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Gloves

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Blog Entries posted by Gloves

  1. Gloves
    Detonation code activated. 
    And all the cards begin to fall into place for ol Snakey-poo. With the PAL Card(s) entered, the detonation has been activated, and Master Miller has revealed that he was Liquid Snake all along. Snake has really gotten the raw deal the whole game, and it's all coming to a head. 
    It's pretty easy to armchair general and say he should have seen this all coming, but there's really no way - Snake was depending on his team to be trustworthy and boy were they not. 
     But I still have a job to do, and that's to stop Metal Gear. The only way left to me now is to destroy it... After I escape this poison gas filled room! 
     
    Snake, did you like my sunglasses? 
    But why'd he take his top off? 
    And goddamn, all the twists and turns in this freaking game, man. Gray Fox killed Naomi's parents!? I mean... I know that and all, but golly, just... Damn, eh? The depth of some characters in this game, man. And then my boy Fox over here takes on Metal Gear with his weirdo laser arm gun thing and gets himself crushed dead. Liquid boutta get the back o my hand in a second here. 
     
    Soon... Soon... It will finally... End... 
    The fights against Rex took me a few tries, but eventually I got into a good rhythm with the Stinger and took it down. I'm confident there's some trick to it that speed runners use (isn't there always?) but per usual for this playthrough I'm going in naked as Snake himself. It's certainly more fun getting through stuff myself. 
    Boss fight, boss fight, monolog... Boss fight... Monolog... Boss fight... Monolog... Metal Gear! 
    I do love that part of the terrorist demands is a billion dollars. Like, Liquid is all "once we have our BILLION dollars we'll cause chaos all over the world!". I mean yeah I'm sure in what, 98? It was a ton of money, but now it's like... Really bro? 
    Also how bloody crazy is the whole Les Enfants Terrible project? I'm not even gonna lay it out here but golly is it convoluted. And the genome soldiers... I can't even. 
    And now they wanna nuke me... 
    Ugh, time for a fist fight with my... Brother... 
    This game. 
     
    Snake? Oh, you're alive! Thank God! 
    The fist fight is actually pretty good, it definitely feels pretty epic having a topless fist fight on top of Metal Gear with your clone brother. It gets a bit harder as the fight goes on, and they give you 30 fewer seconds on your first attempt (which I failed pretty miserably on), so doing badly makes it a bit more lenient on subsequent attempts. 
    So I beat him up, get a nice little scene with Meryl (whom I saved valiantly), and then my boy Otacon secures me an escape route, promising he now has a reason to live, so no way he dies here! 
    Meryl and I hop into a jeep with a mounted machine gun and we're on our way, ready for the final action sequence. Such a fun and varied game, I swear. I love doing the jeep scene in first person, it makes for a really great action sequence (if a tad unfair at times, boohoo). 
     
    Look Snake, the sun! 
    And that's... It! I've beaten my first play through of Metal Gear Solid in a good ten or no years, and it was a ride and a half. I really love this game so much, its a near perfect stealth action game, honestly. It's got pretty janky controls compared to modern games but it was working with very early 3D tech. 
    Honestly watching the end again gets me a little teary eyed. Snake over here giving Naomi the fake truth she needed to hear after Gray Fox's death, and she starts crying and I'm just like... When did it start to rain in here eh? 
    I honestly wish I had the words to describe how the game makes me feel. I dunno. Young again? Happy? I hope that as I get back into writing and reviewing and stuff I can Form the words to better communicate the greatness that is Metal Gear. 
    For now all I can say is I lack the words. Maybe that's enough. 
     
