'Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions' (o Special Missions en Europa) fue distribuido en principio como un CD adicional de la edición completa 'Integral' de MGS, pero fue también publicado por separado con algunos cambios por el camino. Está pensado como un punto de entrada alternativo a la obra dirigida por Kojima, a caballo entre un tutorial y un "Break the targets" que ponga de manifiesto las técnicas avanzadas de Solid Snake. Poner el énfasis en su inventario, utilizarlo de formas inteligentes, divertidas, curiosas, y centrar MGS puramente desde un enfoque donde la jugabilidad reina sobre todo. Por encima de cualquier parafernalia de Kojima y sin que nos esté interrumpiendo cada 5min con sus aspiraciones cinematográficas y narrativa rocambolesca.

Y lo mejor es que funciona. Las 'VR Missions' sintetizan todo lo que hace MGS único en una expresión minimalista, con una gran variedad de objetivos y formas de resolver cada uno de sus 150 niveles (300 para el juego ya que cuenta doble cada nivel: por prácticas y contrarreloj). Como producto a lo sumo, son complementarias al tótem que supone el juego principal, pero son tan concisas en su simplicidad que se hacen realmente entretenidas de jugar y rejugar. Por una parte completando las "prácticas" y luego aspirando al mejor crono, los cuales son bastante interesantes de intentar ya que incluyen marcas de los desarrolladores bastante competitivas, que obliga a plantearse nuevas estrategias sobre la marcha para optimizar el tiempo y consumir menos munición (lo cual reduce también el tiempo final). La gran mayoría de niveles están enfocados al uso de un arma específica y utilizarla de manera creativa para resolver la fase, pero también hay otras en las que debes pasar desapercibido hasta la meta, y luego un "modo especial" que incluye los conceptos más raros y bizarros (y más currados) del CD, aunque requiere de un alto porcentaje de juego completado para acceder a ellos.

Sin ser algo rompedor de por sí, las VR Missions son una alternativa ideal a la aventura principal de Kojima, y hasta cierto punto resultan más atractivas de jugar. Sin embargo, el juego principal sigue siendo el todo, tiene la atmósfera, el contexto, la parafernalia de Kojima. Por mucha manía que le podamos coger al creativo japonés, entre sus ambiciones se atisba un espíritu trasgresor y revolucionario que, cuando funciona, eleva sus videojuegos a otro nivel (aún con sus problemas). Las 'VR Missions' no pueden sustituir a Kojima en su apogeo creativo, pero sí sirven para descubrir que más allá del culto de personalidad se esconden unas bases jugables sólidas y escudriñadas hasta el más mínimo detalle. ¿Por qué no aprovecharlas?

"Filler Content"

Wasn't too excited to play this one, but figured I would at least give it a shot considering I did like some of the sandbox nature of the original game. This pretty much delivered something akin to that, though I wasn't happy to see that stages were locked behind completion of previous ones...which didn't make much sense for a training mode. Additionally, the content is just duplicated with a normal training mode and a time trial mode, meaning you actually get about half of the content the game advertises.

There's no plot to be found here, and instead it's to serve as a training module for the first game. The problem here is that the first game was already completed, so there isn't really a point to completing this if you've already played that. This would've been better if it was added as content to the first title, since as a standalone release it makes little sense to play it afterwards unless you really enjoy the idea of timed challenges and whatnot.

I don't really have much else to add for this one. The graphics aren't very special considering it's mostly a green VR area you run around. There's no real voice acting to really talk about. There isn't even a cleaning up of the game mechanics, they're pretty much copied over with some trials to complete with the same weapons and gadgets. To me, this was just a waste of my time and I'm glad to have just dropped it after about an hour of messing around with it.

Final Verdict: 4/10 (Below Average)

The Metal Gear series has often been criticised of terminal verbosity, to the detriment of the gameplay. Hideo Kojima (the series' designer) has a boundless imagination for deep and interesting game mechanics, each of his entries presents the palyer with a huge toolbox full of weapons, gear and unlockables that give you so many creative solutions to the game's problems. Unfortunately, he also has an equally huge issue with editing, so each of the games struggles with the balance of gameplay and narrative. Often upon finishing a Metal Gear game I'll realise I haven't even equipped half of the tools I had, but it just isn't necessary to really explore the potential of your tool set in most of the games.

