The Metal Gear series has often been criticised of terminal verbosity, to the detriment of the gameplay. Hideo Kojima (the series' designer) has a boundless imagination for deep and interesting game mechanics, each of his entries presents the palyer with a huge toolbox full of weapons, gear and unlockables that give you so many creative solutions to the game's problems. Unfortunately, he also has an equally huge issue with editing, so each of the games struggles with the balance of gameplay and narrative. Often upon finishing a Metal Gear game I'll realise I haven't even equipped half of the tools I had, but it just isn't necessary to really explore the potential of your tool set in most of the games.
So I do really think there's a good reason for something like VR Missions to exist. A game that strips away all of the fluff from the core gameplay, no story, minimal presentation: here's three hundred (three fucking hundred!) missions, go crazy. The concept is solid, it essentially exists to show you the full capabilities of every weapon and tool present in Metal Gear Solid, whilst making it more arcadey and gamified in the process. There's even room for some covert worldbuilding, especially with upcoming protagonist Raiden's mentioned VR training, things could definitely get weird and play with your expectations.
VR Missions doesn't really do any of this though. What's here is clearly rushed and slapped together from as much reused assets as possible, with only as much creativity as is strictly necessary. Three hundred is a bit of a cheat number, given that a good hundred of them you have to complete twice, once in practise and once in timed. Padding like this is rife, which wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't lock all of its most interesting levels behind shockingly high completion percentages. You might think that the Gray Fox face on the cover would suggest the game might center around him, perhaps he's an antagonist or you play as him for an extended portion. If you thought that, well, you'd be partially right, as you get to play him for three whole levels. THREE. And even saying three is generous given that they're all the identical, small room that clearly has just been ripped from the base game and god it's so disappointing.
There are a few other levels that are mildly interesting, with some cute twists, but I can count on one hand how often the game pleassantly surprised me across fifteen hours of play time. How many times it frustrated me to the point of having to walk away for a few hours though? Well I'd have to grow a lot more hands to count those on. The biggest problem is that the mechanics of the first MGS game are just too stiff for the game's more challenging levels to feel satisfying. Too much of the game focusses on the godawful combat when it comes closest to shining in its stealth challenges. I still think there's merit to VR Missions' idea, but in this current form I cannot excuse the sloppy execution.
So I do really think there's a good reason for something like VR Missions to exist. A game that strips away all of the fluff from the core gameplay, no story, minimal presentation: here's three hundred (three fucking hundred!) missions, go crazy. The concept is solid, it essentially exists to show you the full capabilities of every weapon and tool present in Metal Gear Solid, whilst making it more arcadey and gamified in the process. There's even room for some covert worldbuilding, especially with upcoming protagonist Raiden's mentioned VR training, things could definitely get weird and play with your expectations.
VR Missions doesn't really do any of this though. What's here is clearly rushed and slapped together from as much reused assets as possible, with only as much creativity as is strictly necessary. Three hundred is a bit of a cheat number, given that a good hundred of them you have to complete twice, once in practise and once in timed. Padding like this is rife, which wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't lock all of its most interesting levels behind shockingly high completion percentages. You might think that the Gray Fox face on the cover would suggest the game might center around him, perhaps he's an antagonist or you play as him for an extended portion. If you thought that, well, you'd be partially right, as you get to play him for three whole levels. THREE. And even saying three is generous given that they're all the identical, small room that clearly has just been ripped from the base game and god it's so disappointing.
There are a few other levels that are mildly interesting, with some cute twists, but I can count on one hand how often the game pleassantly surprised me across fifteen hours of play time. How many times it frustrated me to the point of having to walk away for a few hours though? Well I'd have to grow a lot more hands to count those on. The biggest problem is that the mechanics of the first MGS game are just too stiff for the game's more challenging levels to feel satisfying. Too much of the game focusses on the godawful combat when it comes closest to shining in its stealth challenges. I still think there's merit to VR Missions' idea, but in this current form I cannot excuse the sloppy execution.