Metal Gear Solid revisited, a review of the HD collection
 

Intro
Hey guys, I just got myself the Metal Gear Solid HD collection for my PS vita, and I would like to look back at one of the greatest game series of all time from a modern perspective. So please, pick up a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 (I'm playing substance and subsistence), and lets take a look together at arguably the only "sacred cow" in gaming.

Metal Gear Solid is probably one of the most respected franchises in gaming. Hell, arguably, it was metal gear solid that allowed the PS1 and PS2 to "win" their respective console generations. It was the game that pushed full voice acting into the mainstream, and it also popularized many staples of gaming now, like in engine cut scenes.

Lets look at metal gear solid 2 shall we?
It has a metacritic score of 96.... http://www.metacritic.com/game/plays...critic-reviews

Metal Gear Solid 3 subsistence has a metacritic score of 94: http://www.metacritic.com/game/plays...-3-subsistence

With most games, there is always the argument that one is better than the other. For example, there are fanboy wars between Call of Duty and Battlefield, Red Alert and StarCraft, Need for Speed and Forza, Pro evolution football and Fifa and so on.


And than, there is metal gear solid. Is there even a competitor in the same genre as it?? Splinter Cell? Hitman? Metal Gear Solid simply stands out from the crowd, it is simply that good.

But lets take away my nostalgia for a minute shall we? Is metal gear solid really that good? Well, I'll fire up my vita, and slowly play it again, revisiting the great franchise. slowly reviewing the game again from a modern perspective.


Please, join me, reinstall metal gear solid 2 & 3, and please tell me what you think. Hell, if you don't have metal gear solid, what are you waiting for? Go get the HD collection NOW!


Day 1

So I have been playing metal gear solid 2 for a solid amount of time (heh, get it?). It is a VERY good game. The cinematics are top notch, voice acting is pretty good (although I think they redid it for the HD collection).

However, the main thing that I noticed was how archaic the mechanics felt, and too often I felt like I was fighting the game itself, and not the enemies presented by the game. I was fighting the fist boss, and the battle is challenging, and this is where the game kind of came apart. The boss was defeated with around 5 - 6 body shots. In most stealth action games, it would be very easy to do. Sam fisher and 47 can easily land 5 shots on an enemy. However, Solid snake simply has trouble doing that. to simply shoot, I need to hold the right trigger to toggle first person mode, press down to raise my gun, use the left stick to aim, and finally press square to shoot.

The game when it comes to cutscenes or voice acting is top notch, and it holds up very well against modern games. some of the mechanics are very, very good (for example, look at how the saves are handled). However, the game is showing its age. It came from the age before duel stick shooters, and I really think the shooting mechanic is a bit clumsy, and the top down camera can be improved on.

If you can play the original, I wish they would have remade it for the PS2 instead of the Game cube:wah: Also I feel like 4 is my favorite, I am not sure why but I do entirely love it. It would have to go in the order of 4, 3, 1, and then 2 from favorite to least. I must say however I have heard people bad mouth the series, to my suprise, I just laugh and call them crazy. It is a great game and a great series.

I have the PS3 version and loveit. Always been a MGS fan and have played through all of them and even have the new Revengence one with Raiden. My son had to have it lol.

I have the PS3 version of the collection myself. Played through MGS3(kind of disappointed with the lag during the final boss battle, but it went away when I rebooted the console). Started playing through MGS:PW when my ps3 died(I skipped Portable Ops because I really didn't feel like playing it again). I need to play through MGS:PW, but i don't like the disjointed way of the levels.

After I beat Peace Walker, I'm going to play through MG1 and MG2 through MGS3, and then MGS1(although I may just read the digital comic), MGS2, and then MGS4. I know, I'm a raving MGS fan.


In total I own the following MGS games:
MGS2 Ps2 version
MGS3 Ps2 Version
MGS4
MGS Collection:
-MGS1
-MGS2
-MGS3 Subsitence
MGS HD collection
MGS Peace Walker
MGS Portable Ops

Edit:
Oh I also have MGS: Twin Snakes(but I don't know where It got off too)
and MGS1 the digital graphic novel.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will be updating this thread regularly


I like 4 the most two, simply because from a modern gamer's perspective, 4 has the tightest mechanics. The older ones are showing their age mechanics wise.

