What's your opinion on the Metal Gear franchise?

[Poppy JR.]

I've heard from a lot of people that Metal Gear as a whole is either a love it or hate it affair. Personally, starting with MGS3, I've been playing through these and have firmly planted myself in the "love it" category. The "hate it" crowd usually riff on the spotty controls and the goofy sense of humor, but I've gotten used to the controls, and personally I love the off-the-wall humor of the series. I think it keeps the lengthy cutscenes and melodrama balanced enough to keep the story interesting.

MGS3's bosses were a highlight of the game for me. The cobra unit, despite being goofy and weird, were also extremely interesting, and a blast to fight. The theme song has also been stuck in my head for several weeks. Next, I played Peace Walker, and beat the story once by myself and once with a friend. The depth of the development tree along with the sheer number of levels to play is astounding, especially for a PSP game. I loved the vehicle capturing aspect of the boss fights, and the fulton system was so much easier than the dragging from Portable Ops. I also noticed that Peace Walker was the goofiest of the games I'd played. The boxes and gimmick weapons were funny, and slightly reminded me of a soft sci-fi film.

My plan for playing the rest of the games is to continue chronologically, with Metal Gear on the MSX being the next game I plan to play.

What do you guys think about the games, and which one do you think is the best?

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Very mixed feelings.

I like the characters and the absurd story, but I've never liked the actual gameplay. I've played most of the games up to MGS4 at least once, but honestly, I prefer to watch other people playing them. One of my roommates in college absolutely loved the franchise, so I'd watch him play the games from time to time, and really I enjoyed them more as movies.

As for which one I like best... I dunno. In terms of characters and story, probably MGS3. In terms of gameplay, probably MGS4 (not because it was actually anything special, but because it was just more refined than the games before it).

 

[Zhukov]

Hand me a placard and ship me to Camp Hate.

- Yeah, the controls are shit on a stick. But I can deal with that. As a youngster I played console games that were ported to PC, then ported to Mac. I grew up on shitty controls. It generally takes controls that are downright non-functional to drive me away. Controls are the least of my problems with MGS.

- The tonal inconsistency. "Look, looook, people are dying! It's all so damn tragic! Cry, damn you! Now laugh, that grown man just did a shit in his pants! Is that not hilarious?! So laugh!" The serious stuff is fatally undermined by the so called humour and the humour could be generously described as childish.

- The dialogue. Oh my fucking god the dialogue. Maybe in the original Japanese it's pure gold. I wouldn't know. But the English at least is unadulterated garbage. Needlessly long winded drivel that sputters on and on and on and fucking on without either getting to the point or expressing the personality of the characters. It confounds me that the scripts manage to get through development without someone doing a double take and calling in the editing equivalent of a SWAT team. Only in video games (and perhaps direct-to-video movies) could this shit reach production. I guess that's what "auteur" means: nobody is willing to point out that the emperor is busily drinking his own urine.

- On top of it all, I never found the gameplay any better than slightly below average. Definitely not worth wading through the rest. I never got any more than halfway through a MGS game, if that.

I can kind of get that people enjoy the wackiness and the series undeniably has a way with cool details and hidden easter eggs. You certainly couldn't call it bland or design-by-committee. But I will never in a hundred years understand why people consider it some kind of sacred classic.

Now, press R1 to look up my skirt, lads. Teeheehee.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

It's insane.

I like it, I really do, but it is a very specific taste. It bounces back-and-forth between campy ridiculousness, over-the-top-action-like-anime ridiculous, and sincere heartfelt exploration of meaningful themes.

Normally, I'd dismiss something like this as unfocused rubbish, but somehow Kojima manages to make it work.

EDIT: Kojima somehow manages to make it work for some people. For others, it's just too weird and silly, or the fact that it is both weird and silly while also super-serious when dealing with certain plot events and themes isn't something that they can get over, and I COMPLETELY understand that.

 

[Casual Shinji]

They can be really good (MGS1/MGS3), but they can also be pretty bad (MGS2), and even absolute shit (MGS4).

Favourite is MGS1 (not Twin Snakes). It was the first one I played and it keeps things relatively grounded, despite the masked psychics and cyborg ninjas. It also goes for a more subdued sadness, rather than the very blatent emotional gut punch of MGS3.

 

[nevarran]

I like it. The story is utterly ridiculous, the characters are comically bad, the gameplay is generic...
Yet, for some reason I have fun playing the games.

