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Metal Gear Solid: A legacy of over-the-top awesomeness
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So... awesome...
Despite all logical reasoning, prior artistic preference, appreciation of subtlety, and knowledge of the value of editing, I am a big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series of games. The collected games are an unflinching synthesis of weirdness, melodrama, and convoluted plots. I have every reason to hate these games, but instead they hit distinct pleasure centers in my brain, causing overriding joy and blocking out any kind of rational thought while playing them.
It may the nostalgia factor. The first MGS was the reason I bought my first game console. It was the first game I'd ever heard of where you could knock on walls to draw an enemy's attention, or lure that enemy away with carefully placed footprints in the snow. Sometimes when a door was locked, you had to blow a hole in the wall, and sometimes you had to fake your own death to escape a prison cell. How quaint.
Maybe it's the attention to stories. The long cutscenes, the outlandish characters, and the ridiculous plot twists all made MGS 2 my least favorite in the series, yet when such features are absent in other games, it can feel like the developer doesn't care about the story. Sure, the storytelling may be over-the-top at times, the stories themselves typical, if overcomplicated, action-tech thriller fare, but in a field where stories too often a function to move gameplay along or give an excuse to kill without moral ambiguity, any attempt to connect the player to the characters and events is welcome. Shallow comforts.
Perhaps it's the attention to detail. In the third MGS, the camouflage system worked so well that in some areas, with the camera positioned correctly, it became actually very difficult to locate Snake. If the player was lucky enough to snipe a character after an early cutscene, the player would not have to face that character as a boss later on. These kinds of touches are littered throughout the series. Big deal.
It could be the production values. The fourth MGS features perhaps the best graphics of any game ever, just as other games in the series pushed graphical benchmarks on their respective platforms. The character animation, the level design, the weapon variety and customization options, as well as the compelling set-pieces and yes, film-quality cutscenes, speak to the big budget and intense care this game received from its creators. So what?
Well, it seems no matter how you slice it I am rather conflicted about the series. On the one hand I find Metal Gear Solid rather a guilty pleasure, with embarrassingly goofy characters and storylines. On the other hand, I've never played an MGS game without thoroughly enjoying myself, and I cannot ignore creator Hideo Kojima's contributions to gaming through the series, considered by many to be among the best in gaming. I do know one thing, though. Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorite series of games, and if more MGS games are made you can bet I'll be playing them with a smile on my face.
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