Metal Gear Solid
Okay, I admit it. I've finally accepted that games on consoles can be good things too. A bit overdue one might think, but better late than never, right? I thought/feared I was somehow growing away from being able to get really addicted to a game, then a port from a console comes along and shows me I'm wrong, can I do anything but surrender then? Enough ranting about that, on to the subject ...
Metal Gear shows what you get when you create a great game and then spend time polishing it until it radiates instead of just expanding the surface of it. It may be a quite short game, especially when you've done it before, but every single moment counts, things never repeat themselves and it even manages to be a very story-driven game with good replay value, and that's certainly something you don't see every day. Even the "core" gameplay of sneaking around enemy soldiers and cameras still feels fresh and cool after the second time through, you even feel like you could have more of it. Wanting more is a good sign ...
The graphics really aren't that exciting for a contemporary PC game. Textures are smoothed out and detailless, polygon counts are low and they clip a lot, and it doesn't matter at all. I still feel the game looks pretty good, and it's all thanks to its presentation and design. Sure, it would look better with more polygons and larger textures, especially since all the cutscenes are done in the game engine, but it doesn't matter at all to the experience. What matters is how well the different camera angles work to present the polygons and textures, and you certainly can't fault MGS there. I especially like the camera view in the communications tower sequence. Since movement is relative to the camera a clumsy camera decision could easily have degenerated this sequence into complete frustration. But the way the camera works is perfect, enabling you to just hold down the button to run up the whole stairway. Great work.
Sound department is good too, especially voice acting. That's lucky since there's a lot of talk in this game. Bad voices combined with some of the stuff they have to say could have made the whole thing embarassing, but everyone delivers their lines in very convincing manners. Some review thought about half the game was listening to people talking, and it might not be far from the truth (you notice that when you re-play). Luckily you can skip anything you don't want to hear again with a quick keypress, so that's not in the way of replayability either.
Oh yeah, can you guess that the gameplay is great too? Well, it is. It's amazing how much variation the designers have managed to come up with using such a limited, and easy-to-use, set of controls (another advantage of coming from a console: there can't be 100 different controls in the game). Boss fights feel different, the tasks you do feel different, and even getting around in different places innovates itself all the time. People say that MGS feel like a movie, and that has a truth to it. However, it never forgets that it is a game either (interactive movies anyone?). There are spinning powerups to collect and characters even reminding you in different ways of the fact that you're just playing a game. I don't think that would work very well in a movie, but this is a game. A great one too. Period.
I want to say more about replayability (and there's nothing you can do to stop me, bwahahaha!). I definitely think that the game length promotes replay. If playing through took 30 hours and contained lots of running back and forth and other repetitive moments you wouldn't be half as motivated to replay just to try and improve your rating. But when you can do it in something like three hours it's a whole different matter. Plus you get new cool things to use when you complete the game. Bonuses like that I'd like to see more of too ...
Sooo ... Anyone else who's never owned a console and is excited to see what MGS2 will be like?
