Peace Walker remade in the FOX Engine with Ashley Wood's cutscenes would be the single greatest game ever made

It's infuriating that MGS 4 didn't have VR missions. There was so little gameplay to begin with, but it might have the best mechanics in the entire series. Goddamn Konami.

You don’t get it. In MGS4, the robots and lack of human enemies is to set in foot that dead feeling. The only humans you encounter are the ghosts of the pasts. You can never truly go back.

It sounds like this guy doesnt actually like metal gear. He thinks 3 is the worst game, refuses to play mgs1 and finds 2 boring

It really is so weird to see someone have so much hate for 1 and 2 and enjoy the VR modes that much more than the main games.

Just sold VR missions to me... okay sir guess I got a whole lot more metal gear to play

Why didn't you title this something like Why VR missions are the real stealth games? You haven't even mentioned piece walker like 20 minutes into the video

They could've had MGS3 "training missions" instead of VR. Like, you played Snake but without his headband(to emphasize him being a rookie) and it was utilized as a "Basic training" to learn the ins and outs of the game's mechanics while the boss gave commentary, you could even see her spectating you in a room above. You do basic CQC things, use those tricks to quicken the levels, different colored rooms to get an idea for the camo, mechanics expanded much more upon in their own sections and difficulty of course increases throughout the missions. This could also tie in to the virtuous mission when the Boss says "Jack, remember the basics of CQC"

Fun fact: In regards to MGS3D lacking VR missions MGS3D has unused "Extra Ops" in it's files. (some of which can be played) That said MGS3 allows for TONS of creativity in it's self contained areas. If Skyrim is an ocean with the depth of a puddle then MGS3 is the mariana trench.

I had the most fun with MGSPW. For a PSP game it was quite impressive with its graphics, amount of content and online functionalities. 5 was amazing presention and gameplay-wise but it felt kinda unfinished and lacked story co-op.

This argument only works because you have decided to throw half of what makes the games good out and focus only on tightly designed segments of gameplay. A game is not just the controls and goals, it is also the context of those controls and goals, and the reasons for completing them. You assume that a voice clip and a high score are what everyone lives for, but fail to remember that people can just as easily be motivated by story. You also neglect to mention many gameplay elements that were in the stories of these games, that muddy the waters on this claim that the "gameplay" is best in VR. You can master areas just as much in story as you can in VR, you just don't get a screen giving you a high five every 30 seconds. You can get yourself killed an restart the area if you get spotted, you can play on a high difficulty that auto game overs when you get spotted. In MGS2 you can hunt dogtags to unlock special items, you can find 100s of easter eggs. You can interact with the environment in a bunch of crazy ways. The tanker mission's ending with all the Marines can provide for an hour of weird and fun experimentation. MGS3 ties survival mechanics into the whole of the game, dealing with hunting and curing yourself as well as blending in with the environment. Taking down bosses non-lethally awards you with camo that you can bring into ng+, you can unlock infinite ammo, stealth camo, and weapons for replays aswell. The Boss fights in both games are ALSO little separate mastery challenges that you can learn to take down with expert precision. I could mention so many more ways in which the story modes provide AMPLE gameplay opportunities not found in VR but I think the point is made. It seems that you have confused constant score screens with replayability. The truth of the matter is that the story modes have many of the same challenges, while also providing many unique ones, and they can be mastered just the same. You just won't get a pat on the back every minute. But that abstract scoring screen is just a motivation for you to do better, it isn't the capacity to do better. That capacity is already there. In the story.

Don't agree with all the hot takes, but I totally get what you mean with the MGS main games lacking replayablility. I hated Peace Walker at first but once the game forced me to do side-ops and bosses for building the Metal Gear, it got me hooked. It encouraged me to actually give a shit about ranks and play with friends. MGS3 is still my favorite, but I still love PW's mission structure.

33:34 The trudge through the swamp is much, much shorter if you never killed anyone except for the Cobras. Mechanically, it does punish you if you killed a lot of people.

I mean Peace Walker is amazing and it's almost tied for me as the best with Snake Easter. But my problem with your interpretations is that you state that every single installment in the series is actually bad from the get go. Like wth? lol. They might not be your cup of tea but they're not as bad as you mentioned.

I'm sorry did we not all plant C4 on the guards using the urinal outside the commander's room?

