Before I start this review off, I'm going to say that I don't like the MSX Metal Gear games at all and I found them to be bad if not terrible games. With that said, Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel turned out to be a pretty decent surprise, I was expecting to play Ghost Babel for a few minutes or maybe an hour or two and then drop it, but to my surprise I actually got to the end of the game. This game is to me for the people who enjoy Metal Gear 2.
The game most certainly does feel like a Metal Gear game when you start it up, you have a pretty lengthy opening cutscene before you even get to start a new game. I'm also well aware that Ghost Babel is non canon and isn't part of the official Metal Gear timeline. With all that said, I did find the story to be decent if nothing special, I don't think it's as good as Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation but the writing in GB isn't as irritatingly ineptly written as the games after MGS1. You at least know a decent bit about the villains before they die even if they do the MGS1 thing of having long winded monologues before they die, all though unlike MGS1, they don't survive more than one encounter against Snake and they don't actively get in the way as much either. I did know more about the villains in Ghost Babel by comparison to say the Cobra Unit in MGS3, it isn't a high standard but it goes to show how much I don't care for MG's story post MGS2 at the most.The side characters are okay, they are at least somewhat more involved than the support team of MGS3 all though most of their involvement in the story happens at the end.
If anything I can give points to the story is that for a portable game especially for a portable system that couldn't even do 3D graphics or have voice acting, the narrative is at least decent presented with well drawn still images and it did a good enough job at keeping me interested while never reaching the heights of MGS1.
The gameplay however is where Ghost Babel in a number of ways surpasses the console MGs while also being worse in some other ways. I'll start with the good.
In terms of moment to moment sneaking, GB is far better than the MSX games since for one you can actually hug walls to hide from enemies and enemies for the most part tend to get off your tail after being seen without being overly relentless unlike MG2.
Some improvements over MGS1 and 2 is that you actually have to pay attention to the environment where in the former you could just look at the radar screen the whole game and never suffer any consequences. In GB enemy sightlines are visible on radar and you can't see everything in front of you. Unlike MGS2-4, you don't have a tranq pistol with infinite range partnered with first person mode so you can walk into every room and headshot every guard before you even have to engage with the stealth and this is GB on easy no less. Unlike MGS3 and 4, Snake isn't that great at close quarters combat either meaning you have to avoid where in MGS3 anything outside of European Extreme means I can just CQC slam my way out.
The bosses are also pretty easy but require slightly more thought since there is not first person aiming.
One major improvement over MGS1 however is that many of the one off mechanics in that game actively pop up in Ghost Babel. Examples include electric floors that you need to remote missiles to destroy switches on, lasers detectable by smoke and thermal goggles, walls destroyed with C4, trap doors, toxic gas rooms, loud floors that alert guards to your presence upon running on them and mines get used far more than in MGS1.
On top of this GB has some ideas of it's own like electrified water, swimming stealth, foilage, guards that get up after a few seconds of being punched and even dark rooms that you can only progress through by using thermal goggles. Some of these I wish were in the game more like foilage and swimming stealth but you can chock this up to me wishing the game having more outdoors levels all though that means more dog enemies which is probably a good thing since trying to avoid them without having a silenced pistol equipped and shooting them is hard to do. I can't for the life of me figure out how to completely avoid them without getting spotted.
This leads me to a major negative that prevents me saying this game is amazing and that is the progression, it's hard to tell where to go for much of the game and even by exploring the rooms, it's hard to tell where to go and which part continues the story, your support team gives you vague hints too and might provide dialogue that don't give you the direction you need. Some parts can be obtuse too. Like how some doors aren't even textured telling you can go into them or with the C4 wall breaking sections none of the walls are textured with a crack telling you that you plat C4 on them.
There is also a part where you need to plant C4 on 4 parts of the map but they are randomized on each playthrough making a walkthrough useless.
The last mission however is great and the pathfing issues become less prevelant since there is less rooms to keep track of and since it's a small base, finding the true path becomes less of a large process of elimination.
Overall, GB is a good game and worth checking out. I'd say check it out even if you are lukewarm on Metal Gear as a whole like I am.
One major improvement over MGS1 however is that many of the one off mechanics in that game actively pop up in Ghost Babel. Examples include electric floors that you need to remote missiles to destroy switches on, lasers detectable by smoke and thermal goggles, walls destroyed with C4, trap doors, toxic gas rooms, loud floors that alert guards to your presence upon running on them and mines get used far more than in MGS1.
On top of this GB has some ideas of it's own like electrified water, swimming stealth, foilage, guards that get up after a few seconds of being punched and even dark rooms that you can only progress through by using thermal goggles. Some of these I wish were in the game more like foilage and swimming stealth but you can chock this up to me wishing the game having more outdoors levels all though that means more dog enemies which is probably a good thing since trying to avoid them without having a silenced pistol equipped and shooting them is hard to do. I can't for the life of me figure out how to completely avoid them without getting spotted.
This leads me to a major negative that prevents me saying this game is amazing and that is the progression, it's hard to tell where to go for much of the game and even by exploring the rooms, it's hard to tell where to go and which part continues the story, your support team gives you vague hints too and might provide dialogue that don't give you the direction you need. Some parts can be obtuse too. Like how some doors aren't even textured telling you can go into them or with the C4 wall breaking sections none of the walls are textured with a crack telling you that you plat C4 on them.
There is also a part where you need to plant C4 on 4 parts of the map but they are randomized on each playthrough making a walkthrough useless.
The last mission however is great and the pathfing issues become less prevelant since there is less rooms to keep track of and since it's a small base, finding the true path becomes less of a large process of elimination.
Overall, GB is a good game and worth checking out. I'd say check it out even if you are lukewarm on Metal Gear as a whole like I am.
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