you think that if otacon was just dicking around invisible somebody would notice every room smelled like fucking piss all the time
yeah, mr gas mask guy, maybe i do like castlevania. whats it to ya.
I decided to try out Metal Gear Solid(MGS) for the 4th time to see if the game can hold my interest. I tried it on a whim for ten minutes. Those ten minutes became thirty minutes then an hour, then close to 2 hours before I needed to sleep. So suffice it to say, MGS has taken hold of me and won’t let go. Until I completed the game. So here's my review after the end credits are rolling.
Story-wise I found it very engrossing. Beyond a simple rescue mission and whether or not Snake can determine if the renegade unit called FOXHOUND have the capability to launch a nuclear strike. And stop them if they do. These two mission objectives I found were very clear cut in the beginning, however, there are many threads intertwined that keep the mystery and suspense piling up into I would say well-executed plot threads to intrigue the player on what’s underneath the surface of Shadow Moses in Alaska. You play as Solid Snake, a legendary infiltrator and saboteur. You can learn more about his past during his time on Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in the menu. Alternatively, you can read them here. The game also has an exclusive cutscene if you linger in the main menu and briefings option to give players more context on Snake before the mission begins.
You don’t have much when you start the game. So exploring can help you in the long run like finding a cardboard box to evade enemies who do not realize an intruder is inside, ballistic weapons to shoot the soldiers in case you're caught and even C4 and grenades are here. If you need a bit more explosions to help matters. I love the Soliton radar system since it displays the enemies' range and you can see how far that extends in the environment. Thereby allowing the player to move Snake along pathways and nearby walls to evade enemy detection. Sound is also key, so you can’t expect to run everywhere. Soldiers can hear you running so it is a good idea to wait for them to walk away before moving along.
Stealth-wise I didn’t have much difficulty evading the enemies' patrols since the soliton radar system displays pretty much all I need to know about current enemy whereabouts. There are even items like the chaff grenade and stun grenade to jam cameras and stun all enemies which are very handy to abuse. Players can even choke enemies which I didn’t realize was an in-game feature until I read the manual after the end credits rolled…Cue facepalm… Be that as it may, I feel the beginning can be a bit rough for newcomers on where to go.
But, calling operation members in your codec is a nice way to refresh your main objective at times. I also deeply appreciate candid conversations whenever you talk to anyone on your codec. From Master Miller, you’ll receive tips on what to do. Campbell will remind you of your objective with Naomi chiming in. Mei Ling is the save option and positive reinforcement member of the operation, always there to lift your spirits. And more come along as you progress further into the game.
I often found myself calling my operation members after a major event or boss fight to see if they can offer any insightful tips/hints to solve my current dilemma.
To my delight, every boss encounter is given careful attention not to give too much away while also not being too vague. It strikes a delicate balance I found appreciated time and time again. I will admit I had times I wanted to google what to do, but I decided to make calls on my codec before I did. By the time the end credits rolled around, I noticed I finished a blind playthrough! It’s been so long since I made a genuine attempt at one. I can’t remember the last time I did. And man it is such a great feeling you were able to finish a game without getting spoiled on how to resolve a troublesome situation here. Although, I should note there is nothing wrong with using walkthroughs either. I usually use them when I'm in a pickle.
And yet here I am very surprised I withheld the urge. Due to the codec calls saving me every time. I wish more games had this feature implemented to allow the player to call an in-game hotline to help them. And I felt the codec calls were implemented in such a way I found naturally and not out of place since conversations occurred fluidly.
Levels are small; generally, you do have a somewhat linear path to follow with other areas to explore around Shadow Moses. Usually, when you're in an elevator you can access different floors that can range from filled with soldiers on patrol to not so many soldiers on patrol. These floors have low to high-clearance rooms. You can only enter if you have the correct level keycard. As you progress further into the game you will attain more high-clearance cards. This makes backtracking in the early and mid-game, not a big deal. And I found my time passing by quickly due to the bite-sized levels. It is pretty cool finding additional items along the way if you enter the prone position and first-person view to see tucked-away items, you don’t normally see from the overhead camera view.
