Board 8 > Playing Metal Gear Solid for the first time in like 10 years (spoilers I guess)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Though I'd surprised if I could spoil anyone that cared.

I've played it I think twice before, but it has been ages. I thought I'd finally play the fifth so why not replay the other four first when they're all top tier games and the pandemic gives me the time.

I'm still amazed by the atmosphere and everything after so many years. I mean, the game obviously haven't aged all too well in terms of gameplay, it's mostly an issue when fighting and shooting imo. I'm worse at that than I used to me and I was never that great.

It's still fun sneaking around and looking into the eyes of a guard a few meters away who can't see you.

Jeez, Mei Ling's accent

I forgot to pick up Thermal Goggles before they were locked behind a level 4 door...

Dammit, I'm playing on only normal, but Ocelot killed be twice...

Otacon is still the best.

Psycho Mantis is super cool, and I love that fight, even if it's a lot easier when you know what to do right away. The fourth wall breaking in story is fantastic. I'm playing on my PS3, switching controller isn't quite the same lol.

I'm at the point where Meryl just got shot by Sniper Wolf and I have to go get the rifle. That's probably my only real issue about the game other than the controls not feeling as good as they used to. The amount of backtracking sucks.

Which ending to go for? Save Meryl or see David Hayter deliver his best line in game as she dies?

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I always used to save Otacon for the stealth camo!

My fave bit was always when Otacon realises there are guys in the lift with Snake. His reaction scared the shit out of me the first time lol

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Cavedweller2000 posted...

I always used to save Otacon for the stealth camo!

My fave bit was always when Otacon realises there are guys in the lift with Snake. His reaction scared the shit out of me the first time lol

Well, I mean, Otacon still survives, he just doesn't escape with Snake. I would go for that for sure if I planned to play again.

And yeah, I'm looking forward to that part. It's rather creepy IIRC.

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I wonder how much of the game working is due to the fantastic voice acting.

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That the poll is so even is just prove of how great this game was at boss fights.

Though I wonder, wth the three machines being the one without a vote, is that because you're voting for best scene more or as much as gameplay? Or just a coincidence.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

I thought I'd finally play the fifth so why not replay the other four first

Because then you will absolutely hate everything about V

The best way to play V is to understand that it definitely is not MGS5 and doesn't try to be, but even then you're gonna play a B- game right after 4 of the best games of all time

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I mean, I'm going in expecting the worst.

But I'm happy I did this. I'm loving the replay.

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Hey I just started playing V like a week ago.

I don't really like the MGS series that much (I stopped playing 3 after a couple hours and never bothered with 4) but it's aight I guess.

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V is amazing fun if you don't mind a purely gameplay experience.

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I'd like to replay the main 4 someday. Don't know if I'd bother with Peace Walker or V though.

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Gameplay is good, but I mean, I thinn MGS is more story than gameplay unless you're really bad. It would've still been incredible with a bad story because of how revolutionary it was, but I see the issue if only gameplay works in the new one.

I'll still probably enjoy it because I have no expectations.

Also I ranked the games 3 > 4 > 1 > 2 by memory. We'll see how it goes now.

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Psycho Mantis!

I played the game for the first time in 2018 and had no idea about any of the bosses and was really surprised/impressed by him and the mechanics.

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The sniper fights are always my favorite. Although the first faceoff with Sniper Wolf isn't great, her second battle is wonderful. I enjoy Crying Wolf a little more bc better technology. And The End is one of the greatest bosses in all of video games.

Love Quiet as well

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I ended up enduring the torture. It just feels right. It's also easier than I remembered. Do you get tortured more than twice if you don't call Otacon ASAP and use the ketchup right away?

Running up the tower was no fun. I died once and used all my rations the second time. I'm bad at dealing with many enemies at the same time, definitely worse than I used to. I can't dodge s*** here and I suck at hitting them for some reason.

Hind D is pretty fun. "I just had to take down a helicopter" so badass.

Sniper Wolf is easily the easiest boss with the Nikita. I'm sure no one voted best boss fight for fighting her with that lol. I jammed one of them into the hill. It can only go up where you can it seems.

So is it Stockholm syndrome with Otavon and her or what? I forgot to mention earlier that I chuckled at "Japanese anime". Different times huh.

Insert disc 2 on PS3, sure.

I fell into the lava twice to get a ration, f*** me. Skipped it the third time.

Vulcan Raven is fun. I think stinger is best at first, but C4 when he starts moving fast.

It absolutely sucked walking back and forward to cold and heat the keycard.

Metal Gear is probably the most difficult boss in the game, I lost a couple of times.

Man those last couple of hours are crazy. Good stuff. Knowing the future of our main characters gives me the feels.

I had forgotten Roy's cover up plan is foiled instantly lol.

Man what a great game. I miss big games being short enough to beat in one day. Look at the biggest games from this GotD. All so long.

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I choose to save Meryl because it's canon.

Boss fight rankings: Mantis > Hind D > Ninja > Liquid > Sniper Wolf 2 > Raven > REX > Ocelot > Sniper Wolf 1 > Tank

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The best game is MGS3. The game with the best intro is MGS2

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I never played the original MGS1 like you're playing, I did play the Twin Snakes remake tho

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ctesjbuvf posted...

