I don't even know how can anyone defend the stealth gameplay of MGS 1/2.
I'm not defending the "stealth gameplay" (of the first three games) exclusively. I'm defending the gameplay cumulatively: the stealth, the combat, the puzzle elements, the challenge, the replayability, the balancing, the exploration, all the little details added which complement the experience and so on. It is in no way the best game evar! but it is absolutely decent. MGS3 in particular goes above just decent.
Gameplay of 1: 7/10
Gameplay of 2: 7.5/10
Gameplay of 3: 8/10
The gameplay independant of the story.
If you judge them exclusively as stealth games (despite them being multi-genre) as you two simpletons are doing then yes, it's not that great.
To ensure the player triggers the cutscene, the level has to be linear enough that the player can't avoid the spot where the cutscene trigger is placed. The more cutscenes your game has, the more level design is limited by such constraints.
You make it sound like bottlenecks isn't a frequent thing even in the most open of old school games.
Why don't you stick to discussing gameplay (or in this case, the lack thereof) rather than trying to discredit me?
There's not much to discuss when your argument lacks basis. See:
I played MGS1 and MGS3 for a few hours before giving up, in both cases
Since your whole approach to this criticism has been disingenuous, and a bunch of your points inaccurate, I'm going to go ahead and assume your playtime is half that, if any at all.
Levels were constantly broken up in small, linear areas.
Why are you still throwing around the word "linear" when that has already been proven to be false using MGS1 of all things? MGS3 levels could get up to 5x as big.
You have a radar that gives away the lay-out of the area, enemy positions, their vision cones and their alert states, as well as other obstacles (yes I know it's disabled on the highest difficulty, but it still has obvious consequences for how the game is designed).
Immediate area. The range isn't far. And the radar exists because the default camera perspective is top-down and zooms in in certain indoor areas, limiting visibility. It's not a crutch added just to popamolify. It serves a core purpose.
That's like saying the light gem/meter in Thief and Splinter Cell were nothing but a crutch.
Horrendous boss fights (in games about evasing enemy detection, because that totally makes sense, right).
Oh, you know all about said "horrendous boss fights", you do. you beat the game and everything.
The vast majority of the boss fights were great. Furthermore, it's not strictly a stealth game, but rather a stealth/action hybrid. Sometimes you're forced to sneak, sometimes you're forced to fight. Sometimes you're forced to do other things, too. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Or are games not allowed multi-genre gameplay now just because some elements don't interweave and resonate 100%? We best retroactively remove puzzles from all the hundreds of action/stealth/other games period then.
Game mechanics, such as 'alert mode' that are obvious crutches to cover up poor AI. I found virtually every aspect of the game design to be awful and off-putting
MGS series starting with 2 features pretty incredible AI, especially for the time, the games are constantly praised for their AI. You couldn't look any more ignorant right now.
Metal Gear Solid is the original popamole game
>popamole
Is reasonably challenging, relatively open level design, handholding is kept to codex calls only and is not intruding, diverse gameplay elements and surprising gameplay depth. No modern design conventions at all except cinematics in excess. But you wouldn't know about any of that.
Eat a dick you ignorant shitlord. It really pisses me off that you come in here with a whiff of superiority and supreme enlightenment regarding games you haven't even played past the fucking tutorial phases.
I won't defend MGS for being a cutscene infested movie game. But I will absolutely defend the gameplay that is there, because it is decent and deserves as much.
and the fact that it's by far the most influential title on the stealth genre is one of the worst things to happen to gaming. Human Revolution is a good example of this detrimental influence, with its designers mentioning MGS as the principal inspiration for both their boss fights and their stealth gameplay.
Human Revolution's gameplay, stealth in particular, is poorly designed. Every empowering stealth ability ever conceived independently in stealth games is bundled together and handed out to you without notable consequence (radar, cloak, third person cover, mark & track, silent running, see through walls, awesome button takedowns). MGS isn't responsible for Eidos Montreal's incompetence, and nor are Ion Storm which were another prime inspiration. Both the original Deus Ex and the early MGS games were more sensibly balanced.