Nostalgic Nerd – Metal Gear Solid

A while back I came up with this idea for a way to review things from the ghosts of geeks past. Games, books, movies, etc from a few years back were likely never reviewed by our site. I was like 8 when Gremlins came out and that’s not fair that if all the reviews were used up before I began writing here. Alas, Nostalgic Nerd reviews were born.

images (2)Recently I played my way through Metal Gear Solid. This was my first run with this game (technically I got all the way to the hind battle with liquid 2 years ago then stopped playing). Yesterday, after just shy of 17 hours of game play spread out over maybe 4 days, I finally killed Liquid Snake. As far as Boss Battles go he was pretty relentless. You beat him in the hind, then in Metal Gear Rex, then again in Rex with the canopy/mouth open, then hand-to-hand, and finally in a shoot out car chase. He finally dies in the cut scene near the end. It was brutally hard, which I blame partially on the wonky controls and character maneuverability. My thumbs are sore from rolling across the d-pad in attempt to target missiles and direct punches in that final series of clashes.

imagesIn an interview with Game Informer Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima talked about the cut scenes in the upcoming Metal Gear V. Apparently they will be reduced a bit. After making my way through this first one I can’t imagine why. It took me 16:57 to beat the game and I’m pretty positive at least 15 hours of it was cut scenes and codec conversations. Kojima originally wanted to be a movie maker and story was at least half of this game. I like a good story and that’s honestly what makes a game for me. So the cut scenes and conversations and all story elements were mostly fine as far as I’m concerned.

 

images (3)I mentioned that the controls felt a bit off. Well the game originally came out in 1998 on the Playstation. This is obviously the reason behind why my thumbs didn’t navigate as smoothly through battles as they do in more modern games. The graphics were decent for a game 13-years-old. My kids thought they were awful but they still watched me make my way through the story.

The story itself is a stealth espionage mission in which you play popular protagonist Solid Snake. It continues the story from previous gen game Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2.

In MGS Snake must infiltrate an Alaskan military base currently occupied by rogue agents and former followers of Snakes predecessor and quasi-father Naked Snake. These agents are in position of a top secret military weapon, Metal Gear, a bipedal tank with mounted railgun and nuclear capabilities. As the game continues heavy elements from Snakes past come into play. I don’t remember the original MG games to well so I found myself piecing together the story loosely and using a lot of Wiki. But it does a fair job of backtelling and providing the appropriate clues to keep the story coherent.

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I’m not one to youtube a walkthrough or google cheats. If you can’t make your way through on your own then it’s kind of like you didn’t beat the game. I have to be honest hear, I couldn’t find the disc with Meryl’s codec number on it. To explain further, the game was originally released on Playstation and the game disc had Meryl’s codec number on the back. At a certain point the Col. asks you to contact Meryl and the only way to do that is by getting her contact info off the disc. I was playing a DL’d version of the game on PS3. I had no disc and didn’t know why I couldn’t find a disc in the game. Also, about two-thirds of the way in you have to switch discs. It confused me a bit on how to switch discs on a DL’d game with no disc (hit the PS button and the option to switch disc is among your choices). So the game may have lost something in translation.

The idea of making your way through a game avoiding conflict was fun. I liked the story even though the names and characters were heavily saturated in 90’s feel (the final fight with Liquid you both have your shirts off for some reason?). The controls weren’t as smooth as I would have liked and though it’s not fair to judge the game now for what would have been fine then it still was a bit of struggle. I like cut scenes and story but even so it was honestly a bit excessive. MGS had a lot of weapons and items which I remember being one of my favorite things as a kid about MG. Also, Solid Snake carrying a couple of boxes to hide in is brilliant. All-in-all it was real good and I’ll likely try some of the sequels and prequels.

4.5 out of 5

 

 

As always feel free to disagree in the comments section below or directly @werewolforigin on twitter

About Eric bookout

Writer/Artist for X amount of years. Recently worked with people from IGN on a comic and studied writing under Victor Gischler of Marvel Comics at RSU in Oklahoma more X amount of years ago. Follow me @WerewolfOrigin on twitter
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One Comment

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