Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Metal Gear Solid: Tactical Analytical Essay

firstly I will post a link to a hilarious and extraordinarily intelligent forum thread from my good friend jack, who from here on will be referred to as Mr.Jack. Mr.Jack has been good enough to lend me all 3 metal gears: Metal Gear Solid:Twin Snakes, MGS II:Substance, and MGS III:Subsistance. It is my own goal to replay through the entire series again before 4 and pay as close attention to everything I can, such that I sort of know what's going on. It's like that with a lot of things I like. Metal Gear Solid is such a well crafted gem that each installment seems to come farther and farther apart, and yet each time Hideo Kojima outdoes himself. Metal Gear has changed the way I have looked at videogames and even the world, as a good piece of media should.
I will go into a little personal history here, so if that's boring skip this paragraph, especially if you know me(doug). My first time playing Metal Gear was in fact seeing my friend who had it on Gamecube and him letting me try it. I believe I was in middle school at the time, regardless of what age it was, my tastes in media were just beginning to develop. I was not allowed yet to play M rated games or see R rated movies, so my tastes were still juvenile at best. My friend Chris had no such restrictions and was able to obtain a remake of what was apparently the defining games of the PS1. When I first was shown it I was fascinated, I had only seen a few R rated movies before this and here was an incredibly dark, yet intelligent game. I distinctly remember trying the first part of the game and completely and utterly sucking at it. Not only was this game smart, it was hard. Looking back and replaying through it myself i would certainly say Solid Snake is built for the PS2 dualshock controller. The whole reason my friend Chris has bought Sony game systems, up until the absurd $600 price-tag on the PS3 was Metal Gear. 
The hour grows late. I will try to continue my essay sometime this week, most likely thursday or friday. Hope someone on the internet has enjoyed what I have to say so far...
Sincerely,
Vladbad 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You make some grand statements about this game. I'm looking forward to reading your observations. Could your fascination have something to do with your age? Do these games have replay value? Like any good piece of art or literature, do these games change with each playing? TW

Anonymous said...

since you posted that forum log on the character of "Snake", I'll be interested in your take on the characters in the games.

that guy makes an interesting, if unintended, observation on the various snakes, though; they all act as similar characters, even though they are different, and are designed that way.

jack lichten (via kate quenzer)