The game that I'm going to analyze in this entry is Metal Gear Solid, a game stealth action game written by Hideo Kojima. I have choosen this game for review because of its interesting story plot and it contains all the ingredients for reward, risk and motivation to keep player entertained throughout the game.
This is the game that have captured the best of both interactivity and story-telling. The first time I played it, I am really engrossed in the story and it kept me playing non-stop just to get more about the story development. The story has well-developed plot. At the beginning, the player plays as the protagonist (Solid Snake) infiltrating the enemy territory. In the middle of the plot, the protagonist encounter several conflicts and solving them reveals more about the story and the character. Finally, the game ended after it reached the climax where Solid Snake defeats the antagonist (Liquid Snake) and saved the female character (Meryl).
The game has a well-balanced reward and risk design. The game consistently provides player with reward, such as more powerful weapons and equipments etc as the level progresses. The risk is also well-designed such that it keeps player in the comfortable state-of-flow as suggested by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the player's skill and difficulty of the game should be a state whereby player feel comfortable about it i.e. not too hard/ easy or not causing too much anxiety/ boredom.
The game can be better improved if it is not so linear, as this will reduce the replayability of the game. Although there is an attempt, where the designer tried to include a branching structure in the story of the game - the scenario where Snake was being tortured, the outcome of the game will be different if Snake choose to give up/ endure. However, this only makes the player re-play the game once to check out the other ending. It will be better, if more of his actions can affect the actual gameplay and storyline.
Nonetheless, MGS is still one of my favorite game as I have completed a few other sequels of MGS after the first version. I think this could be how the game continues to make money:)
