Metal Gear Solid Is The Best Game Ever.

[Revvy]

I'd kill to have something equally as groundbreaking released again. Everything which gets released nowadays seems to have no soul or shock factor to it, it is just is the same bullshit released over and over, dressed up in a new graphics engine or something.

When MGS was first released, it shook the very foundations of mankind. As you played through it for the first time, it felt like everything was new; it felt like you was actually on the mission and anything could happen to you. And the things which did happen to you were beyond amazing: the twists in the plot, the best boss lineup ever created; the locations you ventured, the cutscenes, it all culminated in a brilliant experience.

When you look back on events such as Psycho Mantis trying to 'hack' your Playstation, the torture chamber, Meryl getting shot, hearing the wolves cry when you was out alone in the snow, the eery and lonely Comms Tower, Liquid turning up in a chopper, seeing Metal Gear for the first time, "whose footsteps are these", there's just endless memories which I think future games have failed to match, or even come close to.

What do you think? The best game ever made? Or good, but not quite the best? If the latter, what do you think challenges MGS for the top spot?

[ManCannon]

It's the only one of the series I can stand, when it was released I did love it, and I probably wouldn't mind replaying it today, but it's got it's fair share of put offs just like the rest of the series.

I mean, it was awesome playing through it when I was 12, the ridiculous narrative and "badass" characters are well-suited to such an age, but it's a little childish now. Unfortunately, most games have stories that seem targeted at this age range, even today, but the biggest flaw with the MGS game is that they think they have a good story so they try and force it down your throat at every corner (in the case of MGS2, literally at every corner).

I really lose a lot of respect for people who say things like "OMG the story in MGS is so good, it's like the story in a book or movie!". It clearly isn't, and anyone who thinks otherwise is obviously in a state of arrested development. It's silly and more dramatic than a daytime soap opera, yet fully grown men lap it up and sing it's praises like it's fucking Shakespeare.

To address the topic at hand, I wouldn't say it's the best game of all time, although I'm sure if you'd ask my 12 year old self after finishing it for the first time I would have said it was.

I think the biggest reason why I wouldn't consider any of the MGS games to be the best games of all time is simply because huge parts of them aren't even a game. If you were to add up the codec conversation and cutscenes to gameplay ratio in each of the games, you'd probably be lucky if one of them ended up 1:1. It certainly felt like 2:1 in MGS2.

Honestly, any game that has cutscenes that reach past the 5 minute mark and that aren't A) The opening cutscene or B) the closing cutscene is a waste of my fucking time. If I want to watch a movie, I'll watch a movie. If I want to play a game, I want to play a god damn game, I don't want to sit around and watch digital marionettes jump around like superhumans, pulling off things they're entirely incapable of when the player controls them, and spouting off poorly conceived lines about war being a real downer and vaguely homoerotic lines about "love blooming on the battlefield". Watching that kind of horse shit for over 30 minutes when I turned on my console to play a game? I'd consider that some form of hell.

[InThePathOfTitans]

Metal Gear Solid Is the best game ever. Hands Down. MGS2, not so much, but ive replayed it a few times, and its not "just a rehashed version of mgs1" the story actually gets interesting, with politics and war. MGS3 was great, the story kind of fell short a little. I dont have a PS3 so i will not be playing MGS4 :(

but overall, no game can touch the awesomeness that is MGS1.

[Spam Man Sam]

I mean, it was awesome playing through it when I was 12, .

Is it just me, or does it seem like every game has a narrative these days marketed towards those who are 12?

[deus]

I personally love them.

Yes, they do kinda blur the line between game and animated movie with the extended cutscenes, but personally, I don't mind that.

2 is my least favourite, but I'd still say it's bloody good.

[ManCannon]

Is it just me, or does it seem like every game has a narrative these days marketed towards those who are 12?

"Unfortunately, most games have stories that seem targeted at this age range, even today"

Nah, it's not just you ;).

