Hello. I am the guy who wrote that review of Little Busters that everyone hated because I did not like the game. Those poor people are doing just fine, however, even with my evil, vile, disgusting review out there still. I, on the other hand, have never been worse off. You see, I've been overwhelmed with guilt. I feel bad for what I did. I took a beloved visual novel, one that has changed the lives of many people, and slandered it with my negative review. Then I continued to ride that infamy I gained into relevancy allowing my hatred of Little Busters! to manifest itself as a false representation of my true opinion of it, much like I am doing right this moment.
The truth about my time with Little Busters! is that I enjoyed the VN. It had some bad routes (like all of them) and had a really unremarkable ending. But can I say I did not enjoy my time reading it? Not really. The 24 hour stream was a blast, and subsequent streams were a lot of fun, especially when people were involved in the jokes and discussion of the routes as I read them. For example, Lewycool's Sexy Seagull Legs during Mio's route was light in an otherwise forgettable, boring route (protip: a character with no personality other than "I like books" is not a recipe for a fun route) and allowed me to actually have fun with the route. Likewise, discussions of Kurugaya's Balloon Tits carrying me off into the sky made her Bill Murray wannabe route more enjoyable. Refrain was a blast to read right up until the ending. I didn't hate Rin and simply wished we saw far more development from her than what we got. She was a fun character.
The experience of reading Little Busters! was good. I had a good time. While my opinions on Little Busters! remain the same, that it is a bad VN (not horrid at least), I do not regret the time I spent on it and I sometimes wish I could read it over again on stream with everyone like I did before.
So, I owe everyone an apology. I'm sorry your favorite VN is so shit I had to bring in friends to enjoy it instead. I can't wait to get my hands on the official Rewrite release in 600 years.
Also, a review of an InvertMouse VN is coming very soon to this blog near you, assuming I'm not blocked first.
Studio Elan, and I refuse to copy and paste the accent mark like they do on their Twitter account, bursts out onto the EVN scene with their long awaited debut visual novel, Heart of the Woods. A mix of Ghost Adventurers, fluffy yuri relationships, and a magical elements, Heart of the Woods is an ambitious showcase of talent wrapped up in a tightly woven tale of love and sacrifice.
From the very beginning of this roughly 4-6 hour long VN, Heart of the Woods sets a tense tone that persists throughout the entire run time. Tara and Maddie, the team behind the viral paranormal internet show, Taranormal, are on their way an isolated town located in the woods at the behest of Morgan, a fan of the show who tips them off at paranormal activities within her town. Conflict is bubbling, though, as this is the final episode that Maddie will be working on, and this month long trip to produce the episode has pushed their now strained friendship to the breaking point. What follows is a series of rapidly escalating events where the very lives of the characters hang in the balance.
The story itself is generally solid with a few hiccups due in large part to how the passage of time is handled in this VN. Events progress at a whiplash pace in the VN which leads to the relationships between characters feeling more than a little contrived. This is something many VNs suffer from, however, and might be the most difficult aspect of writing a romance VN without feeling it completely with fluff pieces to flesh out character relationships for the sake of believability. While normally I despise long periods of fluff, Heart of the Woods would have benefited from a padded run time with more light hearted character interactions without the main conflict looming overhead. One half of our main cast, Maddie and Abigail do get far more of this type of treatment when compared to Tara and Morgan who are relegated more towards the advancement of the plot at the expense of a more evenly paced relationship.
The light hearted moments that do exist are tender and well done generally. Tara is a magnificent goofball, Abigail is a not so pure cinnamon roll, Morgan (my personal favorite character) features a great amount of excellent character growth, and Maddie is versatile, able to smoothly interact with every character in an interesting way, even when the interactions are less than amiable. More often than not, the interactions between couples, is incredibly cheesy and I feel that once again, the lack of establishing scenes for the relationships is the main cause of this. With that said, just because they are cheesy does not mean that they are poorly done or bad. Perhaps my inexperience in reading yuri VNs is showing here and the purpose is to create a more light, fluffy feel, in which case, the cheesy love dialogue achieves its goal.
