Platform: PS3 (Metal Gear Solid Collection)
Genre: Third-person, Stealth, Action
Gameplay Stats: 11 hours, died many times
So, it's fair to say that I've missed the boat for jumping on the MGS bandwagon. I was talking to some friends on Skype that convinced me that it was a bandwagon that I would enjoy being on, so here I am! Attempting to hop on the bandwagon.
Visuals: It's hard to talk real honestly about a game that came out almost 20 years ago, but overall I think this game looks pretty good! The environments in particular are really good looking and if I were to try to place them in the scheme of console generation, I might place them in the PS2 generation instead of only in the PS generation. The human models though definitely haven't aged well. The shoulders in particular were pretty fantastically messed up as the torso and arms seemed to have some weird collision problems which was very apparent when they were different colors and kept overlapping in weird ways. There was no animation of the faces, but that was fine to be honest. It wasn't distracting.
Audio: It was great! The music that was there was pretty much perfect. The sound effects were pretty evocative in all of the right ways. When guards were alerted, there was no confusion. There was panic! Appropriately so. The gun sounds were a little flat, but I think that was to be expected from the era and the basic sounds that they were able to include.
Gamefeel: This was pretty good but could have been better, especially for a remaster on a last-gen console. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I really disliked the lack of joystick being available for control (I am in fact an idiot, it was in the PS3 options). The game didn't have a joystick originally though and is locked in 8 directional movement, so maybe it would have felt odd using a joystick anyway. I had a hard time aiming pretty frequently, but that could have been my own lack of familiarity with the PS3 D-pad. I thought that doling out upgrades automatically after boss fights instead of having a random item appear for no reason made a lot of sense. I usually felt like I had enough ammo/equipment to get by which was very helpful. There wasn't an abundance, but there was enough in almost every case. I do have a couple minor gripes for this section though. There were two times throughout my playthrough that I needed to consult a guide in order to progress. [SPOILERS] Admittedly, finding the sniper before the Sniper Wolf fight I can take responsibility for, I hadn't been thorough enough in my exploration. That Psycho Mantis fight though, I don't feel bad about needing to check a guide. I don't think I ever would have figured out that I needed to switch controller ports in order to land a hit or two. He kept saying that he was reading my mind and checked my memory card and all, but I don't think it was telegraphed enough. That being said, it was probably one of the more memorable boss fights that I have ever experienced and I won't soon forget it. I really liked the fourth wall breaking aspects of the game, which segues nicely to...
Plot: What the fuck. I was told to expect a nonsensical plot, so I went in with quite a bit of my disbelief suspended, but the last couple hours were out of left field. It was like they had weaved a coherent narrative throughout most of the story and then they were told they would be able to make a sequel at the last minute and decided to sneak a whole bunch of shit into the last little bit of the game. I think I would have been incredibly frustrated if I was playing this game at release since the plot raises so many more questions than it answers. Having the luxury of being able to start in on the sequel almost right away though makes the whole process a bit better. I've heard that the whole series raises more questions than it answers, so I'm gearing up for that experience. All that being said, the story was engaging and very well paced. It's a good bit of modern-historical/science fiction.
Overall I really liked this game! It hasn't necessarily aged the best, but keeping in mind the generation that it debuted, it really is a great piece of video game history. There was a lot of emphasis on trial and error, but there were frequent enough checkpoints that this wasn't overly frustrating. I'd recommend this game to anyone with the patience for a game that's old enough to drink. "Pretty Good"/10
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