    I only felt truly alive when I was staring death in the face. 
    That's gonna be it for this playthrough, and this entry. From here on it'll be all serious business as I'm done taking in the scenery, and it's time to git gud. This playthrough was on normal, so I'll upgrade to Hard next, then Extreme. Again, the main goal here is Big Boss rank, which has some pretty harsh requirements. I'm also self-imposing a "no game clear items" rule for my goal; it's possible to beat the game twice through and use the clear data to get the Infinite Bandana and Stealth Camo and use those to clear Extreme and it will still give Big Boss rank. No thanks, I'll beat it proper. 
    For now, I rest. 
    Let me know what you think of the series so far! Have you enjoyed the writeup on my first playthrough? What are your own personal thoughts on the game? 
  2. Gloves
    This is Snake, Colonel can you hear me? 
    It's a good sign of things to come when I get caught in the first room while trying to be stealthy about it. A friendly reminder not to try too hard to be perfect on the first attempt at the game I've made in literally years. I may be able to get the platinum trophy on MGS4 for ps3, but this is a totally different beast. As they remind you off the bat - weapons are OSP; I'll be picking things up as I go, so it's important to not expect perfection right out of the gate. 
    And so I hit that reset button and go back in with a fresh resolve - just get through the game, take in the story, really enjoy it. It's not often you can re-experience a game since you haven't played it in so long. And so it was that the strangling massacre began. 
     
    Press the Action button to go up the ladder. 
    It didn't take too long to recall how often you get calls from the Colonel and other supporting characters. Beep beep, look out for those enemies! Beep beep, that's a camera! Beep beep, press forward to move forward! Ok that last one was an exaggeration but it's not too far off! Thankfully these are all skippable, so they won't be TOO annoying in the long term, and it's fun to laugh at the things they'll call about. 
     
    They're rookie eyes if I ever saw them. 
    Speaking of recall, anybody else have their first game character crush on Meryl? Eh guys? Redheads Amirite? *cough* carrying on... 
    And poor ol Johnny getting beat up and left there naked. Butt in the air, which can't be good considering his terrible bouts of IBS. Ugh. Poor guy. Hilarious recurring character though. 
    As I've moved through the story little by little (I'm doing it in bits and pieces due to other life stuff) I've remembered important bits and pieces of the main plot, so not a whole lot of big surprises in store for me. What happens to "Donald Anderson" isn't a mystery for me, and Meryls connection to the Colonel isn't going to be a shocker. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless; taking the time to sit and watch the cutscenes and enjoy the kitschy dialog is a treat. 
    As I get to each area I'm reminded of what's upcoming, so not a lot of daudling going on either. I reached the Ocelot fight and decided to call it a night there, so saved my progress through Mei-Ling (not without a bit of flirting, naturally). Of course, my save file safe in hand and nothing to stop me doing so, I decided to end it in style: I blew open the entrance to the fight and popped a few bullets into the Armstech president, prompting a Game Over and Ocelot calling me an "Idiot!" which is something I've always loved in the series. My favorite is when you kill Ocelot when he's stunned near the beginning of MGS3 and the Colonel scolds you for creating a Time Paradox. Good times! 
     
    Idiot! 
    And that'll be it for today's little writeup. I'm doing this as I play, so didn't get TOO far in the game, but I think it's a nice little introduction to the "series" that is this blog. 
    Be sure to let me know if you liked it, and I'll keep writing more as I progress! 
  3. Gloves
    Insert DISC 2
    If I recall correctly, disc 2 isn't quite as long as disc 1 gameplay wise, in fact I believe it was quite short. I think the majority of content on d2 is probably cutscenes, so realistically it's home stretch time now. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to wrap up this playthroughs and the first part of this series by part 10 at the latest. 
    I'm curious if anyone reading this (if in fact anyone IS reading this) has any thoughts on the length of each of these. I've basically sat any written what I could with each play session and that's become each article. Let me know if the length is ok, or if they should be longer. 
    After I'm done this playthroughs the rest of these posts will be primarily talking about my progress in getting better at the game, and will likely be roughly one post per playthrough or even less. It'll depend on how quickly I git gud. 
     