Setting aside the character interactions, the storytelling is an improvement over the standard skeleton that director Josh Kaplan’s previous work, Highway Blossoms, follows. Far more ambitious and fantastical, Heart of the Woods’ story features some unexpected developments that caught me off guard. Aided by a writing style that seamlessly switches from whimsical and comedic to foreboding and brooding the story rarely misses a beat and when it does, its due to the previously mentioned passage of time. Of special note is how the writers successfully pulled off narration perspective changes in seamless fashion. Usually when a VN switches the narration character to tell a different side of the story, I find that one character’s side of the story is far stronger, more engaging than the other character. This is not the case in Heart of the Woods. Each perspective shift is treated with equal amounts of effort and I never found myself wishing I could go back to a different character’s narration/story.
The VN features phenomenal artwork from Adirosa and Rosuuri which establishes the magical world that the reader enters and also gives each character a highly unique appearance to match their personality. For example, just what in the hell are Tara’s hair clips? This question will inevitably lead you to “Why can Tara not even cook toast without nearly burning down an entire ecosystem of magical creatures.” Each character’s look matches perfectly with their personality. Once again, I have to show some love to my favorite character, Morgan, who’s sprite work is downright unsettling at times giving her a very mysterious feel which helps establish the magical strange setting for this VN.
The final piece of the puzzle for establishing this world is the music, which I am pleased to say is top notch. Featuring the talents of Sarah Mancuso and Astartus, the soundtrack is heavy on the use of stringed instruments but never overpowering which gives the reader the same level of comfort, or discomfort as the characters in the VN. When a soundtrack can assist in the world building and storytelling as the soundtrack in this VN does, that is the sign of great composition and direction.
The characters, art, story, and music all come together magnificently in creating the world of Heart of the Woods and therein a major hindrance to the VN comes into play. It is quite literally too fantastic of a world and story to be told in a VN. The limitations of the VN medium are on full display as despite all of the efforts taken to create this magical world, it never really feels like it is used to its full potential. Technically the VN is sound, utilizing clever camera movement, character positioning, and particle effects to bring this world to life, but I still felt it did not quite reach its full potential because it felt too static. This is in no way a knock on the team behind this work, but rather a criticism of the medium as a whole. This story and world would be far better suited in the form of an animated movie to allow the environment to truly come to life. I want Studio Elan to take this as a compliment, rather than a criticism. The work they did was too good to be trapped within the VN medium.
Heart of the Woods is a welcome entry to the EVN scene injecting a strong dose of professionalism into the market. While it does feature a couple of flaws, the overall package is an well polished work that is well worth the time to read if you want to spend a few hours in a world of yuri and magic. This is a fantastic debut work and leaves me excited to see just what Studio Elan has in store for the future.
About a year and a half ago, I completed the Suda51 title, Killer is Dead. I honestly am not sure what happened but I will do my best to sort it out. Despite me not knowing really what was happening, something aside from the mediocre gameplay kept me going. It was the ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃｓ. I'm done with that bit now btw.
Spoilers ahead.
The whole point of this post isn't to discuss the story or the quality of the game Killer is Dead, but rather to examine the art style and how it made me want to complete the game. Killer is Dead is a hack and slash game from the mind of Suda51. Opinions on his ability to craft a good game aside, his art direction tends to be on the more creative side. The art of Killer is Dead is why I set aside my qualms I had for the gameplay and story and found myself continuing to play it to completion. Take David for example...
He some sort of king or something living on the dark side of the moon. But what stands out to me isn't his story. It's his god damn gold clothes. When the first major boss of the game looks like this, I cannot help but be intrigued. I honestly remember nothing about David except that the little shit shows up and ruins breakfast at one point in the game while wearing a stupid shit eating grin as shown here.
This is a man set on ruining your breakfast. I think he might have been your brother or something but he time traveled and killed your mom at breakfast [citation needed]. But lets take a look at some of the other screenshots from the game.
I honestly don't remember what any of these are from in the game, but the actual visuals of the game are what stick with me after all this time. Not the gameplay, or the story, but just the visuals. That leads me to my rambling point that I haven't argued. Graphics can totally be the only thing a game has going for it and that is fine. Killer is Dead is a prime example of this. The gameplay is forgettable, while the story is only memorable because it is driven entirely by the unique art direction of the game. Killer is Dead was entirely worth the time and money I spent on the game for one reason: it was so damn interesting to look at.
