This game aged so well :o
I played it for the very first time, I had never touched any Metal Gear Solid game before, and I'm really impressed by how great it feels to play this 25 years old game! It is so creative and well crafted that if it wasn't for the graphics, I wouldn't be able to tell that this game is that old.
Gameplay is very solid (snake lol), situations varies a lot and are always renewing, and there are so many tools to use. Not a single one feels useless. In every situations there is always something you can do or use to make things easier. Every time. And items you get at the start of the game stay usefull during the whole game and that's not something a lot of games manage to do!
Weapons are also very varied, there is one for every situation you can possibly imagine! Not a single one feels like its taking the job of another, even tho there are a lot of them.
The only item I didn't really use is the camera, because I don't really want to fill my PS1 memory card with screenshots :')
Also, something I really want to mention: everything is justified. It is mindblowing how any incoherence due to this being a game has been thought about and justified in universe. Just one example to explain what I mean: when someone calls you to give you orders, you hear a ringing sfx. This is so that you, the player, knows that you can answer the call. But in universe, this sound is emitted by a small device in the inner ear of Snake, meaning that only him can hear it. And there are things like that for everything and anything that the game does to be a game, it is both ridiculous and amazing hahaha!
From a pure playability perspective, the game is almost perfect. The character controls feels very responsive, the camera angles are never playing against you and everything works really well. I have only two criticisms to make, both of which are forgivable if you consider that this game was released a quarter of a century ago:
･ Menus (both the items and weapons ones) are a bit tiresome to naviguate. This is even more true on the second half part of the game because you have so many items and you have to switch very often, meaning that you are pausing the game and scrolling through aaaaaaall the list very frequently.
･ The sniper rifle is very slow to aim, because it's so zoomed in, and it makes using it really hard for nothing. But you don't need it very often so it's alright.
I'm so glad I got to play MGS on the original hardware, because the game tends to do meta stuff in very clever ways. I think the best-known example is the Psycho Mantis fight, but what really got me was the way to find the frequency to contact Meryl. Those who know know, but when I figured this out it felt so smart and unexpected! This alone was already worth the money I spend to get a physical copy to play it on my PlayStation.
Speaking of Psycho Mantis, it's a boss fight and there are many others. I feel I'm repeating what I said about the weapons but all of them are very unique! They all have very precise weaknesses to dicover and it always feels very rewarding to beat them.
You will probably die a few time but once you know how to beat a boss, it is just a matter of doing the right thing. The game is never too hard and it is very generous with checkpoints, so progression is very fluid.
The music contributes greatly to the atmosphere, whether during stealth sequences or the iconic "Encounter" track when you are spotted! And it also works really well during cutscenes!
And cutscenes this game has, and some amazing ones even! It's impressive to see the level of detail in the staging. There are so many creative decisions with camera shots and the depicting of the scenes!
The plot is very interesting and it catched my interest quickly. Characters are great. They all feel like they had things happen to them prior to the story and that makes them interesting. Only complaint: it's a shame but the game is a bit sexist at times...
The writing is great, the story is full of mysteries, conspiracies and betrayals, and it kept me hook until the end!
Also, and that may be the most important aspect depending on who you are, the game has a really strong message about war and nuclear weaponnary. Games with strong messages are the games I tend to like the most, so I enjoyed this part a lot.
I played the game in french, and it is knowned for it particularily cheesy dubing. I don't know how the original japanese version was, but I actually really enjoyed how the actors played. It is a bit goofy, but somehow when tragic events happens, it still works and the mood is absolutly not ruined by the dubing. It's so strange because I was expecting it to sound ridiculous, considering all the parodies I have heard prior to actually playing the game.
By the way, I love Mei Ling and her quotes that you get every time you save. It's very entertaining and made me look forward to the next time I would save! In what other game are you hyped about saving? Not a lot of games I think :')
So! All in all an excellent game that I recommand to everyone! Play it on original hardware if you can, because I think otherwise you will lose some fun ideas that work only with the way the game was originaly meant to be played.
It's rare to find games that aged as well as this one, so well that I found it more enjoyable than many other games that came out way after this one! It is also realtively short (count around 10h to go through the whole thing on your first playthrough), so it is absolutely not a huge time investment.
I'm now really looking forward to playing the other MGS games!
Thanks for reading my thoughts, as always its super long but I can't help it haha :D
I played it for the very first time, I had never touched any Metal Gear Solid game before, and I'm really impressed by how great it feels to play this 25 years old game! It is so creative and well crafted that if it wasn't for the graphics, I wouldn't be able to tell that this game is that old.
Gameplay is very solid (snake lol), situations varies a lot and are always renewing, and there are so many tools to use. Not a single one feels useless. In every situations there is always something you can do or use to make things easier. Every time. And items you get at the start of the game stay usefull during the whole game and that's not something a lot of games manage to do!
Weapons are also very varied, there is one for every situation you can possibly imagine! Not a single one feels like its taking the job of another, even tho there are a lot of them.
The only item I didn't really use is the camera, because I don't really want to fill my PS1 memory card with screenshots :')
Also, something I really want to mention: everything is justified. It is mindblowing how any incoherence due to this being a game has been thought about and justified in universe. Just one example to explain what I mean: when someone calls you to give you orders, you hear a ringing sfx. This is so that you, the player, knows that you can answer the call. But in universe, this sound is emitted by a small device in the inner ear of Snake, meaning that only him can hear it. And there are things like that for everything and anything that the game does to be a game, it is both ridiculous and amazing hahaha!
