I’ve been arguing (no, that’s a strong word, lets say “debating”) amongst others almost constantly about Metal Gear Solid 4 since its release, about why this game, for me, has really raised the bar for immersion, story, and characterisation. For myself and I’m sure for a number of others, the experience you get from playing MGS4 is heightened massively by a wealth of key moments and plot twists with the ‘wow’ factor back in 1998 and later instalments. All the events have been climaxing to create a war-ridden environment, filled with grunts, roamed by the odd futuristic-Ninja, created by scientists. Snake lurks in the shadows, coasting along walls, faking death with tomato ketchup and sitting in cardboard boxes.
Therein lies MGS’s ‘problem’. I can’t imagine making head or tail of what was going on if I hadn’t played the previous games so much, because this game reeks of information you should have previously learned. For this reason I’d strongly advise against purchasing a PS3 for it until you have your brain tuned-in to the Metal Gear universe. Even if you were to read up on all the characters, you’d probably need to sit down with a list of names, nicknames, pictures and phrases to get all the meaning out of MGS4 that’s packed within it.
Now here’s something to think about: because MGS4 surely alienates people who aren’t familiar with it, does it deserve to be marked down, or less praised than something like Grand Theft Auto 4 that anyone (aged 18 or over) can pick up and play?
We’re a fuming bunch when it comes to film adaptations of the games we love because they rarely stick to the original games content. Imagine the army of Metal Gear-aholics raging over MGS4 because Kojima thought, “Nah, I won’t use information from the old games. New players won’t ‘get it’.”
Picture a bar graph with games, and the higher the bar is, the more brilliant and popular that game is. Grand Theft Auto is right at the top (or indeed any other decent mainstream title). Metal Gear 4 is there too, it’s not quite as good, but it’s close. Now, insert Metal Gear Solid, Sons of Liberty, and Snake Eater underneath MGS4. The history pushes it somewhat higher than the experience you get with one single, detached world in one game. Yeah, a game is a game, we don’t all want to be completely immersed, committed and crying about what goes on (or indeed tied up in a very long cut scene), but that’s what makes it Metal Gear, those are its fundamentals, and when you enjoy them, it’s utter bliss. So back to the imaginary bar graph, if you haven’t played the earlier games, it isn’t that special. Visuals? Phwoar. Music? Wow. But you aren’t experiencing the half of it without it’s rich back story.
Sadly, big-budget games like this aren’t always financially viable, particularly if it remains exclusive to one console. A publisher wants to publish something that will sell by the shedload, it doesn’t have to appeal to fans. In a way, if you can’t afford to shell out on more than one console, this is a good thing, because the bigger games get, the more money needs to be taken back to recuperate expenses, and going multi-format is probably the best way to do that. Sadly I still can’t picture MGS4 coming to the 360, but you never know…
…and for those who manage to make it this far, you’re probably wondering what the point of all that was, and what on earth the title means:
Back in ’98 a friend of my sisters saw my PlayStation games. Her words were: “Metal Gear Salad? Is that some kind of hardcore cooking game?” (Witness the bewildering mind of the non-gamer). But somehow she managed to forsee a future where a simple cooking game has the capacity to take the charts by storm.
So, the rather long awaited point to this post is this; are all games going to eventually devolve into what is simplest, quickest, and cheapest to make? Casual ‘safe’ Zoo Keeper styles that don’t use voice actors, motion capture, or an orchestral score? Casual games are great fun, but the impact of a big-budget title can be mind blowing. I don’t want them to die out.
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