”Also, I would like to acknowledge the people behind it. It takes a great many people to create a video game or movie and it takes a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and some tears to get your results. So, I am doing this to applaud that work.
Another reason is that it is very easy for us to say “I liked that” or “I didn’t,” but the hard question is “why?” The ‘why’ something may be better than something else is the real rub. I hope I can shed some light as to the ‘whys’ I think this is better than most things that have come before it. Think of this as an analysis or critique or study if you like.
I would like you guys to know a little about me. I DO NOT give away glowing reviews lightly. I do not throw words like “awesome” or even “sucks” at the drop of a hat, like the current internet community seems to do. It pains me to see these words used so haphazardly. In my book, these are the two words that define the extremes of quality. In our world, it seems that “awesome” simply means the best thing going on at that point, and “sucks” means pretty much everything else. IMO, most things are simply “okay” or even “good,” and they should be labeled as such. I would just you to know that when I say something is “awesome” or something “sucks,” I am not throwing those words at you because they are commonplace; I mean it when I use those words.
On a personal note too, I sometimes dream of being a video game or film reviewer and so sometimes I get the urge to write my own reviews. This is one of those times. I am also involved in a large writing project right now and I was just in a writing mood and felt the urge to do this.
As a disclaimer, this is going to be quite long and maybe even long-winded, but I ask you to not respond unless you read the whole thing. I may very well have stated my opinion or answered your question at some point; you just didn’t read it.
There are also several *spoilers* ahead. You have been warned.
I also ask that this not turn into a flame war or turn into a “yeah, that was cool/sucked” thread. I hope this can remain an intelligent analysis. I know this is really just my personal feelings, but this is something that I feel very strongly about and if it just turned into every other internet thread I see, I think I might cry.
And, of course, this is also only my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
And here we go…
I didn’t buy Metal Gear Solid 3 when it first came out because I knew that they would just end up re-releasing it later with a bunch of special features and extra missions like they did for the other two. So, I finally got Substinence last week and I just beat it for the first time last night. As I said, I would not say this lightly, but this game is easily one of the best video games I have every played (and I’ve played a lot). This is truly a masterpiece of fiction.
It’s easy to play a game for the fun of it, and be entertained. It’s very easy to rent a game over the weekend, play it, maybe even beat it, have a smile on your face, and return it, and go about your merry way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But this game soars far above that. The true masterpieces of games (and even movies for that matter) transcend over the norm and create living, breathing, and most importantly, believable worlds to escape into. While the norm is perfectly fine for most things, it’s the ones that we remember, that stand the tests of time that go far beyond that. They delve deep into all the layers of their world and flesh out every detail as if it were actually a living, breathing, existing world. They make their mark in our hearts and minds by actually making us believe that, yes, this place may very well truly exists, even though we know it truly doesn’t.
Games/Movies such as this go past the simple “that was fun” and act on the full “experience” that playing the game/watching the film carries. How often did you feel like you were actually there? Did you actually feel as if you were that character? Did you feel the same emotions? Were you as scared/happy/loved/excited/etc. as the characters were? Again, were you actually there? Or were you just watching?
These things do not come around very often; they truly don’t. When they do, they are a sight that should be beheld. I do believe that MSG3 is one of those things. I would like to tell you of my experience with the game and its world. I will also try to answer to elusive ‘why’ question. What is it that makes this better than all the other games/movies similar to it? Why does this rise above them?
And before the nay-sayers chime in, I will certainly be happy to point out that this game is not perfect and it does suffer flaws that were indeed noticeable.
The Good
Snake: Wouldn’t be Metal Gear without Snake, would it? (cough, cough, Raiden ><) But why is Snake so bad-ass? Is it his voice? That certainly does help. (Fun factoid: David Hayter is also the screenwriter for the X-Men films). Is it his attitude? His perpetual five o’clock shadow? I would say that it has a lot more the do with the fact that he is one of those people we dream about being. He is a total soldier, through and through. Tough, gruff, and totally not in the mood to talk. We all dream of being something we’re not, and that’s one of the major strengths of video games. They allow us to live through somebody else for a while. And if I’m dreaming about being a bad-ass secret agent, I would dream about all the things that Snake is. I would dream about being an invincible secret agent capable of taking bullets to the face, withstanding torture, duking it out with the final bad guy, saving the world, and getting the girl. While James Bond represents the flashy, fancy, dashing secret agent guy, Snake is the really tough mother. He is the other side of the secret agent scale. Snake doesn’t need fancy gadgets; he’ll kill you with a fork. (Loved that one ^^). Who doesn’t want to be Snake? That’s the reason why everybody hates Raiden; he is absolutely nothing like we dream of being like. Snake was back in this one, and back in force. I don’t know if even James Bond could keep going after being shot in the eye. Ow.
