Waste
Peak classic Monster Hunter. No gimmicks, no charms, just you, solved sets, and some jank. Kino jank, the kind that makes you a true man. Not the "Dark Souls ohh its so hard guys (isn't hard at all just obtuse without being told outside of the game what is what)" kind of difficulty but the one that you either keep running into the same wall the same way or the kind you will naturally adapt to. Beautiful designs and wonderful fights. You must get over yourself in order to get good at this game, it is a total power of will. This game is NOT the herculean task shitters on the internet will call it, its honest to God above not even top 20 in the "hardest games category." Absolute Monster Hunter kino.
2005
No idea how this became a franchise. The worst Monster Hunter, and it's the first one. I'm glad this became a franchise, but this is one of the worst experiences of my life. The weapon balance is so bad you'd think XX was the pinnacle of weapon design. The AI, maps, progression routes, everything about this game is some of the worst the franchise has to offer. It really only went up from here, this is an insanely bad game.
1987
Poorly aged slop game, no idea how it got a sequel. Too easy to soft lock yourself in it.
2000
Shockingly good 2d stealth game, and honestly in my opinion, better than the MGS1 classic on the ps1. More than worth checking out, it's worth outright spending time in.
Objectively speaking, this game is insanely kino. Subjectively speaking, this game is what it means to be a true Patriot. A must play, a true stealth classic with a story containing really outdated character names.... but if you like MGS1, you will love this game (considering MGS1 literally is just a repeat for this game as it was originally a 3d remake of it).
Not how to remake a game.
My all time favorite MGS game, but I objectively know it is not as good as 2, and maybe even with my bias it is at best on par with 3. Many are quick to bash this game, I don't know why. No one has ever given a valid reason as to why the game is objectively bad as opposed to a game they personally didn't expect. A great MH-esque game which makes sense since they did collab with the team behind MH to design this game. The multiplayer was kino as all hell when it was popping. This game taught 6th grade Waste what Nuclear Deterrence was, and as stupid as "Hot Coldman" is for a character name, the story was KINO. Boo-hoo... it's not just MGS3 all over again. GET OVER IT!!!!
This should be on Letterboxd (kino ending)
My 2nd favorite Metal Gear game. Most people's 1st, and it's easy to see why. Amazing stealth gameplay with a good story, but said story does not push any boundaries outside of being a fantastic spy thriller. Your world does not change in any way like how MGS2 does, however your heart does.
Regardless of how tiny this game was and how much of a total disappointment MGSV was, this game was a great prelude to what could have been a monumental game. Great love and soul was put into this game, however, being just a prelude game that was 20 bucks digitally on the PS3 means the fun was short-lived. It leaves you begging for more, and there is no more.
This game genuinely changed child-Waste and started making him ask many questions. A fantastic political-drama with amazing questions to problems we sometimes never faced until recent days. Great stealth game too. Far from the best, but the story and experience behind it far exceed most works of fiction I have ever encountered. They don't make games like this anymore. Thank you, Kojima's editor that he en masse sued because she exposed that Kojima was largely not the person behind this wonderful story! Very cool!
Short version: Get this game ON MASSIVE SALE (around the $5 mark) if you are willing to mod in a bunch of Extra Ops, visual mods, the "Take Me Off The Grid v2" mod (and probably the timer remover edition of said mod), and a camera mod. Go to the Nexus and start browsing. This isn't something I'm simply recommending to you, I am outright telling you that you WILL have to do this to make this game a good one worth spending real money on. Otherwise, forget it. Also skip every cutscene imo.
I've played this game to 96% completion on PS4 back when it came out (didn't feel like doing the very small remedial final things to get the 100%) and I can strongly say that was solely because at the time there was nothing to play on my new shiny PS4 paperweight back at its launch. The moment better games started coming out, this game was quickly uninstalled and has NOT been touched on my PS4 since. I have had this game in my Steam library for years, and just recently I finally decided to mod this game to be able to play it again without wanting to down acetone. Do I think this game is terrible? Not really. I however think it is easily one of the worst Metal Gear games and is easily THE WORST mainline entry in the franchise due to how insanely repetitive the content gets for even a MGS game, and how nothing the story is. I will not be getting into whether or not Kojima is a hack, or if Konami's meddling ruined the game or not, I'm not going to go over the WHY this game is the way it is, I will solely leave it to talking about the game itself because the reasons for it are not going to make the game itself become better or worse. The mission types get repetitive within a few hours in, the crafting system making you wait REAL LIFE time, and sometimes a REALLY long time was a scummy way to push micro-transactions to speed things up. The story boils down to a really, really bad science fiction novel on-par with some L. Ron Hubbard literature, and your main protagonist was made to "be easy for the player to assume the role of in their mind" which means Snake here will be the most socially awkward introvert as he just stares at things with his mouth open while sometimes breathing hard enough for the microphone to pick up. No this isn't due to Sutherland being expensive, the Japanese dub of this game and all other languages are just as boring. Anyways, this game is basically a really great engine being used to make one hell of a demo. This game is worth 5 bucks imo. If it's not on sale for anything around that price or lower, don't buy. However, this game's biggest strength being its potential means the community can thankfully (and did) step up and finish this game for them. Various extra-ops gives this game the much needed mission types MGSV needed from the start, and being able to change your FoV to not zoom in all the way up your ass or up to your shoulder just for crouching or going prone makes this game more than playable (by default this nonsense will drive you up the wall). The mods for this game, albeit a tiny bit tricky to install and make sure everything is working right, will make this game if purchased on a sale much, much better. 5 bucks. No more than that. Keep that in mind. Otherwise, stay the hell away from this game. It is NOT worth it unless you get it cheap AND are willing to mod it with at LEAST 18 or so mods, give or take. Non-negligible. Skip every cutscene if you already know this insanely barebones plot stuffed with lingering camera angles that don't need to be there. If you don't know the story I guess it'd be nice to at least have some context as to what you are doing, but I won't hold anything against you if you start skipping everything once you get sick and tired of bad cinematic shots (no, cinematic shots aren't bad. this game just has BAD ones).
