An inconsistent, dated, and genius work of art that, even in its worse moments, shows the vision that Kojima had. Its highs are fantastic, and its lows are grueling, but the sum is certainly greater than its parts. Rather than do a full-length review, I'll give the cliffnotes.
- Otacon and Snake are bi lovers, you can not change my mind, don't try.
- The sudden shift into the backtracking and boss battle-focused second half was admittedly jarring, but not enough for me to not enjoy it anymore. The first half's emphasis on stealth is still much stronger, however.
- The game's lore, while good, is delivered in an odd way. It's mostly just pausing the game to give you 5-10 minutes of exposition before continuing. Obviously, this is more of a limitation of the time period, and wildly ambitious for that time period as well, but reveals some pacing oddities almost 25 years later.
- The boss battles are hit or miss. The one in the freezer is super cool and rewards tactical thinking, as well as the one with the chairs, but any fight that has sniping is dreadful and the lack of checkpoints during certain fights (see: the one with the Stinger rockets) turn some awesome battles into repetitive slogs.
- The characters are all fantastic, super memorable and enjoyable to hear. Otacon's naivete about the work he does, Colonel's paternal way of speaking to both Snake and the player, Mei Ling's genuine sweetness and desire to help at all turns, it's all really good. The voice acting is great, too, especially for the time period when you compare it to games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. David Hayter's almost-parody action hero voice for Snake, Cam Clarke's condescending sneer for Liquid, Greg Eagle's cool glide that cuts through the air like a knife reminiscent of 70s exploitation film stars for Ninja, I really just can't get enough of the cast.
- I genuinely can not imagine being a kid in 1998 and experiencing the 4th wall breaks that happen in this. Like, even as an adult in 2022, they're still cool as hell to me. They don't feel hokey or cheesy, like the typical "nyahah, you're playing a VIDEO GAME" types in other games, but rather at the drop of a hat connecting the player and Snake as one entity, and I think it works really well.
So, in short, despite it being very obviously dated and clunky, as well as totally all over the place in terms of quality, I still think this game has earned its stripes as one of the all-time greats, not even factoring in how influential it was and how fresh it, honestly, still is. I'm very excited to see where the rest of the series goes.
- Otacon and Snake are bi lovers, you can not change my mind, don't try.
- The sudden shift into the backtracking and boss battle-focused second half was admittedly jarring, but not enough for me to not enjoy it anymore. The first half's emphasis on stealth is still much stronger, however.
- The game's lore, while good, is delivered in an odd way. It's mostly just pausing the game to give you 5-10 minutes of exposition before continuing. Obviously, this is more of a limitation of the time period, and wildly ambitious for that time period as well, but reveals some pacing oddities almost 25 years later.
- The boss battles are hit or miss. The one in the freezer is super cool and rewards tactical thinking, as well as the one with the chairs, but any fight that has sniping is dreadful and the lack of checkpoints during certain fights (see: the one with the Stinger rockets) turn some awesome battles into repetitive slogs.
- The characters are all fantastic, super memorable and enjoyable to hear. Otacon's naivete about the work he does, Colonel's paternal way of speaking to both Snake and the player, Mei Ling's genuine sweetness and desire to help at all turns, it's all really good. The voice acting is great, too, especially for the time period when you compare it to games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. David Hayter's almost-parody action hero voice for Snake, Cam Clarke's condescending sneer for Liquid, Greg Eagle's cool glide that cuts through the air like a knife reminiscent of 70s exploitation film stars for Ninja, I really just can't get enough of the cast.
- I genuinely can not imagine being a kid in 1998 and experiencing the 4th wall breaks that happen in this. Like, even as an adult in 2022, they're still cool as hell to me. They don't feel hokey or cheesy, like the typical "nyahah, you're playing a VIDEO GAME" types in other games, but rather at the drop of a hat connecting the player and Snake as one entity, and I think it works really well.
So, in short, despite it being very obviously dated and clunky, as well as totally all over the place in terms of quality, I still think this game has earned its stripes as one of the all-time greats, not even factoring in how influential it was and how fresh it, honestly, still is. I'm very excited to see where the rest of the series goes.