 

[Mikejames]

Eh, I don't really leap to the defense of some of the later games' absurdities, but I really do remember MGS1 fondly.

The diversity of Foxhound, the Psycho Mantis fourth wall bits, some branching puzzle solving; it's a good bit of nostalgia for me.

Favourite is MGS1 (not Twin Snakes). It was the first one I played and it keeps things relatively grounded, despite the masked phychics and cyborg ninjas. It also goes for a more subdued sadness, rather than the very blatent emotional gut punch of MGS3.

That's the way to put it. It had its fantasy elements and some cheesy lines, but at a level I enjoyed.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I really enjoyed MGS1.. and that's about it. It's not that I've even played MGS2 or beyond, it's just that MGS1 actually totally fulfilled me in any interest I had in the series. There's just something about the design in the MGS ongoing series that doesn't appeal to me at all.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I love it. I can definitely understand why people don't for a variety of reasons but I just can't stop myself. Everything just gels with me perfectly.

Oh, and MGS3 is the best.

 

[Radeonx]

I'm very middle of the road, except for Revengeance. The story is interesting, but I don't really enjoy the gameplay. Except for Revengeance. It was a fantastic hack and slash game with a ridiculous and interesting story that had solid mechanics and kept me engrossed. By far the best game in the franchise, but other than that, they are the kind of games where I put up with the gameplay to get story progression at this point in the franchise.

 

[stroopwafel]

It depends on how you look at the Metal Gear games. MGS1 was like nothing I ever played when it was first released. It was the time(late '90s) when games strived to be 'like the movies' and MGS game closest to emulating this with its action packed cutscenes and heartfelt (melo)drama. The game had an interesting subtext of political intrigue and through the codec calls a mature way of handling real world topics. Espescially the way it addressed the threat of nuclear proliferation and terrorism was done in a smart way. And it more or less introduced the stealth genre on consoles.

MGS1 was an eclectic mix of different styles and influences; from ridiculous to dead serious, from goofy to tragic and from intellectual to over the top anime style fight scenes but Kojima somehow managed to make it work. Infact it became his signature style. Then came the long wait for MGS2(my personal favorite of the series) which was supposed to be the last Metal Gear game Kojima would make. Though ofcourse this would not be the first nor the last time he'd say this because here we are 13 years later and he's still, well, making Metal Gear games. MGS2 is an underappreciated gem and cemented Kojima as a true creative and visionary genius in my opinion. Its the only true example of videogame avant-garde.

MGS3 had none of the experimental tendencies of its predecessor but was still a great game in its own right. Even 10 years on MGS3 Subsistence would still be a great experience for people only used to modern games. MGS4 was just elaborate fanservice and not really memorable with all those ridiculous retcons and 'lol nanoz' deus ex machinas.

But anyways, if you never played the MGS games when they were originally released than yeah you could say none of them were all that great. And that other games have done things better since then. But that's not really the point as the series had a huge influence on not only the stealth genre or story driven games, but on videogames in general as well. There is a reason why Kojima is so revered and that is in no small part thanks to his contributions in driving the medium forward.

 

[Cabisco]

Bad, just very bad to me personally. Went the same way of Final Fantasy where they seem to think they can do no wrong and lost whatever driving force they used to have that made those games special.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I have mixed feelings for it, I enjoyed playing them all at once a few years ago, yet I have not had the urge to play the series again. For me, in order to really love a game, I need to have the desire to replay it because re-playability is important to me.

Though I have a fairly low opinion of Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. I know the controls are supposed to be iffy and all that, but they are too awful to enjoy playing with. It's one of those control schemes you just had to grow up with the game to be good at it seems. I do want to get my hands on Twin Snakes at some point, maybe then I will enjoy the first game more.

I kinda liked MGS 2, and I really enjoyed 3 and 4. Somewhat contradicting what I said before, I could see myself playing those two again at some point, maybe around the time MGS 5 comes out.

 

[Michael Legault]

Love the series, MGS3 is my favorite. Playing it on my 3dsXL currently, I personally enjoy the 3D though I know many can't stand it, but hey you can crouch while walking and aim in third person. Some people also complain that how it changes from 3D to 2D when you are aiming in first person, but people do typically close one eye to aim guns. Though I can see how some may find the constant transitioning of 2D/3D to be jarring. Still a great game no matter the system you play it on

side note, is there any other director who has been working on an ongoing series for as long as Kojima? As far as I know he has directed every canonical entry since the MSX/NES days, pretty sure even Miyamoto gave up directing Mario games a while ago.

