I am very torn on how I feel about Metal Gear Solid. I know deep down that it is a good game, and I can recognize a lot of the great and innovative design choices that set it apart from both games of its time, and even games of today. But, I also can’t help but feel disappointed with it .While it very well might be the game’s monumental legacy overshadowing the actual game and thus overinflating expectations, I don’t think it is that. I think it is more of being indecisive on what it wants to be; it is trying to be both an evolution of the exploration and stealth based gameplay of the first two games, and a more cinematic, set pieces based, boss rush style game, with a much heavier emphasis on the narrative. As a result, it fails in both categories, these two styles don’t mix well. There are many good ideas and mechanics sprinkled throughout the entire game, but they end up feeling either half baked or void of their full potential. It ended up leaving a taste in my mouth that made me wish it would have fully embraced one or the other, instead of trying to have its cake and eat it too.
The stealth and general moment to moment gameplay has been greatly improved and innovated on from Metal Gear 2, which is to be expected with the eight year long gap in between games. Guards' patrol patterns are much less rigid now, they still follow pre-made routes, but they are much more aware than they ever were in the original duology. They will follow Snake’s footprint trails in the snow when in the outside areas, if Snake so much as lightly grazes a metal grate they will immediately become suspicious, and now they have the ability to look up because of the game being fully 3D. As well, the player’s abilities have been ever so slightly tweaked to make sneaking around more interesting. No longer can Snake just pixel perfect take out enemies with a couple of punches, if the player tries to melee an enemy, they will only knock them on the ground for a short time before they get up and trigger an alarm. As well, the player has access to gear such as flash and chaff grenades that can stun enemies and security cameras/turrets respectively, making the planning process of how to get around obstacles much more interesting and dynamic. On the flip side of the design docket, this game features many, many more linear action sequences and set pieces. From scaling down the side of a tower while being shot at by a HIN-D, to running up a million flights of stairs while being chased by a ceaseless amount of guards, this game really makes the player feel like they are in a big budget action movie. I particularly love how over the top the boss fights are, with fights like the HIND-D and and REX fights being sheer spectacles, and Psycho Mantis really challenging the idea of what a boss fight can be by making the player use real world things to gain the advantage. My problem, though, with both of these design styles is that they don’t compliment each other, at least not in the way they are implemented here.
I think the main problem is that these two styles don’t play into each other. Metal Gear Solid is not the first game to have bosses, nor is it the first to have set pieces, but what other games do right is that they build off of the normal gameplay so that those skills translate to whatever those special segments require of the player. Tomb Raiders traps require the same precision and platforming skills that the ordinary gameplay teaches, and a game like Resident Evils bosses usually has some kind of puzzle aspect because that is what comprises the rest of the game. Here though, each boss fight and action sequence has its own little one off mechanics and gimmicks that are found nowhere else in the entire game; the Sniper Rifle and stabilization meds are only really used during the Sniper Wolf fight, the rope climbing mechanic is only utilized in the HIND-D fight, and the Psycho Mantis fight is the only time the games asks the player to really think outside of the box in that manner. The only boss that doesn’t feel weirdly detached from the rest of the game is the fight with Raven, because it has Snake sneaking around setting up traps and taking potch shots at Raven while trying to get spotted by him. It just feels very jarring going from a small stealth segment that plays like the previous games, into a near 30 minute long cutscene that is then followed up by an equally as long boss fight that nowhere near reflects the gameplay of the rest of the game. It's a complete whiplash in design, and creates a disjointed experience, at least for me.
Outside of that very specific criticism, I do have a couple other critiques that are probably a bit more understandable. Firstly, I'm not a big fan of how so many elements from Metal Gear 2 were just reused in this game with very little changes. Stuff like the temperature sensitive key card, the long chase up the stairwell to the roof, Snake getting jumped by four guards in the elevator, and even the final fight with Metal Gear and Liquid being almost identical to how the fight with Metal Gear and Gray Fox just kind of stuck me as a bit lazy. Though it could be that Kojima included these bits as a way to spiritually remake Metal Gear 2 in a way, but who am I to say? As well, Kojima’s writing style is a bit strange, he is very blunt and doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, and for whatever reason is very horny every time a female character is included in a scene. Lastly, the Sniper Wolf fight sucks, it just sucks, nothing more. Overall, I think Metal Gear Solid is an absolute spectacle of a game, it is a wild ride from start to finish. My only complaint is that it feels a little disjointed going from new idea to new idea, but I do think its greater than the sum of its parts.
