Originally posted by Soma Bringer
Allankles, have you even played these games out of curiosity? Even among its detracters its acknowledged as an extremely differentiated product with an almost incomprehensible plot that sees the word "convoluted" being thrown around almost constantly.The sheer number of themes and the detail with which it explores these themes is largely unprecedented in any medium of storytelling, let alone when isolating the discussion to video games (Xenogears, Xenosaga, and the Chrono series being the only real exceptions). Movies are generally possessive of nowhere near the scope or detail of a grand story like Metal Gear Solid's, books in general place too high a value on the artistry behind writing, and exploring a general message rather than telling such a masterfully deep, complex tale. TV shows have a lot of potential due to their scope, but even the likes of Lost and Twin Peaks are of nowhere near the detail of something as grand as Metal Gear Solid.
You have the heavily explored theme of the manipulation of soldiers by politicians, and the concept behind "Outer Heaven", a military nation without politics where soldiers were respected and would always have a place in the world.
It explores a large number of themes relating to pacifism, includng the futility of war, the absurdity of nuclear deterrence, the dangers of nuclear weapons in general, the psychological effects of warfare on children and adults, the concept that enemies are only enemies in relative terms, and motivations behind the different lifestyles individuals choose.
It deals with genetics and the moral implications of genetic engineering, how identity can be affected by the philosophies of one's society and the effects of censorship on society, how the time and place one lives in affects their identity and how politics change along with the times, as well as the 'sense' that people die, things move on and times change and that life shouldn't be lived fighting.
That's not to mention the many philosophical and cyberpunk themes that it also happens to explore in great detail, including that of meme theory, social engineering, sociology, artificial intelligence, information control, conspiracy theories, political and military maneuvering, evolution, existentialism, censorship, the manipulation of free will, and the nature of reality.
And the "cookie cutter baddies" and their "cookie cutter monologues" that you cite are often the very mouthpieces with which Hideo Kojima explores these deep themes.
As far as how complex it is, it's not really something that can be so easily explained in a matter of words given the scope and detail of Metal Gear Solid's storyline, and it's largely based around the timing that crucial pieces of information are revealed to the player and the exact manner in which it is told.
None of that makes a good story. You'd be surprised, many writers could quite easily make a story that explores many "difficult" philosophical and moral subjects. That, of course, wouldn't mean that the story would be compelling or interesting.
I find MGS to be convoluted, trite, and, at times, corny as all hell. Call me simple, but I prefer an interesting and compelling storyline to a contorted one that is boring and preachy. If I wanted that, I'd pick up a book by Kafka or Dostoyevsky.
Of course, there are instances where a story is both complicated AND compelling. Such as Master & Margarita by M. Bulgakov. Beats the almighty crap out of MGS, that's for sure.