Metal gear is a franchise I have been enamored with for a long time and I think more people should really be looking into. I have had the satisfaction of seeing the series once again spread into popularity as Metal gear delta is being advertised and snake has infiltrated his way into fortnite. Though I am trying to keep the major spoilers out of my writings some smaller parts of the plot will be spoiled so please consider that before reading.
The series started out all the way back in 1987 on the MSX home entertainment system with the release of Metal Gear. set in 1995 Metal Gear introduces us to Solid snake and Big boss with the infiltration of Outer Heaven, an independent nation in Africa that was a soldiers paradise. Outer Heaven speaks to what makes the entire series so intriguing as a whole as the nation was established on good intentions hoping to create a place where soldiers can live as something other than abused pawns in games of chess on the world stage. Many villains and heroes motives and beliefs are much more complex than what can be gathered on the surface. a similar storyline is followed in the second installment of the series, Metal Gear Solid Snake, which released in 1990 for the MSX2. MG2 builds upon the original but keeps to being mostly the same in terms of how the game plays out with the major plot difference (that doesn't contain spoilers) is that the leader of outer heaven has established a new nation of Zanzibar land.
The next game to release is Metal Gear Solid in 1998 which takes the series into the third dimension changing much of the gameplay and creating one of the best story's in gaming. The aging controls of these games can at times be annoying for newer players but I encourage anyone who thinks they would be interested to play anyways as you can get used to even the worst of controls. I would also encourage new player to avoid using a guide as much as possible for these games as the puzzles are a lot of the fun of gameplay, though it is worth noting that there is a part where checking the provided case cover guide is REQUIRED as a fourth wall breaking gameplay element so if your emulating the game it can be really hard to figure out that your supposed to look at your game case. with all that being said I think the story of Solid Snake infiltrating a nuclear weapons disposal facility to stop a terrorist cell using his former units name of FOXHOUND is super entertaining and thoughtfully made to incorporate action movie clichés in a mostly unobtrusive way to pay homage to movies without feeling overly corny or stupid (though it does ride that line sometimes).
Metal Gear Solid 2 is the next to release in 2001 on the PS2 intorduces us to a new player character in the series which is important to the story and managed to stir up some controversy. To put it simply, the game creator (Hideo Kojima) And the rest of Konami puposfully lied in the advertising promoting the game to further the narrative in the game. The main themes of Metal Gear Solid 2 are the rise of artificial intelligence, disinformation, and the importance of being an individual. With disinformation being such an important part of the plot the choice to only show Solid Snake in the advertisements begins to make sense. Personally, I really enjoyed MGS2 and I really think its worth playing, and for those whove played it and dont like it, play it again becuase your opinion may have changed now that raiden being the mian character doesnt feel like a betrayl by the devs. I think this game has some really good gameplay mechanics, fun and interesting bosses, and cool plot twists especially with the introduction of solidus snake and his crazy back story along with the surprisingly touching and dark story given to Otacon.
probably the most popular game in the series Metal Gear Soild 3 was released in 2004 and goes back in time to show off another new main character, though this time it is Big Boss, the villain from the first Metal Gear games and the father of Solid, Liguid, and Solidus snake. not one of my personal favorites in the series simply becuase I simply prefer the more tech oriented games Mgs3 is still among my favorite games of all time and improves upon the gameplay in many ways (while stagnating in others) making the gamelpay very fun and engaging but not adding much to the plot compared to the other games (not really a complaint the previous games had amazing narrative and MGS3 does not fail to deliver) with my only complaint with the game being the cartoonish bosses with less than well explained reasons for their special abilities.
Released in 2004, MGS4 takes back to the current day of the timline in 2014 returning Solid Snake to the role of main character, though now referred to as Old Snake due to his aging body. to put it simply, this game is a glorious mess in the best way possible. There are strange commercials significant to the story that will play periodically with a random commercial playing each time. the conclusion of snakes storyline found in this game is touching and an amazing send off to the character with many loose ends getting tied (though not all of them of course) and a touching storyline outlining an inevitable tragedy. This game is also notbale for having the longest cutscene of any game with the end cutscene coming in at a woping hour and a half.
A very short prequel to the much larger Metal Gear Solid V the Phantom Pain Ground Zeroes has some really great gameplay, though it is basically one mission from tpp that was released early to satiate both Konami and the fans whiel continuing to develop the game. this game take a much darker turn compared to the cartoonish PeaceWalker that hits you with some serious whiplash if you play the games back to back as I did. though some of the disturbing parts of GZ are seen immediatly with prisonaers having rods impaling their ankles to pull apart their achilles tendon from the rest of their feet keeping the prisoners from leaving on their own. it gets darker however as the story that unfolds through the mission implies quite a few terrible things that characters experience. It continues to get worse as whats implied in the mission os confirmed with the audio in the casette tapes that reveal more about the stroy if you take the time to listen to them. This game was not afraid to kill off some of the characters youve grown attached to and the rest will be forever scarred.
This game infuriates me like no other for the simple fact that it has all the pieces to be the greatest game of all time and yet behind the scenes problems caused issues and led to a product that is amzing in so many ways but lacking in others. the story starts off so strong but ends so abrutly leaving so many loose ends and awkward quick explanations to some of the story to quickly wrap everything up. the gameplay is pure gold, most of the story is pure gold, the new characters are great, new lore added in this game ties multiple questions left from earlier entries in the series answering multiple questions at once, the new villians plot is well detailed with skull face being well written. I cant get behind the Metal Gear in this installment though, as I just cant justify in my mind such a machine being constructed in the 80s even if can only be controlled by a psychic as tx55 (which will be built 10 years after the events of this game) is an ugly little tank riddled with 80s robot aesthetics looking more like a gonk droid than a mech as TPP looks. I know people like to explain this as Emmerich is not there to develope the TX55 and Big Boss would have to would work with the less talented Draco Pettrovich Madnar. I really wouldve enjoyed something closer to tx55 in its design that could keep the towering stature of sahelanthropis and incorporate the design elements of tx55 instead of jumping the gun to make in look like Rex.