Feature

What Metal Gear Solid 5 Could (and Should) Be

1UP editors ponder the future of Hideo Kojima’s mega-series.

By: 1UP Staff
November 21, 2011

• 

  Jeremy Parish, Editor-in Chief

  You know what I’d like to see for Metal Gear Solid 5? Nothing. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been following — and a fan of — the Metal Gear games since before the original game came out for NES. I love me some Metal Gear. But at this point, and MGS4 will back me up on this, the series just has too much baggage. Why not just start over with a clean slate and a new series and let Kojima and his folks work their magic without having to worry about an insanely convoluted backstory that was never meant to be concluded? Oh, right… money.

  Fine. If Kojima has to go ahead with a fifth chapter, I only see two ways for it to work. One, jump way far into the future and leave behind the legacy cast. Maybe make the game about Olga’s kid Sunny, all grown up into an idiot savant secret agent who sings about eggs while she snaps necks, but leave everyone else behind. Alternately, let’s take the series way into the past and focus on The Boss (aka The Joy) and her work with Cobra Unit in World War II. Or, hell, stop the flirting and cockteasing and just let Metal Gear make out with Assassin’s Creed already. Find some way to combine the two series’ ridiculous story lines into one. (Suggestion: The Apple is nanomachines!)

  Whatever the case, Metal Gear Solid 5 shouldn’t be about the Snakes. Not Solid Snake, not Liquid Snake, not Naked Snake, and definitely not Solidus. Their story is done. The Patriots’ story is done. Here’s an idea, though: Why not get back to basics and make a Metal Gear that’s about, you know, Metal Gear? The series’ big deal used to be the mad threat represented by a compact, self-contained nuclear delivery system. Before the AIs named after dead presidents and social manipulation and impossible continuity, Metal Gear was about a simple deadly threat. I’d love to see that kind of clarity of purpose in the series again.

• 

  Bob Mackey, Features Admiral

  If you’d like to see the direction the Metal Gear Solid series should go, look no further than Peace Walker; though the game’s admittedly built with on-the-go play in mind, it managed to shake off most of the baggage that clung to the series for so long. Simplified controls, a dialed-back story, a nearly bottomless toy box full of weapons and gadgets, and several multi-layered RPG systems built for endless tinkering — all of these elements brought Metal Gear far above the fan-pandering torture that nearly sunk Solid 4. Given that MGS4 tied up every loose end (and turned Solid Snake into a human Hot Pocket), the series has an unprecedented amount of breathing room; and since the Metal Gear timeline stretches across 50 years, Kojima and his team now have the ability to dip in and out of this history at their leisure. So why shouldn’t they?

  So, where could Metal Gear Solid go with its fifth official installment? Honestly, it’d be fantastic to see remakes of the original two Metal Gears, even if Kojima repurposed a great deal of these games’ content for the original Solid. But instead of putting the spotlight on Snake, why can’t the Metal Gear team instead show us the story of Outer Heaven through the eyes of Big Boss himself? It’d be the perfect send-off to a character they’ve been progressively developing since Metal Gear Solid 3, not to mention a fine opportunity for Metal Gear fans to experience a plotline currently trapped behind a thick mesh of outdated mechanics and primitive storytelling.

• 

Last month marked the five-year anniversary of Bully’s release on PlayStation 2. Aside from a re-release (in the form of Scholarship Edition) on Xbox 360 and Wii in 2008 and a PC port later that year, there hasn’t been much talk of a future for Bully. In the meantime Rockstar has been busy — Grand Theft Auto IV and both its expansions, Red Dead Redemption, two Midnight Club games, and more have been released since then, yet Bully remains the preeminent Rockstar game for many. With Bully developer Rockstar Vancouver currently occupied with Max Payne 3, there are plans to evalute the prospect of a new Bully following MP3’s release in March.

Bully isn’t the only Rockstar game that has had to wait a long time for a sequel. Max Payne 2 was released in 2003, making it at least an eight-and-a-half-year wait for MP3. Red Dead Revolver was out a year later, in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2010 that Redemption came along.

Just over five years after releasing the Nintendo 64, and three days after Microsoft entered the home game console business, Nintendo released the GameCube in North America on November 18, 2001. Although it was more powerful than the PlayStation 2, released a year earlier, and priced at just $199.99, for the second generation in a row Nintendo didn’t enjoy anywhere near the level of success Sony did.

Nintendo wasn’t able to tout the GameCube as the most powerful system of the generation due to the Xbox’s presence. It did have an edge over the PS2 horsepower-wise, and Nintendo finally left cartridges behind for its home consoles. But rather than opt to use DVDs like Microsoft and Sony, it opted for a proprietary optical disc format smaller than DVDs both in physical size and storage space. The system itself was incapable of playing DVDs — a feature that did wonders for the success of the PS2 — although Japan did get the Panasonic Q system that remedied that particular problem for its small number of owners.

It was 10 years ago today that Microsoft entered the videogame console business with the release of the Xbox in North America. The system debuted at $299.99 and its release came more than a year after the PlayStation 2 had already debuted in western markets and three days before the GameCube, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary in North America on Friday. Xbox was the most powerful of the three consoles during that generation (four if you wish to include the Dreamcast), though that didn’t translate into sales — PS2 ended up dominating the console market for much of the decade, but Xbox did prove to be influential in the long run.

