Yup, it's a masterpiece.
I kinda have a hard time writing about games that are critically acclaimed since by the time I get around to finally playing them everyones either already said everything that needed to be said about it, it's especially hard when said game is almost 26 years old and is from one of the most influential series in the whole genre.
Whatelse can I really say other then it's a triumph for the PS1, Kojima's love for movies and the medium shines through the 5th gen pixel style with some really inspiring storytelling and standout voice acting; and I don't just mean stand out for the era I mean stand out just in general. You can even see a glimpse of Kojima's surprisingly inspired cinematography for some of the cutscenes, yeah sure it's still PS1 so Kojima and his team couldn't go as raw as they probably wanted to but for what they were still able to put on the screen it's pretty damn impressive.
That's the word that kept popping into my brain the further I went into this game, impressive. The 5th gen was a blossoming era for video games, with the creation of the third dimension and significantly more space on a compact disk developers could go to much further lengths. They could add in voice acting, cutscenes to add in more context and story, the possibilities were...well not endless but still pretty close for the time. This new era had the ability to push gaming further than we've ever seen it before, and it kinda did that. See while devs had these new tools they didn't really know how to fully utilize them, that's how you'd end up with cheesy voice acting, poorly aged FMV or CG cutscenes, and stories that are about as shallow as a puddle; not all of them were like this but that's just the result of growing pains when it comes to a whole new way of making video games.
And in comes Kojima with his team and his encyclopedic knowledge of film and storytelling gave us Metal Gear Solid. Not only does it have a very keen eye for claustrophobic and imposing cinematography for both it's cutscenes and gameplay, but also it has a damn great narrative about the horrors of war, manipulation of soldiers and loss of individuality under army or governmental power, and the restrictive nature of letting your origin or genetics dictate your life and actions. And on top of that it does something I haven't seen a lot of other games of this era do well, which is tying its narrative and story into the gameplay in a way that also mirrors how so many studios do nowadays. Kojima's team walked in and almost effortlessly made a game that not only holds up today as a great story in gaming but holds the test of time as a stand out game......with a few exceptions.
See I've been going on about the presentation, the voice acting, the cinematography. I haven't really been talking all that much about the game part of this game, and that is mostly due to the fact that I think the gameplay is just ok. The stealth systems are pretty good and overall the game nails the claustrophobic nature of Shadow Moses through great level design, it's just going through Shadow Moses is kinda really easy. The guards have a very shallow field of view making it very easy to be able to bypass them without any trouble and the game feels like it flushes you with ammo so if you do get caught killing most guards isn't really that much of a problem, also it dosn't help that the enemy AI is kinda all over the place sometimes. I know this is PS1 and even with the impressive systems they made for this game there will still always be hardware limitations. Even then though it's not a deal breaker for me since I still think it's just ok, just not as grand and fantastic as its story or even its bosses.
Bottom line........I mean it's Metal Gear Solid it's fucking fantastic. Even with little problems I do have with the gameplay and some characters don't detract from how impressive and inspiring this was not just as a game but as a piece of media. This is a triumph of programming and now I have to play through the rest, just to see where Kojima takes his story and characters next.
I kinda have a hard time writing about games that are critically acclaimed since by the time I get around to finally playing them everyones either already said everything that needed to be said about it, it's especially hard when said game is almost 26 years old and is from one of the most influential series in the whole genre.
Whatelse can I really say other then it's a triumph for the PS1, Kojima's love for movies and the medium shines through the 5th gen pixel style with some really inspiring storytelling and standout voice acting; and I don't just mean stand out for the era I mean stand out just in general. You can even see a glimpse of Kojima's surprisingly inspired cinematography for some of the cutscenes, yeah sure it's still PS1 so Kojima and his team couldn't go as raw as they probably wanted to but for what they were still able to put on the screen it's pretty damn impressive.
That's the word that kept popping into my brain the further I went into this game, impressive. The 5th gen was a blossoming era for video games, with the creation of the third dimension and significantly more space on a compact disk developers could go to much further lengths. They could add in voice acting, cutscenes to add in more context and story, the possibilities were...well not endless but still pretty close for the time. This new era had the ability to push gaming further than we've ever seen it before, and it kinda did that. See while devs had these new tools they didn't really know how to fully utilize them, that's how you'd end up with cheesy voice acting, poorly aged FMV or CG cutscenes, and stories that are about as shallow as a puddle; not all of them were like this but that's just the result of growing pains when it comes to a whole new way of making video games.
And in comes Kojima with his team and his encyclopedic knowledge of film and storytelling gave us Metal Gear Solid. Not only does it have a very keen eye for claustrophobic and imposing cinematography for both it's cutscenes and gameplay, but also it has a damn great narrative about the horrors of war, manipulation of soldiers and loss of individuality under army or governmental power, and the restrictive nature of letting your origin or genetics dictate your life and actions. And on top of that it does something I haven't seen a lot of other games of this era do well, which is tying its narrative and story into the gameplay in a way that also mirrors how so many studios do nowadays. Kojima's team walked in and almost effortlessly made a game that not only holds up today as a great story in gaming but holds the test of time as a stand out game......with a few exceptions.
See I've been going on about the presentation, the voice acting, the cinematography. I haven't really been talking all that much about the game part of this game, and that is mostly due to the fact that I think the gameplay is just ok. The stealth systems are pretty good and overall the game nails the claustrophobic nature of Shadow Moses through great level design, it's just going through Shadow Moses is kinda really easy. The guards have a very shallow field of view making it very easy to be able to bypass them without any trouble and the game feels like it flushes you with ammo so if you do get caught killing most guards isn't really that much of a problem, also it dosn't help that the enemy AI is kinda all over the place sometimes. I know this is PS1 and even with the impressive systems they made for this game there will still always be hardware limitations. Even then though it's not a deal breaker for me since I still think it's just ok, just not as grand and fantastic as its story or even its bosses.
Bottom line........I mean it's Metal Gear Solid it's fucking fantastic. Even with little problems I do have with the gameplay and some characters don't detract from how impressive and inspiring this was not just as a game but as a piece of media. This is a triumph of programming and now I have to play through the rest, just to see where Kojima takes his story and characters next.
Iru
3 months ago