(This was posted in the "MGS3 Bomb bomb" thread and am reposting with a few new bits)
Kojima does not get enough respect. Seriously.
People love to focus on the plot aspect of the MGS series, but he has challenged the conventions of games more than any other big time designer. Unfortunately, his love of melodrama and over the top characters overshadow his design choices.
To talk about MGS 3, there are the surface improvements, and there are many:
1. Camo Index and changing clothes
2. Concept of survival and feeding yourself
3. Close Quarters Combat
4. Performing Surgery or taking medicine
5. Stalking
These are all interesting improvements, but Kojima always takes it a step further. Everything figures into the larger gameplay at some point, or is a major part of the overall picture. For example, Camo index obviously helps you in hiding from the enemy, but it also
.
Catching food lends itself to the "survival in the jungle" aspect, but also
The final 3 things I listed are all significant additions to the gameplay. They may figure in the way I described the first two but I am not done with the game. At the least they add to the atmosphere/tone of the game. CQC enhances the fighting, which many people were not enamored with. Battles are much more fun, and the new options of holding a guard up, killing him, etc. add a lot, even if they are really just refined from what you could do in MGS2. Surgery and medicine make you think about battles; do you want to risk the major injury, or be more cautious. Although the penalty for the major injuries is pretty mild and it is easily fixed, the concept is sound, especially if you are low on medical supplies. Finally, stalking just makes the character of Snake more convincing- it is now possible to really sneak up on someone easily, as you would expect of a world class soldier.
How about the survival viewer? If you spin snake in it for a while and return to the game, he will get sick and vomit. Kojima in an interview mentioned that he did this because you could only do something like that in a game. Just a joke? No, if you are poisoned you can do it to clear the food poisoning from your system.
This trend goes all the way back to the original MGS. Remember how you had to get Meryl's codec frequency in the first game? It was printed on the back of the package. The Psycho Mantis battle is another example. Kojima has consistently thought outside of the box in terms of expanding gameplay in unconventional ways. MGS2 shows less of this, but the whole Raiden thing was of course a masterstroke of him challenging game players, although I think he overplayed his hand in that case because he underestimates the connections people had with snake. Raiden's characterization hurt things too.
Things like this make me wince when people say it is all movie and no game. It is very cinematic, yes, and the cutscenes and codec scenes are long, but there is so much more than that, and I think Kojima deserves more credit for reaching for something more, even if he fails.. If any MGS haters post in here, that's cool but please just try to make a valid argument. Also, please label spoilers!
Kojima does not get enough respect. Seriously.
People love to focus on the plot aspect of the MGS series, but he has challenged the conventions of games more than any other big time designer. Unfortunately, his love of melodrama and over the top characters overshadow his design choices.
To talk about MGS 3, there are the surface improvements, and there are many:
1. Camo Index and changing clothes
2. Concept of survival and feeding yourself
3. Close Quarters Combat
4. Performing Surgery or taking medicine
5. Stalking
These are all interesting improvements, but Kojima always takes it a step further. Everything figures into the larger gameplay at some point, or is a major part of the overall picture. For example, Camo index obviously helps you in hiding from the enemy, but it also
is important if the pain gets the hornet attractant on you. You have to change your clothes so as to not attract them.
Catching food lends itself to the "survival in the jungle" aspect, but also
is a major part of the endurance aspect of your battle with The End. When you are warned it will be a "grueling test of endurance" by Major Zero, he is not kidding. What other developer would have the balls to have an hour long boss battle? (at least, it took me that long). And it also does not have to take that long depending on how you try to fight the battle. In another thread someone said he used the thermal viewer to follow The End. That's what I did, but another person never tried that. The freedom in the game in many situations is more than people realize.
The final 3 things I listed are all significant additions to the gameplay. They may figure in the way I described the first two but I am not done with the game. At the least they add to the atmosphere/tone of the game. CQC enhances the fighting, which many people were not enamored with. Battles are much more fun, and the new options of holding a guard up, killing him, etc. add a lot, even if they are really just refined from what you could do in MGS2. Surgery and medicine make you think about battles; do you want to risk the major injury, or be more cautious. Although the penalty for the major injuries is pretty mild and it is easily fixed, the concept is sound, especially if you are low on medical supplies. Finally, stalking just makes the character of Snake more convincing- it is now possible to really sneak up on someone easily, as you would expect of a world class soldier.
How about the survival viewer? If you spin snake in it for a while and return to the game, he will get sick and vomit. Kojima in an interview mentioned that he did this because you could only do something like that in a game. Just a joke? No, if you are poisoned you can do it to clear the food poisoning from your system.
This trend goes all the way back to the original MGS. Remember how you had to get Meryl's codec frequency in the first game? It was printed on the back of the package. The Psycho Mantis battle is another example. Kojima has consistently thought outside of the box in terms of expanding gameplay in unconventional ways. MGS2 shows less of this, but the whole Raiden thing was of course a masterstroke of him challenging game players, although I think he overplayed his hand in that case because he underestimates the connections people had with snake. Raiden's characterization hurt things too.
Things like this make me wince when people say it is all movie and no game. It is very cinematic, yes, and the cutscenes and codec scenes are long, but there is so much more than that, and I think Kojima deserves more credit for reaching for something more, even if he fails.. If any MGS haters post in here, that's cool but please just try to make a valid argument. Also, please label spoilers!
T on all platforms. The dropoff seems pretty substantial and goes to show that perhaps SC isn't as popular as people claim it is and become a one hit wonder due to its timing of the originals release.
