I recently replayed MGS1 for psx and then MGS2 for PS2. I just started up MGS3 and I cannot get into it.
I think I often read that people love MGS3, but I think MGS1 has the most interesting story and levels. I also think the bosses in MGS1 were much more fun than they were in MGS2.
Am I in the minority here? What other games would you recommend that capture the MGS1 vibe?
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I think the third game (are you playing the re-release with the fixed camera controls? https://metalgear.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_3:_Subsistence) opens up after you’ve gotten past the first couple of areas. I’d rank the third just below the original. If some of the cutscenes were shorter, I’d put them on equal footing.
But if you’re not into it, I wouldn’t force it. There are too many great games to play something that’s not fun for you. I never finished the fourth game because of that, and I never even started the fifth even though I bought it on sale for $5.
Also, give the Gamecube remake of the original a shot (The Twin Snakes). It was essentially the original baked into the game engine and control scheme of the second game.
the best metal gear is and forever will be metal gear rising: revengeance.
why, you ask?
NANOMACHINES, SON
I think MGS1 is an excellent game, but in my opinion the subsequent games improved on the formula massively. MGS2 had a very similar vibe, and yes whilst I’d agree that some of the bosses can be frustrating, it felt like they were trying to do weird and interesting things (like defusing bombs whilst fighting fatman, and taking out a huge number of metal gears in a single fight). MGS3 just feels like the complete package to me: the best bosses in the series, an incredible soundtrack and a mostly standalone, well written story.
One thing I missed in MGS3 was sneaking around in tight interior spaces. The tanker sequence in MGS2 is a highlight of the series for me - going unnoticed in this heavily guarded ship with the rain streaming down the windows with that jazzy soundtrack playing.
I’m struggling to think of many games that capture the vibe of MGS1. The early Resident Evil games perhaps spring to mind - trying to survive alone with limited ammo and a conspiratorial backstory.
Yeah, it’s a shame that the tanker is such a short part of the game. Once you get to the oil platform, it feels kinda empty and you just keep repeating the same few rooms over and over again.
I loved the snow base hidden in the arctic. Such a cool setting.
That’s true, but there was also a lot of backtracking in MGS1.
I did like the cold, metallic atmosphere of MGS1 with beautiful dithered textures. Likewise, the cell-shaded, organic design of the Big Shell is so nice. Each Metal Gear game seems to have such a unique style.
I guess cats what u really liked about it the dark cold metallic atmosphere was really interesting. I didn’t care for the orange of the big shell.
It’s probably more because it was my first and I’ve played it far more than any other game in the series, but I love MGS1 too.
Part of it is that Kojima’s weirdness is reigned in a bit so the story is tight and relatively easy to understand while still having meta stuff like the psycho-mantis shenanigans, which was a fairly new thing in the 1990s.
I like MGS2 best because the weirdness isn’t reigned in as much but still more than the following games 😅
Having only played the original releases other than Twin Snakes I have to disagree simply because the mechanics and controls got vastly better with 3, 4 and 5. Only thing really bad about 5 is the unfinished story. Gameplay wise, I think it’s the best one.
I feel that 3 got good once they re-released it with better camera controls. I couldn’t stand the original release. It was way too hard to see ahead of Snake.
You’re not wrong. I enjoyed Snake Eater too, but MGS1 was the best all the way up until MGS5: Phantom Pain.
They’re all charming in their own ways, tho.
I’ll have to give phantom pain another play. I remember giving up in an area where there were a bunch of snipers in a forest or something.
