Metal Gear Solid

So one of the oldest games on my backlog is Metal Gear Solid 2, a game that everyone was raving about ten years ago but that I had great difficulty finding enjoyable. I never got more than an hour into the game and haven't touched it in a long, long time. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that I was simply playing it wrong. In the Metal Gear games, you're meant to sneak around and infiltrate buildings and rooms within buildings, lurking in the shadows and creating diversions within your environment. My mistake was in treating Metal Gear Solid 2 too much like a standard third-person shooter, trying to blow past enemies while spraying off a bunch of bullets from the hip. At any rate, even though I never learned to love the game, I respected it enough to buy its sequel many years later for fifteen bucks or so. And when I bought my PS3, it came with a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4. It was clear that I'd need to play through this entire series after all, so in 2010 I went all the way back to the beginning and bought this game. (I feel no need to play through Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2, this game's 8-bit precursors that are as old as I am, at this point in time. That may change.) I went in fearful that the clunky PlayStation graphics and pre-Half-Life story-telling devices would make the game dated as hell. Those worries would prove to be misguided, though, as I absolutely loved my experience with Metal Gear Solid. I never knew the game had such an over-the-top plot or such an obvious sense of humor. And while I did know the game was about sneaking around in the shadows, I had no idea how fun it would be to do so. Even if I somehow still can't get into Metal Gear Solid 2, it's good to know that the time and money spent here were spent well. That's all I've got for now, but expect more posts on this series from me in the coming months.