However, I would like to point out there were two points that kinda soured my experience with the game. Not so much to make it a big deal. But it caused the pacing to halt in a way. One occurs midway to the endgame where I have to backtrack to the first location to retrieve an item essential to progress. The other time required me to keep coming back and forth. This occurred very late game and honestly wish the backtracking could’ve been lessened. It’s not a big detriment, but it's like putting the brakes on the story content and makes the player go through filler in a way. And to progress past that hurdle you need to go back to certain areas multiple times. Granted, after thinking heavily on the matter for some time, I realize Kojima probably added it in to give characters a bit more room to flesh out due to the codec calls you receive. Which provides massive ramifications to the game’s storyline being unfolded. So ultimately I have mixed feelings regarding that. Not a positive or a negative. A more well known reviewer @Drax touches upon that aspect more in their review you can see here. And I agree with their suggestion on new areas instead. Fair warning it does contain spoilers throughout the game.
That’s the only major critique I found for the game and in a minor aspect the slight jank in shooting and movement controls. The latter was a bit alleviated by switching to analog mode on my PS3 to make use of the analog sticks instead of the directional buttons. I think I would’ve appreciated a bit more rations(they are the only items to restore my health as far as I know) just in case my health went under. I had to abuse ration locations and re-enter the area to refill my stock of them.
Still the game holds up pretty well besides these issues I stated above.
On Snake’s character I found his demeanor and habits to be a refreshing take on protagonists I've seen thus far in the series. He’s gruff, honest, really loves to smoke and engages in casual flirting, but also doesn’t like shady bullshit which I love. You learn quite a bit about his character in various codec calls and the people you meet during your infiltration. One encounter made me nod my head several times concerning two males and one female he meets along the way. Without going into spoilers, the female encounter with Snake and subsequently throughout the game is one I found to be one of the game's strongest points. We see Snake take on a different role I love to see. And one I feel demonstrates so much more than his character of being a ‘legend’ so to speak. One male he meets displays a different side to Snake and while he doesn’t get a lot of attention I found his character and development to be interesting as well as genuine. I can’t help but root for the guy ya know. The final character is one I deeply respect for their encounter with Snake while unveiling parts of a ‘character's’ background and relationship I didn’t expect.
It is these encounters with Snake and more that transform him from a “Legend” into something deeper.
Speaking of going deeper, I'll hit the ‘throat’ of the game so to speak. There’s quite a bit of villain monologue here which I didn’t mind since I love long cutscenes. They can range from under five minutes to over five minutes. And granted villains don't always monologue. Sometimes conversations will occur on codec or when Snake talks to someone in a cutscene. So bear that in mind when playing the game. Speaking of cutscenes, I love how they’re done in the game. And see why it's warmly and fondly praised among the fans. They can range from intense action scenes to interesting conversation encounters. Adding tension and mystery where scenes needed it. And even FMV clips are included too! Honestly, seeing the cutscene work here reminded me heavily of my time playing through Vagrant story. I can see how much cinematic work was involved there and how that inspired Yasumi Matsuno during development because of Metal Gear Solid. You can read more about that here. Where Matsuno has a long conversation with none other than Hideo Kojima.
During my eleven-and-a-half-hour playthrough on normal difficulty. I felt the game played like a spy action thriller with many intense cutscenes in the game. And those moments only enhanced my experience with the game greatly. So kudos to you Kojima and your team for all the wonderful cutscenes. And the music during those moments spliced together wonderfully providing a mix of cinematic music, and orchestral at times. Graphically, I think the PS1 version of the game holds up. And many voice actors here performed very well. David Hayter voicing Snake is the most memorable to me. But the villains also hit a lot of notes I found to be menacing while almost comical to me. Snake’s codec calls to various members are also pretty good.
In conclusion, Metal Gear Solid is a fantastic game from Hideo Kojima on the PlayStation 1 and one I feel touches on a lot of relative themes concerning current world events in 2022/2023. Had a blast and the countless “Snakeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Being heard on the screen never got old to hear. Worth a playthrough for any newcomers curious about tactical espionage action games or want to dive into a Kojima game. Really looking forward to playing Metal Gear Solid 2 when I get around to it.
8/10
- For those who have played the game already. I’ll hint at the character’s name I mentioned above in my review here.
The female with the starting letter M and ends with L
The first male with the starting letter O and ends with N
The second male with the starting letter G and ends with X
Story-wise I found it very engrossing. Beyond a simple rescue mission and whether or not Snake can determine if the renegade unit called FOXHOUND have the capability to launch a nuclear strike. And stop them if they do. These two mission objectives I found were very clear cut in the beginning, however, there are many threads intertwined that keep the mystery and suspense piling up into I would say well-executed plot threads to intrigue the player on what’s underneath the surface of Shadow Moses in Alaska. You play as Solid Snake, a legendary infiltrator and saboteur. You can learn more about his past during his time on Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in the menu. Alternatively, you can read them here. The game also has an exclusive cutscene if you linger in the main menu and briefings option to give players more context on Snake before the mission begins.