Now I want to look at a more mainstream example of a game with a strong, unique, direction of art. Persona 5. Now now, I am not shitting on the game right now. That is for an upcoming blog post. But, when we get down into the nitty gritty details of the gameplay of the sequel, it really isn't much of a step forward for the Persona series as a whole. Some interviews from the development team likened to jump from 4 to 5 like the jump from the P2 duology to Persona 3 [citation needed]. What we got, however, was just an expanded 4 with most mechanics renamed and a mild rehash of the story from 4. What makes the game seem as if it is a completely new leap forward for Persona, in my eyes, is the amazingly slick visuals and art direction. The art sets the game completely apart from Persona 3 and 4 with character cut ins and super stylized labels and text. Persona 5, unlike Killer is Dead, has much more solid gameplay that actually does hold up on its own without the eye popping art direction.
I'm not so sure that if Killer is Dead featured a more bland style of art, that I would remember it, or even finished it. Lets take another Suda51 game as an example; Lollipop Chainsaw. I never could finish the game. The game's poor frame rates and some what repetitive gameplay killed it for me, but what had kept me going was the candy popping colors of the game. Then I got stuck on some part and stopped caring, but before that, the art direction, once again, had kept me going in that pretty mediocre game.
What is the final point I want to make? Well, that I am a fucking idiot that lets pretty colors dictate what games I finish and what I set aside. Also look at this unicorn from Killer is Dead
Well, the ass safari was less than I had hoped. Meryl will literally run away if she spots you, not to mention, her footsteps sound different than the other guards. A shame.
Meryl runs off to the bathroom and we are treated to a nice long scene of character development. Meryl claims to have wanted to be a soldier all her life after seeing and hearing of heroes like her uncle, Campbell, and Solid Snake, soldiers who are soldier and not the genetically modified soldiers of FOXHOUND. Snake claims he is no hero (a theme we will see more of). Regardless, Meryl wants to help Snake. Snake is reluctant at first, but agrees since Meryl tells Snake to shoot her if she slows him down. She pulls out a Level 5 key card and says the next area we need to get to is the Commanders Office. Off we go!
The guards have all gone for some reason. The strange haunting music that was playing before has also stopped. All is quiet. We enter into a long hallway, and the music is back. A strange, haunting hymn like chorus. Meryl runs in front of us, and falls to the ground. The screen starts flashing, and the perspective keeps changing. Meryl suddenly stands back up, and in a hollow voice claims to be okay. Her voice sounds as if its behind a mask.
"Come on Mr. FOXHOUND. The Commander is waiting."
We enter the room and the door locks behind us. Meryl seems to lose her mind, raising her gun to us.
"How do you like me Snake?"
"Make love to me Snake! Hurry!"
Snake sees a man in a gas mask floating behind her.
"What? You don't like girls?" the man asks.
Well, we need to subdue Meryl before doing anything else. Preferably in a non-lethal way, requests Campbell. We unleash a few punching combos and knock her out. The floating man in the gas mask finally reveals himself as, Psycho Mantis. Now we let him read our saves, deaths, alerts, and memory card. Mantis tells me that I am "a highly skilled warrior well suited to the stealth mission." He obviously does not read this blog. And with nothing on my memory card, he moves on to shaking my controller. Thank you Dualshock 3. Thats it for the demonstration. Time to fight.
The Mantis fight is a very strange, meta fight. The first thing we need to do is a fun controller trick, otherwise he will dodge every single one of our attacks. The screen will go black at this time, and the word, "HIDEO" appears in the top right corner. Mantis has a few attacks. For one of them, he goes invisible, and appears in areas of the room to throw some sort of energy blast at me. Another attack is picking up furniture and spinning them around in a giant circle. He will also flat out just throw crap at you too. One trick to find him sometimes is to go into first person mode. The perspective will be from his, and not yours.
This fight is as simple as just dodging his attacks and popping a round off in his face in between his attacks. After a while, he will again, take over Meryl. Same drill as before. We knock her out. Mantis commends us for being highly skilled. It takes skills to beat up women in the MGS universe apparently. Failing at his plan twice now, Mantis now orders Meryl to shoot herself. We stop this from happening, again by beating Meryl up, and Mantis takes things to the next level, again. Now we use the first person perspective to spot him as he no longer removes his cloak except to throw things at us. A few more shots, and he down for good.
