Jonathan Ingram wrote:Snatcher is a great game, and I can respect a decision for claiming it to be the best of his works, but I agree that Metal Gear isn't up there; as a concept it's great, but as a game it's inadequate. As ReasonWhyNot mentioned, it is like Citizen Kane or Birth of a Nation, and it should be honoured for being revolutionary, but that status doesn't automatically confer the title of 'best.'
He actually made a MG1 - Citizen Kane comparison, not a MGS1 - CK one.
Snatcher is kind of a troubled project, just the fact that a whole third act was added years after the first release shows that the game isn't well balanced. Add that the third act is mostly non-interactive and explanatory and you see that Snatcher is an earlier work that can't be considered Kojima's best.
But Snatcher was a major accomplishment compared to MG1. It's really the first game where Kojima's cinematic approach was put on full effort.
Policenauts is an evolution of the Snatcher concept that is virtually better in every department, especially the narration is more cohesive. It says a lot that with all the following Policenauts releases, Kojima didn't feel like changing anything substantial.
However, I'd probably rank Snatcher still above Policenauts for what it represented in 1988.
MGS series is where gameplay becomes finally as compelling as the story. I think MGS1 and MGS3 are on the same level in many ways: the are both excellent fiction stories. I don't think Kojima went mainstream with MGS3, he merely returned to the kind of MGS1 "suspension of disbelief" story.
The reason I think SOL is the best game he realised so far... With SOL Kojima played a game with the whole industry and the community of gamers and fans. He played with their expectations and shattered the wall between fiction and reality. SOL achieved something you don't see often in the games' industry: it generated controversy. Sequels are often made in a "bigger better faster" logic, and as a result, fans are always pleased with what they're feed.
SOL was excellent in every single game aspect (even more so than MGS3, as it featured lip synch and still is the oustanding PS2 technical achievement in many ways), but reviewers ans gamers were not easily pleased
because of what SOL's message was. Whiners just wanted a classic sequel in the Zelda vein, with the usual hero and everything they were accustomed to. I really respect Kojima for not doing that in the moment of its greatest success, it was daring.
Now MGS3 (and MGS4) returns in the realm of fiction: we are given easy solutions about who the <B>Patriots</B> are, what happened to Meryl and such... In other words, we're back 100% in the fiction realm, to please fans. And in fact, all the reviewers were more than happy that MGS3 story "was not a mess".
I understand that this must be the way in order to continue a series that's going to be for a niche of gamers, I have nothing against this.
But still, I'm amazed by what Kojima dared to do with SOL. If he had made a game like MGS3 at the apex of popularity, and SOL in 2004, I would have seen it like a smart move to keep the thing fresh. But he did the most controversial thing he could do in a time when MGS2 was the most looking after product.
Of course, all of this would not matter if SOL despite its going against unwritten rules, had a share of fault or problems of sort. Luckily this is not the case, as everything is so damn excellent.
And that's the short story of why SOL gets my vote.