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Saturday 9 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
I will admit that in my second gamelog, I spent a lot more than 45 minutes playing through the game. Snake has now been captured by Ocelot, and is sitting in a jail, waiting for me to bust him out. The game has become much more emotional. Meryl, the Colonel's niece, has been fighting side by side with snake for a lot of the game. She was just shot down by Sniper Wolf as a trap to lure Snake out so she can get a clear shot off on him. The game offers the player a variety of emotions. I felt sad when Meryl was shot, and even more concerned about Snake and his efforts to save her.
When fighting Psycho Mantis, he plays numerous unique tricks on the player, something that no other game does. He tricks the player by making the screen go entirely black, with the word Hideo written in the top right. This makes the player think the game console was unplugged. He also criticizes your game style, and then reads your memory card and states other nintendo games you have been playing. Lastly, he tells you to put the controller on the floor, and (by the force feedback), he moves it across the floor. All of this humor, and innovative touch add to the creativity of this boss.
DESIGN
Level design in Metal Gear Solid is broken up into numerous sections, each with their own loading zones. There are also elevators for each section that break it up into floors. This level design works great for this game, especially since when you are seen by an enemy, the caution timer resets upon entering a new zone.
Metal Gear Solid delivers a tone in its gameworld of a cold and dark environment. Many of the walls are metallic. The outside areas are covered in snow. You can actually see many of the enemies cold breath in the air. These small little details help enhance the gaming experience.
Cutscenes occur very often in this game. To some extent, they can be obtrusive because they occur so often and typically last anywhere from 10-20 minutes. Also, the radio transmission messages can also be long, and contain no animation. Metal Gear Solid 2 at least had 3D radio transmissions, and it certainly enhanced this mode of cutscenes.
Although this game is not a multiplayer game, my housemate did sit and watch me play for a good 3-4 hours today. The reason is its cutscenes, environments, and character development make it more like a movie than a video game. By giving a very creative storyline with unique characters the player actually cares about, Metal Gear Solid enriches the players gaming experience and keeps them coming back for more. I was very happy to get as far as I did for this gamelog assignment, and will probably be finishing it later tonight.
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