actually have been injected. It's the Quentin Tarantino of videogames.

People are dissing 4 here, but 4 has the most ridiculously climatic, meaningful, powerful, character-focused, stylistically awesome boss fight of all time at the end. It's blended gameplay and story to perfection in the microwave corridor sequence, tied up everything, created unbelievable badasses who are characters and have arcs like every other story in videogames doesn't. There are 5 chapters and each plunges you into a completely different gameplay and tonal experience, from a noirish detective sequence with lots of clever little tricks. (Like you'll be following someone, he gets attacked, what do you do? Do you hope he survives? Take out his attackers and hope he doesn't notice you? Try to distract them? Etc). A prison breakout in the jungle, followed immediately by Aragorn style tracking through trap laden forests. War based stealth in a middle eastern city, where you can subtley assist one side from the shadows to help clear out areas to progress...

And although MGS4's boss fights are the weakest in the series, that's like 'the least spectacular famous Van Gogh painting' . It means you fight a camouflaged super psycho war-torn childsoldier supervillain who disguises herself as painting, hides on the ceiling etc as you try to stalk her through a creepy little cabin.

And all of the games in the series are like this, and they all come to narrative climaxes which you've never experienced elsewhere.


Yet they're all brilliantly flawed as well. The plots go on, there are nonsenical plot twists, people don't know when to shut up, the gameplay is so flawed, it's hard to even draw your gun and shoot it, the button mappings make no sense. In 3 you'll spend half the time in inventory changing camouflage multiple times etc.

It's like Lord of the Rings, written by the dude who wrote Eragon. It's frustrating, but you'll also remember the half a dozen different ways you manged to break out of a prison cell, Big Bosses and Boss relationship, the scene of flowers, the time you pulled the trigger. Two men on top of a battleship duking it out, because they've fought their whole lives and now finally, when the big picture is out of the way, they can settle their personal problems...

Don't buy them all together, buy them in small blocks. MGS, then the HD collection, then MGS4 etc and see if you like what you've played so far, and if so and advance to see if you'll like what comes next too

 

[King of Asgaard]

MGS 1 and 3 are 2 of the best games of all time. MGS2 is a quality game, you'll get plenty of fun out of it.

MGS4 is a good game but for an MGS game it is a piece of shit whose only reason for existing is to end the plot. It is a turd which has only 2 chapters of real gameplay out of 5.

I hear Peace Walker is good fun.

This, to the nth degree.
I can't believe someone shares my opinion on the Metal Gear Solid series to the letter.

MGS3 is one of my favourites, MGS1 is a classic, which has not aged very well unfortunately, MGS2 was great, but had a couple of minor issues, and MGS4 is awful, especially since it wraps up the story.

OT: Get the collection, forget about MGS4. If you're REALLY curious, look up the cutscenes online, or watch a playthrough, but all it did was end the series leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

 

[daveman247]

snip

Yeah the games have always been divisive. What you hate about it i love, the wackiness is what makes it metal gear! Including the ass shaking!


And for comparison, i could say the splinter cell guards are even MORE blind They never seem to see those big neon green lights!

 

[Palademon]

You might want to buy the first MGS game since it unfortunately isn't in the HD collection, but can be bought off PSN to play on a PS3 or PSP.

I've only actually completed 2 and thought it was great, but that might be because I wasn't playing at the time of the initial butthurt. But I do now own all the core MGS games, plus Peace Walker, because of the HD collection.

Stealth isn't very hard, but I have found on 2 and 3 especially to have a steep learning curves for the first few hours.

I wouldn't say the plot line is in-depth, at leats not in a normal way. What you're doing, and how it progresses is easy enough to understand, but the subtleties that carry over are in-depth in being very cryptic, yet important.

 

[darksakul]

Yes its worth playing.

I think the first Metal Gear solid is on the PSN store

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

Metal Gear Solid is absolutely worth it. However, I recommend you play in this order:

3
1
2
4

If you want to play Peace Walker and Portable Ops, you can do so; they go between 3 and 1. But really, the point here is that A) 3 takes place earlier in canon than the others, and B) 3 is the strongest game in the series by far, so it grabs you and hooks you in hard.

Metal Gear is a stealth game, but what that means varies by the game. 3 relies on a camouflage system you get by collecting camo. 1 just makes you die a lot until you get really good at hiding around corners -- no camo stat for you. 2 does the same thing. 4 relies on "stealth camo" that basically combines the two; it auto-calibrates camouflage, but you have to be good at hiding in corners and sitting still.

You can also run-and-gun the games if you're not playing on Hard, except maybe MGS1. (Which is always on hard mode, if you ask me, but I just hate the gun aiming system.) You will get stuff like rocket launchers that can blow up tons of guys. However, the game really does want to you play it stealthily; that's the gist of MGS, but if you don't want to, you don't have to.

I hear people whine about long cutscenes. This gets worse as the games go on. 1 has very few. 2, a little more. 3 has longish ones, but only a few are Epically Large. 4 is practically a movie. BUT, if you are okay with this (like me) and have large bricks of time to play, this is fine. You *do* get to play the game. Seriously, you do. Also, the music is godly and the plot is amazing and the characters are both archetypal and deep at the same time (The Boss, seriously, every time she is on screen I can't do anything but watch). Sit back and enjoy the show. It's awesome.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Metal Gear.