    I will be watching you... Understand!? 
    Gosh I do sure love Metal Gear. The fight with Vulcan Raven is really fun and even if you kinda cheese it with the Nikita you're still pretty open for being snuck up on while you fly the missile around. 
    Anyway, after you beat Raven he gives you a hint that if you've paid REALLY close attention to all the cutscenes, could lead you to the truth of your current situation (not that you can DO anything about it...). He reveals that the DARPA Chief was actually Decoy Octopus in disguise. This is the final piece of info given to Snake which should be all he needs to know to realize that the terrorists don't actually have launch capability on the nuke. In fact Metal Gear is completely useless at the moment because they don't know the "trick" to the card key, which is actually the only way to get it working now since they killed the actual DARPA Chief by "accident" (Ocelot making that mistake is pretty questionable...). 
    At any rate, yeah, they need Snake to figure out the card key override system for them because they're too dumb apparently, and they killed the Chief without getting his half of the two codes (Baker talked while interrogated). The Chief never talked and died on the table so the activation codes are useless. 
    All of this info has been given to the player (and Snake) at this point, but you have to move forward regardless. Snake ain't got time for no puzzle nonsense, he's got a nuke to stop. 
    It's just some great writing for a video game, the likes of which we don't see often in today's games. Really good stuff. 
     
    The great back and forthening. 
    Excuse me while I run back and forth for like, ever, doing all the work for the terrorists. 
    I'm gonna end this here since I have a lot of running around to do in-game getting the PAL Key bit over with. Looks like the next one of these will be the end of the game! 
  4. Gloves
    What is a Russian gunship doing here in Alaska!? 
    The section where you rappel down the tower while being shot at and having to avoid steam shooting out of the walls is an epic story and surely something amazing to behold when done right, but boy is it frustrating on your first attempt in a while. I basically ended up just tanking the damage all the way down, fingers crossed that I'd have enough health. Happily, I did. 
     
    Can love bloom, even on a battlefield? 
    Otacon over here with his waifu crush on Sniper Wolf needs to cool his britches. This dude is serious bad luck around women, no joke. Being a chick around Otacon is a death sentence ladies, stay away. 
    Anyway, his awkward questions out of the way time to head up to the roof, I've got an annoying fly in need of swatting. I made my way up the winding stairs while tossing chaff grenades every few seconds to avoid taking damage from the sneakily placed sentry guns along the way. Kinda funny how they literally place 1, then 2, then 3, and finally 4, all huddled together. I'll blow those up on my way back down, or I may not bother and just chuck more chaffs. Chaffs are certainly quicker. 
     
    See you in hell, Liquid. That takes care of the cremation.
    The battle with the Hind isn't particularly tough, but I did go into it with a glaring lack of rations, so I died on my first attempt. The old style of control does take getting used to and first person aiming is... Pretty rough, let's say. I do like the phased approach to the fight, how it gets progressively harder, and even changes the scenery a little depending on where missiles land. 
    My second attempt was happily much easier as I'd gotten used to the controls on the Stinger, and so that's the end of Liquid Snake! Or is it!? Dun dun dunnnnn... 
     
    The elevator... It just started moving on its own... 
    But seriously does everyone but me get stealth camo? Golly, come on give a guy a break. I know I can get the camo on my second play through but I'm pretty sure that requires failing Ocelots torture, and I passed that. I think success grants an infinite ammo bandana instead, if memory serves. 
    Anyway, yet another cool little scene, and the game is chock full of em. Just getting into an elevator has a fair bit of build up with the mystery they put around it, and it pays off well upon delivery when you realize you're in an elevator full of invisible dudes.
     
    So... This isn't stealth camouflage then... 
    I love love love how Snake gets slammed by a Sniper bullet and his first instinct is to kneel down right where he was shot and take a call with Otacon. 
    I decided that for this playthroughs I'm going to avoid "cheesing" bosses, and so its a Sniper duel to the death with Sniper Wolf. I know I can make the fight excruciatingly easy by hiding in a corner and bombarding her with Nikita rockets, but where's the fun in that eh? 
    I'll take down Wolf next time, as I've got to take a break for the day, but I look forward to the challenge! 
  5. Gloves
    Ocelot... You'll pay for that. 
    Yet another fun little thing the game does is sneaking a bomb into your inventory when you get your gear back. I happened onto it as I was swapping to my thermal goggles for the minefield outside, and was once again reminded of how many little touches the game has which put it above and beyond just an average action/stealth game. It's all the little things that really cement the series into your memories, even years after playing. 
     
