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Best Metal Gear games

Our love bloomed on the battlefield

Words: on February 19, 2013
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80 comments

  • BladedFalcon - September 6, 2012 3:57 p.m.

    Hell yeah! And glad to see Ghost babel on the list! although really, I'd put it higher, that game was really fantastic. Also, I do agree that MGS3 is the best gameplay-wise, though I still prefer the first one, personally. The story in taht one is still by far the best, and even the gameplay on the PSX is outstanding to this day. Although, contrary to a lot of people here, I did like the twin snakes remake. The soul of the game is the same, and I'm pretty sure the voice acting isn't as terrible as they are whining it to be, specially if you go and compare it to the original. Also, complaining about over the top cutscenes in a MGS game is like complaining that there is platforming in a Mario game.

  • gilgamesh310 - September 6, 2012 5 p.m.

    MGS 4 is the best gameplay wise. I think the story in the first is the best as well though. The voice actors phoned in their performances in Twin Snakes. As well as that Greg Eagles was replaced with a different voice actor for Gray Fox. The replacement was terrible. He had none of the emotion in his voice that Greg Eagles had. The music was also taken out of certain key scenes, like Sniper Wolf's death. This took away from them a lot. No other MGS game has Snake doing ridiculous stuff like surfing on a fucking missile while he aims at a hind midlfight with his own missile launcher. It's completely ridiculous and out of place. He's made out to be too superhuman. Some stuff like Ocelot twirling his guns was overexagerrated as well. I cringed through almost all the cutscenes.

  • BladedFalcon - September 6, 2012 5:15 p.m.

    Hyperboles, yay! And well, different strokes and all, but while I love MGS4, I still think the game-play was better in 3, if nothing else because of the level design and boss battles, the beauty and the beast unit has nothing on the Cobra Unit, if you ask me. That, and I just love some of the mechanics in the game, such as hunting animals and eat them to restore health as well as managing different kinds of wounds. Also, you could argue the shop in MGS4 can potentially make things a tad too easy. Anyway, since I really don't remember the voice acting in both the PSX or the twin snakes version, I am not really in a position to argue if they truly are all that different. I just remember that I didn't mind it at all back when I played the twin snakes. And alright, so maybe some of the cutscenes went even more over the top than in the original... And yet in the original you still have a cyborg ninja leapfrogging around a gigantic nuclear-ready mech. So again, why do you take issue when there's over the top scenes in other places? specially if they are just action sequences like the one described with the Hind-D taht ultimately have no effect over the plot?

  • gilgamesh310 - September 6, 2012 7:28 p.m.

    The core gameplay mechanics in MGS 4 were the best. The camera was finally manouevrable, there was a crouch button and the octocamo worked better than in MGS 3. I do agree that the BandB unit weren't a patch on the cobra unit though and the game was too easy. That's the point. He's a cyborg ninja. He's supposed to be able to do all that stuff. Snake is only human. He isn't. The first game portrayed him as a very capable soldier but someone who was ultimately human and could be broken. In The Twin Snakes he was virtually invincible. They are very cheesy sequences as well. They just don't seem to have any place in the MGS universe.

  • BladedFalcon - September 6, 2012 8:42 p.m.

    Well, again, depends on preferences. The camera thing, for example, I actually didn't mind at all that it was fixed in previous MGS games, including 3, which did a good job in always showing you the angles you needed to see well, and if anything, I prefer rather than having to bother re-directing the camera every 4 seconds or so. And even then, the camera WAS actually maneuverable in MGS3: Subsistence, so you can't really call MGS4 having an advantage there. Also, the octocamo worked "better" in the sense that it was now automatic, less of a hassle, yes, but really not all that revolutionary, and yes, it makes the game easier. And finally... Well, considering all the shit snake went trough in MGS4, all the beatings, shots, burns, falls and all, despite having the body of a 60+ year old man... Yeah, I'd say he's a wee bit more than only human...

  • gilgamesh310 - September 7, 2012 7:38 a.m.

    Top down cameras have absolutely no place whatsoever in stealth game. It's the one genre that you need to be fully aware of your surroundings at all times. It only causes frustrations as you need to constantly go into first person to try and see where the enemies are. Having a camera to rotate yourself makes a world of difference and makes the experience much more enjoyable. It was manouevrable in Subsistance, but that game was so rare that I wasn't able to play it until the HD collection game out, which was after MGS 4. It made a world of difference though. The shit Snake went through in MGS 4 was far fetched but it did make you relate to him more. The part where he was crawling through the oven may not have been realistic but it was still a great moment. It made you feel at one with Snake. Watching him do stuff like surf on missiles and somersault backwards some 20 meters and land on his feet is ridiculous. It just makes me cringe. The gameplay was also pretty uninspired in that. The first person aiming made it too easy and there wasn't really any improvments in the gameplay over the original game.

  • gilgamesh310 - September 7, 2012 7:41 a.m.

    Completely agree.

  • BladedFalcon - September 7, 2012 8:18 a.m.

    Er... if anything, a top down camera allows you to be BETTER aware of ALL your surroundings in a stealth game. At least when it's well done, like in the first 3 MGS games. Because that way, you have a good view of what's nearby, even BEHIND you. Having a TPS camera that's always looking behind you makes it harder for you to properly be aware of your back, so your argument is actually contradictory. And dude, if i was able to find the subsistence editin in MEXICO back when it came out originally, I'm pretty sure you could have found it if you only bothered to look for it back when it came out. Besides, availability doesn't mean anything to the fact that MGS3 did something that you are assigning as a virtue of MGS4 only.

  • Godzillarex - September 7, 2012 9:40 a.m.

