To say that I’m a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series is an understatement. I played the first MGS on my newly-purchased PSOne in 2001 (yeah, I was way behind the times for a while) and thought it was awesome, like “playing a movie”. I bought a PS2 and MGS2 on the day that MGS2 launched. I didn’t play MGS3 until this past week just because I have been intimidated by it, and I’m about half through right now. During this latest playthrough, some of the elements that annoyed me in the first two games became so apparent to me that I was compelled to write this latest My Gripes.
1. I’ve never liked the controls, and they don’t seem to be getting any better. Since when it is okay to not improve on a control scheme? The crawling and cover systems are so ridiculously frustrating. Half the time I get shot I feel like I can fairly blame it on the game and not myself. Oh, but they added a first-person view since MGS2!! Yeah, but they don’t give you the option of inverting the Y-axis while in first-person view, which means I spend a fair amount of time cursing Konami as I look up when I want to look down, or vice-versa.
2. Snake is a bumbling idiot. How is it that Snake is always the least interesting person in the game? He never seems to do anything cool like trick anybody. The trick is always on him. It seems that his only defense is to talk about what it’s like “on the battlefield”. I’m so over it. And does he have the worst memory in the world? Does he really have to say “Metal Gear???” like he’s never heard of it in his life, in every damn game? Why does he always have to spell out acronyms? I realize that it’s the game’s way of teaching things to the player, but can’t they mix it up a bit?
3. Same old, same old. Take away all the crazy plot twists and conspiracy theories, and this is what happens in every MGS game - you face a team of crazy enemies each with their own powers and weaknesses, you plow through about half of them, you lose all your guns and crap, you get them back, and then you finish the other half of the bad guys, and confront the last bad guy. And then you win. Granted, I guess all games follow the same pattern, but really, this is just a string of boss fights with a ton of cutscenes.
Do I hate the series? No. Am I annoyed with it enough to just watch YouTube videos of the cutscenes? Almost. I’ll tell you how I do after I confront my next boss in MGS3, “The End”.
I agree with you, I really hate the controls. Did you ever play the PSP one? There were time when you would have to hold down like 4 buttons just to shoot a guy. I kind of like the cutscenes, though, but not when you just want to play for a couple minutes, they go a little overboard.
From what I hear about MGS4 they have made the controls less complicated and u r in for some frustrating times cuz the End is the hardest boss in the game.
I really liked the sniper boss fight. That was cool. Which one is the End?
The sniper boss fight, can’t wait 14 or 15 more days til i pick up my reserved copy of MGS 4.
Oh yeah. I liked that one. MGS4 is going to be epic.