The stealth and general moment to moment gameplay has been greatly improved and innovated on from Metal Gear 2, which is to be expected with the eight year long gap in between games. Guards' patrol patterns are much less rigid now, they still follow pre-made routes, but they are much more aware than they ever were in the original duology. They will follow Snake’s footprint trails in the snow when in the outside areas, if Snake so much as lightly grazes a metal grate they will immediately become suspicious, and now they have the ability to look up because of the game being fully 3D. As well, the player’s abilities have been ever so slightly tweaked to make sneaking around more interesting. No longer can Snake just pixel perfect take out enemies with a couple of punches, if the player tries to melee an enemy, they will only knock them on the ground for a short time before they get up and trigger an alarm. As well, the player has access to gear such as flash and chaff grenades that can stun enemies and security cameras/turrets respectively, making the planning process of how to get around obstacles much more interesting and dynamic. On the flip side of the design docket, this game features many, many more linear action sequences and set pieces. From scaling down the side of a tower while being shot at by a HIN-D, to running up a million flights of stairs while being chased by a ceaseless amount of guards, this game really makes the player feel like they are in a big budget action movie. I particularly love how over the top the boss fights are, with fights like the HIND-D and and REX fights being sheer spectacles, and Psycho Mantis really challenging the idea of what a boss fight can be by making the player use real world things to gain the advantage. My problem, though, with both of these design styles is that they don’t compliment each other, at least not in the way they are implemented here.
I think the main problem is that these two styles don’t play into each other. Metal Gear Solid is not the first game to have bosses, nor is it the first to have set pieces, but what other games do right is that they build off of the normal gameplay so that those skills translate to whatever those special segments require of the player. Tomb Raiders traps require the same precision and platforming skills that the ordinary gameplay teaches, and a game like Resident Evils bosses usually has some kind of puzzle aspect because that is what comprises the rest of the game. Here though, each boss fight and action sequence has its own little one off mechanics and gimmicks that are found nowhere else in the entire game; the Sniper Rifle and stabilization meds are only really used during the Sniper Wolf fight, the rope climbing mechanic is only utilized in the HIND-D fight, and the Psycho Mantis fight is the only time the games asks the player to really think outside of the box in that manner. The only boss that doesn’t feel weirdly detached from the rest of the game is the fight with Raven, because it has Snake sneaking around setting up traps and taking potch shots at Raven while trying to get spotted by him. It just feels very jarring going from a small stealth segment that plays like the previous games, into a near 30 minute long cutscene that is then followed up by an equally as long boss fight that nowhere near reflects the gameplay of the rest of the game. It's a complete whiplash in design, and creates a disjointed experience, at least for me.
Outside of that very specific criticism, I do have a couple other critiques that are probably a bit more understandable. Firstly, I'm not a big fan of how so many elements from Metal Gear 2 were just reused in this game with very little changes. Stuff like the temperature sensitive key card, the long chase up the stairwell to the roof, Snake getting jumped by four guards in the elevator, and even the final fight with Metal Gear and Liquid being almost identical to how the fight with Metal Gear and Gray Fox just kind of stuck me as a bit lazy. Though it could be that Kojima included these bits as a way to spiritually remake Metal Gear 2 in a way, but who am I to say? As well, Kojima’s writing style is a bit strange, he is very blunt and doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, and for whatever reason is very horny every time a female character is included in a scene. Lastly, the Sniper Wolf fight sucks, it just sucks, nothing more. Overall, I think Metal Gear Solid is an absolute spectacle of a game, it is a wild ride from start to finish. My only complaint is that it feels a little disjointed going from new idea to new idea, but I do think its greater than the sum of its parts.