You don’t have much when you start the game. So exploring can help you in the long run like finding a cardboard box to evade enemies who do not realize an intruder is inside, ballistic weapons to shoot the soldiers in case you're caught and even C4 and grenades are here. If you need a bit more explosions to help matters. I love the Soliton radar system since it displays the enemies' range and you can see how far that extends in the environment. Thereby allowing the player to move Snake along pathways and nearby walls to evade enemy detection. Sound is also key, so you can’t expect to run everywhere. Soldiers can hear you running so it is a good idea to wait for them to walk away before moving along.
Stealth-wise I didn’t have much difficulty evading the enemies' patrols since the soliton radar system displays pretty much all I need to know about current enemy whereabouts. There are even items like the chaff grenade and stun grenade to jam cameras and stun all enemies which are very handy to abuse. Players can even choke enemies which I didn’t realize was an in-game feature until I read the manual after the end credits rolled…Cue facepalm… Be that as it may, I feel the beginning can be a bit rough for newcomers on where to go.
But, calling operation members in your codec is a nice way to refresh your main objective at times. I also deeply appreciate candid conversations whenever you talk to anyone on your codec. From Master Miller, you’ll receive tips on what to do. Campbell will remind you of your objective with Naomi chiming in. Mei Ling is the save option and positive reinforcement member of the operation, always there to lift your spirits. And more come along as you progress further into the game.
I often found myself calling my operation members after a major event or boss fight to see if they can offer any insightful tips/hints to solve my current dilemma.
To my delight, every boss encounter is given careful attention not to give too much away while also not being too vague. It strikes a delicate balance I found appreciated time and time again. I will admit I had times I wanted to google what to do, but I decided to make calls on my codec before I did. By the time the end credits rolled around, I noticed I finished a blind playthrough! It’s been so long since I made a genuine attempt at one. I can’t remember the last time I did. And man it is such a great feeling you were able to finish a game without getting spoiled on how to resolve a troublesome situation here. Although, I should note there is nothing wrong with using walkthroughs either. I usually use them when I'm in a pickle.
And yet here I am very surprised I withheld the urge. Due to the codec calls saving me every time. I wish more games had this feature implemented to allow the player to call an in-game hotline to help them. And I felt the codec calls were implemented in such a way I found naturally and not out of place since conversations occurred fluidly.
Levels are small; generally, you do have a somewhat linear path to follow with other areas to explore around Shadow Moses. Usually, when you're in an elevator you can access different floors that can range from filled with soldiers on patrol to not so many soldiers on patrol. These floors have low to high-clearance rooms. You can only enter if you have the correct level keycard. As you progress further into the game you will attain more high-clearance cards. This makes backtracking in the early and mid-game, not a big deal. And I found my time passing by quickly due to the bite-sized levels. It is pretty cool finding additional items along the way if you enter the prone position and first-person view to see tucked-away items, you don’t normally see from the overhead camera view.
However, I would like to point out there were two points that kinda soured my experience with the game. Not so much to make it a big deal. But it caused the pacing to halt in a way. One occurs midway to the endgame where I have to backtrack to the first location to retrieve an item essential to progress. The other time required me to keep coming back and forth. This occurred very late game and honestly wish the backtracking could’ve been lessened. It’s not a big detriment, but it's like putting the brakes on the story content and makes the player go through filler in a way. And to progress past that hurdle you need to go back to certain areas multiple times. Granted, after thinking heavily on the matter for some time, I realize Kojima probably added it in to give characters a bit more room to flesh out due to the codec calls you receive. Which provides massive ramifications to the game’s storyline being unfolded. So ultimately I have mixed feelings regarding that. Not a positive or a negative. A more well known reviewer @Drax touches upon that aspect more in their review you can see here. And I agree with their suggestion on new areas instead. Fair warning it does contain spoilers throughout the game.
That’s the only major critique I found for the game and in a minor aspect the slight jank in shooting and movement controls. The latter was a bit alleviated by switching to analog mode on my PS3 to make use of the analog sticks instead of the directional buttons. I think I would’ve appreciated a bit more rations(they are the only items to restore my health as far as I know) just in case my health went under. I had to abuse ration locations and re-enter the area to refill my stock of them.
