Am i the only person that understands MGS's story?

[Blobpie]

I can sum up MGS's story in three words... WAR IS BAD!!!

I'm not quite sure if that is a message you can take seriously, it seems to be more a statement of certain perspectives in the storyline.

If I had to summarize it I'd probably say that it's a bunch of whining about Ronald Reagan's "MX Missle Program" that went on decades after it was relevent.

See, back when the first Metal Gear came out things like that were more relevent, and the entire thing was a spoof on the US, and even made cartoonish "characture" referances to some of the enemies of the time like the Ayatollah. Snake himself looked a lot like "Rambo" who was the quintessential 80s action hero in most minds.

In case you haven't heard about it, since it's kind of old, the "MX Missle Program" was basically the idea that the US was going to load large portions of it's nuclear arsenal onto trains and trucks (mostly trains) and keep them constantly on the move so in case of a war it would be very difficult for our enemies (the USSR) to sabotage or pre-emptively strike our missles. A contreversial aspect of it was that pretty much nobody would ever know exactly where these missles were at any given time, the idea being that if nobody knew then the Russians couldn't intercept that information to go after the missles. There would be very specific protocols in place for making contact with them, otherwise they would be in the dark.

This idea of course freaked a lot of people out, fears of the US losing it's missles and never knowing it were common, and similar things. The program was apparently scrapped as originally planned, but was secretly implemented in part (as we later learned) with some missles moving that way, but not as many as were planned. Russia incidently had it's own version, and in some movies you'll see Russian trains with missles on them, and this is what that is a referance to.

At any rate, that's what the whole "Metal Gear" concept basically is. A nuclear armed robot that would be moving around so it could in theory launch missles from anywhere. Not a remotely practical idea, but you have to understand the analogy in play, especially given the way how things constantly go horribly wrong with it.

It turned into more of a straightforward mecha thing, but at it's root it's all a satire of a big issue from decades ago.... and incidently when you consider what this concept is about, you can see how the storyline degenerates into nonsense especially given the passage of time and the need to keep it sort of relevent, especially for people who might not have even heard of the "MX Missle Program". ;P

Yea so to sum it up.

War is Bad!
There's no need to sugar coat the moral of the story.

 

[Sacman]

it's just so poorly written and silly I don't care about it...

 

[Jumplion]

In all honesty, I've only played MGS4, so I cannot claim to understand the whole thing. But personally I love the MGS storyline, even if it does get confusing and silly at times. But I have read (I know, what a cop out) synopsizes of the other games and overall I understand it. I may need to replay MGS4 a bit to remember the details, but overall I get it.

I don't claim that MGS is the epitome of storytelling in games, though I seriously doubt it's horrible. That goes to the Resident Evil series . While putting dialogue heavy cutscenes isn't the best way to tell a story, I still find it a bit strange that people complain(ed) that "MGS4 has too many cutscenes!" Really? What did you expect from a series that prides itself on cutscenes? Clearly you wouldn't be the audience for the game.

But I'm rambling now, point is I understand most of the story, but again that's only from MGS4 and stuff. I still love the game itself, though I can fully and easily admit it's not the best out there.

EDIT: Oh, and don't forget, Kojima never really wanted to make a series out of it, as stated by other people in this thread. He only continued the series because of fan "demand" (understatement) and financial pressure from the company. I believe I read somewhere that Kojima wanted to use a different character for each game, but because of the huge backlash of Raiden in MGS2, he couldn't do it.

So basically, the jerkass fans of MGS run the show backstage. Damn fans, ruining everything! Fan games!

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Nope. I played it right through from Metal Gear to Peacewalker and the story is all pretty clear to me. The one thing that tends to screw people over is the whole Ocelot-Liquid thing. True, the plot gets a little more complicated at the climax of Sons of Liberty, but if you listen in the cutscenes, it's impossible to not get it.

 

[OtakuNinja]

this game and its series is without a doubt my favorite i have ever played, and yes i do understand the story, the only way i wouldent understand would be if i went in with an allout action bonanza mindset, but i didnt, i listened and i enjoyed it a hell of alot.

(all i can say it thank god for the pause in the cutscenes)

 

[nub the samurai]

I didn't understand MGS when I first played it because my first MGS game was MGS4. I had a basic idea of what was going on but I didn't really get it in detail. So I to download the thing from PS store that pretty much explains the story for you. Now I completely understand it.

 

[PhantomCritic]

I understand it perfectly, but thats also sort of the problem...it's too silly for my liking.

 

[HigherTomorrow]

It can be rather confusing at times, but by the end of 4 it was all explained. People (most often, the kind of people who bash the PS3 for having "no gaymes") don't like to admit that they understand it and want to prove that all PS3 or Japanese games are confusing messes.

 

[Dr. Feelgood]

I have a decent understanding of the Metal Gear story. I haven't played MGS4, but I've done some reading on the Metal Gear wiki page. Overall, I'd say the story is silly, but not difficult to understand. You know at the end of MGS3 where you hear Ocelot talking? Well, I wasn't able to figure out who he was working for. I'm pretty sure he was CIA, though. But, if that's the same Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid, does that mean that he defected from the U.S., since he was working with Liquid?

 

[Treblaine]

hhn

Besides, that event opened Snake's eyes to the true villains of the series: the Philosophers.

WHAT! How were the Philosophers to blame? The US Government sent The Boss on that mission. The philosophers didn't control the US government at that time.

I never said anything about blaming the Philosophers. Eve mentioned their horrible influence because it was a part of explaining Boss's upbringing, which she wouldn't be talking about if Snake never had to kill her.

Hmm... so what part does you know the actual game affect Big Boss? The part where his mentor was forced to defect and then kill her by his own hand, just for political machinations.

it all gets very confusing as there is so much contradiction over how much power The Philosophers really have and though it is treated as one over-arching organisation, there is still huge rivalry between USA, USSR and China. Seems The Philosophers had little to do with anything, the US govt sent The Boss on her "final mission" to get the Philosophers legacy (loads a money) and then sacrifice herself to cover their asses.

There is huge contradiction as The Boss gives quite good reasons for defecting including betrayal at the Bay of Pigs and having to kill the Sorrow and wanting to be back with her old unit from WWII who were mostly in the USSR now. EVA reiterates how she died for her country an was really a hero yet such a tragic one.

 

[DustyDrB]

Yep, you heard me. No, do not start crying, I am stating my opinion and bashing and whining will not cause me to change or open my eyes.

Welcome to the internet, dude. It's the place where everyone has an opinion, don't act so much like yours is groundbreaking or shocking.