Tycho at Penny Arcade has hit the nail on the head. He’s usually got his finger on how things work. He has never more been right on than with today’s news post:
I sometimes wonder why I buy every MGS game that comes out when I profess to hate them, and also authentically do hate them, but I know the answer. It is because I actively want to be wrong. I want to see the game people keep talking about. I want to be forced by its exacting auteur to apologize for everything I’ve ever written. I’m ready to have my ego obliterated and to truly learn something about the nature of liberty. And, like most Playstation owners, I’m hungry to use the machine for something other than Planet Earth.
Wow. That sums up everything I know about Metal Gear Solid as a game series and most PS3 owners I know. It the same way I feel about both items.
I’ve never apologized for not playing any of them after Metal Gear Solid. There’s a good chance that they’ve gotten better, but I haven’t read a review (professional or peer) that convinces me of it, and no matter of fawning over a game will inform me of its quality like comparison to something I’ve previously played (particularly given it’s latest installment of a series.) I’ll get into it when I see a review that has either “I, like you, didn’t like Metal Gear Solid, but…” or “Forget the other Metal Gear games. This is something better, something new, something different.”
I’m quite enjoying MGS4 right now. Yes, the gameplay is clunky as ever (at least for now) but it’s the kind of thing where you end up adapting your playstyle to that of the game and even now I’m finding myself not dying as much as I did about an hour ago.
I’ve enjoyed all of the Metal Gear Solid games, even MGS2, though it went completely off the rails in the storytelling department by the end and was trying to be a bit too smart for its own good. MGS3 more than made up for it though.
There have already been a few things in MGS4 that have made me laugh out loud and I’m digging the near-future warfare setting. If MGS4 ends up being as awesome at the end as MGS3 was, I’ll be a happy man.
I do understand that it’s the kind of series that isn’t for everyone. Kojima is kind of like Peter Molyneaux in that he’s got this grand vision and sometimes fumbles in the execution of it (in MGS2’s case, spectacularly).
That said, it’s nice to have a showpiece game for the PS3 that looks to clock in at over 6 hours (unlike most of the other good but way too short games on the system).
And anyone who bashes MGS as a series without having played through MGS3 needs to shut up. I can understand hating on MGS2, but MGS3 is a classic.