    I was a fool. I wanted to be a soldier. 
    Watching all of the cutscenes and paying full attention to the codec conversations while vaguely remembering the main plat points has given me a new appreciation for the subtle hints that the game provides to players.
    For example, I recall that Naomi is actually the one who injected Snake with FOXDIE, and her reasoning is primarily revenge on Snake for killing her adoptive brother Frank Jaeger (Gray Fox, Cyber Ninja); watching as she learns over the course of the game that Snake isn't actually all that bad, and even had reverence for his one-time mentor and eventual enemy on the field, she starts to feel pretty shitty about the whole "dooming Snake to a painful death" thing (not even realizing yet that in MGS4 its revealed that he's slowly turning into an actually unmitigated walking biological weapon). Phew that was a mouthful, pardon me, I might be a bit too into the series. 
     
    Play it by ear. 
    You know I actually forgot just how long it was between the first and second Sniper Wolf encounters, especially when you watch all the cinematic and whatnot. Here I am on the roof, pretty sure I'm about to fight the Hind H with Liquid Snake in it, and I've realized that for some reason I thought the Sniper fights were basically back to back. It must be because the last time I played all those years ago I must have been skipping everything, so it all felt close together. 
    I think I used to beat the game in just a few short hours, but I'm rounding out at about 4 or 5 now, coming up on the Hind fight. I'll get there again though, this playthrough is for the story. 
  6. Gloves
    Could there be wolves in there? 
    Meryl thinks she's all smart telling me she'll take point and to follow her footsteps to get through the minefield. Pfff, loser.
    *turns on thermal goggles and picks up all the mines*
    *watches Meryl get her comeuppance as Sniper Wolf lays into her and she lays bleeding on the floor*
    That'll teach her. And so begins the great backtrackening, my quest for a Sniper rifle.
     
    The Les Enfants Terrible project wasn't a complete failure. 
    Going through all that trouble to get a sniper rifle and then beating Sniper Wolf at her own game, only to end up caught anyway. Typical video game logic. Tsk tsk. 
    And no we come to everyone's favorite part of the game - Ocelots "interrogation". I'm pretty good at mashing the same button rapidly, so happily this part is quite easy for me. My arm does really hurt though. 
    This is where paying attention to cutscenes does come in handy. Calling Otacon on the codec (141.12) initiates him coming to help bust me out with... Ketchup. The alternative is waiting long enough for Gray Fox (the ninja) to come rescue you, but who wants to wait THAT long? Or you could just hide under the bed when Johnny has his bout of diarrhea and he'll think you've escaped in a similar fashion to how he thinks youve died when you smear ketchup on yourself. Your pick! 
    Out of my prison and with my gear once again in my possession, I'm ready to move forward and finish off Sniper Wolf! 
  7. Gloves
    Alone? Are you an otaku, too? 
    But seriously, what does me being on a solo mission have to do with being an otaku? Is poor ol Otacon just like "oh, another loner like me! Maybe he's into anime!"? Yikes, buddy. 
    After the fight with the Cyborg Ninja, Otacon is nice enough to inform me that Meryl was last seen on the floor above, sporting a nice butt and a pension for using the lady's room. All the clues I need to find myself staring at genome soldier butts, had I not already remembered exactly which one she was. 
     
    You've got a nice butt. 
    I've mostly been using actual in-game quotes for the section headers and yup, that one's in there. Really just a solid piece of dialog, definitely a keeper. 
    Running into Meryl in the bathroom I was met with the sad sight of her in proper pants and everything, no undies for me today. I don't recall exactly how to get her pantsless (a top priority, obviously), but I believe it might simply be "she'll have no pants on the second playthroughs". We'll see in due time! 
     
    Set your controller on the floor. 
    No joke Psycho Mantis is one of my favorite boss fights of all time. Playing it again today it's pretty easy and straightforward, but that's just cuz I know I have to switch the controller to port 2. Back in the day, not knowing that, you'd get the full experience of calling up the whole cast of characters in a panic yelling "why can't I hit him!?" and it was great. 
    Not to mention the fun little psychic show he does before the fight. I had nothing else on this memory card so he didn't say any of his fun quips, but knowing how it all works just makes me appreciate the feature all the more. 
    Not the hardest fight, but certainly innovative for the time. 
     