It absolutely sucked walking back and forward to cold and heat the keycard

Cardboard box warps make this 100x better

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Xiahou Shake posted...

Cardboard box warps make this 100x better

Wait, it does? I'm fuzzy on the details, where do you enter/exit the trucks?

Also wow I really need to replay this. MGS1 is so good, so many details I forgot. Like the music in the Blast Furnace, which just came back to me. It's a shame about the silly backtracking segments.

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This would definitely a good time to play Peace Walker too, which I own but have never played.

Isn't Twin Snakes pretty close to be the same? What I can remember is a few different lines and Mei King's accent fixed. Oh, and there's a Mario and Yoshi cameo somewhere because of course there is. I haven't played it though, so good chance I just don't know it if there's more.

It's weird you get the better reward for not enduring the torture. Or do you have not endure the torture at first and then submit the next time or something.

Xiahou Shake posted...

Cardboard box warps make this 100x better

Okay what this I need to look into.

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One of the best things Twin Snakes does is eliminate some of the more egregious backtracking moments.

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Leonhart4 posted...

One of the best things Twin Snakes does is eliminate some of the more egregious backtracking moments.

I know about the nitrogen pipe in Rex's hangar, is there another?

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I have a hard time ranking the bosses. I think Psycho Mantis is the coolest one, but after you switch controller, I don't think it's the best one gameplay wise, even though it's still really fun. Ninja is similar, it's one if the most enjoyable, but the gameplay isn't the reason.

It like using stinger or psg the most I think. Although the psg hasn't aged all too well. Probably mostly because it's annoying Snake has to lie down and then you can't move around very fast. But yeah, probably a fight where you use those.

I probably had the most fun fighting Vulcan Raven. I liked that you had stealth mixed into it and while you could use the same thing to beat him, the game probably puts you in a situation where it's best to switch around between stinger, nikita and C4. His death scene ranks below some of the others, but the fight itself is so good imo.

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Big fan of MGS1, but in the long run I prefer Snake Eater.

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Ah shoot, I'm a bit mixed up. Sadly the box warps don't do much to help with the PAL backtracking since there aren't any trucks in that last stretch. They do help enormously when you have to go fetch the PSG-1 to fight Sniper Wolf, though!

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Xiahou Shake posted...

Ah shoot, I'm a bit mixed up. Sadly the box warps don't do much to help with the PAL backtracking since there aren't any trucks in that last stretch. They do help enormously when you have to go fetch the PSG-1 to fight Sniper Wolf, though!

Yeah, I was gonna say I thought the last truck was in the Snowfield.

Honestly even using the warps to get to the PSG1 doesn't help that much. You basically only skip the M1 tank area, and even then you still have to sneak back into the hangar

I dunno what the difference in time would be, but I can't imagine it's a particularly big diff

ctesjbuvf posted...

I have a hard time ranking the bosses. I think Psycho Mantis is the coolest one, but after you switch controller, I don't think it's the best one gameplay wise, even though it's still really fun. Ninja is similar, it's one if the most enjoyable, but the gameplay isn't the reason.

It like using stinger or psg the most I think. Although the psg hasn't aged all too well. Probably mostly because it's annoying Snake has to lie down and then you can't move around very fast. But yeah, probably a fight where you use those.

I probably had the most fun fighting Vulcan Raven. I liked that you had stealth mixed into it and while you could use the same thing to beat him, the game probably puts you in a situation where it's best to switch around between stinger, nikita and C4. His death scene ranks below some of the others, but the fight itself is so good imo.

I think gameplay wise Raven is probably the most fun. The cat and mouse nature of it is really good, and it's definitely the most "tactical" battle. Very underrated fight

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Yeah, a few of the fights probably offer cooler set pieces, but I voted Raven for that reason. It's the closest thing that MGS has to the boss style later in the series where you can find a new way to take them down every time. Plus I have a soft spot for Raven as a character, he's super underrated in general.

What an amazing game though, sheesh. The sequels improved on it in such obvious ways but MGS1 is a near-perfect package in a way that nothing else in the series comes close to.

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XIII_rocks posted...

I know about the nitrogen pipe in Rex's hangar, is there another?

they also provide a tranq sniper rifle in the area where her wolves are so you don't have to go all the way back for the main one

and they put the rope that you need for the Hind section in a much easier location

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Hot take: Twin Snakes s***s all over the PS1 version, which has aged almost as badly as Goldeneye.

Sniper Wolf 1 always stood out to me because of the narrative impact surrounding it. Wolf shooting Meryl, then Snake having to abandon the poor girl brought out some great emotion in his character. Prior to that, he states that he only feels truly alive on the battlefield, and that he's been conditioned to not care about anyone.

That moment where Meryl's lying wounded is a great dilemma where "the battlefield" and his personal feelings overlap.

Then coming back to duel Wolf in that sniper corridor is flat-out awesome.

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plasmabeam posted...

