Okay, I know many people are looking very forward to MGS2, and the reviews so far have been promising. My concern is this: I rented the original MGS for the PS, and I absolutely sucked at it. I mean, I had a great time sneaking up behind guards and whatnot, but I barely got a few minutes into the game! I remember snagging a weapon out of the back of the truck, and it had a laser scope on it, but I was horrible at aiming and shooting. Any time the alarm went off, I was quickly killed.

So now I'm wondering if I was just doing something fundamentally wrong. Obviously, I'm in the extreme minority here, as I know MGS was a huge hit. So my question is this: should I give the original MGS another shot, especially now that I can pick it up as part of the Greatest Hits series? And what's this extra missions disk thing I've seen? Is it an add-on to the original game? Finally, I am assuming that there is no compatibility problem playing the original MGS on the PS2 (haven't heard anything to the contrary, anyway).

Thanks,

I've never played the original Metal Gear games, but I'm enjoying Metal Gear Solid 2.

Since I'm a total newbie in the Metal Gear world, I started playing in 'very easy' mode. It's REALLY easy, but it was great because it gave me time to figure out the controls (which are complicated at first but you get used to them).

Now that I know what I'm doing (somewhat), I'm planning to start over after bumping the difficulty up a notch or two.

The atmosphere of the game is incredible. It feels like a movie. The credits are better than a lot of what you see at the theater. The intro is great too, giving you a taste of what is obviously going to be a fairly complicated storyline.

I think I see where your coming from though about not being 'caught'. I'm somewhat confused about the whole 'stealth' thing. They certainly reinforce the concept of not being seen. There are some parts early on that I just don't see how you could avoid confrontation though.

So, for you Metal Gear veterans, how critical is it to be completely stealthy?

I noticed that even if I killed or stunned a guard, any reinforcements would notice the body and just say "everything's normal here" and resume their normal patrols.

"Yep, Phil's dead. Nothing out of the ordinary here".

My theory is that a game that involves completely realistic reactions by a military force after finding a dead comrade wouldn't be much fun for long. If those extra guards reacted the way they should, 50 armed soldiers would sweep the entire area and kill everything they find. The game gives you the opportunity to lay low for a bit until the heat dies down. Overall, I think it's a good combination of fun and realism, but obviously realism has to take a backseat to a certain extent.

All of that's fine with me, but it still makes me wonder if I should bother to drag a guard's body into a locker or if it's fine to just leave the body where it is. Am I wasting my time dragging those guys around?

When I got my PS2, I bought MGS1, but I had a hard time getting used to the controls. I found that I could fire well at 90 degree angles, but firing at any diagonal angle was tough for me. I may try again... especially since Amazon seems to be taking its sweet time to ship my games to me.

Oh wait...that's not funny...but it's Mike...so it is..

I had a harder time getting past the awful dialogue that interrupts you every 5 minutes. But the gameplay is great, what there is of it.

I absolutely loved this game when it first came out. I had played the demo that came with Playstation Underground and became entranced with the story. It left me hanging and I had to play the full game. When the full game finally came out I went out and rented it. There was a slight problem though, I didn't own a playstation nor did I have money at the time to buy one. I had to beg and plead my friend to let me borrow his, he finally accepted after I offered to lend him my N64 with Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Needless to say I played it for 12 hours straight and finishe the game. I was totally engrossed and after I was done, I just wanted to play it again.

Now, several years later I think I'm going to give it another go, this time on the Dreamcast. The Bleemcast version came out recently and I'm planning on picking it up. I would recommend you try it again, I'm sure your gaming experience has increased since then and you get more enjoyment out of it.

Did you play through the training mode? Until I played the training mode, I couldn't get very far in the main game. But it's possible that MGS may just not be your cup of tea. Personally, I think it's a little overrated. It's a good game, but I wasn't blown away by it like everyone else seems to be. But it can't hurt to give it another try if you really think you'll like it better this time around.

MGS is one of the best games I've ever played, ever. I heartily suggest you go through training mode and play it again.

Training mode...hmm, now that's a good question. It's been so long since I played it, I don't know if I played the training mode.

Maybe what I'll do is just re-rent it and give it another shot. If I still stink, so be it.

Of course, right now I'm not getting anything else played thanks to GTA3...

You can't see it, Alan, but I'm waving my middle finger at my monitor right now. I got through the training missions just fine. I found the actual game to be much tougher. I guess I just need to regroup, and try to be more stealthy. *shrug*

And you still suck at Devil May Cry. Cheater.

Fire bad!

As Wepaman stated above, if you have a Dreamcast....GET THE BLEEMCAST MGS CD NOW! I just got this myself and it looks MUCH better.

Bo.