So I do really think there's a good reason for something like VR Missions to exist. A game that strips away all of the fluff from the core gameplay, no story, minimal presentation: here's three hundred (three fucking hundred!) missions, go crazy. The concept is solid, it essentially exists to show you the full capabilities of every weapon and tool present in Metal Gear Solid, whilst making it more arcadey and gamified in the process. There's even room for some covert worldbuilding, especially with upcoming protagonist Raiden's mentioned VR training, things could definitely get weird and play with your expectations.

VR Missions doesn't really do any of this though. What's here is clearly rushed and slapped together from as much reused assets as possible, with only as much creativity as is strictly necessary. Three hundred is a bit of a cheat number, given that a good hundred of them you have to complete twice, once in practise and once in timed. Padding like this is rife, which wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't lock all of its most interesting levels behind shockingly high completion percentages. You might think that the Gray Fox face on the cover would suggest the game might center around him, perhaps he's an antagonist or you play as him for an extended portion. If you thought that, well, you'd be partially right, as you get to play him for three whole levels. THREE. And even saying three is generous given that they're all the identical, small room that clearly has just been ripped from the base game and god it's so disappointing.

There are a few other levels that are mildly interesting, with some cute twists, but I can count on one hand how often the game pleassantly surprised me across fifteen hours of play time. How many times it frustrated me to the point of having to walk away for a few hours though? Well I'd have to grow a lot more hands to count those on. The biggest problem is that the mechanics of the first MGS game are just too stiff for the game's more challenging levels to feel satisfying. Too much of the game focusses on the godawful combat when it comes closest to shining in its stealth challenges. I still think there's merit to VR Missions' idea, but in this current form I cannot excuse the sloppy execution.

I see you whining about the Master Collection. "Oh, poo. Where's my 4K Snake Eater? Wah wah wah." The real intelligentsia among you have little interest in how modern technology can warp and twist games that were very intentionally built for specific, old hardware with all their limitations. No, we're in it for convenient access to the dregs of the series.

No man alive will ever bother their arse replaying VR Missions on a PS1. If anyone was going to, it would be me, and I very much fucking am fucking not going to do that, thank you very much. But as I played Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion, chased higher ranks in Resident Evil 4's Mercenaries mode and witnessed how much the console's pick-up-and-play nature benefitted my patience for twitchy eShop trash like REKT and Marble It Up, the game has remained in the back of my mind, and the bottom of my Switch port wishlist. Being able to pick up the console and put it to sleep whenever the mood suited me got me through some of the biggest pains in the arse that videogames could throw at me.

Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, or Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions, or Metal Gear Solid: Integral - Disc 3 (it doesn't matter what you call it, as they're all present as separate, barely distinct ISOs in the Master Collection), is a very annoying game with little modern relevance. It was a little side-project put together in an alarmingly short amount of time by the software specialists at KCEJ, while the ideas guys were busy drawing up plans for MGS2. I've got a lot of respect for the no-name devs who put my favourite game together, and I'm empathetic to the notion that its mechanics could be explored in interesting ways outside the constraints of a story-based campaign. This game is my punishment for that trust.

Metal Gear Solid is mechanically rich. There's all sorts of unique weapons, items and enemy characteristics that don't get much play in a typical run through the campaign. When do you ever find a reason to plant a Claymore? Is that seriously your Vulcan Raven technique? It's often pretty fun to see these things explored with more direct intent. There's some interesting stuff with footstep noise, the cardboard box and infrared motion sensors. Interesting, but not often fun. The missions can often feel like internal tests, or technical showcases, not intended to be consumed by a paying audience. Some are so finicky, that you have to stop on exactly the right pixel before the intended solution plays out. Some require so much crawling that you start looking for tricks to complete the missions that the designers never intended. It doesn't help that so much of the 300 Missions list is padded out with both PRACTICE and TIME ATTACK variants of the same levels. The game is presenting you with horseshit, and having you obediently wade through it.

MGS1's controls and mechanics serve its main campaign well. Outside of that context, you really bump up against their quirks and restrictions. It's not a game that makes great use of analogue control, with movement restricted to eight directions, and no control over speed or momentum. It makes first-person weapons like the Stinger missile launcher and PSG-1 sniper rifle incredibly finicky to control. Shifting your aim is always at a pre-defined speed that you have little influence over, and chasing moving targets or attempting to pinpoint an angle can be infuriating. Again, it works well enough in the main campaign, where its utility is mainly limited to a couple of boss fights with complementary design. In big challenge arenas, with targets shifting behind cover in every direction, they're torture. Alzheimer's patients may want to use this game to help the public understand how debilitating it can be to live with their disease.