Still the game holds up pretty well besides these issues I stated above.
On Snake’s character I found his demeanor and habits to be a refreshing take on protagonists I've seen thus far in the series. He’s gruff, honest, really loves to smoke and engages in casual flirting, but also doesn’t like shady bullshit which I love. You learn quite a bit about his character in various codec calls and the people you meet during your infiltration. One encounter made me nod my head several times concerning two males and one female he meets along the way. Without going into spoilers, the female encounter with Snake and subsequently throughout the game is one I found to be one of the game's strongest points. We see Snake take on a different role I love to see. And one I feel demonstrates so much more than his character of being a ‘legend’ so to speak. One male he meets displays a different side to Snake and while he doesn’t get a lot of attention I found his character and development to be interesting as well as genuine. I can’t help but root for the guy ya know. The final character is one I deeply respect for their encounter with Snake while unveiling parts of a ‘character's’ background and relationship I didn’t expect.
It is these encounters with Snake and more that transform him from a “Legend” into something deeper.
Speaking of going deeper, I'll hit the ‘throat’ of the game so to speak. There’s quite a bit of villain monologue here which I didn’t mind since I love long cutscenes. They can range from under five minutes to over five minutes. And granted villains don't always monologue. Sometimes conversations will occur on codec or when Snake talks to someone in a cutscene. So bear that in mind when playing the game. Speaking of cutscenes, I love how they’re done in the game. And see why it's warmly and fondly praised among the fans. They can range from intense action scenes to interesting conversation encounters. Adding tension and mystery where scenes needed it. And even FMV clips are included too! Honestly, seeing the cutscene work here reminded me heavily of my time playing through Vagrant story. I can see how much cinematic work was involved there and how that inspired Yasumi Matsuno during development because of Metal Gear Solid. You can read more about that here. Where Matsuno has a long conversation with none other than Hideo Kojima.
During my eleven-and-a-half-hour playthrough on normal difficulty. I felt the game played like a spy action thriller with many intense cutscenes in the game. And those moments only enhanced my experience with the game greatly. So kudos to you Kojima and your team for all the wonderful cutscenes. And the music during those moments spliced together wonderfully providing a mix of cinematic music, and orchestral at times. Graphically, I think the PS1 version of the game holds up. And many voice actors here performed very well. David Hayter voicing Snake is the most memorable to me. But the villains also hit a lot of notes I found to be menacing while almost comical to me. Snake’s codec calls to various members are also pretty good.
In conclusion, Metal Gear Solid is a fantastic game from Hideo Kojima on the PlayStation 1 and one I feel touches on a lot of relative themes concerning current world events in 2022/2023. Had a blast and the countless “Snakeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Being heard on the screen never got old to hear. Worth a playthrough for any newcomers curious about tactical espionage action games or want to dive into a Kojima game. Really looking forward to playing Metal Gear Solid 2 when I get around to it.
8/10
- For those who have played the game already. I’ll hint at the character’s name I mentioned above in my review here.
The female with the starting letter M and ends with L
The first male with the starting letter O and ends with N
The second male with the starting letter G and ends with X
Snake x Otacon yaoi is OVERRATED
I’m tired of FAKE YAOI FANS gassing up this UTTER DOGSHIT
I’m tired of FAKE YAOI FANS gassing up this UTTER DOGSHIT
Meu primeiro jogo do Kojima, e tudo que falaram é verdade, o homem é bom. O jogo tem uma história muito boa que realmente me cativou, cheia de reviravoltas e parece até um pouco a estrutura de um filme.
É um jogo extremamente interativo, quebra a quarta parede toda hora, o que é muito legal e extremamente avançado para a época. Lembro de escutar gente falando sobre o Psycho Mantis lendo seu save desde os meus 7 anos de idade.
A IA me impressionou. Eles são muito espertos para a época e até para hoje. Se você se encurrala em algum lugar que não tem saída, eles não vão atrás de você; eles jogam uma granada e esperam você sair. Isso é mais inteligente que muito jogo stealth que já joguei (Hitman e AC).
O level design é muito funcional, com fases lindas e cada parte muito diferente uma da outra. A câmera em primeira pessoa foi uma sacada muito boa afim de evitar problemas com a câmera e funciona perfeitamente bem.
