Andi Hamilton's Videogame Newsletter - Issue #30 [The Metal Gear List 2022]

Issue THIRTY. Thirty whole weeks of content, delivered to your inbox at 6PM on a Friday evening (except that one time where I was out drinking with MckKirk and Breens and I had to post the thing a bit later that evening, but you've got to allow me that one, okay?) so to celebrate that, it's time to talk about one of (if not the?) greatest series in gaming history. It's time for the Metal Gear list.

Metal Gear

The original game is far from a stinker but it is just so primitive. A lot of the DNA is present - the gritty, military ops plot, the threat of the Metal Gear tactical nuclear biped and, of course, the tactical espionage action - but there's just nothing here that hasn't been iterated on and improved as the series has gone on. It's cute to see the concepts and ideas that make up the core of the series in a super stripped back way and, for what it is worth, it is still worth playing but it sits at the bottom of the list, mainly down to the quality of the other titles rather than anything particularly negative about this one. First the worst, as they say...

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

I don't rate this one as highly as many others, largely because I find Versus director Ryuhei Kitamura's take on the classic Metal Gear Solid story to be a bit cringe. It's aged like milk. Stuff that was no doubt badical in 2004 is extremely cringe now. However, that's not the only reason I'm not a huge fan of Twin Snakes - there's also a few mechanical changes that just don't gel together. You have all of the mod cons from the PS2 MGS titles, such as the ability to aim in first-person but the game is still very much the original Metal Gear Solid and the level design and A.I. just doesn't consider all of these additional advantages you now have, making it a bit easy and, for my money, a bit boring too. It is, however, still Metal Gear Solid and that is more than enough to ensure that it is still a pretty good time. Your mileage may vary on this one more than others depending on how you find the presentation.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of Liberty

A gigantic, bloated mess of a game that is jam-packed with just as many crap ideas as it is absolutely genius ones. Sometimes, both at the same time. There was no other way you could truly end the Metal Gear storyline than this. For every incredible location to sneak and/or shoot your way through, or for every goosebump inducing callback to previous games, there would be something like the awkward titillation of the Beauty and the Beast Unit, near hour long, wildly self-indulgent cutscenes that dump so much exposition all at once they end up being a bit boring or some particularly uninspiring sections where there's a much greater focus on straight-up combat. It's a bit all over the place in regards to tone, pacing and quality of mechanics but if you weren't shirtless and roaring during Solid and Liquid Snake's finally battle and genuinely quite emotional during the NINETY MINUTE epilogue ("Snake... had a hard life" is an all-timer tearjerker of a line) then I really have to question whether you truly liked Metal Gear to begin with.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Maybe the most controversial placement of a game in this list but the reality is, underneath all of the pomp, bombast and memes, Revengeance just isn't anywhere near as good as its reputation would indicate. It's fun and really, really daft but the combat errs a little too close to the "looking cool" side of the action genre, rather than delivering on something really satisfying and challenging. The Zandatsu mechanic, that has you slashing up any enemy with player controlled sword swipes certainly looks cool but adds a bit too much stop/start to the momentum for my tastes. From what I have gleamed, the music does quite a bit of heavy lifting here but I'm not the biggest fan of the soundtrack, either! Far from a bad videogame and in fact, a pretty damn fun one but it does nothing for me as a Metal Gear title and doesn't trouble the upper echelon of the action genre either.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

I originally played this on the PSP and the lack of a second analog stick made this a bit tough to get into but the much simpler, shorter missions blended with some less intense downtime spent managing your motherbase made this a good fit as a handheld Metal Gear experience. There's a lot of Peace Walker DNA that made it into Metal Gear Solid V, which is cool to see but in hindsight, does make Peace Walker feel a bit primitive. I've never gone back to play the console 'HD' reissue of this and I get the feeling that perhaps the bitesize structure will lose something when you're sat at home. Simplified, basic missions and base building might be just enough to keep you engaged when you're on the train to work but it might seem pretty grind-y and repetitive when you're on your couch.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

There's moments when playing The Phantom Pain where you're thinking "this isn't just the best Metal Gear game, this is one of the best games ever made" - it is THAT good when it is at its best. The various systems that govern the stealth and the combat weave between each other seamlessly and allow for genuine freeform creativity in how you tackle the game's missions. Unfortunately, down to Kojima going massively over time and budget allowances, he was booted from the project (and Konami!) and there's a very clear line in this game where you can tell the development team were told "turn what we have into a game and finish the fucking thing". This leads to a lot of ideas that needed some fleshing out, a lot of repetition of missions and a story that can be described at best as lacking detail and at worst, completely unfinished. When it clicks though, it is absolutely essential.

Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions

A sort-of puzzle game using the Metal Gear Solid engine, asking you to complete a bunch of scenarios using that game's core mechanics and throwing a few spanners into the works to freshen things up and force you to think of unique ways to use some otherwise quite restrictive (when compared to later games, anyway) tools. It's not the most complex game but there's a sense that the developers were having fun creating these missions and it makes for an enjoyable addition to Metal Gear Solid and a chance to push the boundaries of what was expected of you in that particular game. Definitely a bit divisive, but I enjoy VR Missions a lot.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

A game that has actually aged like a fine wine! Metal Gear Solid 2 wasn't too well received upon release - that's not to say it wasn't well reviewed, mind - but the whole 'not playing as Solid Snake' thing and the plot getting absolutely daft in the final third left a bit of a bad taste in a lot of player's mouths. Thing is, with hindsight, playing as Raiden is actually really cool and the story elements about misinformation being spread via memes and the internet were actually staggeringly ahead of their time, as well as the overall meta narrative commentary on sequels and diminishing returns (which is all extremely relevant in 2022, probably even more so than on its original release!), Metal Gear Solid 2 is - probably - a game that was unfairly criticised for being a bit too smart for its own good. Stripping that stuff away and just focusing on the actual playing of the thing, it's a game full of brilliant ideas, with everything from Metal Gear Solid amplified and improved upon in meaningful, compelling or just straight up entertaining ways.

Metal Gear: Ghost Babel

An adorable Game Boy exclusive Metal Gear game that feels like a demake of Metal Gear Solid, done in the Metal Gear 2 style. It's a weird one because Kojima always stated that Metal Gear Solid was the game he always wanted to make when he was making Metal Gear 2 but the technology prevented him from doing so, Ghost Babel is about as close as you'll get to a glimpse into the game we would've gotten should Big Koj had been able to incorporate a lot of the elements from MGS into Metal Gear 2. What makes this even weirder is that this is a non-canon sequel to the original Metal Gear, sort-of replacing Metal Gear 2! A nice, bite sized piece of Metal Gear that feels like the missing link between the 2D and 3D titles.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

I prefer this to The Phantom Pain because it manages to take a lot of the brilliant stealth and action mechanics from that game and put them into a short, hyper-focused mission. There's zero fat here, none of the needless grinding and repetitive stuff from that title, just one large scale extraction mission that allows you to tackle it as you see fit. There's a few variant versions you can play and mini-missions that are set within the game's map, which feel a bit like how VR Missions plays with the pre-existing mechanics and challenges you to play certain ways with them. If this was the pre-credits sequence to The Phantom Pain (which it was rumoured to be) then we'd be talking about this as one of the all-time greatest intros to a videogame.

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

I played this for the first time after playing Metal Gear Solid 1 through 3. I had heard the story I mentioned earlier, about how Metal Gear Solid was the game Hideo Kojima wishes he could've made back in 1990 when working on Metal Gear 2 and how the PlayStation finally provided him with the power to deliver this but I was completely unprepared for how close Metal Gear 2 is to Metal Gear Solid! Honestly, Metal Gear Solid almost feels like a straight-up remake - there's so many shared elements! Snake dragged out of retirement by Roy Campbell, controlling Nikita missiles to blow up the power unit for an electrified floor, having to meet up with a female colleague who is hiding in the enemy base, a HIND-D helicopter boss, a battle up a big spiral staircase inside a tower, a big old hand-to-hand scrap on the top of a destroyed Metal Gear... the list goes on! This is a game that was very much ahead of its time, still very entertaining, fun to play and is really the title where the series' cinematic flair starts to show and is the genesis of a lot of the core ideas that make up the DNA of all things Metal Gear.

Metal Gear Solid

While everyone was still going "drive the car, jump on the platform, shoot the man" in this new world of 3D graphics back in 1998, Hideo fucking Kojima came along with some mad game that started banging on about nuclear disarmament, taught me far too much about military terminology both real and fictional and somehow managed to find room for a katana-wielding cyborg ninja and some floating gas mask wearing creep who talked to me about the Castlevania and Suikoden games I'd spent the last year playing. I was 14 and it blew both my bollocks off. An absolute landmark title and a beautiful synergy of both engaging narrative and fun interaction which is unique to this whole "videogame" thing and, for my money, the core of not only the Metal Gear series but Kojima's entire design philosophy. Like a lot of games that I really like, there's many more systems in the games that came after it and a lot of them you would consider improvements but there's always something about seeing the genesis of ideas and them still being so compelling and effective that I absolutely love.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

If you read this entire article and take note of all of the things I talk positively about and put them all in one game, you'll get Snake Eater. It's still the zenith of the series and Kojima's work, a cumulation of every idea, concept and mechanic the series has featured, all of them mastered and then mixed together flawlessly in a way that ensures they not only complement one another, but also improve each other too. People were wary of this being a prequel - as we all know, sometimes things don't need explaining and once that mystery has been removed, it can negatively affect the rest of the series. The story to Snake Eater isn't just brilliant in its own right but completely reframes all of the games that are set after it in a way that makes the whole series narratively richer and features one of, if not the, best characters in all of videogames - The Boss. The secrets and Easter Eggs found here are some of the best ever, some so utterly genius and leftfield that you'll find yourself thinking that surely they're bullshit. Things like setting your PS2's internal clock to a date in the future to kill a boss by old age, or finding yourself inside a Devil May Cry style action game for a hidden 'nightmare' sequence. It's a game that can thrill, entertain and still surprise even playing it in 2022 and is, for my money, the best game in the Metal Gear series, hands down.

THANKS FOR READING.

Please consider chucking a couple of dollars at my Patreon page if you like this or any of the other things I do.

patreon.com/andihero