Metal Gear is one of the most celebrated game franchise of all time, and while it's unlikely a brand new release will be announced anytime soon, rumors of a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake have surfaced. The third Metal Gear release is largely considered the greatest and most influential stealth video game ever, and all of its prequels and sequels are held in similarly high regard. So news of potential remakes is music to fans' ears.
However, there's a reason why remakes are so necessary, as the older releases have some glaring flaws when replaying them today, and that isn't just the graphics. Between rambling exposition, unfinished games, too much comedy, and constant sexism, even Metal Gear has its problems.
10 The Ladder Sequence Is Totally Unecceassry
In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, right before players face off against The End, they have to climb a ladder for three whole minutes. The ladder is ridiculously long, and while it's a fun talking point for fans, it's completely unnecessary.
Some hardcore fans could argue that the moment lets the player reflect on everything that has happened up to that point, especially as graceful music plays over the top, but simply climbing a ladder for three minutes is too much of a distraction to reflect. When gamers first played the threequel, it wouldn't be surprising if they thought it was some kind of glitch. However, thankfully, gamers have finally found a helpful glitch that helps them bypass the ladder. But it'd make for a hilarious reference in the Metal Gear Solid movie.
9 It's Full Of Rambling Exposition
Metal Gear Solid's lore is probably deeper than Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and any other long-running franchise full of world-building, even though the series doesn't have half as much content. Whether it's characters' backstories, in-game politics, or anything else, the games are hundreds of hours long due to all of the rambling exposition.
This long predates the current generation of games too, as the rambling was excessive as far back as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, as the cutscenes weren't as animated and characters reeled off hours of monologues. Hideo Kojima is a great writer of both dialogue and characters, but he was clearly surrounded by far too many "yes" men and was given way too much creative freedom. When it comes to movies, studios sometimes need to step in and overrule the director, and that's no different here.
8 The Female Characters Are Terribly Written
If Kojima focused on making the female characters three-dimensional instead of trying to make them look sexual, they'd be the best-written characters in video game history. Even up to the most recent Metal Gear Solid V, Kojima, unfortunately, hasn't improved when it comes to writing strong female characters.
The most obvious example of the sexism present throughout the whole series is Quiet, a main character who isn't ever seen in anything other than a bikini and becomes obsessed with the protagonist. Then there's Paz, a character who dies after a bomb was hidden inside her vagina. The best games have well-rounded, three-dimensional characters of both genders and there's no excuse for the male gaze chauvanism displayed across Metal Gear, an aspect which prevents them from becoming truly great games.
7 Metal Gear Solid V Was Never Finished
While the excessive exposition laced throughout the series might become a little fatiguing every now and then, there's no doubt that Kojima spends so much time crafting every single spoken word in the franchise. The games are filled with incredible writing, and while some parts are left open-ended, all the games very much have definitive endings.
However, while Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a masterpiece, it clearly wasn't finished. The 2015 release is riddled with repeated missions, and a countless number of plot points were left completely unresolved, which isn't exactly what's expected of Kojima. The fact that it was unfinished has been all but confirmed, as hackers found files of cut story chapters.
6 Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence Was A Cash-In
For a video game franchise that takes so much pride in both storytelling and gameplay, it comes as a disappointment that Konami would release such an obvious cash-in in the series. Not only that, but it was marketed as being a third-person version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, removing the top-down view, which is part of what made the threequel such a seminal and game-changing stealth game.
While the developer improved over time, the third-person setting wasn't even remotely enjoyable. Konami clearly struggled to make the third-person concept work in the Metal Gear series. If anything, it should have been an optional setting on the original game, but the developer instead repackaged the game as a new release simply because of a different camera angle.
5 Every Game Is Full Of Superfluous Moments
Along with all of the first-draft-feeling ramblings that could have done with some tightening up, the games are equally full of superfluous moments that don't have any right or reason to be in a Metal Gear game. Metal Gear Solid V even featured a petting zoo, and it's more frustrating that moments like this made it into a game that didn't even wrap up major plot points.
Between the petting zoo and the birthday party, which again happens in MGSV, the games are almost like an experiment in excess. However, if it wasn't for all the superfluous moments, it wouldn't be filled with amazing Easter eggs like the psychic mantis in the very first Metal Gear game.
4 The Sometimes Goofy Gameplay Doesn't Always Mesh Well With The Heavy Themes
Outside of the moments that simply bloat the game, such as players building their own petting zoo, the games also feature tons of comedy. And hiding under a box that enemies don't realize is gradually getting closer to them is just the tip of the iceberg.
The comedy in Metal Gear Solid can sometimes be too much, especially when the games tackle heavy themes such as Nietzchean philosophy and revenge. The comedy in the franchise is best when it's subtle, such as the lyrics in the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater theme. One of the lyrics reads, "Some day you'll feed on a tree frog," alluding to the survival aspects of the game.
3 The Survival Elements Of Metal Gear Solid 3 Are Surprisingly Basic
Crawling through the jungle will result in tons of snake bites, and one of the most fun elements of the seminal third entry in the series is knowing which snakes are venomous and which are harmless. However, outside of that, the survival elements of the game are actually pretty basic, especially compared to later entries in the series.
The survival gameplay is super easy, as there's an overabundance of health packs scattered around locations, even when they have no right being there. And crafting supplies couldn't be more basic, even though that gameplay was praised back in 2004.
2 The Graphics In The Earlier Releases Make Them Almost Unplayable
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The very first Metal Gear game was released in 1998, 24 years ago. So there's obviously such a big difference in graphics between Metal Gear Solid V and Metal Gear that immediately switching from one to another will give players whiplash. And as the gaming industry has advanced so much in the time since, it's hard to play a game that features characters made up of a number of polygons that can be counted on two hands.
Thankfully, with rumors of remakes, fans might get to replay the older games in high definition eventually, and those releases might even introduce new players to the series. However, it isn't clear whether they're simply remasters or if they'll be completely rebuilt from the ground up.
1 The Spin-Offs Aren't Half As Influential As The Main Series
While there might only be five games in the main series, the Metal Gear franchise is actually comprised of tons of spin-off games. Between Snake's Revenge and Metal Gear Acid, there's a vast difference in quality between all of them, as Kojima wasn't directly involved in some of their stories.
But, surprisingly, the one Kojima was involved in the most is one that's the least influential and actually fairly derivative of its peers. Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengeance features Raiden as the playable protagonist, and not only does it make the character's arc in Metal Gear Solid 4 redundant, but it's a fairly basic and uninspired hack-and-slash game too.