10 Gaming Franchises That Suffer From Extreme Over-Complication

WC writes: "Remember back in the day before Metal Gear was about half wolf-women and octopus-armoured Presidents? Us neither."

[PaleMoonDeath]

Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid plots and characters aren't complicated, they just require more time investment, like the Game of Thrones books, and I appreciate the series above every film, book or video-game ever made, take the time to learn about the characters and plots, and you'll walk away a much wiser, witty, and more interesting person.

[averagejoe26]

Agreed. Author seems to mistake his lack of understanding for over complication.

[Winter47th]

This article must be written by an American.

[Baccra17]

Some people get it easily, and others have to spend more time to get there. Blaming the game for people not being up to snuff isn't right.

On a side note, it's crazy how right MGS2 was on the digital era.

[linkenski]

Lol. You're basically saying "it isn't complicated, but it's complicated"

The reason you need to invest so much in order to understand MGS is exactly why it's being accused of being overly complicated.

There are a lot of different ways Kojima could've handled his complicated story arcs than to shove expository mouthpiece-writing down our throats in many of his cutscenes.

[Ratty]

It's not complicated. I think what Twiggy meant by investing is just playing at least all (or most) of the canon games. The plot is actually pretty simple. IMO it SHOULD be more complicated. I liked the direction MGS2 took with its plot. Sadly that's where it ended.

[PaleMoonDeath]

Think of each video-game in the MG & MGS series as a book, each leaving you with just enough information until the next is released, it isn't complicated at all, you simply need to take the time with each game, more value in one of those games than a majority of series out there.

As I said just take the time to get into the plot and you'll slowly understand everything as time goes on, only if you invest the time into the experience.. which is worth every second I promise any of you.

[Summons75]

I agree, MGS was very easy to follow. The only way it gets confusing is if you skipped a portion of dialogue or played the games out of order. Then it can get confusing quick.

[showtimefolks]

Battlefield just requires a lot of work and when i am playing a FPS, that's the last thing i want. COD is Garbage but its fun to pick up and play. BF overall as a series is great but the time it requires for you to start having fun is too much. Steep learning curve is all i am trying to say

MGS series is great, best story in gaming. Thing is you have to pay attention and understand what's going on. I can't wait for MGS5(i am up to date on what's going on). Kojime knows how t do a proper story

NBA 2k is also awesome you don't have to know everything to have fun. What i hated yes HATED about nba 2k14, is when playing GM mode it requires you to play games. The only reason it does that is to force you to pay real money for GM credits.(playing games and advancing takes forever) At their last investors meeting, take-two revealed they have made ton of money from this system so expect it to stay and only become a bigger problem moving forward

now paying $60 just isn't enough

also if you bought a xbox360 over ps3 than you missed out on some of the best exclsives offered in gaming

[desertpunk86]

japanese games always suffer from complication.

[URNightmare]

In other words, Japanese people is smarter than you.

[linkenski]

Except in a lot of cases Japanese stories tend to use way too many words to describe something that's just commonly known or easy to understand.

Being unable to make a concise statement is not being "smart"

[Agent2009]

Actually, most of the Japanese games have very silly, non-intelligent storytelling.

[King_of_Nothing]

Are*....are smarter than you

[Summons75]

Or you just lack the ability to comprehend... I never once had a problem understand these "over complicated" stories.

[Rimgal]

Metal Gear solid is my favorite franchise, but either you've played all the games to understand the storyline, or go through one major mindfuck trying to understand it. I tried to explain to a friend that never played a MSG game, and it's trying to get into the series, and is not easy serie this late in the game.

[HollywoodLA]

MGS4 was the first game that I ever immediately replayed upon initial completion. I loved that game -- thought it was great.

But the story did get a bit convoluted.

[linkenski]

Lol. "a bit"?! Some of the segments are waaaay too expository for their own good. Some of the things you're told are so expansive it should've been restrained to some form of ingame codex or log-book like in Metroid, Mass Effect or etc. It's way too much for someone who's just playing the game to have a good time.

I respect MGS for doing what it wants to though. I think it's cool that Kojima hasn't cut down on the long-windedness of his franchise just because he has a western audience that thinks his narrative tell is dorky.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Really I feel like it's just people suffering from over-retardation.

[Kos-Mos]

A not so interesting article about a "gaming-journalist" that haven`t read much in his life.

[Ratty]

Wow this author finds some very simple things complicated. Final Fantasy VII? It's like extremely oversimplified.

If that guy played Xenogears his brain would melt. And even Xenogears isn't THAT hard to understand.

What's wrong with people these days? It's complicated when it requires just a little bit of effort to understand?

[Spotie]

These days, if it's not completely spelled out, it's too complicated.