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Anonymous09/08/26, 22:43No.12805567Metal Gear Solid PS1
Man what a intensely frustrating game.
Immensely satisfying to play, it's gorgeous and the production is 10/10, but my first playthrough in close to 15 years has been riddled with "Dammit.", "Fuuuuck you Kojima."
For a game made in 1998, I guess I don't remember the very explict sorta old game design still kicking around. Death traps a plenty, including tons of instances where shit will happen outside your blind spot if you're not careful (you'd think all those Chinese proverbs by Mei Ling would've sunk in with me by now but nope), and unlike the latter entries in the series I was kinda disappointed in revisiting this to realize how narrow a lot of the set pieces tend to be. You're given a lot but the game always wants you to do one thing. Yes there are fight or set pieces where you can play around with unique options, but for the most part you're kinda stuck. Don't have enough Rations? Get good, but first backtrack a lot. Need anything? BACKTRACK A WHILE. Also doesn't help that I just have a skill issue where in the 3 times I've played this game, never been able to get the shooting down. I get PAST stuff but feels like I just brute force my way through stuff and abusing Rations.
Level designwise I still think it's rather disappointing. Kinda teases being able to explore parts of a greater whole, but you typically get 3 floors, can breeze through puzzles/logic in like 10 minutes before it becomes a boss fight/combat gauntlet. From Gray Fox onward the game just becomes one thing after another.
That said the story is like a 10/10
Doing all the Codec calls, filling in gaps between the cutscenes. It's fascinating after beating Sniper Wolf that in the calls you can do right after, you can literally see Solid Snake break from the soldier conditioning that's been so set in his mind. It's fantastic.
Still most of this is subjective but I still feel like designwise Kojima was trying too hard to adapt the old MSX games but really hit his stride come MGS2/3
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Replies
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Anon09/09/26, 00:33No.12805706
Glad you had fun!
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Anon09/09/26, 03:12No.12805956
> Also doesn't help that I just have a skill issue where in the 3 times I've played this game, never been able to get the shooting downThere's an obtuse mechanic mentioned briefly in the manual where if you hold square then hold X you can run around while shooting. It makes everything way easier. Then you can just keep X held and tap square, so you can move around and shoot. It's necessary if you want to do the VR Missions disc.The vibe and aesthetic of the game are peak imo. If you watch Escape from New York you can see how much of the vibe was lifted, including colour choices, atmosphere, the insertion method, etc.