So yeah, the topic is what does this series mean to you? Where did you start with the series and how has it influenced your life?
For me my first interaction with the series was seeing a screen shot from the E3 reveal trailer from 1997. It was of Gray Fox cutting a hole in a grated floor with his katana, which for some reason looks like a lightsaber in my foggy memory. I was instantly interested, I was only a young 'un at the time, about 7 or 8, but I’d been raised on a steady diet of action movies and spy novels, and this shit looked like James Bond on acid.
I finally managed to convince my mom to pre-order the game, the first time I ever did that, and I got it on release. Things did not go well. I was stuck in the Dock for like a week because I was playing it like a standard action game and trying to fight the Genome soldiers instead of avoiding them. I’d be dead before the elevator came down. Eventually something clicked for me, maybe it was playing Tenchu around the same time?
But immediately I was struck with a feeling that this was unlike any other game I’d ever played. The way the credits were playing over gameplay, the lengthy introduction cutscene, the voice acting. It felt like playing through a movie. And a good one at that.
So I guess that’s my answer to my question. MGS is emblematic of my childhood.
Ultimately MGS led me down the path of being a history student, turned me from what I was sure was my destiny of serving in the armed forces and led me to crave cinematic gameplay and presentation in videogames, hell all kinds of different media.
To this day “this is some Metal Gear Solid type of shit” is the highest compliment I can give a new game, movie, comic book, book or TV series.
I’ve got to say, I don’t have half of the emotional connection and memory which most here do, but my first experience with MGS as a franchise was the demo for MGS2, packaged with a Playstation Magazine. Me and my brother played through the Tanker Mission over and over, impressed with how realistic it all looked, the atmosphere the rain gave the boat and how detailed all the characters looked. I remember us having conversations at the time, even though we were very young, we were convinced that MGS2 was the peak of graphical fidelity and it wouldn’t get much better. I’m really nostalgic for that; playing the MGS2 demo is probably one of my favourite gaming memories with my brother (I have a lot which really make me happy, so I consider that to be a pretty big thing!)
It wasn’t until I met a dirty stinking duck (Dirty Duck) at school in Maths lessons that I decided to play MGS games from MGS1 onward. Why? Because Metal Gear Rising just came out, the soundtrack was fucking SICK and the trailers were EPIC!
So that’s my beginning of my emotional connection with MGS. Now I look at MGS as an interesting piece of media, with a particularly fascinating tone and atmosphere. MGS1 and 2’s cold, blue and grey tones which underpin a science fiction spy thriller is just like junk food for the brain.
I’ll be honest here and say that MGS isn’t necessarily my favourite franchise (probably not even in the top 5 to be truthful). I still have fondness for the series though. I had a PS1 demo disc of the first game which I played several times, that started from the very beginning and ran all the way to the shootout with Meryl after the “DARPA Chief” dies. Because back in the day, you got some fucking bang for your buck with PS1 demo discs. Got the full game eventually and played it several times.
Didn’t play MGS2 or 3 until long after they came out, and they only got a couple of playthroughs each. It wasn’t until 2008 when MGS4 came out, and I became obsessed with that game for about a month, before eventually dropping it and never playing it again. In that month, I signed up to MGSF, and stayed for the community. And if I’d had the trophy patch at the time, I’d have no doubt platinumed the game, because I did just about everything there was to do.
Nearly lost my goddamn mind getting that Chicken emblem. A much more grueling task than the Big Boss emblem, as it turned out.
I was introduced to Metal Gear through a friend’s older brother sometime in the autumn of 1998. We took turns and played up to the standoff with Sniper Wolf, alas our fight cut short by…the dinner bell. Some weeks later I received Metal Gear Solid as a gift from my mother, likely for my birthday. '98-99 was very formative for me, as Parasite Eve and Resident Evil 2 both released around the same time. Metal Gear Solid though, that was something very different as you said.
It changed the way I approached games, all games. Suddenly stealth was an option. This was unheard of for someone who cut their teeth in the dungeons of Castle Wolfenstein and the hellmazes of Doom. I was under the assumption that every situation needed to be met with overwhelming firepower, but no, the application of just a little bit of tact, and some stealth could make just as much of an impact. This concept aside I was gripped by the story, the idea of a rogue special forces unit, walking tanks, lone wolf supersoliders. Yeah, felt like this game was tailor made for my young mind.
From then on I was hooked, but it wasn’t until I played Sons of Liberty for the 3rd or 4th time the sheer scope of the story and implications of what that game was about really started to set it, but I think that’s a whole other post.