[Σnigma]

I'm tempted to say Pokemon Silver is the best.
If a MMO Pokemon game was ever made for the 360...

But since you're looking for epicness in terms of breakthrough gameplay, perhaps GTA? Vice City and San Andreas revolutionized the industry by being rated M for over fifty things (literally), having the whole Hot Coffee shit, having gameplay variations of all kinds (boats, planes, etc.), and such.

[ScaryGary]

I wouldn't say the story of the series is THE greatest, but as it is a video game it's well above standard. saying a video game shouldn't have such deep story isn't much different than saying a movie shouldn't. after all a movie is for nothing more than your visual entertainment, right? it should only make you laugh, cry or fear for what's to happen next, without any sense of flow or reason, right? eh...

yeah, the series always has sort of dragged on with story of any form, but it only goes to show that alot of work has been put into each, and in every form. it's just alot of extra sugar, really. and hey, it's always skippable. it's funny that this seems to be the only thing about the series that non-fans can find to attack. oh no, a STORY. let alone a depthy one. again, it's always skippable.

MGS was the first of the series that I had played, but the last for me to have beaten. quite recently, actually. it still holds up fairly well.

[DarkMage35]

MGS is remarkably unoriginal when you compare it to the first two games.

[P_R_Deltoid]

I'm tempted to say Pokemon Silver is the best.
If a MMO Pokemon game was ever made for the 360...

But since you're looking for epicness in terms of breakthrough gameplay, perhaps GTA? Vice City and San Andreas revolutionized the industry by being rated M for over fifty things (literally), having the whole Hot Coffee shit, having gameplay variations of all kinds (boats, planes, etc.), and such.

What the fuck are you talking about

[Knight of Blackness]

I'd say MGS, Snake Eater and Guns of the Patriots are the best. Storywise the first two taking place in Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land are great too. Oh and as the story matures the age rating goes up too. The last and final game was 16+ (or 18+, can't remember)

[ManCannon]

I wouldn't say the story of the series is THE greatest, but as it is a video game it's well above standard.

No, not really. I mean, if you compare it to like, Far Cry or something, yeah sure, but there are many many games with better stories than the MGS games. And at least games like Far Cry have the decency not to assault your intelligence with extra long cutscenes filled with bullshit every ten minutes.

saying a video game shouldn't have such deep story isn't much different than saying a movie shouldn't.

...Who said anything like that?

and hey, it's always skippable.

This has got to be one of the worst rebuttals I've ever heard. Half the point of those games is their story, and if you skip the cutscenes you have absolutely no context for what you're doing in the game.

[parkus]

When you look back on events such as Psycho Mantis trying to 'hack' your Playstation, the torture chamber, Meryl getting shot, hearing the wolves cry when you was out alone in the snow, the eery and lonely Comms Tower, Liquid turning up in a chopper, seeing Metal Gear for the first time, "whose footsteps are these", there's just endless memories which I think future games have failed to match, or even come close to.

The best game ever made?

Yes.

[16bit]

It's not THE best, but its top 100 for sure.

[Cookies]

Metal Gear Solid, for me, represents a whole childhood of sneaking around and pretending to be a spy operative. I remember this one time when me and a buddy were at his house and we hid inside a cardboard box for the longest time trying to sneak around his home so we could stealthily steal some random shit from his mom.... good times. I for one, do not consider any games "the best" or "the worst" but MGS definitely brought a mystical feeling to my youth and I doubt any newer games will ever make me feel 9 years old again... /rant

[parkus]

I think most young boys are interested in one thing - army type stuff, sneaking around shooting people, that whole Andy McNab / Tom Clancy sort of SAS stuff.

Metal Gear Solid is the game that has represented this best.
The Tom Clancy games are close, but are different because they are seperate missions.. not following a storyline that spans over 25 years.

[ScaryGary]

I'd say as far as stealth games, the Splinter Cell series is THE way to go. but theres just something magical about the MGS'; they're never too realistic to be fun.