Best Metal Gear Game

[A.G.]

This is considering everything; gameplay, game design, story, characters, feel, etc. what was the absolute best ever?

Don't just vote for your favorite.

For me, it's MGS3. MGS1 will always be my personal favorite and MGS4 probably has the most favorite moments, but as an overal package MGS3 is the peak of the series.

[Cerberus_0408]

Well it really depends on your definition of 'favourite'. Personally, I have two ways to define it: objective and subjective.

Subjective
In my humble opinion MGS3 handled EVERYTHING even better than the previous games. It was an improvement on almost all the aspects, for reasons I mentioned previously.

Objective
This is a tough one... I could bitch and moan for DECADES about PW's motherbase construction/management and recruitment mechanics. You could send captured units to battle and build YOUR own Metal Gear. Or strive to achieve an S rank on EVERY single mission. Destroying each boss gave you components for Zeke...

But I'll probably go with MGS4. Boss fights like using a mech, requiring the Adrenaline to defeat Vamp and Mantis... the callbacks to the previous games, from Shadow Moses to the high-tech Plant interior...Seriously, I had never experienced such a pinnacle of every chapter coming together in the history of video gaming.

(Well, there was yet another instance of this in Syphon Filter Dark Mirror, when the final boss taunts the player all about every single game in the series. But I'll not go into that in this post)

[A.G.]

Definition of favorite? Do you ever actually read the posts before replying to them? I clearly stated to NOT vote for your favorite but instead to vote for what you feel is the best overall game.

I really don't get you sometimes.

[jackass]

MGS 3, it's just generally a better title. It's action packed, stealthy, story is perfect and heart breaking at times. Gameplay is unbeatable.

[fgdj2000]

Definitely MGS3. Great Stand-Alone Story, that also works great as a prequel to the other games.
Great Pacing, great balance of all the gameplay systems. Awesome Boss-Battles (even though the characters were cartoony), great chracters, first and foremost The Boss, but also EVA, Naked Snake himself and Volgin as a force to be reckoned with and a young Ocelot, who for the first time seemed a little sympathetic here, which added some noticable depth to his character. In addition to that, varied environments, some very open ended for a linear PS2 game, lots of possibilities to mess around with guards and even a great prison sequence. Overall the best package. Add to that the various groundbreaking additions Subsistence made (the new camera, the first MGO, Snake vs. Ape, secret theatre, duel mode) and some great eastereggs (Snake's Nightmare minigame) make this just one of the best games of its generation.

MGS1 was a close second for me, but it did have pacing problems towards the end with all the backtracking. And the story while populated with great characters, lacked someone with the charisma and impact of The Boss.
MGS4 and MGS2 also dropped the ball on the pacing a bit towards the end, with a lot of cutscenes and MGS4 trading its amazing open environments for more linear corridors (esp. Outer Haven!).
MGSV may have had smother and more open ended gameplay, but was held back, by the empty environments and the story which was a giant missed opportunity.

MGS Peace Walker is also one of my favorites, possibly number 3 on my list (behind MGS3 and MGS1), just because this game was so much fun for me and was probably the best game I have played on a hand held device. It also nicely followed up the story of MGS3 by showing how Big Boss acually becomes pretty much the person he'll later be and featured some great characters that I instantly fell in love with (Amanda, Chico, Kaz, Huey, even Paz) and made the events of MGSV so much more impactful than they would have been otherwise.

[Cerberus_0408]

One of the few gripes I had of MGS3 was that the 'Soliton radar' was unavailable due to the game's time frame. But hey, this was the 1960's, so Snake would have to rely on the good ol' Motion Detector, Heartbeat Sensor etc.

[A.G.]

I appreciated the radar removal, though not at first. Really made you work harder on stealth.

[Cerberus_0408]

I think that's the factor that made Extreme playthroughs even tougher than previous MGS titles.

[fgdj2000]

I agree with A.G. It was jarring at first, but they gave you enough tools to work arround it. Active Sonar, Motion Sensor, etc. Once they implemented the 360 degree camera it was perfect (I love the top-down view as much as Solid Snake, but in MGS3, some guards really came out of nowhere witout any chance of you spotting them in time).

[Cerberus_0408]

Doesn't that generally happen in any game on Extreme?

[fgdj2000]

It can also happen on any other difficulty, but it usually does because the player didn't pay enough attention. However what I mean is with the original top down view sometimes you really had little to no chance knowing an enemy was about to spot you, no matter how careful you are, because you simply couldn't see him from the angle.
But the Subsistence release pretty much fixed it with the addition of the 360 degree camera which has been included in the HD and 3Ds releases as well.

If you want to know what it was like playing MGS3 back in 2004 or 2005 (for us here in Europe), just toggle the top down view and try playing it without the 360 degree camera.

[Cerberus_0408]

A small tip I have if you lack the 360 degree camera: get the infrared goggles. It will highlight almost any enemy in the surrounding environment. I mean yeah, its battery will eventually run flat, but that's where MGS3 is a true change from the previous games. It makes you cycle through almost every detection device in your inventory, like I mentioned earlier: the Heartbeat Sensor, Motion Detector, Active Sonar, Portable Radar...etc.

If you want to know what it was like playing MGS3 back in 2004 or 2005 (for us here in Europe), just toggle the top down view and try playing it without the 360 degree camera.

Ah, gotcha...maybe I will do so on my next playthrough.

[fgdj2000]

Yeah, that's what made it so great. Let's face it, you play MGS1 and MGS2 mostly just on the soliton radar. However the removal of the radar and suplementing it with a number of other gadgets - none of them perfect - meant that you were actually watching the beautiful graphics of the game and what was actually on the screen.

The heartbeat sensor mostly did the trick for me (is it the one that beeps if an enemy is nearby?). But infrared googles also work fine! Especially when fighting The Fear.

[Cerberus_0408]

The heartbeat sensor mostly did the trick for me (is it the one that beeps if an enemy is nearby?). But infrared googles also work fine! Especially when fighting The Fear.

I think I'm mixing some stuff up, lmfao. The Heartbeat Sensor was actually in CoD: MW2 and 3, where you could attach it to assault rifles, GPMGs and the sniper rifles. Like its namesake it scanned your surroundings, and could beep if enemies were close to you. But its scan rate was pretty damn slow, and enemies that employed Assassin or Cold Blooded were immune to it.

As for the device's function, it indeed senses enemy and animal positions relative to Snake. And yeah, the IR goggles was certainly the best thing during said boss. Not to forget the sniper duel!

Also, for the first two MG games...isn't there some sort of Soliton radar?

[A.G.]

No radar in MG1 but MG2 had it. No field of vision display though. So I feel it was better.