    Feedback loop. 
    Are you enjoying these write-ups? Do you have a favorite video game boss? Leave a comment to let me know! 
  8. Gloves
    Her number is on the back of the CD case. 
    It's the temptation to peek. Just a quick check on the net and suddenly I know the optimal route, the secret super gun that'll make it all so much easier. Years of trophy hunting did this to me and it honestly really sucks - I often feel this urge to Min-max games on my first go because I have this sense that I only have so much time to play, and I want to make this one playthrough the one that gets me the 100% completion rating. 
    But no more of that, not here for sure. It was when I beat Ocelot that I got the urge. I know that at some point in the game, you can go back to the beginning section for an upgrade of some manner, and technically a relatively important one, too, I believe it was the Silencer for the Socom pistol. Fortunately I can still say "I believe" because I didn't give in to the urge to do a search. It'd save me some time in the long run, sure, but why the hell do I still have this overwhelming desire to make games last as little time as possible? It's honestly a real internal struggle to just sit and enjoy things sometimes. 
    I'll just do some retracing of my steps every so often, especially when I get a new keycard, and let that be that. Enjoy the game, damn it, explore a little! Make me feel alive, again! 
    Disclaimer: it was the suppressor, yeah. 
    Oh, and the codec number is 140.15. I checked the back of the CD case, as God intended. 
     
    Where - I - can - see - ya. 
    I was getting a little annoyed, to be honest, of how the game was looking on my tv. Starting to get that CRT itch, if I'm being honest. Anyway, barring running out and spending a few hundo on a little CRT (I'm looking, but biding my time best I can) I've gone ahead and started fiddling with the settings on my big ol LED hd tv to try and emulate a CRT as best I can. 
    Obviously I'm lacking scan lines and such, but I've realized that the composite hookup had sharpness waaaay too high. No wonder there were all these tiny boxes looking like shit all over the screen. Also it was quite dark so I turned brightness up a bit. Happily, I have Dem black bars on both sides since the game is 4:3 and the tv is 16:9, so I "calibrated" the brightness so the blackest blacks align with the black of the bars. This paired with the official calibration option on the main menu and its looking way better. 
    It's not the best substitute ever, but it's much better than it was for the first hour or so of gameplay, I'm much happier with how it looks now. A little love and care can go a long way! 
     
    Snake? Snaaaaaake!? 
    Quick pro-tip before I sign off on this edition of Until I'm Good At It: you can just double-tap R1 to reload your currently equipped gun without having to go through a reload animation!
    Yeah yeah I know, we all already know that. It's like riding a bike, man. I've played this game so many times it's like second nature, even after a decade or so break. Good times. 
  9. Gloves
    PAUSE - Canyon - 
    It's here that I stop to admire the options that the game provides to the player, whether most realized it at the time or not. After a brief chat with Meryl (and a bit more flirting, natch) you're tasked with traversing a short hallway filled with lasers, invisible to the naked eye. 
    Now, I have the thermal goggles since I've reverted to a "check every corner" state of play. But what if I didn't? Occasionally you'll find players less patient and totally skipping such vital tools, and for those player the developers have provided... A pack of smokes. 
    It's here that was alluded to in the beginning of the game in a chat with Mei-Ling where she asks what you could possibly need cigarettes for on a mission (completely ignoring their intended use of course). And it's HERE that I'm reminded that despite Snake being a badass and the main protagonist, over time it becomes somewhat clear that Kojima didn't exactly want kids to emulate the man. 
    It starts subtle with the total lack of advertising around the intended use for cigarettes, with Snake foregoing talking about the calming effects and instead opting to respond with "you never know". In this game at least it ends with them actually literally slowly draining your life away as you use (equip) them. 
    They may work in a pinch to see those lasers, but it comes at a price for sure - the Thermal Goggles do a far better job of visualizing the beams of light than the smoke from the cigs, and the goggles don't stab you every 2 seconds. 
    Of course they also don't show you the location of the clay ores that immediately follow the lasers, either. Kaboom! 
     
