Grey Beard Studios: Chapter One Book Work

Then and Now

Metal Gear solid has to be one of my Favorite series I have ever played. Kojima out does himself ever time. From the first game till the latest it’s been an epic journey through all. I remember playing the first game and having to consciously keep my jaw closed. At the time the first game released (Metal Gear Solid 1998) the graphics themselves could sell the game. It was new to most everyone who played it. It was no run and gun, it was no racing game, and then what was it? It added an element that not everyone at the time was used to. It added sound into the game and alert AI. You didn’t want to go guns blazing through the game you would die almost instantly, then again there comes times were you’d have to kill an enemy to get to where you needed go. So you would use the AI to your advantage. You could knock on a wall to attract the attention of a guard, then swoop around and flank him for the kill. For most part the first game was played in a tatical 3rd person view. Another great thing Kojima is well known for that he introduced in Metal Gear Solid was the cut scenes. Kojima took cut scenes to a new height, cut scenes didn’t just help the story it made me want to play more and more. I never wanted it to stop, cut scenes were like movies and Kojima would take that idea onward in his series.

As the series progressed Kojima added more elements into the fray. These were great additions to the series and added another layer to the game. With the gaming industry starting to grow, Kojima needed to cater to more and more styles of play. In the second game of the series (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 2001) Kojima added a first-person mode for firing the gun. Which in all turned out great, but to make it balanced the AI got a boost also. In the third game in the series (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 2004) Kojima added MORE to their library of features to the series. They introduced camouflage into the mix of stealth options; it does what you’d expect camouflage helped you hide/sneak from enemies. They added positional damage to Snake (main character) if for instance you were to fall a distance your leg might get broken and you would need to use the jungle and what you have to heal/treat it. If his stomach made a noise you needed to get food, it added a HUGE feeling of realism to the game. Finally the fourth game in the series (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots 2008) is by far my favorite game ever made. It is consider by some to be the masterpiece of Kojima. I can go on for HOURS about this game and everything in it. I would probably make this blogs’ sever explode with the amount of information I would have to type out for how much this game has in it. One of the biggest things that this one brought to the table was the cut scenes the Kojima was so famous for. I felt like I was in a movie at one point. Toward mid-game I hit a cut scene that ended up being over two hours long! Yes, I’d suggest you re-read what I just said….2 HOUR CUT SCENCE! Total this game had hours and hours of cut scenes. Some games use cut scenes to add time to the game, but Metal Gear didn’t. If anything I wish there was more cut scenes. They didn’t take away from the game, at no point did I feel that I was missing out on the great gameplay, they did an amazing job on making the cut scenes a part of the game and not “filler”.

Metal Gear Solid is by far one of the top series in the gaming world and I will be a determined follower for as long as they continue to produce more.