You know what I really used to hate? Eggs. In any form. I remember that from a very early age I absolutely detested them; their mere presence on my plate would make me queasy and likely result in tantrums aimed at my poor, bemused parents. I couldn’t tell you exactly why I disliked them, whether it was their taste, smell or texture specifically, but they grossed me out to such a degree that often I couldn’t even bring myself to eat other foods that they were previously touching.
I’ve carried that hatred of eggs with me for a long time now. A lot of people thought I was mad. It’s partly why I’m often labelled as a “fussy eater” amongst those who know me personally because, frankly, who the hell doesn’t like eggs?!
Once or twice over my 32 years I’d find the urge to try eggs again, tempted to see what I was missing. I’d try some fried egg (usually with an English Breakfast of some sort), but ultimately would stick with my conclusion that they weren’t for me and carry on with my life.
Dizzy, the original anthropomorphic video game egg.
At some point in the last year or so, however, and I have no idea why, but I got that urge to step outside my comfort zone once again, this time with scrambled eggs. Something strange happened.
They. Were. Glorious.
I don’t know what it was this time that made the difference, whether my tastes have simply matured or whatnot, but I was now in this place of loving scrambled eggs. I didn’t stop there, however. They opened this window into a whole new world of eggs. I was suddenly open to trying all varieties. Boiled; poached; fried; omelettes; cold boiled eggs in my salad. You name it, I was there. A big fat yum to most of them.
I realise at this point that I can’t keep dragging this egg thing out forever, but it’s an anecdote that illustrates simply how people can try something they’ve previously disliked and come away with an entirely different point of view. I wager that many of you have had similar scenarios in your time; it can happen in all walks of life, and it’s certainly true of video games.
"Okay, okay, I'll move on from the egg thing."
In this instance, for me, eggs equal Metal Gear Solid. Unlike eggs, however, it was never an outright hatred from the very beginning with Kojima’s series, but rather became that after a swift decline in appreciation.
I remember enjoying Metal Gear Solid on PSone a lot in my youth, I found some amusement early on in Sons of Liberty, but ultimately grew bored of its aimless story and never quite finished it. I tried to play Snake Eater on three separate occasions due purely to peer pressure and its overbearing popularity, twice getting to the halfway point and deciding that this was simply not a series for me. Desperate to be part of the in-crowd, I even tried going back to the GameCube remake of the PSOne classic, Twin Snakes, which managed to leave me wondering if I really did enjoy the original game half as much as I remembered. Guns of the Patriots I made a reluctant start on and, well, it was merely a start.
The same issues I had from the very beginning seemed to dog me right through to MGS4: constant, frustrating interruptions just as I was about to start enjoying myself; baffling plots with too many twists; over-indulgent dialogue; a liberal sense of military understanding and general silliness; as well as some spotty mechanics. Let’s not forget those infamous cutscenes too, of course.
No one could argue that I hadn’t given it more than a fair chance at least; I’d tried nearly all the games in some capacity, always sucked in by pre-release hype, yet they just never resonated with me as they did for others. Despite my repeated attempts to see what everyone else plainly could, I was finally starting to feel at ease with the idea that Metal Gear Solid and I were just not a match made in heaven.
"Dude, what's your problem with me?"
Last year, however, things changed. I was supplied with a review copy of Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater, the 3DS port of probably the most highly rated entry in the series. No one else on the intended-site was in a position to take on the review, so it was left to me, the site’s only member who disliked like this IP, to review the most popular iteration that I never actually finished. “This is going to go well” I thought, but resolved to go in with an open mind.
I did my best to do just that, but the familiar annoyances raised their heads initially. The characters waffled on endlessly about nothing. Supposed military officials were using phrases like ‘Sneaking Mission’ over the more recognised and grown-up terms ‘Stealth mission’ or ‘Covert operation’, which just never sat comfortably with me. Every time I felt I was just about to start enjoying myself, an inane cutscene would stop me dead in my tracks and ruin the flow.
It was upon hitting these sticking points that I'd stopped playing in previous years, but with the burden of review I had no further option but to suck it up and press on this time around. On I went.
As I did so, I found that the further I delved into the soviet jungle, the less the things that once aggravated me continued to do so. The awkward military prattle went from jarring to naively charming, as if the penny dropped as to its intended direction. I ‘got’ the game’s humour finally; could it be that I was never actually meant to take any of it as seriously as I had been? Snake’s relationships were also fast becoming fascinating, especially true with regards to his complex tangles with EVA and the history between him and The Boss. Every character started to show their true strengths; the charismatic ensemble coming to the forefront of the experience. Not even the cutscenes were bothering me anymore - I was soaking it all in.
Aside from the superfluous stuff, though, the game’s core mechanics really clicked into place, with its camouflage-based stealth system providing a slow-burning but untouchably tense experience. Kojima’s trademark attention to detail too was far more evident to me now, leaving me impressed. I was finally appreciating his ideas and quirks.
Could it be that there was this great game beneath the surface all along? Why was I only realising it at that point and not before?
While I’m not certain at what point in the campaign my prior feelings started to waver into this positive new territory, I know for a fact that a complete turnaround was cemented with the methodical, thrilling sniper battle against The End in his dense jungle habitat. Once I’d finally taken the dangerous old man down, I was so amazed by it all that I wanted to run into the street, shake total strangers by their shoulders and scream in their faces to tell them just how significant this particular boss fight truly was.
That was the exact point that I knew that I loved Metal Gear Solid 3, a game whose merits had managed to evade me three times before.
MGS3, then, proved to be my scrambled eggs; my gateway into a new world of Metal Gear. Since that 3DS review, I’ve been working my way through the entire series as time allows, and I have just Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid 4 left to cross off the list. I’ve gone into each entry with a fresh perspective and new understanding (including Snake Eater again on Vita), and as a result I’ve loved every single second of revisiting this series.
It’s situations like this that remind me just how important it is to throw off the shackles of our own stubborn mindsets and seek to challenge what we think we know. People change. Our opinions, outlooks on life and tastes invariably evolve as we mature; life experience makes it an inevitable truth that something you believed years ago may no longer ring true today, no matter how trivial. Can you say with any real certainty that later down the line you’ll still fully believe everything you say or think in this moment? Of course not, and this is why it’s important to reevaluate our stance from time to time.
It's true that I was pretty much cajoled into revisiting Snake Eater, but very much like the situation with eggs, I confronted the opinions of a younger me head on. I tested the weight of my own opinion and I proved myself wrong in the best possible way.
Andy Corrigan is a freelance games journalist based in Australia. You can follow him on IGN here, and why not hang out with IGN Australia on Facebook and Twitter?
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