This or That: Metal Gear

[magus113]

Keeping in the tradition of finding franchises for our This or That thread series, I decided to throw out the Metal Gear series.

I'm only going to include the canon ones, and while it is possible to play all of them ever since MGS3 was released I'm sure not all have played them, but they're going on the list anyway!

So here goes:

Metal Gear
Platform: MSX2
Released: July 12, 1987 (Japan)



The one that started it all, but was never released in America and for a console no one really owned (unless you played the inferior port for the NES). This was released with the Subsistence edition of Metal Gear Solid 3 on the bonus disc, completely translated and completely playable. I enjoyed it, because it was the first of it's kind, and it's generally fun to play!

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Platform: MSX2
Released: July 19, 1990 (Japan)



This one was never released outside of Japan until the year 2006! It was included with the original Metal Gear in MGS3: Subsistence and it brings out a lot of characters that have remained as key characters for many years to come. I have yet to play it, but I plan to in the future.

Metal Gear Solid
Platform: Playstation
Released: October 21, 1998 (USA)



My first soiree into the series, and one of my personal favorites as it's stuck with me for many years. A lot of people like to think of this one as "the one before Kojima went insane" because of all the unrealistic plots the games have, this one was probably more believable. It had many cinematic cutscenes that were marvelous and also not rendered using CGI and the game was proud of it. Great localization and voice acting and it brings us one of our favortie quotes. (Snake? Snake?! Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!)

The game was also rereleased for the Gamecube with a complete overhaul. It was much similar to Metal Gear Solid 2 in looks and playing style, but was also less difficult than the original. But the cutscenes were all redone when Kojima looked at the carbon copy they made to the original and he said to scrap it because he wanted it to be better. So you could say it was the definitive Metal Gear Solid because it was made how Kojima could have originally envisioned it to be made.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: November 13, 2001



How do you top Metal Gear Solid? Simple, with another better looking, better controlling game! Sadly, the series kinda starts to go a little crazy but most people didn't care. The only bad thing to come from this game was probably Raiden and Rose. But we'll forgive them for that, since the game was the same old Metal Gear with some new twists.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Platform: Playstation 2
Released: November 17, 2004



And we come to my personal favorite in the series, Snake Eater! This was the game that took Snake back to his roots, to the time of Big Boss, before Les Enfants Terrible, Outer Heaven, everything! It was an amazing game that was rebuilt from the ground up to make sure that it ran as best it could and took us to a place where we had never known Snake to be before, outside! The jungle, in Russia! It was the best plot, and in my opinion the best game. It also had one of the longest endings in the Metal Gear series, although I never timed the ending for Metal Gear Solid 4.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Platform: PSP
Released: December 5, 2006



This was an interesting one. It was the first to use squad-based gameplay and it took Snake out of the completely open world and environments and made you move around a map and select areas to enter, where you would pick your teammates and just go. You also didn't have to run around with Snake if you were so inclined. This one's plot was a little iffy, but it introduces us to a few series favorites, like Roy Campbell, and Null who is better known as Grey Fox.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Platform: Playstation 3
Released: June 12, 2008



Hope you guys enjoy cutscenes because this game is chock full of them. It was supposed to be the closer for the series, where all questions were answered, and they were, just not in a timely fashion. It was a great game, because it looked good, felt good to play control-wise and it was given a lot of care and attention to make sure it was the best Metal Gear Solid could be. And I think they were almost a little short of it, but they did give it their all. I've seen documentaries about the making of the game and you could tell things were very very stressful considering all of the things they wanted to achieve with this game.

There were a lot of things that happened in this game that made me and the other people with me while I was playing just stare and say "Wow".

And that was supposed to be it...but now we have two more on the way. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP, and Metal Gear Solid: Rising which is bringing in everyone's least liked protagonist Raiden. They're dropping the Tactical Espionage Action for this one and replacing it with "Lightning Bolt Action" (Oh Kojima, you're silly). Personally I feel the series was concluded and should have stayed that way, but we'll see where this goes. Your opinions?

[Typhoid]

I like MGS4 the most, because the final fist fight is awesome and epic. Throwbacks to the old music and everything, I thought it was great. I replayed that one fight so many times. I also thought the game was generally well-done, and felt like I was playing a movie, which I didn't mind. It had some typical funny MGS moments, which I also liked.

But more or less the reason I like it the most is the online. The "Solid Snake" mode is pretty great.

[TheGame]

It's funny how people dislike Raiden, I think Metal Gear Solid 2 was the best MGS game. I like how it was open ended, had tons of philosophy, and how it introduced the patriots.

I think if Snake was the main character in that one, the game would have been a lot worse. IMO, the game added to the coolness and maturity of Snake by having the blinded soldier be the main character. Snake was getting older, and was at a know-it-all stage, same with Otacon.

And in my opinion, the bosses have always been crazy. If anything, I'd say MGS2 has some of the most sane bosses of the series.

But anyway.. enough defending MGS2. I love this series, and I dont think I could rank them outside of liking MGS2 the most. Here's my favorite Codec scene:



This part, and the part with the president are the most memorable parts of the series in my opinion. I'm a fan of enemies who think they're doing the right thing and being unselfish.. MGS has loads of them.

