The pieces are here, but they're not put together well...
Metal Gear, as seen on the NES (a port which took some liberties), has a great outline for an early stealth/action game, but it is full of flaws. I mean FULL of flaws.
A common complaint of games from this era (as in - before the mid-90s) is that there is a great deal of trial and error. This comes from the simple fact that games did not have the capacity to be long endeavors without some of what we would now call "artificial difficulty". Unfortunately that is only one small aspect of the issues that plague Metal Gear.
Stealth is the name of the game: sneak through an area and dispose of your enemies before they even know what hit them! Except... they respawn. Not only do they respawn when you leave a screen and go back, they respawn if you use your binoculars, they respawn if you exit the inside of a truck or building.
Enemy placement is frequently set to protect the entrance of a location... which means when you enter and then leave that location again, guess who is RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU AT THE DOOR? That's right, the 3 guys you killed 30 seconds ago. This time, you have nowhere to hide to sneak up on them.
I will forgive the translation errors. I can forgive the bugs. I have a hard time forgiving the level layouts that don't even give you the chance to hide in a game based on stealth.
I also have a hard time wrapping my head around just how many dogs I had to punch to death. As a child, my family had a German Shepherd/husky mix who looked just like the dogs in this game. RIP, Rocky, you were a cool dog for a little kid.
5/5 dog. 2/5 game.
Metal Gear, as seen on the NES (a port which took some liberties), has a great outline for an early stealth/action game, but it is full of flaws. I mean FULL of flaws.
A common complaint of games from this era (as in - before the mid-90s) is that there is a great deal of trial and error. This comes from the simple fact that games did not have the capacity to be long endeavors without some of what we would now call "artificial difficulty". Unfortunately that is only one small aspect of the issues that plague Metal Gear.
Stealth is the name of the game: sneak through an area and dispose of your enemies before they even know what hit them! Except... they respawn. Not only do they respawn when you leave a screen and go back, they respawn if you use your binoculars, they respawn if you exit the inside of a truck or building.
Enemy placement is frequently set to protect the entrance of a location... which means when you enter and then leave that location again, guess who is RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU AT THE DOOR? That's right, the 3 guys you killed 30 seconds ago. This time, you have nowhere to hide to sneak up on them.
I will forgive the translation errors. I can forgive the bugs. I have a hard time forgiving the level layouts that don't even give you the chance to hide in a game based on stealth.
I also have a hard time wrapping my head around just how many dogs I had to punch to death. As a child, my family had a German Shepherd/husky mix who looked just like the dogs in this game. RIP, Rocky, you were a cool dog for a little kid.
5/5 dog. 2/5 game.