Ocelot: At first I was concerned when I heard Ocelot was in this one because, on the surface, it seemed to me like he was just being shoe-horned into the game because he’s a popular character. But I forgot all about that after he showed up and proved again why he is such a beloved character. He’s just so…slippery. He’s not a stereotypical evil villain. He’s too slick for that. You are never sure what his agenda is (and we still don’t) and that is one of the things that make him most fascinating. You never know what he’s hiding behind that sly smirk of his. His honorable side also showed up at the end, which goes a long way the actually portray him as a human being, instead of just a character. We even get on his side with that one and salute him back.
And that whole juggling-Russian Roulette-torture thing of his: OMG! Could you imagine someone actually doing that to you? How horrifying would that be!? I’d probably pee in my pants too!
Volgin: Ocelot isn’t the straight up evil guy here, that’s Volgin’s job. This guy is just bad ass. I liked how every shot of him with other people always showed that he stood at least a foot taller than anyone else. Even though, he does a lot of stereotypical villain things here, it’s his deadly intelligence that makes him scarier than any other typical villain. In order for a proper conflict and tension to be established in a story, both the hero and the villain must be showed as equal. If the hero is shown to be superior to the villain, then the illusion is destroyed and we now that the villain has no chance. We must believe that there is no chance for the hero to succeed in order to provide the proper tension. Then, we root for the hero to succeed against the seemingly insurmountable odds. Volgin established his iron-fist dominance early on and constantly reminds us that if he doesn’t like you, you’re going down hard. The stamina kill over him is going to be a bitch too!
The Boss Battles (well, most of them anyway): With the exception of a few (see below), the boss battles of this Metal Gear shine out unlike most others in the video game world.
There has already been much ballyhoo about the sniper duel with The End, and deservedly so. This is a battle that has not been used very much in the game world: an actual sniper battle. The possibilities are endless. I’ve only fought him once so far yet, but I can see the possibilities flowing. How to find him? How to not have him find you? Can you beat him at his own game? Can you rush him and blast him away? Or take the Vulcan Raven approach and line the field with mines, would that work? Open-endedness is a good new trend in gaming that pleases me. The days of “being on rails” are pretty much over and this is a good thing. This allows for the gamer to write his/her own story to compliment the game’s actual literal story. You ever do that? Of course you have. Again, that’s the point of immersion; to place the gamer inside of the game’s world and make them feel as if they are a part of it.
The Fury – woof. That was intense. There was something so very ominous about seeking him out while he seeks you out. It made the hairs on my neck stand up listening to the steady ker-chunk-ker-chunk of his footsteps stalking me (use the directional mic). The more fire he spews forth creates much more tension as your avenues and escape routes keep getting more and more limited. It also rendered my go-to infrared goggles virtually ineffective. {Bastard Sword}. That’s the figurative and literal definition of a battle that “heats up” as it goes along. That’s called symbolism boys and girls.
The final battle with The Boss made a very strong impression on me. It wasn’t the actual mechanics of the fight, but rather the tone. Set in a field of breezing flowers and set to a soft, somber music, the fight became rather sad. This reflects the emotions of the two participants: both thrown into a battle that they really don’t want to, but must. One must die, and they both know it. Yet, neither truly wants to kill the other. Where do you draw the line between your country – or your friend? Very sad. This is the true beauty of this game’s design. It’s very easy to come up with a boss with a glowing red orb in its chest and you shoot that. Easy. But, to create an emotional battle at the same time. It creates a slight moral dilemma in us. Shadow of the Colossus did this as well. It raises the question of: “Should I really be doing this?” No, but you must. Tough choice.
Not that MGS3 is all somber. Forget The End, the best fight in the game is the entire sequence of running from the Shagohod. Wow, just wow. That was a true roller coater ride of a fight. That’s the other end of the spectrum emotion-wise: thrill. The first part was very cool: bucking and weaving through the base while the Shagohod tears the place down, trying to squash you, throwing tanks at you, and trying to knock the buildings down around you. The pace picks up even more when you make your way out to the runway and Volgin fires up the Shagohod’s Knight Rider rocket booster. You ever turn one way to take down one to the motorcycles, turn back, and the Shagohod is RIGHT THERE!? Aaaaa! Go faster EVA! My heart skipped a beat every time. What a rush.