Y'know me: I always love a good hill to die on, especially for an unpopular opinion. I appreciate the thesis you put forth regarding the series identity and how PW fulfills it the best. But the one comment you made that I really can't agree with is that PW encourages skillful play, in a way similar to the VR missions, because the limit of the dexterity allowed in PW is shallow as a puddle. You're very restricted during conventional stealth gameplay regarding how much Snake and the player can pull off in terms of actual, skillful stealth. Partially because of what the PSP's control schemes can accommodate but also because a lot of fundamental aspects that allow for high-level stealth gameplay are straight up missing from PW. A lack of intelligent enemy AI to mess with, a lack of reactions to exploit (compare the sheer number things enemies can react to in V in various ways, or 2 and 3 for that matter, then compare it to PW), and a lack of interactivity between the game's exterior systems, such as environmental. The most damning thing to me is there's almost no room for player skill development. Getting a good flow in PW is as easy as waltzing up behind enemies and slamming them with CQC, because no matter what, you'll always move at the same speed, so low level PW play and high level PW play are basically just how well memorized they have the map, but for the most part, players will move at a similar speed and still feel a relatively good sense of progression through the screen, regardless of how experienced they are and how much they understand the game's guts. In contrast, MGS2-V encourage players learn how to slip by the fastest by having a real "stop-and-go" quality to normal play. You have stop to hide behind walls or to shoot a gun or go prone and crawl past guards, all of which feel slower and more awkward/graceless than sprinting through the enemy lines, so learning how to constantly move forward while taking out/avoiding the guards is an impressive task. Watch an MGS3 speedrun and notice how its totally different from the way the game feels at a casual level. The same applies to 2, 4, and V, at varying levels. But PW has so few actual mechanics to exploit or to work with. And for the most part, PW as a game allows for almost no personal player expression. The tranq is greater than ever in bite-sized missions where lining up headshots is easier than ever (the only reason I'd say people think it V is worse in that regard is that V is 200 hours fucking long), the amount of viable options within the loadout is still relatively low, exacerbated by the fact that most screens are especially corridor-like, so any weapon that doesn't fire straight is hard to work with, and the AI can't be exploited anyways, so playing with different options doesn't yield different enough results for the average player to work with. That's excluding the fact that fultoning guards always takes priority over any other kind of strategy. So most play styles will look similar to one another, and that's a damn shame for a series whose stealth is usually versatile enough to make skill demonstration videos. But at the end of the day I recognize that we just view the series identity totally different. It probably wouldn't surprise you to hear that my personal view of the series is based on how much self-expression and skillful play its mechanics allow, which is why PW is probably my least favorite game in the series. But your video sticks the landing at explaining your view on MGS and how PW gets it right. The rest of your points about the series' identity are totally fair, and even if I don't agree with that interpretation, you put up a great argument that PW fulfills what you love to see in an MGS game. I have almost no love for PW as a mechanical experience but I can at least appreciate how much cohesion it has.

You know, you can't just ignore that the sum of Metal Gear Solid is as much, if not more, about its story telling as it is about its gameplay mechanics. If you want to make a video specifically about the series' stealth action mechanics, that's perfectly fine but I'd wish you'd clearly state that from the get go.

OH MY GOD THANKS FOR GIVING LOVE TO MGS1 VR MISSIONS. I spent more time with this game than the original campaign (which I beat like 10 times). There's SO MUCH gameplay depth in the VR missions. These missions challenged me in every way. Figuring out puzzle like solutions, efficient handling of weapons and sneaking

I thought this was a peace walker video.

I've never someone talk about the VR mode in MGS in such detail and envy of this mode. Good job

32 minutes, that'show long it takes for this guy to finally get into why he likes Peace Walker. Fucking hell. What a disaster.

This gave me a new perspective on mgs series as a whole

39:29 are you suggesting that Ground Zeroes is a superior game to Phantom Pain? *HALLELUJAH HOLY SHIET!!!* btw portable ops plus is basically the vr missions treatment plus fanservice overload being able to play as every character imaginable , god i wish they ported it like they did with PW

The VR missions where you use the ninja were also a total blast.

I knew staying up until 6 AM for a Lambhoot video and then waking up 7 hours later when he just so happened to upload would come in handy.

I rewatch this more for the vr mussion segments than peace walker

Ok you've convinced me to play some VR missions. I remember having fun with them when I was younger.

metal gear solid for the gbc have the main mission separated by levels, one you finish the game you can play that section and try to get a better score, they have also alternate objectives of the main levels, and it also have VR missions.