98 was such a huge year for me too when it comes to videogames. Played my first Resident Evil that year (the newly released 2), first time I ever heard about Pokémon (though I think it didn’t release here in England until the next year), Ocarina of Time of course (though I didn’t own an N64, I played it through with my best friend at the time, me and her would pass the pad), shit I think that was the same year Rainbow Six released too.
I was eight years old, and I had the demo disc from Official Playstation Magazine. It featured the game all the way up to where you meet the DARPA chief, although it took me months before I could even get past the helipad, as I had no idea where to go. My young self wasn’t very good at listening to instructions about air vents.
I got the game as a gift from my mum after I broke my arm and dislocated my wrist in an accident. I was off school for a while so I spent all my time playing it. It took me a very long time to complete it if I can remember correctly.
Anyway, needless to say I became obsessed with it. I don’t know why it struck such a chord with me, but it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It felt so compelling. The atmosphere, the characters, the twists and turns of the game. It was just unreal.
My obsession with the series pretty much grew with each installment. I remember the announcement of MGS2 for the PS2, and I genuinely couldn’t wait for it to be released. I actually remember the day it finally came. I picked it up from my local independent games store that use to be in business on my road. I had school that day but it was basically all I could think about it. It was genuinely might have been the most excited I’d ever been for a video game in my entire life.
I can’t really say what it means to me to be honest, it’s so difficult. The franchise led to me joining MGSF and having such incredible formative experiences as a young kid on the message boards - interacting with people from all over the world. I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without it.
I just hope some point soon we have a modern game to enjoy that’s actually got the soul of an MGS game. I’m not sure about Delta, but we’ll see.
the franchise led me to joining MGSF and having such incredible formative experiences as a young kid on the message boards - interacting with people from all over the world.
I feel that so much man. I met so many different people through that site, it led me down so many different rabbit holes that would influence decisions I would make (funny story, a conversation with you in particular in late 2008 helped me make the decision to change my university course from history to art) in my life and really helped shape me as person. It was a conversation with someone else on MGSF about smoking weed that led me to trying it for myself, which is a whole part of my life that simply wouldn’t have happened without MGSF.
I can’t remember all the handles and usernames, but those people were my friends during a very lonely time in my life. The different orgs like Dead Cell and The Patriots were all full of great people that enriched my life in many ways.
Wow, really? I’m quite flattered. I can’t imagine what I said, bet it was very obnoxious knowing my old self haha.
I can’t remember all the handles and usernames, but those people were my friends during a very lonely time in my life. The different orgs like Dead Cell and The Patriots were all full of great people that enriched my life in many ways.
Absolutely man. I learned very quickly that this ‘internet’ thing was merely an extension of real life. Not just some random place detached from reality. Nothing really confirmed that to me more than when I woke up to the news that Joe (OcelotSnake) had died. Not to mention Sky and Gary who had passed before him.
I don’t remember exactly what you said, but I remember it happening haha. I think you just said something like “follow your dreams” or some such. That gave me an extra push that I needed I think, it was something I needed to hear.
I was already contemplating it as I just wasn’t happy studying history, I was very much a social hermit and the other people on the course had formed little cliques already. Didn’t help that I was living with a friend off campus though. But I knew I needed to change something, and in the end I picked up a pencil and started drawing. That led me to consider studying art, and my experience with university life just took off in so many different ways once I officially made the switch. It led to some of my happiest memories.
Playing MGS with a dislocated wrist and broken arm, I’m betting you got the Otacon ending way more than the Meryl ending, surely you were noping that torture sequence.
Sort of similar to some others, my time with the series began with the MGS1 demo. It was on my PS1 (for my sister and I) but we lived with a cousin and aunt so my cousin played it a lot. He got the demo and played it so much. I tried my hand at it a lot myself but I was terrible, I could never get past the Hangar but I got to it which was probably good for me, but they were great memories, playing that and stuff like Tomb Raider, getting Battle Arena Toshinden and waking up at 7AM on the weekend and seeing him having spent the entire night playing through the story mode for every character so we could unlock them all.
He went on to get the full game and complete it but I was still awful but I watched him play a good bit of it. Later down the line he gave me his copy and, after a lot of time, I finished it. But I loved it from my first encounter with the demo. I actually didn’t get to MGS2 or MGS3 until later as I got a PS2 really late on in its lifetime. I rented MGS3 first and got close to the end but my 3 days were up and I didn’t go back. In secondary (high) school I met some people that were into gaming too and funnily enough got the taste to give MGS2 a try because my friends told me how lame and annoying Raiden was. I loved it and didn’t look back really.