I've played this game to 96% completion on PS4 back when it came out (didn't feel like doing the very small remedial final things to get the 100%) and I can strongly say that was solely because at the time there was nothing to play on my new shiny PS4 paperweight back at its launch. The moment better games started coming out, this game was quickly uninstalled and has NOT been touched on my PS4 since. I have had this game in my Steam library for years, and just recently I finally decided to mod this game to be able to play it again without wanting to down acetone. Do I think this game is terrible? Not really. I however think it is easily one of the worst Metal Gear games and is easily THE WORST mainline entry in the franchise due to how insanely repetitive the content gets for even a MGS game, and how nothing the story is. I will not be getting into whether or not Kojima is a hack, or if Konami's meddling ruined the game or not, I'm not going to go over the WHY this game is the way it is, I will solely leave it to talking about the game itself because the reasons for it are not going to make the game itself become better or worse. The mission types get repetitive within a few hours in, the crafting system making you wait REAL LIFE time, and sometimes a REALLY long time was a scummy way to push micro-transactions to speed things up. The story boils down to a really, really bad science fiction novel on-par with some L. Ron Hubbard literature, and your main protagonist was made to "be easy for the player to assume the role of in their mind" which means Snake here will be the most socially awkward introvert as he just stares at things with his mouth open while sometimes breathing hard enough for the microphone to pick up. No this isn't due to Sutherland being expensive, the Japanese dub of this game and all other languages are just as boring. Anyways, this game is basically a really great engine being used to make one hell of a demo. This game is worth 5 bucks imo. If it's not on sale for anything around that price or lower, don't buy. However, this game's biggest strength being its potential means the community can thankfully (and did) step up and finish this game for them. Various extra-ops gives this game the much needed mission types MGSV needed from the start, and being able to change your FoV to not zoom in all the way up your ass or up to your shoulder just for crouching or going prone makes this game more than playable (by default this nonsense will drive you up the wall). The mods for this game, albeit a tiny bit tricky to install and make sure everything is working right, will make this game if purchased on a sale much, much better. 5 bucks. No more than that. Keep that in mind. Otherwise, stay the hell away from this game. It is NOT worth it unless you get it cheap AND are willing to mod it with at LEAST 18 or so mods, give or take. Non-negligible. Skip every cutscene if you already know this insanely barebones plot stuffed with lingering camera angles that don't need to be there. If you don't know the story I guess it'd be nice to at least have some context as to what you are doing, but I won't hold anything against you if you start skipping everything once you get sick and tired of bad cinematic shots (no, cinematic shots aren't bad. this game just has BAD ones).
I don't care how controversial my first review is going to be. This is genuinely how I felt when it came out and I still feel the same way about it.
A total slophouse game, even as a casual enjoyer it was too mindless to play. The only thing it has of substance is the flare and visual appeal. The game is just full of "humor" that is so forced the only reason I can see it gaining a modern cult following is due to said following being the modern band kid. You know it, I know it, God above, I sure do know it! It completely character assassinated the Raiden from MGS2 and MGS4 in order to have a devil trigger clone because this baby's first DMC needed to have one! Below average even for Platinum slop. Go play their Transformers game, its better than this while being mostly the same thing to be honest! We lost MGSR for this.........
A total slophouse game, even as a casual enjoyer it was too mindless to play. The only thing it has of substance is the flare and visual appeal. The game is just full of "humor" that is so forced the only reason I can see it gaining a modern cult following is due to said following being the modern band kid. You know it, I know it, God above, I sure do know it! It completely character assassinated the Raiden from MGS2 and MGS4 in order to have a devil trigger clone because this baby's first DMC needed to have one! Below average even for Platinum slop. Go play their Transformers game, its better than this while being mostly the same thing to be honest! We lost MGSR for this.........