You’ll also notice that the fight with The Boss comes after this one. Would it have had the same effect if it took place before this battle? Not even close. Excellent pacing there.
The gameplay itself: Can’t have a video game without gameplay. The standard Metal Gear sneaking around gameplay is still there, but it’s revamped and elevated. Now, we are in a jungle, with even more places to hide, but even more places for our enemies to hide as well. How many guards did you not even see? While I do miss my radar, the removal of it creates an entirely different sneaking experience. You really have to be paying attention to your surroundings and locate all the guards before you advance on the area. Then, approach silently, crawling through the grass, walk quietly behind him and –gotcha! – slit his throat if you like. Then, I dropped a grenade on his buddy’s head, two floors below my location. Even in this day and age, there are not too many games that do not take the charge in-both barrels blazing approach.
Hand in hand with that is the new camouflage mechanic. I love this thing. Mixing and matching the various camouflages to get the best ratio was fun and it feels like it actually matters and pays off when a guard is standing right on top of you, but doesn’t see you. Then, you take out your knife… On a personal note, there was a point where I just put the zombie makeup on and left it. There was just something even more badass about dispatching fools while looking like that. Again, personal gamer’s story – always a good thing.
These are the points that I’m trying to make. I think that just saying “this game has great graphics and music” isn’t even scratching the surface of what you should be talking about. Sometimes, the game goes far beyond things like that and when they do, it should be spoken of, and applauded.
The not-so-good
I will be happy to point out that this game isn’t perfect; it has its flaws just like anything else.
Aiming: I don’t think I ever hit anything when I wasn’t in first-person view. I know that in the previous Metal Gears, there was a slight auto-aim the guns where you at least turned in the directions of your enemies. I never noticed that in this one. I did notice me getting shot in the back a lot though. And on that same note:
The cure screen: I understand what they were going for here: yet another step towards the “realism” of the game. An agent would have to make do with curing himself manually in the field, but this mechanic is so oversimplified. Got a gunshot wound? Just follow the steps – Viola! – cured. It’s nice to know that someday, I’ll be able to cure a flamethrower to the face with an ointment and a bandage.
MORE story: While there is a lot of good, well thought out story here, there are pieces missing that I would like to know about. Mostly, who are the Cobras? How did they earn their “emotion?” The Fury was nice enough to tell us, but what about the others? In a game this well written, I certainly would like to know more about these people that seemingly come across as afterthoughts. “Hmmm, we need more bosses. Here, there are some more bosses.”
I would like to know more about what happened between The Boss and The Sorrow. This is another emotional piece that parallels Snake and The Boss’ current position. I liked how you keep catching The Sorrow out of the corner of your eye. “Wait, did I just see that?” I hope I’ll be able to pick up more on these subplots on subsequent play-throughs.
A few lame boss fights: The bosses are either hit or miss in this one; The Fear winning out in the boring category. On paper, he’s a good character with cool moves, but the battle degrades into an “I’ll just stand right here and shoot him when he comes by.” That’s all there is to it.
I’m still undecided to whether I liked The Pain too. I guess if I have to think about, then he wasn’t very memorable either.
I do understand The Sorrow “fight,” but that was waaaaaaaay too long. I am so going to be killing off guards in purposeful ways just so that they show up here, though. “My neck! My neck!”
“Raiden’s” cameo: I’m sure I speak for most of us when I say that we would just like to generally forget that Raiden ever existed. I did like the “he has no balls” joke, but I would just like to ignore the Scrappy-Doo of the Metal Gear world entirely. Let’s not speak of it again, shall we?
I’m sure that this is far more than any of you would ever look into a video game or movie, but I was so impressed and immersed, that I felt the need to talk about it. I felt that Kojima and all the crew deserve a lot of credit and praise for this.
Again, it’s easy to make something simple and entertaining; something that meets the criteria and is “good.” There are things that far surpass that and strive for something more. How many games/movies would you just rent instead of buy? Then, what would you play/watch over and over and over because it means so much more to you? And why is that? What makes that one different? Is it because it reaches and touches your heart like nothing else? Why?
Thanks to all of you who actually make it through this. Like I said, I don’t this often, but I wouldn’t do it unless I felt it was warranted. I’m sure most of you are not in a “creation” or “design” type of field like I am, but I hope that maybe I could shed some light on to the ‘whys’ of things that we find impressive. I hope that those of us that are in that field can learn from works like this, and make our own material even better.
Thanks for reading =^_^=
