MGS LittleBigPlanet Review
Our resident LittleBigPlanet expert takes a good look at the MGS download. Related stories (more)LittleBigPlanet Goes 3D
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Article written by nofi in Blog, on Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 14:23.
Here at TSA we don’t cover the downloadable stuff as much as we should, but it’s part of our New Year Resolutions to address that, along with some other cool changes. To start us off, then, we asked our resident LittleBigPlanet expert, AndyTorr, to take a look at the recent Metal Gear Solid download pack from the lovely chaps at Media Molecule. If you’re unware, Andy was the mastermind behind the absolutely wonderful TSA Towers level that we championed, and knows more about switches and stickers than most.
It wasn’t easy, mind. “I change my mind more than my underwear, which isn’t that often, but often enough to make me sound like a wally,” Andy told us. “One example of this was my angry post about Ferrari Challenge, you know, that game on the Playstation 3? But I took it all back a few days later, only to decide I hate it again the very next day. My point being, I don’t usually do write-ups, I don’t do articles and I don’t do reviews, because I will only change my mind the very next day.”
Thankfully Andy relented, breaking tradition and taking one for the team in the name of investigative journalism. And I promised him a pint, which usually does the trick. We soon found out that Andy’s also rather fond of MGS: “If you’re as mentally obsessed with the Metal Gear Solid series as I am, then you will often find yourself with a belt around your arm trying to push anything MGS into your veins.” When he found out Media Molecule were working on an entire game pack based around Solid Snake and co, he got a tad excited. ‘Tad’ being the new word for standing in the middle of the street shouting Shadow Moses over and over again, apparently.
Anyway, one small, but expected delay later, the DLC was officially in the store for everyone to download. “I was surprised how quick it downloaded actually,” said Andy, “considering the amount of content you get.” The first thing he did was dress his Sackboy up in the different costumes available, these being Solid Snake, Meryl, Screaming Mantis and Raiden (and the guard costume you unlock a bit later). “They do cost a little extra bob, but the Mantis outfit is worth the entire price alone. Also, Raiden looks kinda cute.”
Andy goes on: “Now that I was dressed for the part, I began my journey into the new levels. It starts out with some VR training, introducing you to the new Paintinator gun. I didn’t really understand why they gave us a paint ball gun at first, but when you fire your first few rounds you instantly fall in love with the sound it makes. Being a bit of a create whore myself, I also took note of all the new materials being used, and started thinking about how I can use them, new things I can build, bits and bobs I can improve in my own levels.” And there’s more: “when the music hit my ears a whole world of ideas starting popping into my head.”
After you play through the next set of levels it becomes obvious that they are kind of sticking to the Middle East theme from the beginning of MGS4, Andy told me. “Not that this was a bad thing, because the level designs were great.” The effects of chipped stone on the floor, bullet holes scattered on the walls, and the new background they have created all worked well and gave it a brand new feel to the already loved LBP. However, they weren’t really very long. Andy says that from starting the VR training to finishing the 5th level only took him about 20 minutes, and that’s not enough. “Maybe thats just me being a bit tight, but I was expecting quite a bit more for my cash,” he said. “Again, maybe me just being me, but the levels quickly drifted out of anything Metal Gear, and just became something you would find on the community area any other day, with the odd new material shouting ‘look at me, I’m that texture from the Gecko’s right foot!’“.
As things started to go a little bit down hill for Andy, they suddenly hit a vertical drop. On the final level you start in a similar fashion to the last level on the story mode, but instead of the creator being behind the glass, we have Liquid Snake. Which isn’t actually Liquid Snake, because he didn’t have long grey hair and glasses, that is Liquid Ocelot. He leads you to the so called ‘climax’ of the DLC that is REX. “Only it would have been,” said Andy, “if it wasn’t 4 foot tall, and sat on its bum the whole time.” Instead, we get a lazy attempt at a once epic boss battle, which takes no more than a couple of minutes to complete, leaving you feeling empty and a little cheated. Where was the epicness? Where was the fight on his head? “But more to the point,” complains Andy, “where was his little rocket?”
The best part of the DLC for Andy was the handful of new items available for you to abuse in the create mode. “With 3 brand new music tracks, the Paintinator & paint switch, several new materials and a new background, it really has given us creators a lovely breath of fresh Kojima-ridden air,” he said. “Don’t read this thinking that I’m slating the whole thing, thats just the spoilt brat inside me poking his ugly head out and asking for more all the time.” The pack is well worth the cash, and you get a lot for your money. But if you’re not into MGS in a big way, the only thing you will really enjoy is the gun.
If you downloaded the MGS pack, tell us what you think of it in the comments below. Thanks to Andy for his time.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
CaptainMurdo | 03/01/2009 14:38
Team TSA: Writer
1543 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I quite liked the new levels and expect a lot more, hopefully a few free ones though. However, some of the levels were a bit “tame” and I still haven’t completed them.
theshockwave | 03/01/2009 14:38
Member
1721 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I really want this but haven’t had the time to buy it. What with Burnout and all…
joeybamboo | 03/01/2009 14:41
Member
152 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
i thought the download pack was great. managed to ace all levels, n collected all prize bubble. but hes right on the fact that its waaaaaay to short. expected more.
stefhutch20 | 03/01/2009 14:57
Member
365 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I really liked this DLC. Sure, it only took 30 minutes to complete the first time through, but I lost a couple more hours to it getting all the trophies. Sorry if I’m alone in thinking this, but I’m a firm believer that the MM levels are always better than the user-created stuff (even though some of the user-created stuff is quite good). All in all, I really enjoyed playing it and it was well worth the money. Here’s to many more MM level packs!