    The raven on my head, it thirst for his blood. 
    The bosses in this game aren't particularly difficult necessarily, especially just playing on Normal, but I do notice that most WILL hit you multiple times if you just play guns blazing style. In both the Ocelot and Raven fights thus far I took a decent bit of damage, draining me of precious rations. 
    On subsequent playthroughs I might take some time to determine the best way about this. Likely it's perfectly fine due to the abundance of rations in the game, but it does feel a bit odd just tanking all the damage. That said I don't recall if damage scales on Expert difficulty, and I do intend to get to that level of play by the end of this. 
     
    Natasha would know better than I do. 
    Yet another completely optional thing this time it's an entire goddamn supporting character - Nastasha Romanenko is a nuclear weapons specialist added to the support team to give Snake info about the nukes and other weapons. 
    The only way to actually come in contact with her though is entirely manually, and only if you're actually paying attention. Colonel Campbell mentions her pretty off-handedly while on a codec call informing you that you can't use weapons around nukes. He simply mentions that she knows a lot about nukes, and here's her number. Then poof - never to be mentioned again. 
     
    Just call me... Deepthroat. 
    Now who could this be? Mmmm... Anyway just ignore that, look over here. The Nikita (which I picked up in Nuke Building B1) has this handy feature that little me honestly never even thought of, if I recall - you can go into first person mode while operating the remote controlled missiles to far more easily navigate the halls to the power unit which controls the electrified walkway stopping your progress. It took two quick attempts to nail it here today, while I'm pretty sure I remember having some trouble with the birds eye view missile control as a kid. 
    That said, I realize now that I'm missing the gas mask. I seem to have neglected back tracking when I got the level 3 keycard. Fortunately not a big deal, moving quickly through the gas that fills this area is enough to get by. 
    Straight into the horror scene of... THAT hallway... 
     
    It's like one of my Japanese animes... 
    The Cyborg Ninja is just such a cool character, man. Running around all ninja-y in Alaska surrounded by dude's with guns, sporting his sexy stealth camo makin him invisible (not to my thermal goggles, mind you), slicing dudes up with his sword. So cool. 
    Otacon is your everyman doing it just right when approached by the Ninja with a healthy pissing of the pants. 
    This is the first time I've died on a boss. It was actually quite close, I only really started playing carefully in the last phase of the fight when you literally HAVE to - if you just go in punching he teleport behind you and punishes you for it. So now I have to dodge the punches and I'm doing well, in fact I've beaten him, one hit remaining on my own health bar. Aaaand then he explodes in a fit of rage and electricity, hitting and killing me. I completely forgot that after beating this boss you need to step away from him or you'll take damage, and this time that meant a game over, and having to do it again. Aaahhhh good times. 
     
    A good time to call it quits. 
    That's gonna be it for this one, thanks for reading, and please look forward to the next! 
  10. Gloves
    The Red Star is a game I actually only came across recently; another VGS staffer had some games he was looking to sell and my eyes always light up at PS2 games, and this was one of them. I checked out some gameplay online and it looked similar to another game I really like - Furi on the PS4/PC/etc., with its shoot-em-up and beat-em-up mix. I had to have it!
     
