All Metal Gear games have had notable locations. In fact, many of them have a single important location that the entire game revolves around. But a person has got to wonder... Why did the series expand from one single location to many as it progressed? And how exactly has this expansion helped/hurt the series?
Let's first remember the locations in each significant Metal Gear title:
In Metal Gear 1, Snake infiltrates Outer Heaven. That's it. This was also the case with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, when Snake infiltrates Zanzibar Land, and also the case in Metal Gear Solid, with Snake's infiltration on Shadow Moses Island. By the time Metal Gear Solid 2 came out, however, things began to change. Snake infiltrates the Oil Tanker U.S.S. Discovery, and after a short amount of time, the player infiltrates Big Shell as Raiden. Instead of one place, we are shown two, although the game's primary story unfolds in and around the Big Shell. Metal Gear Solid 3 returned to the single location deal, deploying Naked Snake in Tselinoyarsk, USSR, although the forest itself was large in size.
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| Metal Gear Solid 3 truly introduced the series to a wide variety of locales. |
However, there were many different areas in Tselinoyarsk to see, making it incredibly large in size despite limitations at hand. Along with the forest, the player had indoor locations to visit as well. Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, although slightly different in gameplay style, places the player in one place: San Jerónimo Peninsula. The main expansion finally began with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, where each act would bring Old Snake to a new location. Various locations allowed the player to see and sneak through drastically different environments in different ways. This trend continued in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.
Now that we all recall how things were done and where things began to change, it's time to answer the first question:
Why did the series expand from one single location to many as it progressed?
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| There's another building?! Shadow Moses is a huge place! |
Answer 1: Technical Limitations Held Older Titles Back
The most logical explanation to the reasoning behind the lack of locations in the earlier Metal Gear titles would be the limitations a console presented. MGS1 was a huge technological achievement for the Playstation in every way. The game was way ahead of its time and managed to "hide" its obvious limitations, instead using the power for other things like fully voiced dialog. The limitations I'm talking about are the small areas and the idea of backtracking. Compare the areas in MGS1, for instance, to areas in other Playstation games. MGS1 scrapped larger areas in favor of other things that would make the game "ahead of its time."
Although small, backtracking allowed the game's areas to appear longer than they actually were. In fact, the game's codec calls and long cutscenes did this too. This continued all the way until MGS3, when backtracking was sadly a thing no longer "necessary" due to the game's long and realistic forest design. Hiding the game's limitations can also be seen when traveling to other buildings before MGS2. These buildings make the game appear to be larger, although in truth, the floors on the buildings are also fairly small. Shadow Moses Island was an island of course. In order for it to seem like Snake had seen all that Shadow Moses had to offer, the game played these tricks on the player.
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| Act 3 in MGS4 may be different, but it provided a new look at stealth |
Answer 2: More Locations = More Diverse Gameplay
Based on what we have seen thus far, one can conclude that the addition of more locations provides more gameplay advantages. This could relate to the type of location, providing various methods of stealth (forest, city, facility) depending on the conditions present. For example, Act 3 in Metal Gear Solid 4 throws Old Snake into a massive city, where he must stalk a resistance member with very precise stealth. This is an interesting mix-up of the typical stealth formula that is only made possible through the large city location. It would also appear out of place if it took place inside of somewhere like Outer Heaven or the Big Shell. A good variation of locations in a future Metal Gear could lead to gimmicks exclusive to certain locations that would work. Will Metal Gear Solid Rising provide players with this? We can only hope.
How exactly has this expansion helped/hurt the series?
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| The Nomad allows for the traveling to many locations around the globe |
As previously mentioned, using a good variety of locations can bring fun, new gimmicks to the series as well as new methods of stealth in exotic locations. We've seen it used only a few times thus far, but great possibilities cause variety to bring great potential to the table. Many locations also provide a story that covers a broader area, almost effecting the entire world. Liquid's Insurrection in MGS4 is drastically improved from visiting several countries, as the player can see the capitalization of the war economy globally.
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| Warehouse backtracking provided new equipment not necessarily required for the player |
Hurt:
While there are plenty of good things to discuss about the effects of an expanded game, the expansion has truly hurt the series more than it has helped it. With more locations to visit, the backtracking has been erased out of existence. In other words, the series has become too linear as a result of the many areas to explore. You may see more, but you will likely never return to the same place twice. This contributes to the destruction of exploration seen in MGS2 and earlier, preventing the player from discovering new items or weapons that are not part of the storyline. The card keys would therefore no longer serve much of a purpose, and as a result, they began to phase it out of the series in MGS3, where the areas were very linear and large in size. The lack of exploration serves another drastic problem: Ammunition.
Without a warehouse or location for the player to pickup on ammo they need, they could potentially run through the game with only a few shots to spare at all times (this occurred many times in MGS3). Kojima Productions must have seen this as a problem, as Drebin's Shop was added in MGS4. MGSPW solved this by breaking gameplay down into several missions, bringing us to our next problem. Spacing out locations around the world means that you cannot travel there on foot.
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| Peace Walker, although still Metal Gear at its core, has lost a special touch that once made the games so unique, due to it's fragmented experience |
Because of this, Metal Gear games now use chapters/missions to group different locations together. A broken down game means that scenarios in chapters will almost seem unrelated to the previous chapters in some ways, rather than having a single focus like Outer Heaven or Big Shell. If we have locations around the globe, we have to have a game broken down into pieces. If Metal Gear titles ever do decide to return to the original method of having an infiltration on a single location, the game will be back to one piece; one chapter.
The Verdict?
While it seems that the series can go either way, I feel that it should return to a smaller, more central location, similar to the Metal Gear games before MGS4. However, given the current state of the industry and the current trends of linear gameplay and accessibility, the series will likely continue to follow the way of the expanded, linear locations. If Kojima Productions can find a way to bring exploration back to the series' new entries, along with variation among locations, I would certainly be fine with that. However, if the expansion continues to do more harm to the series, something must be done about it.
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