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Metal Gear Solid (1999)
A game from the well-known (though probably not to everyone) tactical espionage games series "Metal Gear". I missed the first two games — Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990); at first, I couldn't find where to download them, and now that I know where to download their remakes, I don't feel much desire to do so. Fortunately, for newfags, the Metal Gear Solid menu offers the opportunity to read a brief summary of the plot of the first two parts. So, to the game itself.
So, here I am, launching the game to familiarize myself with the plot of this great series (I can't just watch videos on YouTube like some degenerate) and what do we see, hahaha, well, wow, look at those graphics)))) The characters have only one pixel for a mouth, so they speak simply by jerking their heads back and forth to depict mouth movement—a rather telling fact. However, I was very quickly surprised by how, despite such wretched graphics, the game delivers, I'll be honest, a level of cinematic quality comparable to something like Mass Effect. And even faster, I was surprised that it is actually quite interesting to play. An interesting fact caught my eye immediately — for every 15 minutes of gameplay, there are strictly 15 minutes of cutscenes. Cutscenes here are implemented not only with this magnificent graphics engine, but also through conversations in the "Codec", that very thing where conversations, I swear, can take up to a third of the entire game if you just feel like chatting extra with NPCs, and not just for the plot. The picture in these conversations is quite good, and full animation is present.
The girl slyly evades the question of how she managed to hide a valuable item during a search
Okay, now I'll try to highlight the features of the game:
1) You play for 15 minutes, you watch for 15 minutes
2) There is no division into missions. At the beginning of the game, you are given a task — to infiltrate a certain place and achieve a certain goal. Throughout the game, you travel through this location and perform tasks dictated to you by the plot.
3) Boss fights. Firstly, I had already forgotten what those were. Secondly, one of the reviews states that every boss fight is unique — and damn, it really is. In something like Deus Ex, one fight differs from another in nothing but the scenery — here, each boss requires their own tactic and, as a rule, their own weapon. Moreover, there are sometimes non-obvious ways to defeat them.
4) Clunky controls. In subsequent parts of the series (and I've only reached MGS 3 so far), they will become even more clunky. Such is Kojima's vision.
5) The plot resembles a ball of yarn that unravels faster as it nears the end. For the first two-thirds of the game, we are only teased with hints that everything is more tangled than it seems. Then, the plot begins to develop at a frightening speed. Strangely enough, it's cool. I spent two weeks on the first two-thirds, playing with long breaks. I finished the last part in two consecutive evenings — that's how much it gripped me. The same can be said about plot development in other games of the series that I've played.
6) War is hell.
7) And then, suddenly after the previous point, all the bosses look like anime characters. Judge for yourself: a cowboy, a cyborg-ninja, a guy nicknamed "The Mantis" with a characteristic suit and psionic abilities, a giant Eskimo, a deliberately sexy sniper, a guy from yaoi fanfics. For some, this completely kills the previous point and turns the game into a circus. Unexpectedly for myself, that didn't happen to me.
8) A very loose attitude toward the fourth wall. Characters, right in the middle of a Codec briefing, openly talk about the controls. A separate NPC gives tips exclusively to the gamer — to play well-rested, not on a full stomach (so as not to run to the bathroom during a cutscene), etc.
Basically, that's all for the features. I'll also mention in passing that in the game for the PlayStation 1, which was released in 1999, the hero can be found by footprints left behind (for example, outside, or if he soaked his feet somewhere indoors), whereas in games released in 2008, there is no such thing. That's how it goes.
Overall, I liked the game. I probably should have said something else, but I forgot. I don't know how to give numerical ratings, so I won't.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. There's also a completely botched ending, which, apparently, will also have to be expected from other games in the series. I'll explain: it turns out that the main character is infected with a deadly artificial virus. It's unclear how this virus works — by a trigger or by time. When he asks the doctor this question, she vaguely replies: "Live and enjoy life...", and our hero, without any further questions, rides off into the sunset, where, as he says himself, he will enjoy life. On the other hand, after the credits, you can listen to extremely interesting conversations that provide a great setup for a sequel. Perhaps this is some genius commercial decision — to make the ending seem finished, but at the same time give a subtle hint of a sequel, so that regardless of whether there is a continuation or not, it looks like it was intended that way. In short:
K O J I M A I S A G E N I U S
O
J
I
M
A
G
E
N
I
U
S
A game from the well-known (though probably not to everyone) tactical espionage games series "Metal Gear". I missed the first two games — Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990); at first, I couldn't find where to download them, and now that I know where to download their remakes, I don't feel much desire to do so. Fortunately, for newfags, the Metal Gear Solid menu offers the opportunity to read a brief summary of the plot of the first two parts. So, to the game itself.