Now for a codec call. We reassure Campbell that Meryl is safe. Naomi claims that the effects of the mind control will wear off. Then in a passive aggressive manner, Naomi asks Snake why bothered to save Meryl when he has killed tons of others of people. Mantis tells us the way to get to Metal Gear, claiming that Snake has no past, no future, and no hope. He is helping Snake, because Snake is just like him. Mantis then drops that he did not agree with the Boss' revolution. He just joined up to kill as many people as he could. Snake, is worse than the Boss he says, and says Snake is a monster compared to himself. It also seems Meryl has fallen for Snake, but there may be no future together for the two. Mantis then opens a secret door for us, and claims it was the first time he had ever helped someone.
Now for Meryl to have a crises of doubt. Snake threatens to leave her behind, and she quickly regains control. She then pushes snake about what Mantis said about him. She drops the issue and asks Snake his name.
"A name means nothing on the battlefield."
"How old are you?"
"Old enough to know what death looks like."
"Any family?"
"No, but I was raised by many people."
"Anyone you like?"
"I've never been interested in anyone else's life."
"...You're a sad lonely man."
And with that line, we end Part 4. Psycho Mantis is an extremely memorable villain and was just awesome to experience the first time around. His theme song is haunting, and matches him perfectly. The first time I ever did his battle, I did not know the controller trick. I died enough that Campbell eventually called me and told me what to do. It was funny and sad. Like this playthrough.
Part 4 was almost completely typed up and ready to go, but Chrome's shitty backspace shortcut fucked me over and caused me to go back a webpage, erasing all of my work. I'll retype as much as I can remember tomorrow evening.
As for the good news, with summer here, I will hopefully be pumping these out at a much faster rate. Maybe we even get to the mess of MGS2 before June?
I died a million times trying to get past the laser beams at the end of the hanger. But screw it, we finally did it.
The moment I step out into the new area, a snowy patch of land between two buildings, I recieve a codec call. This new person calls themselves Deepthroat, as in the informant from the Watergate Scandal. He warns us of claymore mines around the area as well as a tank up ahead waiting to ambush me.
As expected of myself, I died twice from claymores. Then the tank ran me over... then I killed myself with capture claymore.
I've lost count now of how many times I've died. Lets just round to... 15? Regardless, I finally kill the tank through some lucky grenade throws and advance into the next area. But not before a cutscene takes place, introducing us to a future boss character, Raven. To emphasis his name, ravens fly everywhere, and he has a Raven tattooed. Subtlety isn't a big thing with Metal Gear bosses. Good voice acting, also is not a thing either. Raven, in some strange, Austrian accent (but he's Native American) talks to his Boss, along with Ocelot. They want Snake left alive for the time being, with Raven ending the nice talk with, "The raven on my forehead thirsts for his blood." Its super dumb but who cares.
In the next room, we can't use any weapons or be spotted. The room is where the government stores all of its nuclear warheads that have been dismantled. Snake makes a quick jab at how careless the storage is, but regardless, we carry on, aiming to get through this room without being spotted.
Shit.
I got spotted and died. I finally make my way to the next elevator, and alert every guard in the next room by throwing a stun grenade by mistake. At this time, a fatal flaw of the game shows itself. In an effort to be cinematic in a sense, leaning against walls only grants you view of in front of you. This is horrible when hiding behind a pillar, as I can only see one direction and cant easily switch to see the other side. A guard easily spots me because of this, by luck managing to stay in my blind spot the entire time. Death again.
I quickly fix my mistake and grab a rocket launcher on the floor. I'll need it for the next floor down. Upon arriving, Deepthroat calls again to inform me that the floor is electrified, and that the room is filled with gas for some reason. Nice.
I have to use the rocket launcher, which is remote controlled, to destroy the power supply for the floors, then run past the room as fast as possible. This part is absolute bullshit. Due to the nature of the top down view of this room, you cannot see in front of you as you control the rocket. Meaning navigating the rocket to the power supply is a test of trial and error. After 8 attempts, I get it, grab a few goodies, including a FAMAS, and move into the next area.
