I'm trying to enjoy Metal Gear Solid…

[Zing]

…but the game doesn't want to let me.

I've owned the game for several years but have never played it. I eagerly read through the manual. I watched every one of the briefing videos. I was fully into the theme of the game. Then I started playing.

I played straight through the point right after the fight with Revolver Ocelot. I'm supposed to contact Meryl. I spend what seems like 15 minutes in a conversation with her. After I am done, I go around to various small rooms collecting ammo and run into some laser sensors that trigger an alarm. I am "helpfully" contacted during the resulting firefight to warn me of laser sensors. Thanks. I died just outside the room. Fine, let's continue.

Wait, the game didn't note that I already talked to Meryl. Hmm. Fine, I will contact her again. I hammer on the button to skip through her conversation, which means this time I only spend five minutes on the phone with her. I learned my lesson, so I save my game before moving on.

I go around to the small rooms again, this time avoiding the laser sensors and talking to Nastasha as well. I run into a quiet room with some items, stop moving for a moment to get a drink, and I look back to the TV to see that I fell to my death in a pit trap. Fine, let's continue. It will surely continue from where I saved.

Nope! I am back to the exact moment from the last time I died. Again, the game didn't save my conversation. Okay, maybe I need to reload my save. Wait, there is no way to reload your game from within the game? I reset the system and load my save. I am again back to the exact moment from the last time I died. Apparently "save" means "note down my last checkpoint", not "save my current state".

I don't expect the game to save my exact coordinates, but at least save my inventory and codec conversations. I turn the game off with disappointment.

There is so much trial-and-error in this game. I now get the memes about "SNAAAAAAKE" because you are going to hear it again and again and again. I didn't think much about it my experience noted above. Needless to say, I don't enjoy that sort of gameplay. The game isn't difficult by any means, it just forces you to learn by failing.

I'm not sure I will be able to convince myself to give this another try. Any words of encouragement in either direction?

Another thing… it's fun to sneak around, but it made me wonder why there are so many weapons. I get stun grenades, smoke grenades, regular grenades, a pistol, explosives, and so on, but the ideal situation is to sneak without being detected. You are heavily penalized for being detected, so why am I given so many different weapons?

[Flake]

The game saves conditions whenever you leave one area for another. So basicall, do something or talk to someone and then go to another part of the game where it has to load. Then save.

[BoringSupreez]

I'm not sure I will be able to convince myself to give this another try. Any words of encouragement in either direction?

The story is worth it, and you'll get used to the series' idiosyncrasies.

Another thing… it's fun to sneak around, but it made me wonder why there are so many weapons. I get stun grenades, smoke grenades, regular grenades, a pistol, explosives, and so on, but the ideal situation is to sneak without being detected. You are heavily penalized for being detected, so why am I given so many different weapons?

Boss fights, mainly.

[Zing]

I've really enjoyed the story so far. I didn't even mind that I spend more time reading than I do with the controller in my hand.

[env963]

Ive been playing this on my PSP (i am assuming we are talking about the first metal gear solid)? LOL

Im stuck on the fight with the ninja who goes invisible on you. Ive been stuck for months! Kind of go sick of being stuck and went on to a different game. Periodically i visit the game to see if i can get past it. NOPE! Still stuck. I may try it on my PS3 (moving the save file) to see if the controller will help me... but for now, im playing parasite eve instead.

[Gamerforlife]

Keep in mind that all MGS games have annoyingly gameplay flaws, though it sounds nicer to call them "idiosyncrasies". I've always hated the controls and MGS 3 really messed up the stealth element by removing the radar without changing the camera

The story makes it worth it. However, given the enormous amount of time you spend listening to convoluted dialog or watching convoluted cutscenes, you could consider the story to be another of the series' flaws. For what it's worth, I think MGS is the best overall game of the first three games, but I have yet to play MGS 4. The story of MGS 2 was a little ridiculous and MGS 3 was very poorly designed until they re-released it as MGS 3 Subsistence

I have a very love/hate thing with the MGS series. They've pissed me off just as often as they've given me memorable moments. I personally thing Kojima's Zone of the Enders series is better. Those games are more focused on delivering quality gameplay and don't feature hours of convoluted cutscenes and dialog. Zone of Enders 2 plays like a dream compared the the akward controls and gameplay of the MGS series

[MrNash]

Outside of the first game, I've never been able to get into the series either. I still have part 2 sitting around should I ever decide to take it for another spin, but I just don't like the story. Maybe one day the stars will align just right, and I'll start to like it, but not now.

[Xeogred]

Maybe you just had to be there back in 1998. *shrugs*

[Zing]

I sold my PlayStation and all my games sometime in 1996. Believe it or not, but I didn't feel like there were any good games back then. I was busy playing Nintendo 64 and PC games.

I didn't get back into PlayStation until early 2004.

[Gamerforlife]

Maybe you just had to be there back in 1998. *shrugs*

I think the original MGS wowed everyone back then with its cinematic presentation, gimmicks(the Mantis fight), massive story and for supposedly introducing stealth to 3D gaming (Tenchu did it first and did it better). Those things aren't so impressive now and the gameplay is a bit dated