man this game really surprised me. i've played a fuck ton of games, and there's a few of those big iconic industry shaking ones i inevitably missed out on, this being one of them. i find going back to those strange for the most part, i'm not the type of guy to artificially like a game because of what it did for future better games, or what it did for the medium afterwards. i'm very much a "i like this one because it is better!' type of person, it's why i don't give any praise to something like zelda 1 or early metroids, i obviously take when a game came out into mind when thinking about it but i just don't like using it as an excuse to forgive something that (at least, imo) is bad.
that being said, sometimes games that have these legacies truly stand on their own as just a really impressive and solid experience. i had something similar when i finally played through castlevania symphony of the night and i absolutely had it here. this game is impressive as FUCK dude. it's kinda mind blowing this is a 1998 game. the story being told being as good and in depth as it is, the way it tells the story with the cutscenes and codec calls, the way this game looks, the way it sounds and how high quality the voice acting is. it's all fuckin crazy!
i'll talk about that stuff a little bit more but the one part that isn't as impressive is unfortunately the gameplay. i'm very much a gameplay first kind of person, so it took a little bit for me to feel like i wasn't really pushing through something i wasn't enjoying but once it picked up it was mostly fine. namely because the bosses are pretty sick for the most part! the first boss, revolver ocelot is one of the worst though which had me extremely weary. thankfully after that almost every boss was pretty fun and had a really cool sense of tension and a sick vibe. vulcan raven, sniper wolf 2, psychomantis, and hte final 2 boss fighters were the stand outs for me though. the moment to moment gameplay was passable for the most part but a bit frustrating and never got outwardly fun. guns felt pretty bad for the most part. the stealth worked pretty well but wasn't particularly special. the camera angles made it a bit frustrating at times but it wasn't a huge deal. i don't have a ton to say about the gameplay cause it clearly was not the focus here but it was servicable, the bosses made it pretty fun at times but generally it wasn't anything i'd be excited to get back to.
i'm not gonna recap the story or anything but man it was just really solid! obviously some parts of it didn't age great, especially anytime a woman was involved. otacon especially left an awful first impression just being like a stereotypical anime head that even actual anime fans would bully into immediately talking about how much he loved meryls ass was lame as hell. the rest of the characters for the most part were really cool and engaging, even otacon redeemed himself a bit by the end. obviously snake was iconic, liquid was a great antagonist, all great stuff! i was very impressed with the quality of voice acting most performances were solid and i can see why so many lines and bits are as iconic as they are. visually i liked mostly everything a lot, the codecs and the little animations they had was a nice touch. the models made it a bit hard to take some stuff seriously, no one having eyes and muscles clipping through bodies was a bit distracting but there was a weird charm to them at the same time. i feel like i shouldn't have liked how this game looks as much as i did but i don't know, it has such a charm to it and holds up really well to me. the music was solid, not a ton of it stands out all that much though aside from the classic music that plays when you get caught. it's really a perfect piece of video game music and really helps build that tension.
it's clear the kind of vision they had for this series especially after having played the arcade original. so much carried over from that i was surprised, but it's also just really cool to see they got to realize that on a much more grand scale. i'm excited to play the rest of this series! i don't know when i'll get to 2, but this was a much stronger start than i was expecting.
that being said, sometimes games that have these legacies truly stand on their own as just a really impressive and solid experience. i had something similar when i finally played through castlevania symphony of the night and i absolutely had it here. this game is impressive as FUCK dude. it's kinda mind blowing this is a 1998 game. the story being told being as good and in depth as it is, the way it tells the story with the cutscenes and codec calls, the way this game looks, the way it sounds and how high quality the voice acting is. it's all fuckin crazy!
i'll talk about that stuff a little bit more but the one part that isn't as impressive is unfortunately the gameplay. i'm very much a gameplay first kind of person, so it took a little bit for me to feel like i wasn't really pushing through something i wasn't enjoying but once it picked up it was mostly fine. namely because the bosses are pretty sick for the most part! the first boss, revolver ocelot is one of the worst though which had me extremely weary. thankfully after that almost every boss was pretty fun and had a really cool sense of tension and a sick vibe. vulcan raven, sniper wolf 2, psychomantis, and hte final 2 boss fighters were the stand outs for me though. the moment to moment gameplay was passable for the most part but a bit frustrating and never got outwardly fun. guns felt pretty bad for the most part. the stealth worked pretty well but wasn't particularly special. the camera angles made it a bit frustrating at times but it wasn't a huge deal. i don't have a ton to say about the gameplay cause it clearly was not the focus here but it was servicable, the bosses made it pretty fun at times but generally it wasn't anything i'd be excited to get back to.
i'm not gonna recap the story or anything but man it was just really solid! obviously some parts of it didn't age great, especially anytime a woman was involved. otacon especially left an awful first impression just being like a stereotypical anime head that even actual anime fans would bully into immediately talking about how much he loved meryls ass was lame as hell. the rest of the characters for the most part were really cool and engaging, even otacon redeemed himself a bit by the end. obviously snake was iconic, liquid was a great antagonist, all great stuff! i was very impressed with the quality of voice acting most performances were solid and i can see why so many lines and bits are as iconic as they are. visually i liked mostly everything a lot, the codecs and the little animations they had was a nice touch. the models made it a bit hard to take some stuff seriously, no one having eyes and muscles clipping through bodies was a bit distracting but there was a weird charm to them at the same time. i feel like i shouldn't have liked how this game looks as much as i did but i don't know, it has such a charm to it and holds up really well to me. the music was solid, not a ton of it stands out all that much though aside from the classic music that plays when you get caught. it's really a perfect piece of video game music and really helps build that tension.
it's clear the kind of vision they had for this series especially after having played the arcade original. so much carried over from that i was surprised, but it's also just really cool to see they got to realize that on a much more grand scale. i'm excited to play the rest of this series! i don't know when i'll get to 2, but this was a much stronger start than i was expecting.