In the next room, we hear the sounds of someone begging for their life before a thump. What could this be? I move forward, and the sight is a grisly one. Blood everywhere, and bodies line the hallway as a strange noise plays. The victims appear to have been cut with a blade. Who could this be I wonder? A single survivor stumbles from the end of the hallway, his last words being, "Its a ghost." We turn the corner, and find a soldier suspended in the air. Then, the ninja appears, his cloak turning off. He finishes off the soldier he has, and moves into the next room. Time to follow him!
The next sight is pitiful. A man in a lab coat is pissing himself as the cyborg ninja stands over him. The ninja turns and looks at Snake, demanding a fight to the death. As you fight him in hand to hand combat (quite easy I might add) he asks if Snake remember this, if its familiar to Snake.
The battle itself is easy enough. Simply keep moving, and avoid the ninja heft punches and kicks. As soon as he attacks, unleash a 3 punch combo. At one point, he will use his cloak and hide. Just look for a polygon distortion in the area. Finally, his last form, walk directly at him, and avoid his power punch. Then, its a simple matter of shooting him a few times when he starts losing control of himself.
After the battle, it is revealed that the ninja in question is Gray Fox, the leader of the Zanzibar Rebellion which took place in Metal Gear 2 (not to be confused with Metal Gear Solid 2). I Metal Gear 2, Snake kills Gray Fox, but Naomi explains, he was revived to be a test subject for gene therapy. He was forced to undergo all kinds of tests and experiments. Naomi seems worried we might try to kill him, and that the info on Gray Fox is confidential.
Now to handle the man in a lab coat, Hal Emmerich. The man who pissed himself. He also designed Metal Gear, though he thought it was built to shoot down nuclear missiles. Snake loses his cool, believing the Emmerich knew Metal Gear launched nuclear missiles. Emmerich is adamant he knew nothing of this. He then gives us a quick rundown of the armament of Metal Gear; a rail gun, vulcan cannon, and a laser. Some post- "discovering your life work is a walking nuclear equipped deathmobile" depression conversation takes place, and we get back to the root of all of this.
Meryl's ass. Emmerich says that this female soldier who found him had a cute way of walking, how she wiggled her butt. REMEMBER WHEN I SAID THIS WAS IMPORTANT!? We have to find Meryl now, by looking at butts. Emmerich decides that Snake should call him Otacon, which is a play on Otakon. Otacon is a nerd, is what the game is getting at.
With that, we call it a day. I died way way too much and generally continue to suck at this game. BUT! Next time, its an ass safari.
Death Count: 16ish
Alert Count: I give up on this
Stupid Convenient Plot Element: 2
Ass Safari Hype: >9000
Lets get one thing out of the way really quickly. In Part 1, I said the terrorists were demanding money from the US government or they would launch a nuke. That was incorrect. The terrorists are actually demanding the remains of Big Boss, a super solider that we will learn more about down the road. Sorry for being a moron.
Picking right up from where we left off last time, the DARPA chief is dead, from an apparent heart attack. Outside, we hear a commotion, and then cell door opens up. Snake is quickly held at gunpoint by a female guard while a guy in the background, is knocked out cold on the floor and without any clothes (SUPER IMPORTANT MAYBE?). The female guard mistakes Snake for Liquid for some reason. Its clear that this girl has little combat experience, but a shooting gallery sequence gives her the experience she needs and reinforces the idea that I am terrible at this game.
In this sequence, armed guards come rushing through a door and you simply have to shoot or knock them out. I began this bit with no ammo however, and nearly died running for the two boxes. After dispatching the first wave, a few more appear, with one wave rushing in after throwing these grenades. I mistook them for stun grenades and stood over top of them. They were explosives instead. Goodbye cruel world. On the verge of death, I somehow complete the sequence... a Key miracle if I've ever seen one.
The female guard runs off but not before we get a good look at her ass for plot related reasons I'm sure. In the middle of all of this, a cut away scene takes place with three men, one of whom wears a mask. One of them complains that another killed the man, diving too deeply into his mind for the launch codes. They have another plan, however. This is our introduction to Psycho Mantis, the psychic embedded with FOXHOUND, the former special ops group that has turned terrorist.
