I wish I was old enough to appreciate Metal Gear Solid in 1998, at its distinct moment in video game history. Thus was my primary thought at nearly every moment of MGS, as Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece still screams of innovation more than 20 years later.

After adjusting to the distinct visuals of a PlayStation era game, I found myself enamored with MGS’ moment-to-moment gameplay. Much of the games’ uniqueness lies in its answers to technical limitations: off-screen enemies demanding a slow stealthy approach, puzzle elements hidden unless viewed in first-person, and legitimately terrifying boss fights because the bosses always seem one-step ahead of the player. Even the almost-excessive back tracking that prolongs the game feels rewarding and realistic for an observant player who pays careful attention to every environment.

If the gameplay mechanics made the game fun to play, the entire experience was elevated by the game’s surprisingly complex (and understandable) story for a PS1 game! First things first, the story operates with the subtle, nuanced dialogue of an anime—In other words, it beats you over the head with themes of love and death. This broad-stroke painting of such human themes is what gives the game so much draw, however, and somehow through the thematic clubbings, Kojima delivers a nuanced critique of American exceptionalism and the military-industrial complex. To do so with such a character-based game deserves the highest praise.

I’m not sure whether MGS is a 5/5 only when taken in its historical context, or if it truly stands the test of time. Nevertheless, this game gets my utmost recommendation for anyone interested in video game history, or just getting a glimpse at the mind of one of the Industry’s leading visionaries!

True to Kojima's inspirations, Metal Gear Solid is achieves a truly cinematic feel back in the day when that was not so common place. Even the Playstation's infamously wobbly 3D was not enough to dissuade the team at Konami Computer Entertainment Japan from moving their camera around. Legitimate shots and cuts were set up in this 1998 game. These cutscenes are also used well. They're almost exclusively for dialogue or action the player is not involved in. While some aspects are a bit silly, the story is still exciting even if you know what's about to happen. It feels like a classic action thriller. If you're a lore head, Metal Gear Solid is lousy with canon for you to sink your teeth into. I also really respect MGS still owning that it's a video game with very serious characters telling you to "Press the Action Button" or similar things when explaining game mechanics. It's a little surprising to me that controlling Solid Snake actually doesn't feel that dated, probably owing to it essentially being a top down shooter. Being unable to control your aim via a analogue stick can be rough, but Snake has more than enough auto aim to make up for it. Navigating the view cones of the Genome Soldiers can be quite tense while you're trying to be greedy and seeing how many extra rooms you can explore to procure more items. And the boss battles are intriguing puzzle boxes with more solutions than most people think about. More than I definitely thought about. Once you're done with the main game, there's some VR missions for you to go through. I had a good time trying to (and successfully) beating the dev supplied times.

Metal Gear Solid foi o último jogo da saga principal que joguei e, talvez por isso, foi o jogo que mais me deixou emocionado. Voltar ao passado nunca foi tão incrível; ver aqueles personagens que criei um carinho tão grande construindo suas relações entre si foi lindo demais. Acredito que esse também seja o jogo com um melhor ritmo e melhor narrativa de toda a saga, parece um filme de ação de excelente qualidade. A estética do jogo envelheceu muito bem; a OST é muito boa; voice acting cativante, com destaque para David Hayter, que é do caralho; a gameplay é um pouco datada, porém, ela está ligada aos outros aspectos do jogo, como as boss battles, que são FODAS, por isso nem me incomodo mais. O famoso Incidente de Shadow Moses, que tanto ouvia falar, foi um dos melhores eventos no mundo de Metal Gear que tive o prazer de jogar. MGS1 pode não ser o ápice da franquia, mas é um jogo que, se você tolerar os controles meio travados, é perfeito para pessoas que tem interesse em começar a jogar os games da franquia. Obrigado por tudo, Snake, ou melhor, David.

Metal Gear Solid serisi ile ilk defa, 2013'te Dost Kayaoğlu'nun "En sevdiğim 10 oyun" videosunda karşılaşmıştım. "Bu oyunun grafikleri ne kadar boktanmış." deyip hayatıma devam etmiştim; ta ki 2022 yılında YouTube'da karşıma "Mgs - The Man Who Sold The World" videosu çıkana kadar. Daha sonra oyunla alakalı biraz araştırma yaptım ve ilk oyunun 1987 yapımı Metal Gear olduğunu öğrendim. Oyunu yarım bıraktım ve YouTube'dan hikayelerini izledim ve MGS'yi oynamaya başladım.

Kontroller bok gibi, oyunun sonundaki konuşma ve Master ile ilgili olan şeyler dışında hikayedeki her şey çok tahmin edilebilirdi; save sistemi çok kötü özellikle boss savaşlarında. Bunlar dışında; karakterler, mizah anlayışı, boss savaşlarının atmoferi çok iyi.

Bu oyun sanki daha büyük bir hikayenin temeli gibi.

(Quick Note: I played MGS1 on the Duckstation Emulator, so that might influence my opinion on this game.)

This is a very, VERY strong start to a franchise. As someone who's main experience with Metal Gear up until this point was mostly memes and playing MGSV (which is very different from the rest), this game still delivers for me.

Where to even start?
I think I'll start with the presentation. I think we can agree that some aspects have definitely aged, such as the character models with their lack of emotions and kinda stiff movements. I think the writing and voice acting makes up for this but we'll get back to that.
I honestly think a lot of the limited graphics gives it a unique art-style. Something about it just ticks right, and it also benefits the atmosphere since it takes place in a snowy, dark and mysterious island.
Secondly, game-play. I definitely can see that this is very bare bones compared to other MGS games. I still enjoyed it either way, doing my best to sneak around and, in emergencies, fighting off foes. Some parts kinda frustrated me (LOOKING AT YOU, FURNACE) and many of the bosses were good fun.

Now we get onto the story. This story is excellent. It starts off already crazy with the initial premise, but as you go on and on, things start to open up and it all feels so natural. Just finding and learning more about the secrets of Shadow Moses. Not to mention the insanely good characters that are accompanied with highly talented voice acting. I absolutely enjoyed listening to the dialogue since they're voice acted so well.

Overall, a solid PS1 game, and one to possibly drive me into a Metal Gear Brain Rot.

played 8 hours, my ps1 memory card corrupted after psycho mantis (ironic) so i bought it on GoG (which is such a bad port)

but holy crap i regret not playing this sooner. it's hard to know what a game would be like, you see the cd covers & it looks like a boring stealth game with miltary aspects. but without having really played another kojima game you'd never know what it holds. such great story (we can meme the long cutscenes but i loved every second of them) & the fourth walling stuff was so cool.. it's incredible what they did in ps1 times with this game. wowowo. now i play them all. :)