There is fun in VR Missions. Some of the more explosive weapons tests can feel quite gratifying after a series of fiddly stealth missions and physics challenges that require you to play them with robotic accuracy. I've perhaps focused on the frustration in the handful of surgically strict missions a little too much, here. The majority of missions are simple and underwhelming. Quite often, I'll finish a late-game level and think "Oh, was that it?" when I'm told I completed it in record time. It's kind of fun to see these tools get used more than the original game ever asked you to. C4 is particularly fun to play around with, strategically placing each explosive and detonating at the precise moment they're lined-up to do the most damage. Not something you'd allow yourself to do too often in MGS1, where alert phases and limited rations are more of a concern, but pocketed off to consequence-free missions, they're a fun tool. Western fans were relieved they wouldn't be asked to buy MGS1 again to experience this content, but I think they make most sense as a bonus disc in an expanded release of the original game. They're kind of a neat bonus for hardcore fans, but have extremely limited appeal outside of that audience. Like the soundtrack CDs or art books. It's merchandise. I'm siding with Substance's approach on this one.

If you make it all the way to 85% completion, you'll unlock the NINJA missions, allowing you to play as Gray Fox, with big jumps and twirling sword manoeuvres. Back in 1999, this was the shit, and understandably a big feature the game advertised prominently, but I don't know if it retains much of its original thrill in a post-Metal Gear Rising world. I think his animations and poses are still really cool, running down corridors brandishing his HF Blade out the bottom of his fist like a killer's dagger, and it's definitely the part of the package I was most nostalgic for, but it's clear the MGS1 engine is buckling under the pressure of trying to present fluid gameplay. I love games with restrictive, predictable movement, but it's best suited for situations where you can get a good view of your environment and make plans before attempting them. With something faster and more fluid, you're constantly running into enemies, missing shots and overshooting jumps. As much as I advocate for a more consistent approach to controls, I think it's clear why Mario 64's style had more influence in fast-paced action games than Tomb Raider did. The final of the 3 NINJA missions is an assassination mission, with you avoiding detection as you seek your target. It's my favourite of the bunch, as you take the time to scout your target and dodge patrolling guards, but it's set in the same room as the other two, and it's twenty seconds long. I'd have loved to have seen more of that kind of thing, but I imagine KCEJ exploded a few PS1 devkits attempting it.

Past that, the final rewards in the game mainly concern the PHOTOGRAPHING mode, where high-poly models of Dr Naomi Hunter and (after a bit of effort on the Sneaking Mode times) Mei Ling, sit in the middle of a VR arena, slowly playing out subtle, bored animations, and you're given the opportunity to dedicate two memory card slots to a highly-compressed photo of whatever you manage to capture within the time limit. This was always weird, and I feel like I'm exorcising long-held trauma by explicitly addressing it. The camera in MGS1 was a bit of a technical achievement, but they didn't give it a real purpose within the campaign, so it became something of an easter egg for those willing to go all the way back to the B-2 armoury after they acquired a LEVEL 6 PAN card. The devs who worked on it likely wanted to give it more of a showcase, which lead to capturing illicit details of Metal Gear RAY in MGS2, but their first answer was to take pictures of a lady, as objectifyingly as possible. They're not posing like supermodels, invested in their own image and making decisions on how to come across well in picture. They act unaware of your presence, and it feels really uncomfortable. There's no purpose to this mode. It exists outside of the main set of missions, and there's no reward for playing them. It's not even titillating, with Naomi and Mei Ling dressed in their office uniforms, just kind of standing there. Their models are fairly impressive for the PS1 though, and you can see the direct lineage from them to the characters in MGS2. Maybe the tech demo angle is the best justification for its inclusion. Maybe some folk really get off on this kind of thing, and it's good they can restrict their activities to a stupid PS1 game. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather play with the Demo One T-Rex.

Mind you, this is the impertinent scrutiny of a 2023 videogame player. Someone who could just as easily access the wizz pop bang thrills of a Grand Theft Auto V or broadband internet we can browse on our telephones. We didn't even have DVD collections to turn to when this came out. We were just sitting in our bedrooms with the promise of a PlayStation 2 future, and a hypothetical continuation of the Metal Gear story. Gnawing away at this diverting chewtoy made sense to devoted MGS fans in 1999. Would I recommend anyone try to get through it today? God no. You've probably got some new emails to read or something. This game was made for people whose wildest dream was 24 hour access to bored.com