At this point, I am completely at a loss as to what to do. I pick up some C4 and begin knocking on walls to find false walls, as instructed by calling Campbell, before falling to my death in a trap floor. Of all the ways to go, a cartoon villain trap does me in. I'm really glad I'm not streaming or recording this.
This seems to be the first major use of sound as a game play element in Metal Gear Solid. You can knock on walls to draw guards away from their posts, but in this case, we are looking for walls that have rooms behind them. Their is a visual cue as they do look different than the rest of the walls, but they also sound very different when you knock on them. Once you find the wall, simply place C4 on it, and detonate. Its a fun game play element the series ran with in this installment, though I can't recall if it shows back up again. We'll find out eventually.
Here we go. I find the room with the Arms Tech guy in a literal bind. The Arms Tech President is tied to a bunch of C4. From behind the set up steps a man wearing cowboy boots calling himself Revolver Ocelot. We wants to see "if the man can live up to the legend". Time for the first boss battle.
I vividly remember this battle from my first playthrough many years ago. Ocelot uses a 6 shot revolver that takes time to reload. The key is to keep moving and hit him as he reloads. Doing this, I manage to only be hit once or twice and easily defeat him. My only major screw up was shooting the tied up Arms Tech President once. He took the bullet like a trooper though. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't hit any of the trip wire to detonate the bombs.
Upon defeating Ocelot, he prepares for round 2, before an invisible being enters the room and slices off Ocelot's arm, freeing the Arms Tech President too. The Arms Tech guy seems to recognize the new being, exclaiming about the exoskelton as the invisibility wears off. The new person is wearing some sort of cybernetic suit and using a sword as a weapon. When he lays eyes on Snake, he goes crazy, screaming and seizing up before fleeing the room.
What follows is a trademark of the Metal Gear Solid series; a ton of talking. This scene goes on for about 10 minutes or so. The Arms Tech president explains what his company does, and why he created Metal Gear REX, the new Metal Gear. He tells Snake to find Hal Emmerich, his chief scientist and to contact the female solider via codec. The female soldier in question is actually Campbell's niece, Meryl. In the first big 4th wall breaking moment, he tells Snake to check the back of the CD case for Meryl's coded frequency. He also lets drop that the terrorists of FOXHOUND got the code out of him. Once again, just as he is about to tell Snake something very important, he dies of a heart attack. His final words being, "...they are using you to..." and then he dies. Convenient is it not?
Now the terrorists have both nuclear launch codes for Metal Gear REX, so we have to find Meryl or Hal Emmerich to stop this things from happening. Luckily for me, I have my CD case still! I call and.... I get no response. Perfect! I exit the stage and try again. Bingo.
Meryl is a fan of Snake. Most ladies are. Snake proceeds to hit on her. The writing in this game is funny at times, but not overly in your face with comedy. Meryl claims that women have more hiding places than men, so she was able to hide the cancellation information from guards. After much talking, Snake tells Meryl to stay the hell out of his way, while they work together (tsundesnake). Snake decides if he is unable to cancel the nuke launch, he'll destroy Metal Gear REX. He's destroyed a Metal Gear before (pre Metal Gear Solid games). Snake now heads off to find Hal Emmerich. And this is where we save for the day.
One of the major complaints about the Metal Gear Solid series is the high amount of cutscenes and codec conversations. Of the 2 hours or so that I've played, at least a solid 1/3 of it has been cutscenes or codec talks. Sadly, for an older, smaller title such as the first MGS, it leads to gameplay sections being somewhat short and choppy. This could be because of the limitations of the PS1, but also maybe Kojima going too cinematic for the game. I do recall the game opening more as it goes along, so we will see if I remember that correctly. With the amount of plot twists that the series likes to use, it really is no shock that there is a ton of story telling going on, and the attention to detail only compounds the issue. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series evolves in this regard, though I know MGS2 suffers from the same issue.
Death Count: 3
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 2
I died 5 minutes into the game, and killed 3 guards. I still got it.