O Kojima, em entrevista, disse: "I've got backstories for these characters that cover their whole lives, from the moment they were born to their current situation, but probably only 1/3 of that will make it into the game." É notável o quão gênio esse cara é. Embora tenha alguns furos bem óbvios de roteiro, a história é muito bem amarrada. Todos os personagens têm uma história que não é apenas jogada na sua cara; ela é contada de maneira natural ao decorrer da campanha.
Em geral, é um jogão, envelheceu como vinho. Tem alguns problemas de jogabilidade, mas é um jogo de 1998, então temos que dar um desconto.
"Humans can choose the type of life they want to live."
É um jogo extremamente interativo, quebra a quarta parede toda hora, o que é muito legal e extremamente avançado para a época. Lembro de escutar gente falando sobre o Psycho Mantis lendo seu save desde os meus 7 anos de idade.
A IA me impressionou. Eles são muito espertos para a época e até para hoje. Se você se encurrala em algum lugar que não tem saída, eles não vão atrás de você; eles jogam uma granada e esperam você sair. Isso é mais inteligente que muito jogo stealth que já joguei (Hitman e AC).
O level design é muito funcional, com fases lindas e cada parte muito diferente uma da outra. A câmera em primeira pessoa foi uma sacada muito boa afim de evitar problemas com a câmera e funciona perfeitamente bem.
O Kojima, em entrevista, disse: "I've got backstories for these characters that cover their whole lives, from the moment they were born to their current situation, but probably only 1/3 of that will make it into the game." É notável o quão gênio esse cara é. Embora tenha alguns furos bem óbvios de roteiro, a história é muito bem amarrada. Todos os personagens têm uma história que não é apenas jogada na sua cara; ela é contada de maneira natural ao decorrer da campanha.
Em geral, é um jogão, envelheceu como vinho. Tem alguns problemas de jogabilidade, mas é um jogo de 1998, então temos que dar um desconto.
"Humans can choose the type of life they want to live."
A truly, astonishingly remarkable experience from beginning to end, but how did straight boys play this game in the nineteen goddamn nineties and not melt like the Wicked Witch of the West?! Perhaps the single most homoerotic work of fiction that I have ever consumed, Metal Gear Solid is the story of queer men who can only express affection and desire for one another through ostentatious displays of sensualized violence. This is my first Hideo Kojima game but it certainly won't be my last.
If someone introduced themselves to me as Psycho Mantis I would be a bit more wary personally.
An incredible experience full of mostly intelligent (at times utterly ridiculous) storytelling that the series has never replicated in my opinion. A lasting testament to the revolution that was the PlayStation.
An incredible experience full of mostly intelligent (at times utterly ridiculous) storytelling that the series has never replicated in my opinion. A lasting testament to the revolution that was the PlayStation.
Metal Gear Solid did not dissapoint. This was a fantastic experience. It shows some age in combat and gunplay but I loved binging it this week for the story and stealth. I highly reccomend playing this game blind, as the many twists and 4th wall breaks are SO worth experiencing first hand. There are two endings too, and I'm excited to do a replay someday. Playing Metal Gear Solid was worth the hype.
This review contains spoilers
So ahead of its time and innovative. My first Metal Gear game. Really love the theme of nuclear war which was a surprising and mature them for its time. Has great characters and gameplay with some really cool gimmicks. The live action footage is so cool for it to have released in 1998. This game changed the industry and showed people that games can have an amazing in depth story and long cinematics as well as serious voice acting. Can’t wait to check out the rest of the series
This must have felt like a blockbuster movie back in 1998, huh?
Well, Metal Gear Solid is a classic for a reason. An engrossing story, overwritten to within an inch of it's life and excellently voice-acted. This is my first Hideo Kojima game and I'm starting to see why he has the divisive reputation he does. Personally, I really like the vibe, even if the crazy amount of fourth-wall breaking did overwhelm me at times. Psycho Mantis didn't tell me that I liked Castlevania but he did tell me I was shitty at combat which, well... he wasn't wrong.
It's funny, I found most of the bosses a breeze but really struggled with a lot of the standard sneaking sections. I know I suck at stealth in general but I feel that MGS's gameplay hasn't really held up as well as other games of it's ilk, such as Resident Evil 2. Man, 1998 was a good year for games, wasn't it?
This was my initiation into the Kojimaverse and I'm very curious to see where the Metal Gear Solid universe goes next. I'm sure it'll be full of surprises.
