Toying With Expectations

Few games surprise me with story and gameplay; it’s usually one or the other. The plot twists range from gasp worthy to mind bending and it always kept me guessing. The characters themselves are rarely straight with you and nearly every one of them has some secret to reveal which would be either shocking in itself or revealed in an unexpected manner. As for examples, I’m not divulging any. The stories are well worth getting into and revealing any unexpected twist would be a disservice to you.

The gameplay related surprises frequently knock over that fourth wall. Famous examples include the boss battle with Psycho Mantis of Metal Gear Solid where the player was tipped off by Colonel Campbell on how to defeat the mind the reader. It was revealed that the player could avoid the psychic’s predictions by switching controller ports. Other radical gameplay choices include the ingenious boss battle with The End from Metal Gear Solid 3. This sniper duel spanned three large areas with the player given multiple avenues of attack. One of the possible solution involved the player’s save file where if the player saved during the boss battle and let one week pass, they would return to discover The End had died of old age. That’s just one of many ways to take down the old man. Speaking of MGS3, if anyone expected the fight with The Sorrow to end the way it does; I’m calling you a dirty liar.

Humor often creeps its way into Kojima’s games and they usually come at you from unexpected places. A lot of it is toilet humor, puns or just plain silliness, but it’s practically ingrained into the series DNA and it wouldn’t be Metal Gear without it. For nearly every preachy moment found, there would be some silliness to counteract it. I love it!

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Tags: kojima, konami, metal gear, why we love it
 Email To A Friend

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Editorials and Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.