Is it just me, or does the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 1 decline seriously toward the end?
Don't get me wrong. On the whole, the game was an amazing and innovative feat in both gameplay and storyline. It built the foundation for the entire series, which I happen to adore. But after replaying MGS1 for the umpteenth time, I realized I stop enjoying it right after the last Sniper Wolf fight.
I know a good deal of it has to do with the fact I'm replaying it. I fully appreciate the whole shape memory alloy thing, because the sheer annoyance of it really enhances the subsequent plot twist. God knows it needed it, because it was kind of ridiculous. Overall, I thought that segment overall was well done, but it's expectedly tedious on replays. But it's the parts afterward that really fillet my mignon.
The Metal Gear Rex battle irritates me a little. Granted, a lot of my frustration came from when I admittedly stupidly forgot that you can use the chaff grenades to disable the homing missiles in the first segment, but I thought there were some valid flaws. The fact that the whole level was a nigh incoherent blue blob didn't help any. When you ran into the higher parts of the screen and the camera pans up, it's really annoying to have to pick up on this wandering pink polygon of Snake's face to know where you are. Plus the Stinger apparently decided that locking on was for ninnies and communists, so I was shooting by approximation for most of the battle.
But I can live with that. It's a towering mass of sci-fi metallic death against a barely agile little man. It's not supposed to be easy. What really gets to me is the fist fight with Liquid on the Metal Gear.
The fact that the climax of the action is based on a somewhat weak and otherwise minor function of the game (ie. the hand-to-hand combat system) wasn't great form, and it evidences itself in the battle. There's something a little comical about watching two grown polygon men battle shirtless on the ruins of a Metal Gear skilled in the lost art of Punch-Punch-Kick kata. It takes away from the experience. And it slips into some well-worn game cliches, like Blinking Bad Guy syndrome, a staple in video game physics and evildoer anatomy and physiology. I can let it go sometimes, but part of the challenge hinges on a part where Liquid starts blinking a little earlier on in your Punch-Punch-Kick and hits you mid kick if you don't break and run off. The game changes its own made up natural laws midbattle. I thought it was a shallow move for a game that had earlier on been much more inventive and satisfying with its challenges, all the while still being difficult. Add to that the fact that Liquid has the endemic Bad Guy compulsion to interject his repetitive and nonsensical babblings into the battle ("You're out of time!" when you clearly have 1:30 left to kick his ass) and you got yourself an annoying finish to the game.
I won't even get into the driving sequence. Suffice it to say that it's really a let down to see an antagonist who lived through a helicopter crash, repeated missile shots to the face, a hundred or so foot fall, numerous machine gun wounds, and a serious car accident die from unrelated causes. And I really wonder why they stationed these supermen who can take rounds of machine gun ammo and still stand in the outskirts of fucking nowhere so they can sit and scratch their genetically modified balls.
Two Thumbs Up
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