With the recent release of the masterpiece Metal Gear Solid 4, one has to wonder why it was so good. What did it have that most other games lack? Many games have fantastic gameplay, amazing graphics and detail that makes your jaw drop, so what the hell has the MGS series always had that the majority of other games lacked?

It's the storyline. Metal Gear has had what is debateably the best storyline in the history of gaming. From the over hanging plot archs to the tiny nuances you barely notice, it is full of superb and unrivalled storytelling. I'd like to take this particular time to note that this article will be completely free of spoilers, so you can read without fear of the storyline being spoiled for you.

A lot of people (most of which mysteriously don't own Playstation 3s) scream the same thing all the time: "The cutscenes are too long" or "There are too many cutscenes" and other variations of this. Well, there are cutscenes there for a reason; they tell the most epic saga in gaming, and they tell it very, very well. With in-game engine graphics that look absolutely fantastic, they show the emotions of the characters, the speed of the battles, the tension in the rooms perfectly. Couple the effectiveness with the storyline and you have the most cinematic experience on a console ever.

Solid Snake's story has stretched through 4 games (not including the original Metal Gear games) and 3 consoles. Every one of these games has given storytelling and gameplay to such an extent that each game's only peers are the other games in the series. The story was at times weird, wonderful and downright touching, and simply sublime at all times.

Hideo Kojima is the god amongst game directors, he wrote and directed 4 games that have no rivals in storyline and scale, not to mention the first-class gameplay. Without Kojima, the games industry would be missing a genius and some of the best games in the past decade.

So, you have to look to the future. With Kojima no longer directing Metal Gear Solid games, and the storyline of Snake at an end, what can we look forward to? Well, Metal Gear games will continue to be made, hopefully, but without Kojima at the helm. Other than this we can only hope that other developers will pick up on how important a storyline is. IF this happens, we can look forward to a golden age of gilded games. When there is an involving, detailed storyline delivered by spectacular cutscenes to complement equally impressive gameplay, they make a game so much better - the gameplay reinforces the cutscenes, and the cutscenes give the gameplay purpose.

I'd also like to note that the 'The princess has been kidnapped AGAIN, go save her' storyline is the most tired and overused storyline I've ever heard (over and over and over), please give it a rest. If the princess can't see a huge dinosaur turtle thing coming for her after the 2000 times it has done it before she doesn't deserve to be rescued.

Lets face it, without some kind of drive behind you you're just running around shooting people. The Video Game is the next evolution of entertainment media. We went from books, which are entirely storyline, to film, which is visuals, emotions and storyline (and probably some action), and now we move to game; visuals, emotions, storyline and gameplay.

Come on developers, hire some writers, write a story we care about, it'll be a big pay off for you, we promise.

Tags : metal gear : Metal Gear Solid : PlayStation : PlayStation 3 : playstation portable : Storyline : video

Comments

By: Magus On: 07:50 Jun 22nd, 2008 Offline	I dunno if this was your original intent, but from reading your article it seems to me like you claim there aren't any decent storylines outside of the MGS franchise. That's where you've missed out on a ton of great games. Games like Shadow of the Collossus, Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) and certainly Silent Hill have all been praised by both press and fans as games with sublime storytelling and plots. Games are first and foremost about fun. This is why some unoriginal storylines also have a tendency to work. There are also various needs for a story in a game. Games like Madden don't need a story, neither does Need for Speed, Tekken or Rayman Raving Rabbids. In those games, it doesn't matter what the story is. You just want to outrace whoever it is you have to race, beat up whoever you need to beat, or outclass an insane conglomeration of Rabbids. True, a storyline might help immerse you in a game, but it's not always about the story. Most developers already know that a good story can make or break a game. But it's a combination of graphics, gameplay, story, music, longevity and certainly the player's own preference that makes a game great, if not perfect. Kojima might be a "god amongst game directors", but this is a relevant term. Ask any gamer who their favourite developer is, and you'll get lots of different answers.

By: Gamoc On: 02:57 Jun 22nd, 2008 Offline	No, I know there are other good storylines out there, I did say most other games. I find that a storyline pulls me into a game more effectively than gameplay does sometimes, I have finished games just to see the storyline to the end, regardless of annoying faults - and I don't think I've ever finished a storybased game unless the storyline kept me playing. I have finished MGS 2 3 and 4 because the story kept me going when I got stuck. I never finished the first simply because I was about 8 and wasn't interested that much in anything that complicated to play at the time. CoD4 was perfectly playable offline, but I never finished it, I died a few times and just didn't feel any drive to carry on, so I stopped playing single player. And I now that a story isn't necessary for a game like Tekken, or a racing game. In fact, I tend to find a storyline in racing games tiresome, but for something like MGS a storyline is the only thing that'll keep me going when I get to a particularly tricky part (i.e. a part that keeps killing me).