I know the title is misleading but I love showing this to people when they wonder why I'm playing the vr missions. I always liked them but couldn't really word it in a good way, and this vid does it perfectly. Thanks dude

I do not fully agree that the ghost river sequence is disconnected from gameplay. When I first played it, at least, the fact that I still had control of Snake even if not as part of the main gameplay loop still hit me hard. Also, you mention the loadout menu, which I think 3 tries to get you to experiment with too. One of the incentives that you mention is that every single mission has a score, but you also say that the ghost river sequence shames you thematically not mechanically. How is some arbitrary letter or number more connected to the game mechanically than the ghost river sequence? Scores are not diegetic, yet they are a big part of your argument.

I always ignored the VR missions but you just sold me on it. I will go back and give it a shoot. Man I missed something really awesome!

In MGS2, while you were defusing bombs, Snake was _also_ defusing bombs. You were not "playing player 2." MGS3 had Snake vs the Monkey, Boss Rush, and Metal Gear Online. Why did you pretend that MGS3 has no side content outside the main story?

You'd like the newest three Hitman games, it's exactly what you're looking for.

Let me get some popcorn for this

Snake Eater and Guns of the Cutscenes for me. Peace Walker loses out on the actual sleuthing by simplifying the mechanics so much. AI is dumb as bricks, no prone sneaking, bosses are bullet sponges, story feels inconsequential to the series wide narrative etc. Still a great game, but I would play every other MGS over it without a second thought. It does have better gameplay than MGS1 though. I enjoyed that game the least out of the marathon I did recently, precisely for the reasons you gave. Compare that to the classic REs and FFs, it really hasn’t aged as well, but is still a modern classic.

Thank you for making this video Lambhoot. Been meaning to like and subscribe to your channel a little over a year but just recently have. Big fan of your stuff. Though my favorite Metal Gear solid is 2, it is my favorite specifically for the VR, and Snake Tales portions of the game. Plus, the goofy skateboarding mini game is fun and only available on the ps2 version of Substance. But this video you made simply blew me away because you had discovered how mgs is best played. The most fun you can really have in these games is with a start and finish mini mission that test your metal for mastering the mechanics of the gameplay. Finally someone is speaking my language! I would agree that Peace Walker is the best because it plays like VR missions, and was perfectly combined with story and structure. It is one hell of a beast, with an eventual end to what seems like endless content on a hand held. I'd love to see more Metal Gear from you. I recommend and would love to see you cover the original on-the-go non-canon Metal Gear game: Ghost Babel. This whole video and perspective you have of these games reflects the entire content of that game. Give it shot north barrito! Also, fun fact: I'm your 700th liked subscriber. Go cover Ghost Babel just because of that! Lol!

Damn this is good. I’ve never heard someone discuss the vr missions in this kind of detail

I did that c4 at MGS when I was 12. Classic MGS is one of my all time favorite

Would love you to do a retrospective of the Metal Gear Acid games in this style, they’re oft forgotten and rarelt discussed amongst MGS fans. VR missions are indeed whole new extended experiences with MGS1/2 mechanics but Acid turns sneaking gameplay on its head entirely. Turn based stealth! Adore your videos dude. Thanks for all these uploads.

Denis I want you to start a pop radio station where you only play these 8-bit MIDI versions

07:31 I've heard that song before, what's it called again?

Lambhoot, you never fail to surprise me with your crazy opinions that end up making a strange amount of sense. Never stop and never change mah dude.

12 minutes in and we’re talking about VR

that deep throat part caught me off guard

Put down the links to 8bit soundtracks used in this video please. Specially 4 th one

I just have to randomly ask, what are your thoughts on Metal gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2?

I just beat MGS3 and I've moved on to Portable Ops so it's like the video is just slightly too early for me but I'm happy with the opinion I'm seeing about it and I've been excited to jump into some co-op with it

The VR missions sound pretty cool.

as for mgs3 not having vr missions i do believe the game itself is the vr mission. or something along those lines.

How do you feel about Ghost Babel?