The Xbox name came from the original idea of creating a DirectX Box, DirectX being the name for a set of APIs used on computers. (’DirectX Box’ ended up being shortened to ‘Xbox.’) The system was, like the PS2 and unlike the Dreamcast and GameCube, capable of playing DVDs in addition to games. Dolby 5.1 support and an integrated Ethernet port were both standard, as was an 8GB hard drive, a new concept for videogame consoles at the time. The obvious benefits of a hard drive included the ability to save games without a memory card and rip music from CDs that could then be listened to as a soundtrack in certain games. Its presence later opened the door for downloadable content in games like Halo 2. (A standard hard drive was abandoned for certain models of the Xbox 360, resulting in developers avoiding mandatory installs no matter the cost.)

Even as our consumer rights are slowly whittled away by binding arbitration clauses, draconian DRM, and “online passes,” we gamers still remain an awfully spoiled lot. And if you don’t believe me, here’s a stunning example: the asking price of the original NES Metal Gear in 1988? 50 American dollars. The cost of a fully remastered bundle containing Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (not to mention bonus remakes of the original MSX Metal Gears 1 and 2), purchased in 2011? 50 American dollars. As a pure value proposition, that’s nearly impossible to beat; and, given the amount of finely crafted video game content contained in this little package, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a better disc to grace the system of your choice — though it helps to be on board with the polarizing quirks of the Metal Gear series.

As a disclaimer, I feel it necessary to admit I’m a fan of most things Metal Gear, though it’s equally important to inform you that I haven’t let fanboyism shield me from its many flaws. Regardless of its various missteps, though, Metal Gear remains one of the few gaming franchises that exists solely as an auteurist expression, something that’s becoming increasingly rare in these design-by-committee days of game development. That said, either you jive with Hideo Kojima’s unique brand of lunacy, or you don’t; and no amount of high-def polish is going to change your mind. While the Peace Walker portion of this collection has been granted a much-needed overhaul to controls and online play, parts 2 and 3 are simply prettier — and these were very pretty games to begin with. Many would argue this collection provides the perfect opportunity to revamp the odd controls of Solids 2 and 3 (which were idiosyncratic at the time), but you only have to look at how Silicon Knights’ attempt to do just this in The Twin Snakes resulted in a horribly broken game — and besides, it’s highly unlikely that Hideo Kojima would allow Bluepoint Games to alter even a byte of his legacy.

Even as our consumer rights are slowly whittled away by binding arbitration clauses, draconian DRM, and “online passes,” we gamers still remain an awfully spoiled lot. And if you don’t believe me, here’s a stunning example: the asking price of the original NES Metal Gear in 1988? 50 American dollars. The cost of a fully remastered bundle containing Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (not to mention bonus remakes of the original MSX Metal Gears 1 and 2), purchased in 2011? 50 American dollars. As a pure value proposition, that’s nearly impossible to beat; and, given the amount of finely crafted video game content contained in this little package, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a better disc to grace the system of your choice — though it helps to be on board with the polarizing quirks of the Metal Gear series.

As a disclaimer, I feel it necessary to admit I’m a fan of most things Metal Gear, though it’s equally important to inform you that I haven’t let fanboyism shield me from its many flaws. Regardless of its various missteps, though, Metal Gear remains one of the few gaming franchises that exists solely as an auteurist expression, something that’s becoming increasingly rare in these design-by-committee days of game development. That said, either you jive with Hideo Kojima’s unique brand of lunacy, or you don’t; and no amount of high-def polish is going to change your mind. While the Peace Walker portion of this collection has been granted a much-needed overhaul to controls and online play, parts 2 and 3 are simply prettier — and these were very pretty games to begin with. Many would argue this collection provides the perfect opportunity to revamp the odd controls of Solids 2 and 3 (which were idiosyncratic at the time), but you only have to look at how Silicon Knights’ attempt to do just this in The Twin Snakes resulted in a horribly broken game — and besides, it’s highly unlikely that Hideo Kojima would allow Bluepoint Games to alter even a byte of his legacy.

Silent Hill fans are in for a real treat in the first quarter of 2012. Konami has announced release dates for three Silent Hill games, and all of them fall within the first three months of the new year.

The first of the bunch is the Silent Hill HD Collection, which was first announced last June and consists of HD remakes of Silent Hill 2 and 3. They each feature new voiceovers and will be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 24.

Silent Hill fans are in for a real treat in the first quarter of 2012. Konami has announced release dates for three Silent Hill games, and all of them fall within the first three months of the new year.

The first of the bunch is the Silent Hill HD Collection, which was first announced last June and consists of HD remakes of Silent Hill 2 and 3. They each feature new voiceovers and will be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 24.

Silent Hill fans are in for a real treat in the first quarter of 2012. Konami has announced release dates for three Silent Hill games, and all of them fall within the first three months of the new year.

The first of the bunch is the Silent Hill HD Collection, which was first announced last June and consists of HD remakes of Silent Hill 2 and 3. They each feature new voiceovers and will be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 24.

Following up on the release of the game’s debut trailer yesterday, Rockstar has issued a Grand Theft Auto V press release and provided some scraps of information about the project.

A lot of what was suggested in the trailer has been confirmed — the game is set in a Los Angeles-inspired city that will, like in San Andreas, be called Los Santos. It’s described as a “re-imagined, present-day Southern California” that includes some of L.A.’s surroundings, namely the “surrounding hills, countryside and beaches.”