From a pure playability perspective, the game is almost perfect. The character controls feels very responsive, the camera angles are never playing against you and everything works really well. I have only two criticisms to make, both of which are forgivable if you consider that this game was released a quarter of a century ago:
･ Menus (both the items and weapons ones) are a bit tiresome to naviguate. This is even more true on the second half part of the game because you have so many items and you have to switch very often, meaning that you are pausing the game and scrolling through aaaaaaall the list very frequently.
･ The sniper rifle is very slow to aim, because it's so zoomed in, and it makes using it really hard for nothing. But you don't need it very often so it's alright.
I'm so glad I got to play MGS on the original hardware, because the game tends to do meta stuff in very clever ways. I think the best-known example is the Psycho Mantis fight, but what really got me was the way to find the frequency to contact Meryl. Those who know know, but when I figured this out it felt so smart and unexpected! This alone was already worth the money I spend to get a physical copy to play it on my PlayStation.
Speaking of Psycho Mantis, it's a boss fight and there are many others. I feel I'm repeating what I said about the weapons but all of them are very unique! They all have very precise weaknesses to dicover and it always feels very rewarding to beat them.
You will probably die a few time but once you know how to beat a boss, it is just a matter of doing the right thing. The game is never too hard and it is very generous with checkpoints, so progression is very fluid.
The music contributes greatly to the atmosphere, whether during stealth sequences or the iconic "Encounter" track when you are spotted! And it also works really well during cutscenes!
And cutscenes this game has, and some amazing ones even! It's impressive to see the level of detail in the staging. There are so many creative decisions with camera shots and the depicting of the scenes!
The plot is very interesting and it catched my interest quickly. Characters are great. They all feel like they had things happen to them prior to the story and that makes them interesting. Only complaint: it's a shame but the game is a bit sexist at times...
The writing is great, the story is full of mysteries, conspiracies and betrayals, and it kept me hook until the end!
Also, and that may be the most important aspect depending on who you are, the game has a really strong message about war and nuclear weaponnary. Games with strong messages are the games I tend to like the most, so I enjoyed this part a lot.
I played the game in french, and it is knowned for it particularily cheesy dubing. I don't know how the original japanese version was, but I actually really enjoyed how the actors played. It is a bit goofy, but somehow when tragic events happens, it still works and the mood is absolutly not ruined by the dubing. It's so strange because I was expecting it to sound ridiculous, considering all the parodies I have heard prior to actually playing the game.
By the way, I love Mei Ling and her quotes that you get every time you save. It's very entertaining and made me look forward to the next time I would save! In what other game are you hyped about saving? Not a lot of games I think :')
So! All in all an excellent game that I recommand to everyone! Play it on original hardware if you can, because I think otherwise you will lose some fun ideas that work only with the way the game was originaly meant to be played.
It's rare to find games that aged as well as this one, so well that I found it more enjoyable than many other games that came out way after this one! It is also realtively short (count around 10h to go through the whole thing on your first playthrough), so it is absolutely not a huge time investment.
I'm now really looking forward to playing the other MGS games!
Thanks for reading my thoughts, as always its super long but I can't help it haha :D
2 Comments
@Tatassticot Hahaha, I can't wait for you to play Xenoblade :')
I'm really curious to know whether you'll like it or not, considering it's a JRPG!
I didn't know about those details you mention, but there are so many everywhere that it's impossible to find them all in one playthrough I feel! One thing I'm curious about: is it possible to win the the torture level? I think being forced to admit your own weakness goes along with the game's thematics, but I wonder if things might have been different if I'd decided that winning was worth getting tendonitis :')
I fully agree with you on the game's message, There aren't many games that try to do that and manage to do it so remarkably well.
And finally, as Snake replied in french: "C'est génial! Je prend mes affaires! 💪"
I'm really curious to know whether you'll like it or not, considering it's a JRPG!
I didn't know about those details you mention, but there are so many everywhere that it's impossible to find them all in one playthrough I feel! One thing I'm curious about: is it possible to win the the torture level? I think being forced to admit your own weakness goes along with the game's thematics, but I wonder if things might have been different if I'd decided that winning was worth getting tendonitis :')
I fully agree with you on the game's message, There aren't many games that try to do that and manage to do it so remarkably well.
And finally, as Snake replied in french: "C'est génial! Je prend mes affaires! 💪"
Tatassticot
4 months ago
Attention to details is a thing in MGS. Do you know you can call Natasha in a single room (the one before the chopper fight) to have a course on ropes an nylon ? Do you know you can hit liquid with the sniper rifle during the metal gear boss ? Do you know you can obtain Meryl frequency by equipping the cd in game item ? Do you know you can beat Psycho Mantis by destroying statues in his lair ?
You can do all of this, and that's wonderful.
I am very happy you liked the french dub the same way I love it. There's a lot of hatred on this because of its "z" taste, but I consider it a part of the MGS package.
I want to point out the point of the game over ecology, war, nuclear weaponery and other things (the "soldier as a hero" figure, the peace and its meaning...) as you did in your review. This is something rare, and it is especially well done in this game.
As Mei Ling says in french : "Lao Tseu disait : seul Link peut vaincre Ganon."