Rations for thought

Metal Gear Solid is, all inclusively, one of the greatest video game series ever developed. There, I said it.

As much as it kills me to say so, I am pretty much a newcomer to the series, I played through the installments in a strange, backwards order, and on top of that, I have yet to experience the original. Still, the latter two installments which I have played through in recent times have pretty much left me feeling both stunned and dumb for not having played them earlier.

I started with Snake Eater, the third game in the Metal Gear Solid series (if you don't count expanded editions). I picked up the game because it had a pretty big hype, the consensus seemed to be that it was the gem of the series. Also, I found it for $19.99 brand new not terribly long after its release.

I loaded the game up that night, watched the introduction, got mildly excited, and then got beat up and eaten by an alligator. I avoided the alligators the second time around, and not having any familiarity with the games I continued to get caught by the first or second guard you encounter. Frustrated, I turned off the game and it collected dust on my shelf for eight to ten months.

As I often do, I had a sudden urge one day to give Snake Eater another shot, I promised myself that this time I would be more patient with it. Strangely, I didn't really have any problems this time around. Most likely because I discovered how to use the close quarters combat system right off the bat. Not more than two days later I was watching the ending with a dumb look on my face. I remember thinking a few dozen times during the course of the game things like "Man, you're a real idiot for not having played this earlier," "Am I dreaming this up?" and "I want to make passionate love with Hideo Kojima." From the second or third big cutscene in the game I knew that my immediate future would be filled with much more Metal Gear. I was sold. As far as I was concerned, I could watch the Metal Gear cast get tortured, groped, and deceived for every minute from that point forward and die a pretty happy guy.

What made Snake Eater so good? That's a good question. There are so many right answers to that question I could go on all day. Hideo Kojima is a multi-talented genius and artist. Not only does he understand what makes a great, fun, and challenging game experience, but he is as well versed and gifted as any great film director when it comes to revealing the story to the player. He created a game that isn't scared to go through crazy and off the wall in order to have some fun. Yeah, it takes place during a real-world militaristic conflict, and yeah, there is an enemy who can control and fly around with a swarm of bees. Kojima is showing the world how to make a mature game that is honest-to-God mature, and he is goddamn good at it.

I found Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty not long ago tucked away in mint condition on the used games wall at Gamestop for four dollars. Quite possibly the best four dollars I have ever spent in my life.

I busted it open and played through in one twelve-hour sitting, with a short sleeping break. I found the game to be a bit more difficult than Snake Eater, mainly because of the combat additions I was used to that hadn't been put in the series yet, but once I got the hang of it I found myself thinking the same things all over again.

"God bless you, Kojima."

The Metal Gear Solid games are the kind of games that make me call my friends after I beat them to tell them how good they are, regardless of the fact that they could care less about some random video game I happen to be playing. They are the kind of games I recommend to friends who don't even play video games very much, if at all. They are among a small, rare list of games that I consider to almost transcend video games altogether. Everyone who has any kind of affinity for well-developed media should experience this series. That's pretty much all I have to say about that.