I like the mechanics of MGS4 alot, still MGS but updated, a few people called it a bit of a sell out series wise but I dont believe so. I also really enjoyed what seemed like alot more freedom to approaching each area in 3 and 4.

I liked 3's story alot too, 2 was meh, very very weird for me but still a great story none the less.

I've always been a Splinter Cell guy myself. I love Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. The first three of the series were great games. They took it in a new direction with Double Agent and Conviction that, while good, is not the same as before.

Metal Gear Solid always seemed strange to me. I played the demo of Peace Walker on my PSP a couple years back and I kind of liked it. The HD Collection is available on Xbox 360 but I never have bothered to look at it. I did not like the way that the bullets hit the target. Too many circles and numbers pop up on the screen. Hit Markers annoy the crap out of me. (They were horrible in Black Ops 2) It was better in Splinter Cell when you would shoot a target and it would slump over in pain or just keel over and die. That's the kind of thing I'd rather have. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory had the ragdoll physics that were GREAT! (Another thing for the CoD devs.....INCLUDE RAGDOLL PHYSICS!!!! It makes a world of difference. Instead of falling flat after an explosion, I'd rather see the body fly around a bit. Add SOME realism please.) You could shoot a sitting man and he'd slump at his desk instead of falling out of the chair. You could throw a guy down some stairs and create a "rolling snowball" with some people climbing the stairs. MGS Peace Walker didn't have good physics IIRC. The MGS Games seemed TOO farfetched and I couldn't get into the storyline. Splinter Cell is crazy...but MGS? Somebody was smoking dope at Konami.

Ubisoft. If you are listening, make Splinter Cell like you used to back in 2002-2005.

While I'm going to keep an open mind until I play a console version of MGS, I'll always be a Splinter Cell guy. It's much cooler IMHO. The first three games will always be in the top 10 Xbox games of all time. C'mon. Who doesn't love sneaking around in the dark with night vision goggles? Who doesn't love being a kick-ass spy? (Although you are NSA....and in real life, they just do SIGINT :shifty: )

The Splinter Cell series even has good companion books to the series. I've read them all. They are some of the best that the David Michaels pseudonym has to offer. Tom Clancy's Endwar was also great. I'm reading the HAWX book now and it is actually rather bad. The characters are flat and the storyline is annoying and cliche. So...avoid HAWX and definitely read EndWar and the Splinter Cell books.

I think MGS has only Graphic Novels...which turn me off to a series. :dead: If you have only comic books to tell your story...well....count me out. I like reading...not fancy picture books.

Sam Fisher used to have the most awesome voice in the video game world until they ditched Michael Ironside for Eric Johnson. Splinter Cell Blacklist will be a total screwup in the voice department for me. It'll be like the voice acting in Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow but worse. Voice Acting in MGS was nothing special from what I remember. Splinter Cell started out with voices that you could really remember. Terminator Salvation came out and I was like "Hey! It's Sam Fisher!" when it was the General guy in the movie. I instantly recognize Ironside's voice anywhere. Jester from Top Gun....that kid's abusive dad in Major Payne....etc.


And to solve your problem about "fighting the game"....you are playing CONSOLE Games on a HANDHELD Device. I had the same problem with the original Rainbow Six on my PSP. The games aren't meant for handheld devices. If you are going to get the HD MGS Collection, I wouldn't bother with the PSVita. Get the console version and play it how it was meant to be played.


I guess I would be a Splinter Cell Fanboy.... :oops: Certain things will make my inner nerd tick....

BattleTech.....Military History....Splinter Cell.....Flight..... :dead:

The PS Vita is about as strong if not stronger than a PS2. It also has two analogue sticks, unlike the PSP. While it may have a smaller screen than what you get on a console with a tv, it shouldn't be that noticeable since you're holding the handheld closer to your face.