What does the series mean to me? Much like others again it’s something that has never left me. I joined MGSF because of it as an ignorant, foolish teenager. I met a community and individual people there that genuinely changed me as a person, helped me to mature far more than anyone I knew from my school or friends I had and helped me to understand more about other people, the world, and myself. I got close to a lot of people, had great fun in orgs despite the constant drama, developed a sense of humour. I still think about Gary every now and again, he was someone that didn’t just jump at my ignorance and juvenile nature but tried to help me move past it and learn, and I had great respect for him. His passing and the way it happened is something I’ve never forgotten. Joe too of course. I wasn’t as close to him as others but got along with him well, and he was one of the funniest people I’ve known, his comedic timing and sensibility was incredible.
The games themselves still stick with me a lot of course. I replayed MGS1 within the last few months and I forgot how much I oddly related to Snake. I still have that copy of MGS1 my cousin gave me, but a number of years ago my relationships with my family began to turn, beginning with my sister, and eventually moving to a point where I became estranged from every single person in my family. I also cut myself off from my friends a while before that. I had my reasons for both situations, both were for myself and for my real family with my partner and son. But I guess that even though I know what happened was for the best and that I don’t miss anyone apart from my wonderful nieces, I have often felt that I push away people that try to be close to me. Seeing all that again with Snake’s story (and knowing that after Shadow Moses he does the same to Meryl and everyone except Otacon) certainly made me feel something. I do feel weird looking at that copy of MGS1 these days sometimes.
The funny thing is, I think it took me so long to even get to that part of the game. I think my was basically healed by then. Did anyone else have a habit of doing that as a kid? Like, I could spend 6 hours just walking around the fucking tanker area doing absolutely nothing other than setting off alerts and shooting guards.
I didn’t do it too often in MGS1 (although I did do it once I got the Nikita). Used to love messing with enemies in MGS2 and 3 though, mainly with lockers in the former and teasing enemies into the water in the latter.
Yeah I did this with every game I owned. I was so convinced that every game had secret room mechanics like a handful that I’d played to the extent that I would furiously examine every texture which seemed slightly odd or jagged in comparison on a wall. Stand around doing different actions just to try and open it and figure it out. Truth is that no you dumb baby brain, it’s a fucking corner.
I was more obsessed with ringing every single contact on my codec twenty times hoping for new dialogue, and then doing it all over again after every new story beat.
Stealth suit, run towards guard on some form of higher platform and try to toss them over the rail on to the floor / molten metal below. Transition zones and repeat.
Wow well ummm…i was like 12/13 the box said “strong sexual theme”…heh
Honestly that’s half the reason. I came to MGS kinda late compared to you all but not in the grand scheme of things. As a kid i was an avi fan of the WWF, then this commercial aired
I mean put yourself in the shoes of a kid back in 01/02? I was still on ps1 at this moment of time but fuck this thing was the most realistic thing my child brain had ever seen, I couldn’t believe it and in some ways i still cant. Went down to the EBgames(still existed in the USA) pulled it off the shelf and the back of the case alone was enough to win me over, no review necessary, of course strong sexual themes made me lean harder into it lol.
In this point of my life the most cinematic thing i’ve played and enjoyed was Spiderman 1, Die Hard vegas, and tekken 3’s cutscenes lol. i had no idea video games could be this cinematic, this emotional, fuck this thing was using archival footage and blurred the lines between documentary, philosophy and a really well done haunted house movie. I couldn’t get enough. ahh fuck I’m rambling now. what i meant to say was i came for the pixel booties and titties but stayed because everything else given to me was moorrree than any other game, anime or movie had ever presented to me.
In the End, i dont have a fanboyism to alot of things my friends group got into, star wars, harry potter, Lord of the rings. Metal gear solid became THAT to me. I was absorbed in it. by 2006 when i joined the last forum i finally felt at home. for the first time in my life i could actually talk to other people and more importantly read other people’s takes on the messages and characters in the game. I know it’s cool to say many other games and movies have done these things before with better success and Kojima rips other media off but NOTHING IS ORIGINAL, it’s all about your take and how you make it yours. MG is flawed but to say it doesn’t have a heart, you cant do it.
Thanks for reading my convuluted thoughts lol. i have alot more but i’d honestly write a 2 page thesis.
The Tanker mission is still one of my favourite parts in the series for exactly this. Also the atmosphere and music there. Coming from the rainstorm, going inside feels cosy even. But the enclosed area´s are great. Being trapped in a corner, waiting for the clearing to come. Shooting ice cubes and ketchup. Nice.
[Gonna send a decent answer in this topic when I have the time; long reads. ]
I just did the Tanker section again recently and forgot how great the section is. Just as you say, going from the outside in the dark getting drenched to the inside does have a cosy feel, but that whole section really is phenomenal. The map design is so tight and perfect, you really need to use all of the environment to your advantage in it and despite how narrow it all is, it feels so freeing.
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