    Gameplay
    Being a shooter/brawler mix it was bound to have something I love and am good at (dodging bullets), as well as something I love but am not good at (combos and avoiding multiple enemies at once as they gang up all around me and I hate it and GRAH!)... I'm not generally very good at the beat-em-up genre on the whole. Fortunately when I got into it I found it behaved fairly closely actually to a simpler God of War, but with the addition of guns... FUCK YEAH! I never really equated the God of War series to traditional beat-em-ups, but really that's what it basically is, and I've actually gotten pretty good at those types of games in 3D space; games like Ninja Gaiden on PS3 and Shinobi on PS2 are some of my favorites.
    The mix between shooter and brawler is actually pretty perfect - the game is literally roughly half and half, and the pacing between the two is absolutely sublime. You basically go through rooms (hallways) of enemies in a brawler style, and boss enemies generally are more shooter style where you are dodging bullets and shooting the boss from a distance. The mechanics for shooting allow you to lock onto an enemy do you can focus on dodging and that's a huge boon. One very minor change I'd have liked would be the ability to lock your aim in a direction rather than at an enemy based on whim, perhaps some button combo; the way it works is that if there is an enemy in the direction you're aiming and you use the lock button it will lock onto that enemy, however it does give precedence to "weak points", even on bosses with "adds" such as extra turrets which would be nice to be able to focus down to lessen the bullets on screen before taking on the main enemy. A minor quibble but a quality of life change I'd like to have had available.
    They even toss in a single actual legit shooter stage where you fly in a ship (yes, just one), and it's actually handled incredibly well. Again the pacing is on point - it's not like they cram in some excuse to hop in a ship every 3 levels or anything, it simply made sense in the context of the game so they built the entire logic for an actually good shoot-em-up game for the one level. Dedication!
    It's noteworthy that like many PS2 games, beating the game unlocks new stuff so you can go back and play through again in a different way. You unlock a new character (who may yes be a little overpowered), and the ability to play Arena levels to unlock a higher difficulty level, as well as "cheats" to make the game easier. Classic PS2 fare with unlockables - beat the game, do well at it, unlock cool stuff to have fun. I LOVE that about PS2 games.
     
    Audio/Visual
    It was about ten levels or so into the game that I started to think "Man, this is one industrial and snowy game". It was at precisely that point that I was transported to a desert, and I had to make a mental note "If you ever write a review for this game, make sure to mention that the pacing is on point". The story takes you through 3 or 4 different settings and while they do vary, they also blend together a little bit - the desert is the only time when you feel like you've really "traveled" to a new place. The enemy variety on the other hand (which I'll go into more detail on below) is actually king where visuals are concerned - there are enough different enemies and they match their surroundings well enough that the visuals never really stale.
    The music in the game is almost all hard rock themed, lots of "get your blood pumping" style stuff (I am not a professional writer I apologize). All of it is definitely just background music though, never really coming to the forefront to emphasize the situation. That said, and I came upon this too late in my first playthrough to really appreciate it, I suggest bumping the music up in the audio settings; by default Music and Sound Effects are both at max in the settings, and I suggest turning down Sound Effects to about half, and then turning up the volume on your TV. The music is varied enough and "bumpin" as the kids might say, such that having it a good bit louder may actually increase your enjoyment of the game. 
     
    Difficulty & Enemies
    The difficulty of the game definitely ramps up in the final quarter; of the 19 total levels the last 4 or 5 become a test of getting past the brawler sections with enough HP remaining to survive the onslaught of bullets that will come from the bosses. Many levels contain multiple bosses that you'll have to deal with, and challenging convention, they have placed health regens AFTER the boss fights rather than before. Often in games you'll see a room full of ammo and refills and such and know that shit's about to go down, but not in this game! Fortunately for me the bullet dodging comes as second nature and the patterns of bullets are easily recognizable for a seasoned shooter player, but if you're not good at dodging many bullets at once you may start to struggle even in the second half of the game around the level 10-12 mark.
    As for the enemies themselves, as I've stated above, there is a fair bit of variance in the designs based on where you are. In the beginning levels you'll be fighting what you might recognize as typical Russian soldiers, and then in the desert section you will mostly be fighting melee enemies with swords and axes, even some giant cyclops style enemies. Yes, the game delves just ever so slightly into the mystical and paranormal. It's never quite enough to be so otherworldly that it becomes unrecognizable, but when you reach the second to last level and start fighting basically grim reaper style enemies you kind of take a step back and go "did they just introduce ghost enemies on the second-last level?". Yes, yes they did.
     
    Closing Comments
    I'm really bad at closing comments. It's a great game and I enjoyed it a lot. If you like beat-em-ups and/or shoot-em-ups, go pick-it-up and give The Red Star a go. It's honestly a really fun game and I couldn't put it down - beat it in a single day. I immediately started playing the Arena mode and made a new playthrough with the character I unlocked, determined to try a new "build". God I forgot to mention that you get points at the end of each level which you can spend to upgrade your character. Such a great game, go play it seriously. Oh yeah and it's based on a comic book. I'm shit at writing reviews, sorry.
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