Also in terms of games in the HD collection, Peace Walker was a portable game in the first place, so it is intended to be played on a handheld anyways. MGS 3 was also ported to the 3DS and got good reviews. The only game that wasn't intended for a handheld was MGS2, but still it should be a lot better on the vita than it would be on a regular psp. Finally the Vita lets you play the original MGS if you buy the psn version.

This I agree with imensley (Sp?) although I did rather enjoy Conviction.

Please explain?? Do you mean that the way they you could take multiple shots? or the way they just 'physically' impacted with them? Besides peacewalker, MGS 2-4 did this effect fairly well, unless you mean after the died, which beyond MGS 2 they had OKAY physics, 4 was best though.

It was a pretty far fetched storyline, but the storyline it self had some great underlying meanings, and even the story as a whole had great meanings. I personally loved it.

Totally agree, had hours of fun playing SC: Chaos Theory back then with myself and friends.

MGS is far fetched, but it is a great movie/ game after watching the cut scenes and playing through it, it is one of those series that you really need to be emotionally, or at least some for mentally invested butwhen you do become invested, it is amazing.


PS: Please excuse my poor English, and/or gammar
, tonight was a night on the town. IM DRUNK. LOL

Like in Chaos Theory or Double Agent. In the first two splinter cell games, if you shot a guy in his chest, he would just go stiff and lay flat on the floor. Chaos Theory and Double Agent, you would shoot a sitting man in the chest and he would slump over in their chair instead of falling to the floor.

As far as the "hit marker" thing goes, I don't like to see them. I like to see the human reaction to being shot. It makes for better SFX and detail. I don't want to see a big red X over where I shot the guy. I would rather see him grab his chest and gasp in pain. Not that I'm some sort of psycho, I just like realism. When I go deer hunting, the deer doesn't have a big red X over where I shot it. It's just how it happens in real life.

Well, sounds like a personal problem. :O:

Dowly can type awesome while drunk. :yep:

The Metal Gear series as a whole is much better than Splinter Cell in my opinion.The story line of MGS is simply far superior.The SP games are not bad they just are not on the level of MGS.Game play wise MGS is better SP did introduce some interesting elements but as the series advanced it lost any edge it had over MGS.You guys seem to have completey ignored the first two Metal Gears which where ground breaking games the first true "stealth" style games they created an entire genre.What more MG sticks to it roots while still staying relevant and fresh in my opinion only the first two SP games felt fresh after that they strayed to far from the core concept.

Oh and I really do not care what others think MGS2 did have a very good story.Which again is what makes MGS great they have great stories that are far fetched but at the same time they make you think about things.MGS2 in particular what it implied about the US government really does make you think.

How does USNSRCaseySmith being drunk and typing have anything to do with Dowly?:hmmm:

Back in the day, Dowly was notorious for drinking and posting. We still tease him about it. While it was well before Red October's time, he seems to have picked up on it.

I was on the Subsim IRC Channel one time with Dowly and HunterICX. Dowly was drunk.

It made for an interesting evening. The entire time, though, i don't think Dowly made spelling or grammar mistakes.

Dowly's been drunk on Minecraft, at which point he tried to rape everyone, and was ultimately buried into a hole.

AHAHAHAHAH! Thats classic.

Oh and I do agree about the hit marker. I don't like seeing hit markers in games that I am trying to be immersed in.

I also agree about the MGS series, I really do enjoy the stories either way, easily some of the best storylines in gaming and in movies. Kojima masterfully directs them all with underlying tones, and multiple metaphors. I also love the fact that they have so many Easter Eggs and/or nods to other games or series. Gives it some replay value to go back and discover them. All I was saying was that personally I did not like 2's story as well as the others. Three had a great story and gameplay I loved, even with the outdated mechanics now, and 4's was a BIT out there but ultimately an unbelievable story. You are definitely correct though, while good, SP even Chaos Theory (the best as a true stealth game IMO) will never reach the level that MGS did, because even while being the first series to break ground on the stealth genre, they kept evolving it and updating it each addition to make it fresh, but not in a bad sort of way.