Kojima has certainly made something amazing when it comes to Metal Gear. It’s been 25 years since it’s debut on the MSX2 and has spanned 10 games which are linked chronologically with an on-going story making it one of the longest running game series of all time. But Kojima just cannot let the Snake codename retire just yet as he announces not only Metal Gear Solid 5 but a prequel called Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Ground Zeroes has recently been shown at PAX impressing many with it’s graphics powered by the FOX engine and intriguing some with it’s sandbox gameplay.
This summer I’ve been playing through the Metal Gear Solid games with the wonderfully put together HD Collection so I’ve decided to compile a list of things I’d like to see in Ground Zeroes.
Building on Naked Snake’s and Boss’s relationship
The third iteration of the Metal Gear Solid franchise subtitled Snake Eater is arguably the best in the series for revolutionising the controls and gameplay styles but also having cinematic pacing and introducing us to the father of the les enfants terribles Naked Snake. During the game’s conclusion there is a face off between Naked Snake and his mentor Boss who had defected at the start of the game and as last mission objective Snake has to kill her. Throughout the game we encounter Boss as she taunts Snake and brutally berates him as Snake is helpless to fight back. You can tell they have history together which should make the final shot at Boss a very touching moment but it isn’t. The reason is that we the player spent about an hour with Boss before she defected and she barely spoke to us making it hard to be connected to her emotionally as Snake is. Building on this relationship in the next few games, we can finally understand the will of the boss and make that scene a much more poignant one.
Building on Solid Snake and Big Boss’s relationship
We all love Solid Snake. So much so that we hated when Kojima made the quick switch a roo and put Raiden in as the lead in Metal Gear Solid 2 but there is a big part of Snake’s life that many didn’t get to see and that was his battle with Outer Heaven. The games that were released on MSX 2 have largely been overlooked despite being released on the MGS 3 version of Subsistence and the HD collection. In these games Solid Snake did battle against his father and once mentor who is never seen again until the end of the Metal Gear Solid 4. I feel I’m missing a crucial piece of MGS lore when it comes to Big Boss and his illegitimate sons. In fact I wouldn’t mind having a protege Solid Snake appear to be taught by the ageing Big Boss in the next MGS games. This is the exception to the next point.
Don’t shoe horn in characters for fan service
I’m talking mainly about Peace Walker with Huey Emmerich. When he appeared as a cameo in MGS 3 I thought it was a cute homage to the original Metal Gear Solid. But when Peace Walker came about and Big Boss began working with Huey I thought they went too far. It just seemed too unreal to draw this many parallels between Solid and Naked Snake besides the fact they look the same and now almost had to same support staff. If Ground Zeroes has Snake meeting a young genius Mei Ling or a young Vamp running around doing flips and shit then I know they have jumped the shark.
More Wacky Bosses
Peace Walker despite being my favourite Big Boss game is ultimately disappointing due to lack of crazy bosses. Instead there were really tough mech battles that required a team of Big Bosses to complete and they all concluded with you pulling out disks while the voice of Boss is heard saying random stuff about war and battle. It gets worse as the two human antagonists you don’t get to fight. I was looking forward to see why he was called Hot Coldman and a fist fight against a man with a mechanic hand would have been awesome! Metal Gear just isn’t Metal Gear without weird and wonderful bosses with animal code names like Decoy Octopus and Dirty Duck.
Less Recruiting
I’ve never been a fan of the recruiting aspect of Portable Ops or Peace Walker. To me they were a chore and a needless side mission that you could do if you wanted 100% out of the game. I never felt that the head of a military organization should be in charge of dressing troops and also doing the actual mission with the troops. Snake is at his best sneaking and getting help through codec. No fuss, no muss.
More Talking Frogs
Talking frogs from Metal Gear Acid 2. ‘Nuff Said
