I hate that I hate Metal Gear Solid – Reader’s Feature-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Metal Gear Solid 5 – it’s not for everyone (pic: Konami)

A reader explains all the reasons he doesn’t like the Metal Gear Solid games and why he still feels it must be his fault, not the games’.

We’ve all got those franchises (and movies and shows) that we know are super popular and critically acclaimed but you can’t see the appeal in them. For me that series if Metal Gear Solid. I first became aware of it when a friend started insisting that I ‘had’ to play it and that it was amazing and the best thing he’d ever seen.

Me playing the game was a bit difficult at the time because I didn’t have a PlayStation but eventually he want on about it so much (I don’t think he knew anyone else that was into games) that he agreed to lend me the console, just so I could play it. I hated it.

I thought twice about writing this feature because I don’t want to have a go at something that lots of other people obviously enjoy but apart from the graphics being good and the general ambition of the game there wasn’t anything I liked about it. It’s a cliché to complain about the overlong cut scenes but I found the gameplay very frustrating and uninteresting, and just could not connect with the weird tone that simultaneously took itself really seriously and was also completely stupid.

I disliked the game so much I was put off from getting Metal Gear Solid 2, even though I owned a PlayStation 2 for myself. When Metal Gear Solid 3 got really good reviews though, and was said to be the best of the series, I decided to give it a go and, again, I was struck by all the same problems. The plot made no sense, the gameplay made no sense (how is he instantly changing clothes in the middle of a sneaking mission?), and everything went on for far too long with too many cut scenes.

I didn’t really consider it to be any better than the first, putting down the few improvements merely to the more powerful console and, satisfied that I’d at least given it a go, vowed never to play one again.

However, fate intervened and Metal Gear Solid 5 was offered free with PS Plus so, being the optimistic sucker for punishment that I am, I decided to see how much things had changed. This was actually quite a bit different, with the open world but the same things that frustrated me with the other games were still the same: the silly plot, the weird drawn out dialogue, and the lack of any decent action despite the obsession with military hardware.

Each to their own you might say but the reason this bothers me is not because I resent other people liking something that I don’t but because I feel I’m missing out on something and I just cannot see the appeal.

I know that creator Hideo Kojima is very well thought of and that almost all the games got good reviews so I can’t help but feel that it’s just me that doesn’t get it. I feel maybe there’s an element of so bad they’re good to the games, particularly in terms of the stories, that maybe I’m not getting but none of the reviews really mention that and I wouldn’t describe the games as campy exactly.

Hopefully you can relate to what I’m saying, whether it’s with Metal Gear Solid or something else, but it really frustrates me that I just cannot see any good in it at all. It makes me feel like I must be at fault and yet I consider myself to be pretty cosmopolitan when it comes to taste in video games.

Since there probably will never be another one, at least by Kojima, I guess I can at least say I’ve done my best but it seems a shame. Oh well, maybe I’ll see it on cheap and give Death Stranding a go one day…

By reader Taylor Moon

The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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