[magus113]

Originally Posted by TheGame

It's funny how people dislike Raiden, I think Metal Gear Solid 2 was the best MGS game. I like how it was open ended, had tons of philosophy, and how it introduced the patriots.

I think if Snake was the main character in that one, the game would have been a lot worse. IMO, the game added to the coolness and maturity of Snake by having the blinded soldier be the main character. Snake was getting older, and was at a know-it-all stage, same with Otacon.

And in my opinion, the bosses have always been crazy. If anything, I'd say MGS2 has some of the most sane bosses of the series.

But anyway.. enough defending MGS2. I love this series, and I dont think I could rank them outside of liking MGS2 the most. Here's my favorite Codec scene:

omitted

This part, and the part with the president are the most memorable parts of the series in my opinion. I'm a fan of enemies who think they're doing the right thing and being unselfish.. MGS has loads of them.

I need scissors! 61!

MGS3 also had that awesome Bond-like theme.

[magus113]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I like MGS4 the most, because the final fist fight is awesome and epic. Throwbacks to the old music and everything, I thought it was great. I replayed that one fight so many times. I also thought the game was generally well-done, and felt like I was playing a movie, which I didn't mind. It had some typical funny MGS moments, which I also liked.

But more or less the reason I like it the most is the online. The "Solid Snake" mode is pretty great.

I sadly never played much of the online. I'm not bashing the series at all, I just don't know. For some reason MGS3 had a big impact on me, especially the ending. I sat there and was so drawn into all the revelations and all the other stuff that I can't say without spoiling.

I'd love to go back and finish it one more time, but I need to finish Portable Ops (I'm at the MG RAXA fight) and I have to restart the MSX2 games too.

[Typhoid]

I sadly never played much of the online.

It's really fun.
The "Snake" mode is the best, because you have two sides fighting in a sort of Counterstrike style, but then one person is Snake, and his objective is to CQC 3 people and get their dogtags, active camo and all.

[TheGame]

Originally Posted by magus113

I sadly never played much of the online. I'm not bashing the series at all, I just don't know. For some reason MGS3 had a big impact on me, especially the ending. I sat there and was so drawn into all the revelations and all the other stuff that I can't say without spoiling.

I'd love to go back and finish it one more time, but I need to finish Portable Ops (I'm at the MG RAXA fight) and I have to restart the MSX2 games too.

Yeah metal gear solid 3 is incredible. A lot of people don't like how long the "ending sequence" is.. Or when the end appeared to be coming anyway. But yeah I loved it. The end cinematic where he gets the medal of honor is amazing.. And I love the end music lol

I loved portable ops too. I ran through that game 10 or so times.. got most of the possible soldiers.. And even with all that said, if I buy anoher PSP it'll be my first game.

[Vampyr]

MGS3 is the only one I've played all the way through...but it was an epic, epic game.

[magus113]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

MGS3 is the only one I've played all the way through...but it was an epic, epic game.

I'm definitely gonna second that. The first time I bought it I had a hard time getting into it cause it was so different, and sadly my PS2 borked and now I tried playing it on my PS3 (which is newer so it has software emulation) so when I fought The Fury it started to laaaaaaag. So pissed.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Snake? Snake? Snake?... SNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEE!

[capablemachine]

MGS4 was a piece of garbage... maybe not completely. The one thing they failed to do was make a metal gear game. They tried to put in too many elements and the world got to big. They should have kept it to one broad location and tried to pack in as much as they could. Of all the metal gears it has the least gameplay. I mean you can do a speed run in less time but the only thing that holds you up is waiting in Act 3 for a whistling man who is supposed to be inconspicuous. They had an interesting control scheme but one that wasn't really utilised. All the quirky elements were exhausted by act 1 and then it felt like it was on auto pilot to hurry and finish it. I think the best example is hiding in the garbage cans. They obviously had a vision that they'd use the controller put elements like that in the game throughout but somewhere along the way it turned into running great distances and watching three people say things in an aeroplane that had nothing to do with the next set of events which were always "get to this red dot on your map".

I personally like MGS3 the best because it has a good feel to it. You can see the journey of big boss and the changing environments is pretty cool to see. There's a lot of additional content and areas and it ties together pretty well considering it was on a system that was pretty old.

[TheGame]

Originally Posted by capablemachine

Of all the metal gears it has the least gameplay. I mean you can do a speed run in less time but the only thing that holds you up is waiting in Act 3 for a whistling man who is supposed to be inconspicuous.

Depends on how you do it.

Since the game is in a more "open" environment that doesn't kick your butt too hard for being caught, and it gives you the fire power to fight back.. yeah you could play the game like it's Halo, and just run through it and blast your way to the end pretty easy (on the easier modes).

If you really want to play the game like its a sneaking mission, and get minimal alerts and kills... Then suddenly it turns into argueably the longest MGS game.

My biggest downside with MGS4 was TOO much hype and public info. I actually had the joy of playing MGS 1-3. and MGX 1-2 with very limited spoilers. While MGS4, I pretty much understood the whole story before I started it. So it didn't have that same shock value as the other games. (Though, the ending acts they managed to keep secret pretty well.. and that was worth it.)