SteveTheSkorie | 03/01/2009 14:57
Team TSA: Writer
1132 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Personally, I didn’t really like it.
The pace of Metal Gear Solid just doesn’t work in Little Big Planet.
Im looking at you ANNOYING SEARCHLIGHT!
Also, having to stand and try and shoot the tanks over and over again while you wait for the little thing to deplete and you jump around and try to dodge the plasma things was just annoying. I did like how they used the paintinator to manipulate the environment and spin the electricity things, but when you were just shooting tanks and turrets, it slowed down the pace and just got boring and repetetive.
I do look foreward to what the community levels will do with it!
And the level design was fantastic with the chipped tiles and stuff!
But yeah.
Oh well!
I think it was pretty good overall for what it gave you, but I’d like to see funner levels packaged with the next pack. And I love the costumes!
djhsecondnature | 03/01/2009 16:46
Team TSA: Media
815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I loved all of the MGS pack, including the boss battle.
LFC-FANATIC | 03/01/2009 16:55
Member
199 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Ye it was ok at best, but far too short. The best thing in it was the paintinator
djhsecondnature | 03/01/2009 16:57
Team TSA: Media
815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Well how long were you expecting?
LFC-FANATIC | 03/01/2009 21:41
Member
199 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Well more than half an hour for over £4
Rascal | 03/01/2009 17:12
Member
63 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
“I was surprised how quick it downloaded actually, said Andy”
I think Andy will find the download was actually already installed in the last update, buying the pack just unlocks it. Similar to Everybody’s golf.
The same appears to apply for all the other DLC costumes, since they all ‘download’ instantly. Makes you wonder how much other stuff is on the disk.
Maybe you could ask someone at Mm
andytorr | 03/01/2009 17:39
Member
431 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I didn’t know that.
Rovient | 03/01/2009 17:51
Member
0 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
Don’t forget, that all content must be downloaded to ALL users in a patch, incase you encounter any of these costume or level pieces. Or else the game would try to load the bits and none of them would be there! That’s why the download appears to be so small.
Spotter5 | 03/01/2009 18:25
Member
714 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I really liked the pack. and i’m not a fan of MGS.. Paint gun is ace.. and i really like the new materials for creating my own levels
tantalus_blank | 03/01/2009 18:32
Member
616 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
A single screaming mantis costume is worth a fiver but “3 brand new music tracks, the Paintinator & paint switch, several new materials and a new background” (plus the soldier costume) leaves you feeling a little cheated?
The levels were way higher quality than any of the user generated stuff and to be honest I would have been perfectly happy with paying for the goodies without the levels
Ok that probably sounded a little arsey but I’m just glad they’re adding depth by expanding the create mode rather than just changing what sackboy is wearing
LiquescentShadow | 04/01/2009 05:16
Member
1546 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
“I would have been perfectly happy with paying for the goodies without the levels”
Are you slightly crazy? Or maybe just a bit more willing to spend money on overpriced things that aren’t real?
clank250 | 04/01/2009 06:15
Member
574 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
The levels were okay, panitinator was sweet, and the boss fight was so-so. All in all, not the best level pack that MM could have thrown at us.
cc_star | 04/01/2009 11:29
Team TSA: Writer
5869 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’m not a huge MGS fan, but have downloaded this because I love seeing the ingenuity of the level design in LBP.
I think the levels were good, and not being a MGS fan, I was oblivious to any of the attention to detail (or lack of)
I enjoyed the level pack, they were good and compared to usual costume price point it provided good value, I’m not sure how much longer people were expecting though
Vayner | 04/01/2009 13:48
Member
69 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
This renting model really sucks.. Because essentially, everything you buy is already in the game. You just pay for a 1066kb license for every download. So you’re basically clogging up the harddrive with these files that are probably 4kb text strings..
I guess time will tell if you can take the content you bought to LBP 2 and the PSP version.
The MSG pack was fun but short. And the boss fight was just ridiculous. But the paint gun is worth it. At least people have something to emulate “eating a flower” for their mario levels
LivedeviL | 05/01/2009 16:58
Member
283 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Does it defo add too ur HDD? Is it possible that it has a program in it that says “Delete this part of the already installed stuff”?
I dunno.
Loved the MGS stuff, just to be running around as my favourite (after snake of course) character that is Raiden! lol
I would doubt being able to transfer to PSP version (unless it was already unlocked and you had to connect PSP to PS3 to unlock it) but LBP2 would surely use the same basis as Rock Band did for Rock Band 2, RB AC/DC and Guitar Hero used with the “Death Magnetic” DLC IMO.
nofi | 06/01/2009 11:22
Wants a custom tag.
3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Apologies for the content edit, Andy, had to remove a few bits before TS linked our way.
sidiki4 | 06/01/2009 11:45
Member
0 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
please try my first attempt at a level: ANT MAN
and please heart it
i will return the favour
advice welcome!!!!
psn address: benjoe93