Lunchtime Discussion: Genius Or Hype?
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Article written by Gastos84 in Blog, Features, on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 12:00.
You may have noticed that Metal Gear Solid has become the subject of a few regular features this week on TSA and Lunchtime Discussion will be no different. It’s probably safe to say that the Metal Gear Solid saga will go down in history as one of gaming’s most-loved; but do you feel this way? With storylines that would confuse Tom Clancy and cut-scenes taking hours and hours of your time, is MGS a work of genius or is it just hype?
From my personal point of view, Metal Gear Solid on the first Playstation is one of my favourite games of all time. Sure, the story was very long and some of it went over my head when I first played, but it was also very engaging and completely different to anything that I played before. MGS 2, whilst I still like, was lacking something in my opinion. I’ll blame Raiden, everyone else does.
I’ll be honest with you, I have played roughly 1 hour of MGS3 (Snake Eater?) and I hated it. Too stealthy, too fussy and and a step too far for my enjoyment. MGS 4, due to it being the first ’next-gen’ MGS, was a must buy for me and overall, I absolutely loved it. Again, there were a few self-indulgent cutscenes and a few sections of gameplay that weren’t on par – most noticeably the bike chase – and again, I’m still not entirely sure that I understood all of it.
Overall, I would have to say that Kojima has created a genius franchise, which has proved that video games can rival (or even out-do) the film industry for content, enjoyment and longevity. It appears to be a ‘marmite’ game though; it has its legions of fans but it also has its haters.
Which are you?
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
cc_star | 20/11/2009 11:38
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MGS? *Y-A-W-N*
Hype!
hairfreax | 20/11/2009 16:19
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Yawn indeed
Couldnt get past the first 100 (slight exageration but you know what i mean) hours of dialogue before i even got to play the damn game
Ripperfish | 20/11/2009 16:38
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Deffinate hype, back with my old ps1 on the first game i got to the bit where you fine the radio channel on the back of the booklet for the game and i’d lost the booklet, ruined the games for me. But the dialogue was just painful
Seventy2 | 20/11/2009 12:08
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Don’t believe the…
DJ Judas | 20/11/2009 12:10
Epic
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Love them, one of the few IPs that is still about making the game and not money, the Japanese way!
bajere | 20/11/2009 12:53
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AGREE! The people who dont like MGS are the people who;
A: Dont understand the story,
or B; just like runing and gunning!
MGS had the lot! MGS1 had sooo many play throughs its unreal! and the series had lots of little things that i liked. like the control port changing in MGS1 (and you try it in MSG4 against the same type of phyic boss and they relate back to you of the past), all the people you killed walking in the river for MGS3, the story segments taken from real world stories (nano machines, cold war, Y2K bug, different army slogans and missions etc) and loads more.
The story was great, and MGS4 was a nice round up of the other 3. The best game(s) of ALL time IMO. Made for gripping story and gameplay…not just to hammer out more money like serise such as Halo and tomb raider.
Raen | 20/11/2009 13:00
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I find that insulting. It’s fine to understand the MGS story (I do, although I haven’t played 3 and 4 I’ve read several write ups and I understood 1 and 2 well enough) and I’m not really a fan of running and gunning. There’s a lot of reasons not to like the series :far too many cutscenes, needlessly complex story, what I’ve been told is radically different game play in 3 and 4, the (in my opinion) pointless jump back in time in 3 (that should have been a spin off, not MGS3). Oh and the fact that Kojima is a smug git.
bajere | 20/11/2009 13:16
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the jump back in time helped with the story, and also gave more meaning to MGS1 and 4…you should really pick up the whole lot and play from start to finish. reviews and write ups are never the same as playing
Raen | 20/11/2009 13:33
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Don’t have a PS3 (or a PS2 at the moment come to think of it).
bajere | 20/11/2009 13:35
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ah…you might have a problem then.lol
gazo69 | 20/11/2009 12:10
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MGS, load of rubbish!
haz360 | 20/11/2009 12:12
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I’m a massive MGS fan and have been since the first one on the PS1, which I still regard as my favourite game ever. I think if you’ve not played and followed the series from the start, you probably just won’t ‘get it’. But if, like me, you’ve been sucked in by the story and characters from the beginning, I can’t see how it’s anything other than genius.
Raen | 20/11/2009 12:18
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So by ‘from the start’ you mean the original Metal Gear series right? You know, before Metal Gear Solid?
haz360 | 20/11/2009 12:24
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No I mean from the start of the Metal Gear Solid series, on PS1. I personally have never played the original Metal Gear games, and even though they’re important to the overall story, I class the MGS series (1 to 4) as a series in its own right.