I don't dislike Peacewalker at all but I have seen a ton of criticism of it of varying quality/validity that are worth bringing up none the less. "Ruining" the ending of MGS3, being seen as an unnecessary sequal, (even if it's story isn't as worthless as Portable Ops) control issues on PSP ofc(even if it does control well for the PSP), being too easy to sneak, over with over simplified gameplay and stealth mechanics, brain dead AI that struggles to kill you (even a genome solidier could kill you.),having ridiculous grind, a neutered secondary ending that while it does incentize further playing the game betrays the games story strengths and any positives of the prior ending like tossing away the bandanna among other criticisms or complaints valid or not. MPO is a far poorer game with a really bad story (that *was* keyword *WAS* canon) but the moment to moment stealth is better. It's badly optimized, (MPO+ fixed this and hell it's practically nothing but VR missions)) the framecap is low and by default (Unless your emulating the game) until you go to options it's camera is inverted, and doesn't aim where the camera faces (like MGS3 and 2) as many prefer from more modern titles until you go and change it in options. In Peacewalker bodies disappear and even their death cries won't alert their comrades. Tranqing someone doesnt make them disappear but with the Fulton that's another non issue as you can instantly remove the possible sign of intrusion. The enemy can't even see the soldier once the balloon is on them. Its the terrible bindings and button placement of it's camera compared to Peacewalker that's it's most obvious issue. The stamina system from MPO was terrible and might have been better suited for PW which still has the bar but it's useless outside of Versus. Funnily enough the crouch walk probably would have been better for suited for MPO's more blocky large practically urban environs and crawling better for PW as it actually has a camo system and grass and foliage to blend into. Maybe then they could have raised the vision cone of those blind bastards.

I like mgs V and peace walker, but for different reasons, i love the story and the level system in pw but for gameplay i love V, i just love starting it and take over some outposts, its just good tps gameplay with stealth and shooting, but playing pw is the better overall experience

How can you go from MGS to Sons of Liberty and then say that Peace Walker is the only the game that makes a big leap? The differences between 1 and 2 are ridiculous

no mention of the gbc VR missions? :(

What's the music at 9:30

I agree with most of your points, but honestly, your jabs at MGSV pissed me off a lot. That game expands on most of what made Portable Ops good and it also has the most content of any game in the series, excluding the VR missions. Unlike MGS1-4, that game didn’t need the VR missions because of what the gameplay already offered. I can appreciate your focus on gameplay over story in the video, as most people can’t do that when talking abbot the series, but in terms of gameplay, I think MGSV has the best in the series, so it just saddened me to see you treat the game the way you did.

Is peace walker better on the ps3 hd collection or on the original psp?

Peace Walker appreciation squad. Watching this, I now understand why I loved it as much as I did, especially in terms of gameplay (requirements for the true ending though can fuck off XD)

You had me until the Portable Ops part. I’d say that game tied with Peace Walker. It had a similar mission structure and base management, though not as good as PW. As a trade off, though, it had amazing full MGS style bosses and a much better story. PW’s bosses were fun to grind, but they had no personality. PO’s FOX bosses were just as great as MGS1’s Foxhound, and better than DeadCell, Cobra, and B&B.

Mgs3, peace walker, mgs5 are mah favs jack daddy

Í need help with trophies mgs peace Walker online ???

Until chapter 5 and you have to farm metal gear parts for Zeke lmao

Alguien me puede ayudar con los trofeos online ?

At 37:35 I laughed so hard. Great video my dude!

Is that Mambo No. 5 in 8-Bit? Also, really great video as always.

...is that a MIDI version of mambo N.5?? :D

Yo I'm out here feeling like a badass after playing all the mgs 2 raiden vr missions. And then I watch this vid and I feel like a sucker....

Very nice video!

Astonishing video with very good arguments and in my opinion everything is just right. Thanks for this.

Why Peace Walker is the best MGS *is really why vr missions is the best MGS*

My only problem with peace walker is that its to easy to get an s rank just by using the stealth suit and a hush puppy. Hush puppy(tranquillizer gun) makes stealth way to easy. And the stealth suit makes 0 noise so you can run next to them and they wont hear you at all.