Anyway, a few beginning notes. Naomi's accent is a British one in Metal Gear Solid and Mei Ling is a super stereotypical Asian girl accent. No doubt we'll see those two voices stay the same through the entire series. Hideo Kojima, the director, loves cinematic games, and Metal Gear Solid opens very similar to a move opening. Snake swims through water as opening credits appear on screen. As you complete the first stage, those credits keep going. Its a nice little movie style touch, and we will see plenty more of those.
Like a typical Metal Gear Solid later, the game opens with plenty of exposition. Kojima has a thing about details, and boy does this game go into detail. We get explanations about the Codec communication system, which is basically a radio, but we also are told why no one else around Snake can hear it. Then we get an explanation of how Snake was able to swim through cold water, and how he smuggled cigarettes through Naomi's strip search before the mission (he swallows the box).
Early on in the game, we are given a quick tutorial about the semi-open endness of the sneaking. The game points out that there are a few ways into the facility we are sneaking into, and our commander, Campbell tells us to choose our own COA (course of action so says the game).
Naturally, I make as much noise as possible, get spotted, and chased across the stage until I happen upon a gun. It is much easier to sneak around when all of the guards are simply dead. When I try to save once I've snuck into the building, I finally remember why I meant to buy a digital version of the game. Mei Ling's lines cant be read off the disc when saving thanks to a tiny little scratch I never resurfaced. This is of minor importance since I can still save. A shame I won't get to hear all of her quotes (a tradition all mission data specialists seem to carry on post MGS1).
Once we are in an air duct, Master Miller calls us. He is Snake's old friend and mentor. He also speaks with a hint of a British accent. The name Miller will appear later on when we hit Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. He lets us know that if we have questions about Alaska, to call him. We won't be calling him. Ever. Fuck Alaska.
Oh shit, I forgot why I was here. We are apparently looking for the DARPA chief who has been taken hostage by terrorists being led by someone with the code name, Liquid. The terrorists have a miniature army of soldiers and a nuclear weapon at their disposal. Using this they have taken over a military base in Alaska located on Shadow Moses Island. If I recall, the terrorists demand money. Its never that simple though, is it?
While crawling through the air duct, a guard tells another guard that the ducts will be sprayed for rats soon. No better time for pest control than during a hostage situation that has the whole US government paralyzed due to nuclear threat! I need to find an elevator to get to the basement where the DARPA dude is.
Annnnd I died again trying to find the elevator. Things are going swell. A quick reload, and elevator ride and we are back into more air ducts to get to the DARPA chief. Along the way, we see a red haired girl doing sit ups in her cell. Moving on from that, we get to the DARPA chief.
He informs Snake that the terrorist have a hold of a nuclear equipped walking battle tank... a Metal Gear which was being stored in secret on Shadow Moses. It also turns out that the President of Arms Tech is also on the island. The terrorists need DARPAs and Arms Tech's passwords to launch their nuke. Now, we have to go on a quest to get card keys to cancel the nuke launch. Oh shit the DARPA guy had a random heart attack right when he was about to explain something crazy!
And thus completes the first hour of Metal Gear Solid.
I really suck at it so far. The controls are a little wonky, but otherwise, the game holds up fairly well through the first hour. The voice acting is pretty good, which is a nice thing for a game so old. The more gameplay heavy parts are coming up now that the basic premise and quest of the story have been established.
Death Count: 2
Alert Count: 4
Stupid Convenient Plot Element Count: 1
First off, hello, and welcome to my shitty blog. I am a huge huge Metal Gear Solid fan (it is where the name, solidbatman, came from). I am so hyped for Phantom Pain, set to be released later this year, and seeing that I own every single Metal Gear Solid game to have been released, I decided to replay the entire series, starting with Metal Gear Solid, and ending with MGSV: Ground Zeroes. Along the way we will also hit MGS2, MGS3, MGS: Portable Ops, MGS: Peace Walker, and MGS4.
It has been an incredibly long time since I last played most of these games. I have played through MGS2, 3, and 4 numerous times though, but I still expect to be horrific at these games just because I'm rusty. Due to that, I will be playing all of these on normal. European Extreme is for another day.
I hope anyone reading this will enjoy my experiences on this vast replay journey. No doubt there will be much salt, anguish and then depression when I am all done.
