Time and tide wait for no man.

Even the rare individuals who have mastered “time management”, as it were…

My years as a freelance writer have taken me through many years of bizarre madness, and it’s quite an odd pretense to look back and consider everything behind me at this point. One of the demented realities about a lot of my writing is that the majority of the articles were for sites that either straight up don’t exist anymore, or have changed hands/servers over the years, and look nothing like they use to, and therefore, the content I helped to create is no longer available to readily see, leaving Active Time Event as one of the only enduring proofs of existence of my efforts surviving. Bittersweet, to say the least.

With all of that in mind, I still find it quite odd that in all of my years as a freelancer, I’ve written shockingly little in regards to the Metal Gear Solid (MGS) series. This premise is made even more wacky by the notion that MGS would likely be a candidate vs a long line of other strong contenders that would eventually be eeked out by MGS, to be one of the series placed on my own personal gaming “Mount Rushmore”, which would lead one to conclude the complete opposite of what is a sad absence of coverage in the past 20 years or so by yours truly. The most at length I’ve ever written about MGS is a review I did of the best spinoff of the series, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which I wrote way back in May 2013 on ATE 1.0, which was during a rare era I was handing out numerical review scores *shudders*. What can I say? I was still “playing the game” of being mainstream press…“when in Rome” and all that jazz.

So yes, fast forward to…err, nowish, and I put fingers to keyboard, to start recording thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 3: Delta, the remake for Snake Eater, which just launched a couple of months ago. I put off writing about it at the last second, predicated on an insane whim involving taking some kind of sordid Hail Mary second chance on Hollow Knight’s sequel Silksong, which was an excellent leap of faith on my part, as it turned out to be what I think may be the strongest collection of articles I’ve ever written, in most ways imaginable, so I do not feel much regret in putting off discussing one of my favorite series once again. Though, the more I think about my citation of MGS being one of my favorite series of all time, it almost kind of runs adjacent to “The Simpsons Paradox” in my eyes, where more years have now existed of me not being an ardently active appreciator then of me just waxing nostalgic as a distant bystander, though at least in MGS’ case in contrast to The Simpsons, the stealth series supreme still possesses more quality entries than not, which is part of what creates the paradoxical point of interest where at least The Simpsons is concerned, as it now has more content of average or below average quality than great content to speak of. Seems like an odd comparison, but I’ve been on a kick recently, and you the old aphorism “write what you know” etc…

Like a lot of times on this site, I tend to have an abstract approach to writing, as I either write on a topic as if detailing what I see as I peer through a metalens of self-awareness on the matter, or even more about the metaphysical reality that surrounds the game, as opposed to the game itself. I do this for a couple of reasons, though a minor one does relate to the nature behind episodic content, as that is the wild avenue which I travel down when writing these entries to you, it seems pointless to avoid being resistant to a running narrative or repulsed by the idea of cliffhanger methodology, or being self-exploratory and referential amidst the very same process, as it is not an air of rigid professionalism that I yearn for. The approach involved in writing by looking through the metalens of self-awareness, magnifying and exposing the games truest essence, and or dictating on the metaphysical reality surrounding the title, gives me some way to discuss the title in a fresh way, hopefully one that hasn’t been fully explored yet by others, if at all. Discussing the metaphysics of the title has a similar effect, as doing merely a dry commentary of a walk through in relation to the title, or a straight 1:1 review of the pros and cons of the game has already been done to dirty death by so many, there is seemingly no point in adding to the pile of redundancy with just another opinion on the matter. I am of the mind it is good to challenge oneself *always*, and to strive for some level of clever nuance or imaginative pedigree with which to construct oneself with, anything else seems like a cheap, greasy parlor trick, suited for a far more ratchet individual then I ever tend to be.

I think more so than just the bog standard go to of cinematic appeal, which is what the industry at large would accredit Kojima did in imbueing a sense of novel innovation to “how video games are viewed” in reference to MGS, and I will take a moment to draw extra attention to that multi-layered quotation in its delightful wager, was the focus on stealth action, which MGS arguably put on the map. Even by the sheer standard that the Solid series acting as a 3D continuation of the original 2D Metal Gear series that featured on the MSX systems all those years ago, and as an aside, to draw a PS1 parallel with another contemporary (quietly) making noise at the same time in the form of Resident Evil with the survival horror genre, MGS didn’t necessarily represent the very first time stealth had been done in gaming, but it certainly did it the most right anyone had up until that point, and arguably, only contested, but never fully usurped thereafter.

Which for me, the fixation on stealth mind you, was the more eye opening, newer way of looking at things, in the vein of “how video games are viewed”, beyond the cinematic appeal, and more so in the design standard inherent, and how that impacted my entire approach to playing, even beyond the series itself. Aside from the focus on stealth being a clever way to get around hardware limitations so that the games would more often than not, run more smoothly, as there was less going on on the screen at any given time, it kind of forced the player into a position of thoughtfulness when engaging with the titles themselves. It wasn’t just about mindless violence anymore, and not just this relentless mowing down of enemies with reckless abandon, it was about making a choice, playing responsibly, and more or less thinking outside the box to accomplish one’s goal. Even the simple binary prompt of “not killing” was already embarrassingly mind-blowing, as it had just never occurred to me to simply bypass an enemy without taking them out, and further, perhaps even to willingly avoid them, being quiet all the while. These notions simply staggered me, in their simplistically brilliant approach, I don’t mind saying. I’ll point out now that I was young enough that I don’t feel bad about the admission of ignorance on the matter, in not having considered this modest alternative in the approach of gameplay, as I was only around ten at the time I played MGS, so a far more naive mind in a younger body was being litmused test on originality in strategic thinking, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a number of much older folk and adults in general who would be embarrassed to admit to the same realization, out of shameful fear of the implications of such an “aha” moment involved in such a simple consideration.

This kind of mentality didn’t even stop at MGS, as I would carry this style of play into other genres and series as well, challenging myself to remain quiet and non-lethal in most games where it remained viable, and even some where it wasn’t. That level of influential imprint was left upon me, after playing and finishing MGS 1 at my friend’s house many years ago, which would end up reshaping my outlook on gaming in general, and is a good representation as to why MGS acts as one of the four game series I would put on my Mount Rushmore of gaming, and why I still stand amazed at how little I’ve discussed the series in all my years as a writer, even now as I am about to write a slew of articles involving my playthrough of MGS3 Delta.

Which, technically starts with this article….but seeing as how I am already 1348 words deep, and my exposition on the matter is growing a little long in the tooth, I suppose my opening sentiments for the beginning of Delta will have to wait till tomorrow.

-Pashford