Hot take: Twin Snakes s***s all over the PS1 version, which has aged almost as badly as Goldeneye.

You can't just say a really wrong take and call it hot. Go through all the badly aged issues of Goldeneye (which wasn't even good at the time tbh) and you'll see how MGS1 avoids all of them.

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So what does the original do better than Twin Snakes?

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Not having such over-the-top cutscenes I guess? Not trivializing the level design with MGS2 mechanics I guess?

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ctesjbuvf posted...

So what does the original do better than Twin Snakes?

The voice work in the original is generally considered to be better (although Twin Snakes getting rid of Mei Ling's atrocious accent that she shouldn't even have is one of the best things it did). Twin Snakes taking MGS2's gameplay additions removes a lot of the difficulty, and a lot of people dislike the Matrix-esque cutscenes.

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Leonhart4 posted...

One of the best things Twin Snakes does is eliminate some of the more egregious backtracking moments.

??? You don't go back to all the old areas you can with a key card for optional items anyway?

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LeonhartFour posted...

The voice work in the original is generally considered to be better (although Twin Snakes getting rid of Mei Ling's atrocious accent that she shouldn't even have is one of the best things it did). Twin Snakes taking MGS2's gameplay additions removes a lot of the difficulty, and a lot of people dislike the Matrix-esque cutscenes.

Also the boss music

I like to think I wouldn't have minded the new music if any of it was better than Duel, but it really isn't (as I recall)

It does have "when death is entreated, the battle is decided!" which is a good Liquid quote. I forgot that was only in TTS.

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So is Ground Zeroes worth going through before Phantom Pain?

If it has good gameplay, the answer is yes probably.

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Ground Zeroes is better than Phantom Pain in a lot of ways IMHO so yeah def give that a shot

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Xiahou Shake posted...

Ground Zeroes is better than Phantom Pain in a lot of ways IMHO so yeah def give that a shot

it has one of the best quotes from the entire series!

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Cool. I was going to unless someone had had a pretty good reason not to. Might as well just get the full experience.

I probably wont start MGS2 for at least another day. I didn't really plan on going through the first one in one full day so I got some things to catch up on first lol.

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Ground Zeroes is very short, so if you're getting the version that has both games in it, there's really no reason not to give it a shot.

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Ground Zeroes is one of the best parts of MGSV

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Play GZ and then never play V, so you can go your whole life imagining that V is an entire game of GZ quality, instead of what it actually is

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It sure sounds like Ground Zeroes isn't getting skipped.

I'm still riding high on how good it was playing MGS again. It's a shame they never got to remake that one.

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bump

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I considered making a new topic for the second one, but it's probably fine to continue here.

I've played I'd say about halfway through the game so far, will share some thoughts and reactions soon.

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Alright, obvious spoilers ahead for MGS2

It's like they instantly realized Snake and Otacon were the best characters of the first game. If I didn't know better I'd probably think the canon ending of MGS1 was that Meryl died, because she's not mentioned at all.

The controls are more similar to the first one than I recalled for better or worse.

Dog Tags are a terrible collectable, fortunately they only matter for replays by damn, they're ass. Part of is it probably that the controls for doing it is outdated, I never enjoyed it though.

I'm playing the HD version on PS3 and that means I'll be collecting trophies for the first time. There's no way in hell I'm gonna attempt a platinum on this one though. It requires you to collect every single dog tag on every single difficulty, which is btw another reason that they suck.

The tanker part feels empty in that you don't have much equipment and items, but there are so much detail here. Lots of small gems to appreciate. Locker room fun, soldiers without pants, sending pictures to Otacon for fun reactions. There's more to it than it initially.

Olga is a fun boss fight, it's a shame she's the only one for this part of the game.

I'm still not very good at the game, but it leads to some fun times occasionally. Rolling straight into bombs attempting to crawl because I hadn't completely stopped moving it a recurring event.

At one point I was hiding in my box and they shot it for blood to splatter all over the wall behind it clearly blowing my cover, only for them to wander around not being able to find me. That was weird. Most of the time I get caught is attempting to "freeze" enemies. I feel like sometimes Snake just points the gun at them without saying it and then they turn to punch me. I've looked into this and I don't know what's wrong.

Puppet master Ocelot being way too arrogant yet everything works his way.

I would've really liked another boss fight on the tanker, but oh well. On to the main game.

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MGS2 is a massive prank.

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I got the platinum for MGS2 for Vita, and I've got all but 1 trophy for PS3 just haven't bothered finishing the VR missions. Really enjoyed the game and dog tags weren't too bad.

IMO the hardest part was battling 20 Metal Gear Rex on Extreme difficulty

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It's not as much as they're not doable as it's just not very fun, especially not to collect them all five times.

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I never get tired of MGS2 so it was fine for me. Used Stealth Camo to get the ones on harder difficulties

Found VR more annoying personally

Cavedweller2000 posted...

IMO the hardest part was battling 20 Metal Gear Rex on Extreme difficulty

This battle on this specific difficulty might be one of my favourites ever. I found it brilliantly intense but with a very "fair" difficulty.

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