Metal Gear - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

The Metal Gear franchise has achieved great success, selling 31 million copies as of March 2012. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty shipped over 7 million copies worldwide, and is followed in sales by Metal Gear Solid with over six million and Metal Gear Solid 4 with five million. According to Chart-Track, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was the second fastest-selling PlayStation 3 title in the United Kingdom after Grand Theft Auto IV. The PlayStation Portable games were met with notably lower sales, but it has been analyzed that this was because of the low sales of the console when the games were released.

Several titles have been universally acclaimed by critics. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty currently possesses 95.04% on GameRankings and 96% on Metacritic, making it the highest scoring game of the series to date. In 2002, IGN's editors ranked it as the best PlayStation game ever. In Game Informer Magazine's list of top 200 games of all time, Metal Gear Solid 2 ranked at No. 50 on the list. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was also voted as the fifth greatest PlayStation title ever released in a poll from PlayStation Official Magazine (UK). Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 will be featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games" exhibition taking place from March 16 to September 30, 2012. Games have won multiple awards such as Metal Gear Solid which won the "Excellence Award for Interactive Art" by the Japan Media Arts Festival, and Metal Gear Solid 2 which was given the Game of the Year award by Game Informer.

Metal Gear Solid is often recognized as one of the key titles involved in popularizing the stealth game genre with the player starting the game unarmed. Several boss fights have been praised for their variety and strategy required to beat them. The series is notorious for its fourth wall breaking scenes. The storyline has been commented to maintain "rich characterization" as well as to touch several controversial themes. Hideo Kojima's ambitious script in Metal Gear Solid 2 has been praised, some even calling it the first example of a postmodern video game. Cutscenes have often been praised for its graphics and the characters' stunt performances. Nevertheless, a common criticism has been the scenes' lengthiness, as well as some parts of the storyline. Raiden's unexpected introduction as the main protagonist in Metal Gear Solid 2, due to his lack of appearances in the games' trailers and how he replaces fan-favorite character Solid Snake, have been deemed as one of the most controversial parts of the entire series. The series' audio has been well-received to the point of receiving awards for its use of sound and music.