So, here I am, launching the game to familiarize myself with the plot of this great series (I can't just watch videos on YouTube like some degenerate) and what do we see, hahaha, well, wow, look at those graphics)))) The characters have only one pixel for a mouth, so they speak simply by jerking their heads back and forth to depict mouth movement—a rather telling fact. However, I was very quickly surprised by how, despite such wretched graphics, the game delivers, I'll be honest, a level of cinematic quality comparable to something like Mass Effect. And even faster, I was surprised that it is actually quite interesting to play. An interesting fact caught my eye immediately — for every 15 minutes of gameplay, there are strictly 15 minutes of cutscenes. Cutscenes here are implemented not only with this magnificent graphics engine, but also through conversations in the "Codec", that very thing where conversations, I swear, can take up to a third of the entire game if you just feel like chatting extra with NPCs, and not just for the plot. The picture in these conversations is quite good, and full animation is present.
The girl slyly evades the question of how she managed to hide a valuable item during a search
Okay, now I'll try to highlight the features of the game:
1) You play for 15 minutes, you watch for 15 minutes
2) There is no division into missions. At the beginning of the game, you are given a task — to infiltrate a certain place and achieve a certain goal. Throughout the game, you travel through this location and perform tasks dictated to you by the plot.
3) Boss fights. Firstly, I had already forgotten what those were. Secondly, one of the reviews states that every boss fight is unique — and damn, it really is. In something like Deus Ex, one fight differs from another in nothing but the scenery — here, each boss requires their own tactic and, as a rule, their own weapon. Moreover, there are sometimes non-obvious ways to defeat them.
4) Clunky controls. In subsequent parts of the series (and I've only reached MGS 3 so far), they will become even more clunky. Such is Kojima's vision.
5) The plot resembles a ball of yarn that unravels faster as it nears the end. For the first two-thirds of the game, we are only teased with hints that everything is more tangled than it seems. Then, the plot begins to develop at a frightening speed. Strangely enough, it's cool. I spent two weeks on the first two-thirds, playing with long breaks. I finished the last part in two consecutive evenings — that's how much it gripped me. The same can be said about plot development in other games of the series that I've played.
6) War is hell.
7) And then, suddenly after the previous point, all the bosses look like anime characters. Judge for yourself: a cowboy, a cyborg-ninja, a guy nicknamed "The Mantis" with a characteristic suit and psionic abilities, a giant Eskimo, a deliberately sexy sniper, a guy from yaoi fanfics. For some, this completely kills the previous point and turns the game into a circus. Unexpectedly for myself, that didn't happen to me.
8) A very loose attitude toward the fourth wall. Characters, right in the middle of a Codec briefing, openly talk about the controls. A separate NPC gives tips exclusively to the gamer — to play well-rested, not on a full stomach (so as not to run to the bathroom during a cutscene), etc.
Basically, that's all for the features. I'll also mention in passing that in the game for the PlayStation 1, which was released in 1999, the hero can be found by footprints left behind (for example, outside, or if he soaked his feet somewhere indoors), whereas in games released in 2008, there is no such thing. That's how it goes.
Overall, I liked the game. I probably should have said something else, but I forgot. I don't know how to give numerical ratings, so I won't.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. There's also a completely botched ending, which, apparently, will also have to be expected from other games in the series. I'll explain: it turns out that the main character is infected with a deadly artificial virus. It's unclear how this virus works — by a trigger or by time. When he asks the doctor this question, she vaguely replies: "Live and enjoy life...", and our hero, without any further questions, rides off into the sunset, where, as he says himself, he will enjoy life. On the other hand, after the credits, you can listen to extremely interesting conversations that provide a great setup for a sequel. Perhaps this is some genius commercial decision — to make the ending seem finished, but at the same time give a subtle hint of a sequel, so that regardless of whether there is a continuation or not, it looks like it was intended that way. In short:
K O J I M A I S A G E N I U S
O
J
I
M
A
G
E
N
I
U
S
Where do we go?
Where do we end up when we save the world?
Where do we end up when we save the world?