    Glad you agree code_r. MG2 was fantastic. I mean, it lay the groundwork for Metal Gear Solid. Following the girl to the bathroom, using your radar to find the person your rescuing, navigating a Nikita missile, and so many other moments were pulled and used in Metal Gear Solid.

  • MetroidPrimeRib - September 7, 2012 10:06 a.m.

    Don't be talking shit about Ghost Babel, the original Metal Gear games aren't even that good

  • gilgamesh310 - September 7, 2012 11:24 a.m.

    Not in the Metal Gear Solid games. It covers too small of an area. In the original Metal Gear games on the otherhand it worked fine. It banned out far and covered a very wide area. Having a camera that you can control yourself allows you to see what you want when you want. That way it's your own fault when you're spotted. I didn't contradict myself at all. That's true but we are talking about MGS 3, not MGS Subsistance anyway. It's still a separate game. They should have put Subsistance in the no.1 spot. I would agree that that's the best MGS game.

  • BladedFalcon - September 7, 2012 11:53 a.m.

    ...It doesn't cover a small area, it covers more than enough so that you can see anything that could spot you, AND being top down ensures you always are aware of what's in front, to the sides, and behind you at all times. Unlike the maneuverer camera of later games. Mind, i think the camera in MGS4 worked pretty well, however, I couldn't stand it in Portable Ops. Maybe it was because the PSP lacked that very important second thumbstick, but having to adjust the fucking camera every 3 seconds in that game was so unintuitive, and became so annoying that I stopped playing after the first few missions.

  • gilgamesh310 - September 7, 2012 12:26 p.m.

    I disagree about MGS 3, but there's no point in arguing any further. I haven't played Portable Ops but I have played Peacewalker and thought it worked fine in that.

  • BladedFalcon - September 7, 2012 1:12 p.m.

    Yeah, agree to disagree seems to be the best course of action here. Also, funnily enough, I didn't get to play peace walker because I had long sold my PSP by then. So I can't confirm if the camera got better there, and though I'll play it on the PS3, pretty sure that there they would make use of the analog stick, so I wouldn't know either.

  • sternparez - September 9, 2012 5:20 a.m.

    Gameplay-wise I'd say MGS4 is the best for the sheer variety and the things you could do, but I didn't like the story, look, music, characters and "feel" as much. MGS1 and the Tanker of MGS2 had the best feel to me but MGS3 HD probably is the best as the gameplay is nearly as good as 4 but it has a better story, atmosphere and "feel". But is HAS to be played with the 3D camera

  • jackthemenace - September 15, 2012 2:43 p.m.

    Before I even started reading, I knew exactly what the top 6 were going to be, although I didn't know what order. I'm so glad you chose Snake Eater as number 1, because, to me, that's always been the best in the series. It had the perfect balance between EVERYTHING, far surpassing MGS2, and somehow, MGS4 just didn't quite live up to it's predecessor. But, whichever one people argue's the best, there's no doubt the series as a whole has been absolutely brilliant,a nd I can't can't for it's next instalments.

  • Sjoeki - February 19, 2013 1:43 p.m.

    That sucks, I presonally think it is one of the best metal gear games.

  • dcobs123 - February 19, 2013 3:34 p.m.

    MGS2 is behind Peace Walker, MGS4, and even Revengence?! I don't think so. Also Twin Snakes is a good game with nice graphics but is really no substitute for MGS1. MGS1 had better dialogue and music while Twin Snakes had ridiculous Matrix sequences and additional gameplay elements that were fun but sort of messed with a design of the original game.

  • freeden - February 19, 2013 3:56 p.m.

    My problems with MGS2 go beyond the troll that was having players play as pretty boy Raiden. The entire game was more convoluted than typical MGS fashion. It attempted to create emotional impact, but over stepped it by giving us a main character who whined too much and was embroiled in personal conflicts over the conflicts at hand. Gone were the philosophical musings of the original MGS. In it's place was an unnecessarily over-complex plot. It quickly explains the cliffhanger of MGS to get it out of the way and presents a new plot that essentially has very little to do with the overall story. Only the very end, the next cliffhanger, really had anything to do with the overall story arc of Metal Gear. MGS3 essentially negates anything MGS 2 might have to do with the series, with the exception of Raiden as a continued character. Certainly, in the long run, details matter, but overall, this is an inconsequential chapter in the series that really has no place. Other than that, decent list, although I've not really played a lot of the non-canon games like Acid and Ghost Babel. My list would probably look like this: 1. MGS4 2. MGS3 3. MGS 4. Peacewalker But, they all hold a special place with me and it's hard to really pick out a favorite. It's like picking a favorite child.

  • BladedFalcon - February 19, 2013 4:24 p.m.

    It's probably not an easy game to get a hold off, but if you can, you really should give Ghost babel a try. It's a pretty fantastic game that felt like a true MGS game even though it was limited by the specs of a GB game.

  • BladedFalcon - February 19, 2013 4:27 p.m.

    ...You're complaining about the Matrix sequences in Twin Snakes, yet it seems like one of your favorite MGS games is MGS2 which is when the ridiculousness got ramped up to 1000... that makes sense.

  • Darkhawk - February 19, 2013 4:35 p.m.

    This is so ridiculous. You can't possibly declare something the "X Best Of All Time" the day it's released. It's bad enough when a new release tops an "All-time best" feature the year it comes out, but this is just ridiculous. Hey, GR, why don't you put it back in your pants and wait a couple years before dropping Revengeance in here?

  • yodajones - February 19, 2013 4:50 p.m.

    Its "cinematic flair" not "cinematic flare". If you need a copy editor on the payroll I am available.

  • rob619 - February 19, 2013 5:53 p.m.

    Metal Gear solid - first great experience MGS Snake Eater - the only game I've cried in MGS4 - the sole reason I broke the bank and brought a PS3

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