I just think that flies in the face of what an espionage game should be all about. If the point is to be sneaky, why, then, is it easier to NOT be sneaky? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I felt like, for example, in the original MGS, you could do it without being sneaky, but you had to be a lot more hardcore. MGS2 and MGS4 really don’t make it feel that imperative, which is something I really disliked about them. MGS3…kind of…it’s kind of in the middle.
Still, I guess it comes down to whether or not you think the score should dictate the gameplay or the story. Gameplay dictates that you be sneaky. The story dictates that you sneak around a little bit, but go ahead and shoot a bunch of people if it helps, too.
MGS3 bugged the hell out of me because the guards were too damn smart. At some point I’d mess up and get caught, and they just wouldn’t let up. Eventually I just powered my way through areas, by which I mean I ran through them as fast as I can until I changed the area and they stopped chasing me.
And the final boss took me like three hours to beat. I had to shut off the sound because I couldn’t stand hearing that damn theme song over and over.
I agree partly with Cid. I actually enjoyed the fact that the guards were REALLY smart…but, it’s so stupid that, as Cid said, it’s so much easier to just run like hell through everything.
Yeah, I had a hard time being stealthy through MGS3. I mean, I did pretty good keeping my kills to a minimum for the better half of the game, but after a point, I just sorta gave up on that and started forcing my way through areas.
Hell, on the mountain path, I took up one of the machine gun sentries and blew up several helicopters and ton of guards. Took forever for that alert to end… Another had me in an adjacent (or the same? I forget) area, but the guards couldn’t get to me, but they wouldn’t let up at all.
I only had issues with the CQC, since I’d mess up occasionally and do the wrong action. Hand-to-hand combat in that game sucks compared to 1 and 2. (Though in a realistic sense, you’d be moving kinda slow anyhow with all those guns and stuff in the backpack.)
There’s a degree to which being sneaky is useful in all of them (conserving ammo and health), and it’s about the same, I feel, in all of them. There are parts where stealth is just about the only way to survive (or literally the only way to progress, as it is in some parts of 4), while there are parts where just shooting everyone isn’t too much of a problem. I’ve gotten the highest rank on all of them, and honestly, MGS4 is easier to go through purely sneaking than MGS1 is. The tranq gun makes all the difference in the world.
I think we’re just thinking about this fundamentally differently, SG. You’re thinking that, if I understand, in a stealth-based game, stealth should make the game easier. I think that, in a stealth-based game, stealth should give one a better score/better rewards/be emphasized as the best choice even when it’s not the easiest. It’s not about just winning, it’s about the best way to win.
Yeah, it’s definitely a different philosophy. My way of playing games is to just take the path of least resistance, and if that path breaks something else down in a fundamental way (in Metal Gear Solid’s case, the story, since they’re all supposed to be espionage missions), then there’s something really wrong with the game.
…And, also, I think that doing the whole “guns blazing” thing was a lot harder in the original MGS than any other game in the series.
I quite liked the Snake Eater theme. But hearing it twenty times straight is not my idea of a good time.
Also, the fact that they got rid of the awesome MGS theme due to potential copyright issues annoys me. grrr.
My guilty secret? I never figured out CQC. I didn’t even use it once, the entire game. Maybe that’s why it was harder than it should have been, I dunno. I remember in MGS2 I was trying to shake down enemies for their dog tags and I was never able to hold them up; I had to shoot them with the tranq, then keep walking over their bodies until they woke up so I could already be pointing a gun at them at that point.
Holdups with extra-tough guards is fun. “ARE YOU GOING TO SHOOT ME? DO IBANG PLEASE DON’T KILL ME.”
Also, some interrogation quips are equally humorous in MGS3 - and some give you a radion frequency that heals you The ability to call off an alarm is also handy, should your victim divulge the information. Blowing up a food storage does make holding up someone a bit easier - they slouch forward a bit slower, AND they run after any food you throw. Spoiled food, anyone?
I did it too. Pretty funny, since I was going for Stamina kills on the bosses that had special camo, making it pretty tough for a few bosses. (The Fury got me pissed a couple of times, because of the damn spiraling fire.)
One time, I was at a friend’s place. Mario Party had just come out. We did that whole little trick of letting the AI rack up the stars. In the meantime, we were playing Metal Gear Solid. I decided to then unplug the PSX’s audio jack and plugged in the N64’s. Nothing’s quite like playing MGS with happy Nintendo music in the background. ESPECIALLY when the sound effects coincide perfectly with a guard spotting you.
That sounds a bit bizarre, 984…though I’m tempted to try it out.
I eventually learned how to deal with The Fury (quick shot with the Mosin Nagant FTW). It’s very satisfying getting off about 3 headshots in a row with the quick shot trick. Also a funny fight to mess around with. Throwing grenades through the wall at him, actually going mano-a-mano with him (“You ripped my suit!”), and so on. If it were regular killing, it wouldn’t be that bad, but going for a stamina kill was a bit tricky for me at the time.
The ability to call off an alarm is also handy, should your victim divulge the information. Blowing up a food storage does make holding up someone a bit easier - they slouch forward a bit slower, AND they run after any food you throw. Spoiled food, anyone? 