henke on 26/4/2013 at 19:06

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Hanging around a Thief forum for over 10 years I've on occasion heard Thief fans deride the MGS games as being too simplistic and easy, but as I was playing through MGS3 over the past week I'll simply have to conclude that these people have never played a MGS game in their life. In fact I'd say that Thief, with it's fairly straightforward control scheme(at least to anyone who's played a first person game previously) and traditional Good vs Evil storyline is a lot more accessible than the MGS games' convoluted conspiracy theory storylines, and controlschemes that'll require you to play finger-twister on your gamepad to do something simple like "lean right". And then there are the hour-long cutscenes it'll have you sit through, and believe me, you'll sit through them, because noone anywhere has ever played an MGS game just for it's gameplay.

I played the special edition of MGS3 with the proper 3rd person camera, it's about as playable as the series has been so far up to that point. The stealth gameplay is certainly passable, there are moments when I'd go as far as even calling it good. The bossfights are good, as far as bossfights go. The action? Eh, let me put it this way: when the alarms go off you'll be running straight up to every guard you see, doing the same exact judo-throw move on every one of them to knock them out while they pelt you with bullets. Don't worry about the bullets though because Snake is a bulletsponge the likes of which I haven't seen since... I don't even know. There's barely any skill (or fun) involved in the action-side of the gameplay. On top of that, there are a bunch of gameplay systems you need to keep your eyes on, like healing yourself, eating food, and picking out appropriate camoflague. In the end, all those extra layers of complexity just slows the game down and makes it extra tedious. Bossfights are not made more fun by the fact that you have to go through several layers of menus to stitch yourself up every time you get shot.

And the way women are portrayed in this game is... uncomfortable, to say the least. I'm not one to get worked up by portayals of sexy battlenuns or space commando babes whose battlearmor shows too much cleavage to be practical, since usually they're just suppsed to be superficial fantasy-creatures with more looks than personality. But Eva is supposed to be a real person, a hardened survivor who is strong, but also has moments of weakness. So why did the devs feel it was important that she walk around (https://www.google.fi/search?q=mgs3+eva&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=sVU&rls=org.mozilla:sv-SE:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wcx6UbnhGsSh4gSJjoGIBg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=935) with her tits hanging out at every opportunity she gets? What is even that? Is it supposed to be sexy? Is it supposed to be a parody of sexyness? And then at the end Boss has to unzip and show cleavage too? What the hell!? Sure you could argue that she has to do so because of IMPORTANT PLOTPOINTS but those claims fly right out the window with all the lingering shots of her cleavage afterwards. I just sat there wishing there was a button for making Snake shout COVER YOURSELF UP FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.

Right now it may sound like I'm hating on the MGS games, I'm not. Finishing MGS3 a few hours ago it's easy to see why people love these games. They simply ooze style, substance, and humor. They have more personality than 95% of games out there. What mystifies me though, is that the series is a mainstream success, and not just a cult classic. How is it that the great unwashed masses put up with all the shit these games have you go through? I'm guessing the fact that the latest entry in the series will always push the Playstation system to it's limit has something to do with it. If there's any series out there that can be said to get by largely on it's good looks, it's this one. And when I say good looks I'm not just talking about graphics, the cinematography is stellar as well.

Sooo... in conclusion: 7/10!

What do you guys think of these games?

ZylonBane on 26/4/2013 at 19:52

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What.

june gloom on 26/4/2013 at 20:48

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I've been a fan of the series since I got MGS in 1998 and I'm still a fan. And I absolutely agree that the Petting Zoo's dismissal of the series as "not being hardcore enough" is short-sighted (deliberately so, in some cases.)

I'll never get the complaining about the cutscenes. This is a Kojima game, and Kojima's games have always been quirky. Long cutscenes and codec calls, and a convoluted plot is pretty much Metal Gear's quirk. So, really, one ought to know what they're getting into with MGS.

Mr.Duck on 26/4/2013 at 23:24

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Constantine was totally evil?

Interesting...

Regardless, MGS 3.5, baby. That's where the shit turned golden! (I enjoyed MGS and MGS 2, but 3.5, woof....that shit be awesome).

Mr.Duck on 27/4/2013 at 04:07

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MGS 4 is a bumming title, but pretty cool too.

Shame you only get like 5 hours of game time...

Srsly.