Raen | 20/11/2009 12:42
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Bah, go get them. They’re meant to be quit good and they do relate to some of the back story behind MGS1
I really wanna get hold of them.
bajere | 20/11/2009 12:57
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yea i would like to play the orginals, in MGS1 and other parts or the series, they keep referring to Zanzibar and another place…im guessing thats where the original story left off. maybe they should re-build and re-release them using the MGS4 engine, just to give us the story. id buy it
Raen | 20/11/2009 13:02
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Well the originals were top down so they’d be kinda weird to play on the MGS4 engine. I’d just like to see them rereleased
bajere | 20/11/2009 13:30
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errr yea, thats y i said re-build re-release.lol
Raen | 20/11/2009 13:32
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Yeah but it’d be more of a re-design really to change everything. I’d just like to see a port and keep original graphics. Retro games should stay retro.
deadairspace | 20/11/2009 12:12
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Agree about “Snake Eater” found it terribly annoying in parts – too fussy like you said.
Gotta love rex vs ray in MGS4!
Rabid-Coot | 20/11/2009 12:12
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Needs a better gameplay to cutscene ratio.
Also MGS 4 killed my old PS3 right after telling me how amazing the system is.
Einride | 20/11/2009 12:13
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A bit of both, I’d say. I played the first game at a friends place, it was good fun, but I never finished it. Played through the second game when it came out on Xbox (Substance, was it?). I enjoyed that a lot. Confusing story, but still exciting. MGS3 I’ve never played.
MGS4 I still haven’t finished. I just need to be in the right mood to play it. Most of the time I just want to get some quick shooting action done, so I pick Bad Company or MW2 or similar.
When I do sit down with it though, I quite like the lengthy cut scenes, and being able to control the robot and the cameras etc in MGS4 was a nice touch. Having to see a ~20 minute cut scene where 90% of the focus is on a pair of breasts however, that was just too cheesy
Einride | 20/11/2009 12:18
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Replying to myself here, please don’t storm my house and steal my cookies!
How could I forget this: The fight scene at the end of Act II is just epic! Now *that* is what justifies calling that series “genius”.
Raen | 20/11/2009 12:43
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Man that was good.
skibadee | 20/11/2009 12:15
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one of the best game series out there i feel i just hope we get a special disc with all the others on like the god of war one will start the first disc up at some point bust at the mo with dragons age & ac2
skibadee | 20/11/2009 12:16
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busy. load of the harddrive not disc
BrendanCalls | 20/11/2009 12:16
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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Love it, best single player experience, across the whole franchise, ever
shields_t | 20/11/2009 12:24
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I’m a bit indifferent, I never got into it at the beginning, though my housemates at uni were hooked. I got 3 and never got past the hilarity of making Snake slip on his ass in bird poo, which was seriously amusing. I played 4 thought though, and feel like I knid of understand a bit more about the “saga” now, I enjoyed it, but that was probably because of the “westernised” approach which didn’t depend on stealth 100% of the time. It did havea nasty habit of kicking off a 40 minute cutscene just before I needed to go out somewhere though.
BrendanCalls | 20/11/2009 12:42
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc - YOHIMBÉ!!!
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It really bugged me this did, I hated all the levels that they just filled with action. it lost it’s magic then, its all about sneaking up behind you enemy and CQC-ing him before he even knows your there. Even so it is still one of my favourite games ever
jimmy-google | 20/11/2009 12:26
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I loved the original but 4 was dire. The cut scenes weren’t just long but dull as well. They didn’t draw you in and when you compare it to Uncharted they don’t stand up well at all. It’s a series thats been on a downward spiral since it began which is a shame because MGS1 is brilliant.
online4ntagonist | 20/11/2009 12:27
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MGS Solid had the most original gameplay I have ever seen. Especially the boss fight with Praying Mantis was a unique experience, yet to be outdone by any game.
Storyline? What storyline, I did’nt get it anyway. Could you imagine how awesome these games would be with an understandable plot?
online4ntagonist | 20/11/2009 13:08
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PSYCHO Mantis offcourse
doh
Crazy_Del | 20/11/2009 12:28
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MGS – GENIUS I loved that game and will download MGS1 I still got Sons of Liberty, Snake Eater and Guns of the Patriots. But the 1st MGS on the PS1 was a classic and still one of the brilliant games I have played lol.