[LBP - LBsP 02/16/24] 295 - DLC Dive: Metal Gear Solid
Well, we did it. A bit surprised; it wound up coming pretty much to the wire, but we did it.
The big takeaway is MGS remains a really great set, even played in LBP3 (wiv some caveats); but gosh do i ever wish they'd stuck wiv the scrapped Shadow Moses theme, instead of the vaguely Middle Eastern one we got.
Depicting real worldiness isn't impossible in LBP, i think, but it's always going to feel a bit uncomfortable if it's not done wiv a deft hand. There's a bit of the saccharine to SackThing, which, honestly, i love; but it makes things outside of strict deconstruction a little tough. Having iconography that is clearly invoking real war, that effects real people, and then putting SackThing in the midst, and it's a bit... but why tho'? Couple that wiv the story itself being tongue-in-cheek chiding on a completely low-stakes subject, and... like, they really should have gone wiv Shadow Moses.
All that being said, like, it's a good set. Probably the best of the lot for bang-for-your-buck, if you're asking me. The material set is incredibly solid, and super easy to build wiv. The decos look nice, even if they're a bit limited in the environments that support them (and even then, i shrunk those missile pods down and used them as braille strips in my train station hub, and they're a bit bumpier-looking than the real thing, but not so much as you wouldn't recognize what they are supposed to be). The stickers... well, the ones that work, work really well. The ones that don't (for me, the realistic branded ones), they just take up space.
All the levels are pretty much bangers, and don't overstay their welcome. The full lot probably takes 40minutes max to finish if you're really poking around. There's nothing that requires multiple players, so you're not juggling controllers, or feeling sol if you can't swing couch co-op. It plays a little worse in LBP3, but not so much that things are broken (except for the Super Sentry Turret you get as a collected object, that's just busted and nothing i tried could get it to fire properly).
i do recommend playing in LBP1 if you have the ability; it looks gorgeous, the Rex fight is a bit trickier and more tense, and you can still get 10 out of the 11 trophies.
All told, if they'd just gone wiv a different setting, and given us the "Middle Eastern" (actually probably Moroccan) materials in, like, the History set (they're all really nice materials, and that region doesn't really get any rep in the mainline LBP games), this would be perfect.
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The way they handled the "cutscene" here was pretty neat, and i really liked that they gave an active reason to replay the level by changing it into a shooting gallery. It's a little confusing as to what you're actually supposed to be shooting to get the prize bubbles to drop, but the level's only about a minute and a half long, so replaying isn't so much a chore.
This one is really, really keen. Incorporating the tutorial into an actual playable level instead of shunting it into the tutorial menu (and having it be possibly not implemented in LBP3 and locking us out of the logic tools, like wiv the Move cursor and the Memorizer) was really clever. What really makes this one special, tho' is how different it is when you play it the second time. Even in story mode, we seldom saw really big changes like that (that one race in DaVinci's Hideout is the only one i can think of off the top of my head). i can understand why. Trying to do something similar wiv the scenic/challenge modes for the archives and flag level, and it's really a lot of work. This one being short and sweet probably made it a lot easier from a design standpoint.
The stealth in this bit was a real fun concept, and i wish they'd made that section of it a little longer. The level's a fun one all-around, but it probably suffers the most from the tone/setting mismatch.
This one has the same tone issues as Act 3, but is also a really solidly designed, fun level. i think this might be the first time we see secrets implemented in an official level, tho' i'm sure there were creators in the community that were playing around wiv getting that kind of system to work by this point. The use of the paintinator for platforming wiv those drop-down platforms was really cool, and something i wish i'd seen more of in community levels. While i ran into the paintinator a lot, it was generally limited to "kill thing/open door." i know Paczek132 (shoot... was it 132 or 123?) had a level that really leaned into paintinator platforming, but it only really worked in LBP1, because of how they changed impact physics on the paintballs.
As much as i like this fight, and it does remain fun in LBP3, it probably suffers the worst from the transfer. There's something gone screwy wiv the rotation of one of the firing pods, and it shoots downward a lot less often than it does in LBP1, so it's a lot easier to just stay stationary for chunks of the fight and wait for the target to open up. Which, the third-phase target doesn't drop down the way it's supposed to; you can still hit it, but you have to be just about under it to manage. One oddity, but i played the set for the episode in all versions 1, 2, and 3, and all the visible tags we see here? They're visible in 2 as well. i wonder if it was an issue where Mm couldn't push an update on it, because of it being DLC? It seems strange that they would have just forgotten about it. When 2 came out, the tags thing was a known issue, and there were only the three big level kits out at that time (this, PotC, and Marvel. Monsters, History, and Incredibles were all one-offs). Maybe they just didn't think it was a big deal. They stand out like a sore thumb, tho'.
i can't hardly stand survival challenges. i just get bored of them way before whatever goal that's been set, and this one's no different. i think the only one i've ever really enjoyed was chronos453's Virtual Return, and i was totally pants at that one. It was really, really good tho'. i mention in the gameplay bit of the LBsP episode, but you can see all the plasma balls have green tags on them, and i would love to know what those were triggering.
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It's weird being done wiv this after spending, what, 3weeks or so wiv it taking up the majority of my brainspace and available time. i'm glad to see the backside of it, to be honest. Glad in the good way. This is a good episode, right up there wiv the Chapter Zero one. But it was a lot of work, and it's good to be finished.
i don't know if i'll do another of these. None of the other sets really hook me like this one does, tho' i feel like i could make a decent go at a Move Pack episode, and i have a lot of questions about the Marvel set. i really, really don't want to do a PotC episode. There is just nothing about that set aside from the introduction of water, and a couple of materials that really interests me at all.
Whatever i wind up doing, it's going to be a good while before i even want to get started on it. Want to spend some time wivout anything more pressing than keeping up wiv the DLC archiving. Let me tell you, the Move Pack (i'm working on that right now) is some kind of pain in the butt.
