The beginning of the stealth genre.
What a pair of games. Apparently, the MSX was a Japan-only console, so the fact that we get to play this version in the U.S. instead of the NES version that we got is great. If only all games were this well-performing (e.g., plenty of weapons and items, responsive controls, no flickering to have more than the max number of moving objects on the screen at once) on the NES, the NES would’ve been even better than it already was. It is insane how good this is. Since it’s a two-in-one, I’ll have to cover both games in one review:
Metal Gear
The Positives:
-The menu contains instructions, a screenplay, and other bonuses that are excellent.
-People complained that this wasn’t good, but I understood almost everything without a guide—they tell you most things in game. The only things that don’t make sense without guidance are when to radio the lady who will help you get items (one POW gives you the right frequency and required rank, but he doesn’t say where to hail her) and the whole poison mechanic (the scorpions poison you, and you get an antidote item). The game explains the rest. You’ll die a few more times, like when listening to people you shouldn’t or going to places you can’t access yet, but otherwise you can play the game just fine with a decent memory and some note taking.
-As mentioned above, the graphics are amazing compared to Nintendo. No flickering. No slowdowns. If the NES era games could’ve been made with this kind of computing power, the games would’ve been 8-bit perfection.
-The number of weapons and items is amazing. And it was fast and easy to switch between them and know what they were for and how to use them. This is up there with Castlevania 2 and Zelda in terms of item-centric gameplay mechanics. I’ve never had so much fun using weapons and items (and, ironically, you try not to use the weapons!). In fact, this might be one of the few games I’ve ever played with a weapon count where I used all the weapons when they were the best for the fight. I almost always use the regular gun unless I have no other choice, but because I was never far from a reload, I stopped being a miserly hoarder and played correctly. I love how this worked.
-The stealth gameplay is amazing for this generation. You can walk up behind most enemies and punch them three times to knock them out. I had so much fun. And with the exception of the occasional surveillance camera or enemy-heavy screen, you didn’t have to wait too long for an opening.
-The bosses were fun and creative, and they all had exploits that made them fun to figure out and win.
-For this generation of gaming, the story felt pretty in-depth. I know there are many Metal Gear games, but I never played them. Playing this, I learned a ton about this world and wanted to know more.
-Great quality-of-life options. The saving/continue option from the elevators is a great mechanic. Also, items respawn, allowing you to fill your inventory easily for the next level or boss segment.
The Negatives:
-The hit detection—both for your character and enemies—is really off and inconsistent sometimes. I’d get seen while off-center and not seen when lined up with them horizontally. I could hit them from about a half-character-width away by hitting them from the side. You can walk near enemies as long as you don’t get into their direct line of sight. It’s not terrible because the game would be insanely hard if it were realistic, but I definitely got mad when I’d alert a guard despite the same approach working some other time or me not really being aligned. And horizontal bullets from enemies are so much better than yours—your bullets need to be perfectly in line with the enemy to hit and disappear after a few inches, whereas the enemies’ bullets go the whole screen and can hit you as long as it touches you.
-Enemies respawn, making any backtracking annoying—even one screen back and forth will respawn a screen you might’ve just cleared. Having to wait for an opening, then having to do the same thing again in reverse 10 seconds later is really annoying.
-Some screens were mildly annoying—ones where enemies were automatically alerted were annoying, and the pits that opened up from the ground insta-killed you were annoying in the places where you didn’t expect them (not annoying when they alert you first).
-I could see the ending portion being a pain for people going through without a guide or preparation. You need 20 plastic explosives and some rocket launcher ammo to make the end game beatable, for example.
-I beat the game without ever learning whether I could hit those jetpack guys. Some parts of the game are like that. Because it’s primarily stealth, I didn’t know what to make of the areas where you had to fight. I almost always just ran because the enemies when alerted are so difficult to hit that you usually lose less health running through them than trying to finesse your way into killing them. I’d only ever shoot things if it would suppress an alarm or if it was a boss.
-Doors weren’t marked for which card was required—mildly annoying most of the time, and deadly when picking between up to 8 cards in a gas-filled room.
Metal Gear 2
The Positives:
-The story and characters are more involved. There are more communications and contacts—they aren't useful at first, but they become essential when running into new obstacles to progression. They also have kids walking around that say things, but only some are useful. The story and interactions between the characters are much more complex.
-The bosses are pretty awesome in this game. They’re not too difficult once you get a good strategy down, so it’s learning how they move and what to use on them, and then killing them pretty easily using that method (if you don’t figure it out, they’ll kill you pretty quickly). Very innovative variations on the bosses and fun to play without being cheap or frustrating.
-There’s a “master card” that combines the access of multiple cards.
The Negatives:
-Many things from the first game got worse. For example, it has loading screens for some reason when the first one didn’t and the graphics and level sizes are relatively the same. You have to switch away from certain weapons to be able to punch or move again, and you are usually in a situation where you need to use the weapon and move/punch vs. enemies or bosses. Saving your progress requires you to leave an area and reenter it, and you never really know when it’ll work. And punching the elevator button makes noise and attracts guard suspicion when you leave, change floors, and come back if you want to ensure the save takes. I lost my progress three times thinking I’d done what needed to be done to constitute saved progress only for it to not work. There are more enemies that spawn during alert like the first one, but items don’t respawn like the first one unless you leave an area completely…meaning you often have to knock out or kill up to a dozen enemies just to get one additional ammo or health item.
-While the maps are more complex and interesting, there are elevators everywhere that all go to different places, which is slightly annoying when it has the same backtracking mechanic as the first one. I had no problem going back to building one for 2 minutes in the first game, but here you have to go up an elevator, through a floor to another elevator, and then back to another floor to get to many places, and there’s a lot of redoing the same floors with new cards. It’s just a little too much.
Overall, I loved these games. I liked the first more due to the more straightforward stealth mechanics and fewer annoying elements like loading screens, longer restocking, and triggering alerts, but the second's story is much more fleshed out. I would recommend this two-pack to anyone who likes the series, stealth games, or classic 8-bit gameplay. It's a wonderful experience.
