I don't have any problems with gameplay. The plots are usually fine or at least have potential. The voice acting and music are good. I never felt much pity for the supposedly sympathetic antagonists like Sniper Wolf (except for The Boss, and even then I didn't regret killing her, because she wanted to die that way), or felt too bad about killing soldiers who would shoot me apparently without remorse themselves (save Johnny). I fundamentally disagree with the "killing in war is wrong, guys" philosophy in general (it doesn't help that it's generally treated as only wrong when Snake or Raiden does it), but I suppose that's me more than the game itself, and thus it isn't really fair to judge it on that basis.

I have a big problem with the series finales, whichever one you choose. It's either Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons Of Liberty (in which a coherent plot, continuity, and good characterization is thrown entirely out the window in favor of philosphical rhetoric and fourth wall breaking, which adversely affects all preceding games) or Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns Of The Patriots (in which Kojima throws a passive-aggressive tantrum and tries to put out a deliberately unsatisfying conclusion out of spite).

So while I do think the game series is quite intelligent (in spite of me disagreeing with the conclusions it draws), it has behind-the-scenes problems that prevent me from completely enjoying it.

The true strength of Metal Gear is in presentation; given the genre, it's entirely reasonable for some to be turned off by the gameplay, but where Metal Gear is unparalleled is in it's portrayal of the real world. Yes, I said "Metal Gear" and "Real World" in the same sentence.

The games all, to the best of their abilities with the technology at the time each was made, do a very subtle, very powerful thing; they take the real world and then "what if you throw all this crazy, batshit stuff into it?" What if, indeed. Simply look at the number of tropes in the article that are described as being played to their logical, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes absolutely ridiculous conclusions. The juxtaposition is itself art, especially in Guns of the Patriots, where you have an old man in a one-piece jumpsuit holding his knife like he wants carpal tunnel, fighting a bisexual flamenco-dancing vampire. But on the other side of the coin, soldiers move in squads, their team leaders directing them with hand signals, the AI has reached a point where their stupidity built in for the sake of gameplay is masked, serious real-world issues like PTSD are explored both for what they do to people and how it could get even worse when the plug-and-play mentality everyone always thinks would be so nice to have in every aspect of life just goes horribly wrong.

More than just a pretty set-up, Metal Gear uses this presentation as a device to explore the constraints we as people often place on ourselves with no rhyme or reason and why we should stop; that we shouldn't believe what we're born as dictates what we can be, that we shouldn't allow others to spoon-feed us the information we base our decisions on without skepticism and research, that blind loyalty to a bad cause is no better than treason, that the world is much more complicated than simple black and white, good and evil, patriotism and terrorism. That it is foolish to assume the answers come in single words or simple solutions.

"There's no such thing in the world as absolute reality. Most of what you think of as real is actually fiction." —Solid Snake

Metal Gear, to me, is the sum parts of everything cool about Japan, silly names, over the top acting and story, huge mechs, ass loads of pretty people in tight clothing, gorgeous graphics, awesome bosses, massive amounts of homoerotic subtext, ridiculous and confusing plots, and a nice blend of the humorous and the dramatic.

I don't really like stealth games, I'm terrible at them, and games that disapprove of stacking up huge kill counts run against my brand of gaming. I loved MGS though, I still sucked at the sneaking, and found some parts to be frustrating and overly time consuming, but I kept on for multiple reasons, the characters, whether knocking their blocks off or talking about the horrors of their childhood, Metal Gear has deep and engaging characters with the greatest voice acting in any game I know.

Critics say that its too long, I say that it has cinematic qualities that enhance the plot and its characters, others say that it has too many game breakers I say that this game is made for self imposed challenges, some find the Wangst unbearable, I laugh at the Narm, or not.

If this comes off as a fanboys ranting, well yeah, I'm writing a review of the game, I'm a fan, feel free to ignore it, but please, give this game a chance, I did, and enjoyed it immensely.

"Immensely?"