Extreme Make Over: Metal Gear Solid Edition

A remake? No, this is a parody and a love letter to action films.

How do you make a parody of Metal Gear Solid? The original game is already self-aware and self-indulgent to an extreme - always making you laugh with things like the writing, the way Meryl walks, Otacon pissing himself and perhaps more plot-twists than in a Yakuza game.

I read this was originally going to be more faithful to the original but Kojima didn't like the idea and did everything in his power in order to make it different, going so far as to handpicking the cutscene director - Ryuhei Kitamura.

The beautiful and melancholic soundtrack of the original was replaced for more of a generic action movie soundtrack but it fits the tone of what this project was going for so I don't have any problems with that.

The only problem I have with this is how they didn't remake the level design to account for the gameplay changes they exported from MGS2 - it makes the gameplay asinine. But perhaps this is what they were going for? For you to disconnect your brain and just have a laugh? Still, I would have liked to be more surprised with level design changes like in REmake.

In an era where we are plagued by inoffensive remakes and the only thing they do is be the same game but with more polygons and different lighting - The Twin Snakes justifies its existence by presenting itself as a parody and something different.

When I'm in the mood for something pretty and challenging I will play Metal Gear Solid 1; when I only feel like disconnecting my brain and having a laugh I will play The Twin Snakes.

Never has a videogame -or anything else for that matter- made me feel and care so much for an AI.

I always wanted a dog growing up but my parents were not okay with it - I feel like The Last Guardian filled that small void in my childhood memories.

Did I say AI? Scratch that, my heart doesn't feel right when calling Trico that ugly word.

Preface: Thanks a lot to Andria for working on the fan-localization patch! I feel more connected to brother NieR having a sister myself. :)

The soundtrack is one of the most beautiful OSTs I have ever listened to. The emphasis on the percussions and vocals make for something that feels really unique.

On the gameplay side, I really enjoyed the variety of experiences I had outside of normal combat or quests - especially the visual novel segments which I didn't expect, almost as ridiculous as the +1 hour text dump you start getting on Route B. The combat is not stellar but it's serviceable.

Let's get this out of the way, the big majority of quests in NieR are not fun to do. Having said that, I don't necessarily feel negative about them - why? Helping people is not always fun and it makes sense for NieR to have this element considering the message it's going for.

Speaking about this, maybe I'm just a psychopath but I can't really connect with NieR's message of empathy in how they present it. Themes are not as heavy-handed and on-the-nose as in Automata but I still find NieR's lack of subtlety to be a little too much for me.

Verticality is mostly always seen as indication of good and creative level design in the video game sphere - this is especially true for platformers for which I can see the case being made but I do think that holding this as some sort of universal fact limits creativity and can make everything feel the same; when all the designers are striking for the same goal of verticality it can all start feeling ridiculous.

I wouldn't say verticality always conducts to good level design. Point in case is the DOOM franchise, where my favorite official maps to date are still those designed by John Romero for Episode 1 (1993) which do have this element but it's restrained to the point of working well with the nuances of classic DOOM gameplay or even Sandy Petersen's Mt. Erebus where most of the enemy encounters happen in a horizontal fashion.

When this element gets out of hand you get things like Industrial Zone for Doom II which I appreciate for existing for being so ridiculous, having enemies on top of skyscrapers shooting at you and then having to jump off buildings to reach the bit of land where you need to go is interesting but it's not fun on the whole - all of this in a game where you cannot look up or down.

On this same line of thought, corridor and maze-like levels in first-person shooters are often seen as something boring and indicative of bad design but I especially don't agree with this at all.

DOOM 64 had to work with the limitations of the N64 which is partly the reason that there's an emphasis on back-tracking, compact level design (which conduct to what people call corridor-like/maze-like) and even absense of verticality.

Instead of a "DOOM lite" coming out of these limitations, the developers justified these elements by giving DOOM 64 an atmospheric and survival horror spin. Whereas 1993 and DOOM II are a gamer fantasy of being an overpowered macho marine listening to heavy metal and blasting through hordes of demons (okay maybe DOOM II on UV not so much); 64 exists to oppress you, scare you and make you realize you had claustrophobia all along and need a big open space to breath some fresh air.

The soundtrack was changed from renditions of heavy metal classics to oppressive atmospheric sounds. Deciding not to go with these dopamine-inducing tracks was a great choice thematically for 64, it does play with the theme of you being somewhere you don't really belong. Just have a listen to Final Outpost for example

I love the art design for 64: the darker color palette, the environments, the weapons and enemy re-design were all done incredibly well. My favorite redesigns probably being the Imp and the Pain Elemental, Nightmare Imps are also a really cool new addition.

Difficulty is also really important for me, I usually enjoy challenging things. I would say the hardest difficulty level of 64 (Watch Me Die!) sits somewhere in between DOOM II's UV and 1993's UV (closer to the latter) so I was not disappointed in this regard. I did play Sunlust on UV (cbt) before this so my concept of difficulty might be a little distorted.

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because I did feel the levels had some predictability to them, maybe a byproduct of me already having beaten 1993, DOOM II and Sunlust so it's harder to surprise me. I still miss that feeling of wonder and surprise that 1993 gave me though so that one is still my favorite.