 

[Kopikatsu]

story lost me after the first few cutscenes; It's the future and everyone is a cyborg, including you, but when your eye gets damaged you put an eyepatch over it, some consistency might be nice here. Bosses get thrown in without backstory or motivation (heres another big robot that you fight with QTE's, have fun!).

Hn? I can't really think of any bosses that fit that description. The possible exception being Metal Gear RAY, but only because it might seem that way to someone unfamiliar with the series. The purpose of the RAY fight was to show just how powerful Desperado is despite only being a mercenary group (Access to Metal Gears is kind of a big deal. A huge deal, really.)

 

[JagermanXcell]

A fantastic series for all the weirdest reasons. It's dumb, it's inconsistent, it's japanese as hell, and I love it for all those reasons. It's simply just a blast.

MGS1: Great game... not really much to go off of from there, it's pretty solid (pun intended).
MGS2: Great sequel. Unfortunately caused a divide between many people which is a shame because I personally love when the game goes loco and the whole jab at sequels in general.
MGS3: The best in the series, best story, best gameplay no doubt about it.
MGS4: ..... this one deserves A LOT more hate than 2. Not the gameplay, it's fantastic, not to mention it has some great moments and beautiful attention to detail. I just wish the gameplay was tied to something that wasn't poorly written, messy, excuse for canon, fanservice. IT'S SO HARD TO DEFEND SUCH GARBAGE. Crossing fingers MGSV will make up for such an atrocity.
Peace Walker: It's fun. Not great but unique little direction. Really heavy on the weird, but it grew on me.
MGPO: Black Sheep, never happened.
MGR: Great spinoff, hope it gets a sequel with vast improvements.

 

[King Billi]

While this is a series I have only very recently started getting into I have no hesitation at all in siding with the "love it" crowd.

I first played MGS1 after downloading it off the psn and loved it so much I immediately set to find the HD collection on PS3(although admittedly I have only played through MGS2 on that so far...)

I didn't find any issue with the controls, they're a bit tricky at first just because there is so much you can do but they're easy enough to come to get a hang of without to much effort.

I appreciate how swiftly paced the games are(at the first two) They can be completed fairly quickly and nearly every objective or boss fight encourages you to do something unique and interesting with either the controls or items. It mixes things up and shows alot of creativity and imagination from the designers.

The story and the character dialogue is certainly something else though, stupid dosen't even begin to describe it in some cases but I consider that to be a part of its charm, at the very least it is a part of its identity. I certainly don't get any sense of prententiosness from it, these games seem fully aware of when they are being melodramatic or dumb.

There truly is nothing else like it.

 

[scorptatious]

I love the series for the most part. I started on MGS3 Subsistence and fell in love with it. Between the James Bond esque feel to the game, the emphasis on survival, sneaking around in a jungle, the engaging story and the over the top cast of characters, there's a lot to love about this game.

I then got into MGS4, which I also enjoyed. Though not as much as 3 as I didn't really get some of the things that were going on other than the bits with the MGS3 characters. Of course, that's my fault as I chose to play this before 1 and 2.

Few years later, I played through both MGS1 and 2 and essentially marathoned my way through the main series up to 4. Which I found to be a lot better since I've played 1 and 2.

So overall, how do I feel about the series?

I'll admit, yes, the games are mostly cutscenes. What gameplay there is however kinda makes up for it though. ESPECIALLY in 3. Besides, the cutscenes are told in a manner in which they don't get boring or tedious for me. Plus I liked the chemistry between a lot of the characters.

Story wise, I will say the series as a whole is pretty damned convoluted. Particularly in 2 and 4 where they introduced Patriots, who were essentially the source of most everyone's problems. And of course there's the whole Liquid/Ocelot thing.

This is probably one of the reasons why I love MGS3 so much. It's chronologically the first in the series, so it can essentially stand on it's own. So whatever problems I may have with the rest of the series story wise won't affect my enjoyment of it.

I haven't really touched some of the spin off or in between games like Revengence or ACID so I can't say much about them. (although the former's boss fights look absolutely amazing) I have played PO and PW and didn't really think too much of them.

 

[Kennetic]

I love most of the games. I put MGS3 in my personal top 10 games of all time. Subsistance is the better version though as the 3rd person cam was really good. The controls aren't the greatest but there's definitely worse out there. I really didn't care for MGS2 (more specifically, I hate Raiden.) Even the PSP games were good in my opinion.

I haven't tried Ground Zeros yet until a price drop comes.