There was a reason why MGS3 and 4 didnt have VR: Space in the disk, and money. Both games already had too much space occupied on the DVD and Blueray, and both costed a lot of money to develop. There are interviews where they say they had lots of VR ideas for both, but they couldnt. At the same time, the reason why VR exists on 1 & 2 is because they had space, money and time to spare. The story is that apparently one developer had fun designing some VR missions for MGS1 because they felt the mechanics could be used outside of the narrative in clever ways. He showed Kojima and he liked it. They made the ones for the main game. Since it sold well, they wanted to make a lone game with dozens of ideas they had for VR missions. So that's kinda the story in a nutshell. Also, MGS3 didn't have VR but did have the monkey capture game, which was hilarious and fun gameplay. Has loads of that things you said you like of VR. Also, I find funny that you say you cannot learn to cook 'nades or put C4 on the main game. You aren't very curious right? I played MGS1 when I was 9 years old, and I discovered all that by playing with the mechanics. It's a stealth game with gadgets and weapons galore, the idea is to experiment. I used to get through the comms tower by knocking nades on the wall with the right timing so they blow your persecutors. Took time to learn, but man, the face of my friends when they saw you could do that. I understand why you like Peace Walker by how much emphasis you put on gameplay and short mission games. It's not a bad thing, but I don't agree. Story and narrative is the main thing of MGS, fun gameplay is second and since most of them were so short, when you played them more than once you learned all those stuff and applied it. Hell, there's a reason why 1 through 4 reward you with stuff for replaying and making some specific codenames. EDIT: What I think doesnt work on MGSV it's that it tried to be both things: small bite sized challenges, and a narrative. I've talked to friends about how I think MGSV should've been like a roguelike in which you play a merc in Big Boss's Outer Heaven (any of the two from the MSX Metal Gears) and just manage the company and go on missions, with coop. Make smaller setpieces, in varied locales and do fun missions like in Peace Walker. That would've given us a game that could be played for a long time since forgoing all the narrative elements would have freed money for making locales, missions, weapons... Survive did somewhat this, but in a very, VERY poor way.

Great video :)

Agreed 1000%. I put over 100 hours into Peace Walker. Also enjoyed the story. The series could've ended with Big Boss' final speech. Phantom Pain answered questions that weren't asked and muddied a convoluted series even more.

I love you, Boss.

I am halfway into the video. There was almost none mention of PW. Kinda time waste. edit: 32 minutes in, after watching 32 minutes of talk on VR missions we can finally see something on PW.

Mgs PW was one of my teenhood games

Your videos are good 👌

I'm at the vr missions part. I... HATE time attack stuff. Major props to mgs1 vr missions for subconsciously teaching me to hold X while aiming a gun to move and shoot at the same time, that was a total mindf*ck. I also don't agree with a lot of mgs1 statements, the 1st 2 rooms have a footsteps mechanic, only difference is 2 puddles of water or snow... Plus there are rooms with which player choice is given, and the most important play through is the 1st one making player choice an absolute necessity... Yet to beat VR Missions there are very specific objectives which eliminate player choice........ Also the f*cking background, it's cool as hell but when I got to some of the stinger missions I actually started feeling extremely dizzy and sick. Footprints aside I do wish there was another spotlight section... But by not having another one (like with snow footprints) it breaks gaming conventions of rinse/repeat, making the world feel more real. To me, mgs1 is perfection, a 5 star meal. Anyway, on to find out why peace walker is somehow the best, yet to me it's the worst.

Never played it but it looks like it aged rather well, especially for a PSP game.

"mgs3 take it too seriously" yo snake go catch some monkeys

THESIS IMMINENT

Kept us waiting, huh?

Interesting perspective, I've never touched the VR missions since I was in it for the story, but I still think PW is the best

Hey, anyone know where I can get a emulator for this game? PSP is discontinued, and so is the selling of this game I think.

So you are still alive, hello

I dont agree with you about a lot the other MGS games' flaws, but I love peace walker.

Are you related to Caddicarus

Interesting perspective. I never played Peace Walker (seems cool) but I sorta get where you're coming from. I did sorta wonder why MGS3 didn't have a VR mode or at least, a boss rush. It's not a big deal for me but I get why it did disappoint you. In general, I though this was a good video.

Left after you grossly underestimated MGS V

If only TPP had as much content as PW. The story doesn’t bother me as much in TPP as the fact that when I play it I see clearly about a hundred fun things you can do with it’s system. Phantom pain indeed.

mgs peace walkers original version still has local coop.

vr missions ghost babel and portable ops r the best in the whole series

Everyone mad that mgsv was incomplete but forget we had mgsv back with peace walker

26 minutes in and he’s barely mentioned Peacewalker. Wtf

Did you actually mean Peace Walker...?

31:07 in that moment i was like "you know there is pw, that is just wha-" o whait.... the video is about pw

I didn't always agree with you but still a great video!

You had me like exactly at 6:10

Bless you.