Well, Metal Gear Solid is a classic for a reason. An engrossing story, overwritten to within an inch of it's life and excellently voice-acted. This is my first Hideo Kojima game and I'm starting to see why he has the divisive reputation he does. Personally, I really like the vibe, even if the crazy amount of fourth-wall breaking did overwhelm me at times. Psycho Mantis didn't tell me that I liked Castlevania but he did tell me I was shitty at combat which, well... he wasn't wrong.
It's funny, I found most of the bosses a breeze but really struggled with a lot of the standard sneaking sections. I know I suck at stealth in general but I feel that MGS's gameplay hasn't really held up as well as other games of it's ilk, such as Resident Evil 2. Man, 1998 was a good year for games, wasn't it?
This was my initiation into the Kojimaverse and I'm very curious to see where the Metal Gear Solid universe goes next. I'm sure it'll be full of surprises.
james bond for weebs
At this point, Konami can't make a move without causing a controversy, especially with Metal Gear fans. But my PS1 shelves are already full, so I have to thank them for allowing me to experience all the European dubs without having to buy a 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th copy of PS1 Metal Gear Solid.
When you're as deep in the hole as I am, the idea of playing the entire thing through in French actually sounds like a compelling proposition. I'm quite impressed by how seriously late-90s KCEJ approached an international release. It wasn't common to see much beyond French and German options in PAL releases, and very few games had as much writing in them as MGS1 did. Especially not spoken dialogue. Sequels stripped back on localisation efforts, with only Japanese and English audio tracks, but every single line in MGS1 had been recorded in Japanese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It's interesting to hear the game with different voice direction. Some of the cutscenes play a little differently with the unique interpretations of each relationship. Without exception, I think all the female characters in French MGS1 sound really great, though many of the boys lose a lot of their nuance. Like the Japanese version, Liquid mainly just sounds like a big tough guy, lacking some of the pompousness and elegance of Cam Clarke's performance. I was really looking forward to French Revolver Ocelot, but he mainly just sounds like some old geezer. Jim Houseman didn't even sound particularly well recorded. French Snake has moments of brilliance, but his delivery is a little one-note, lacking some of Akio Ohtsuka and David Hayter's range. For my money, Mei Ling is the real stand-out among the French cast, sounding much bouncier and more excitable. I never would have expected a world-class designer of military technology to sound so... cute.
I think the biggest issue with this release is in its visual presentation. I'm completely on the side of whoever decided to stick with the PS1's 240p rendering, with reverence to the original team's approach to presentation, but I don't think it's scaling to HD resolutions correctly. The visuals are far below the standard of a PS1 with a clean RGB output, with the Master Collection release blurring over the dithered texturework that I love so dearly. It's perhaps closer to the composite signal that the majority of players will be used to, but I've grown to associate the game with a much cleaner image. Apparently this port is from M2, most widely known for their brilliant SEGA AGES releases, but I think this is their first time working with a PS1 game, and the lack of tweakable emulation settings may be the result of that. Scanlines are reportedly on their way via a patch, but I really hope display settings go much further than that. Throw in a Duckstation-style hi-res mode for the kiddiwinks if you must, but please give me a mode that presents those original 76,800 pixels as sharply as possible.
The extras in the pack aren't all that exciting. I've heard alternating reports of what the "Master Book" actually is, with some claiming it's a new English version of an old Konami MGS1 book. No. It's new. The fact that it's new might actually be the most interesting thing about it, as it presents the series' timeline with knowledge of all the retcons and inconsistencies that have been injected into the series up to the end of The Phantom Pain. There's even a page that bluntly explains everything that's said about Ocelot's backstory in MGS1 is a bare-faced lie. This is "the official version" of the series' story, although I'd never suggest that those who play Metal Gear 1 for the first time today ought to be thinking about Major Zero and Venom Snake. The book's fine, though its presentation is a little closer to a modern Konami website than a Japan-only 1998 MGS1 book, which would typically be filled with bespoke artwork, debug-mode screenshots of each environment, and often, interviews with the game's key staff. There's a lot of notes on secrets and checklists to follow through the game, but it can't be accessed while you're playing, so it could be a little more useful.
The script book is a little cooler. There have been officially-released script books for MGS1, 2, 3, 4 and Peace Walker in Japan, though I think western fans are being presumptuous about the vintage of these. They're based on the games' English localisations, and I'd assume the direction notes are newly-written, as opposed to insight into how the games were originally written. I'm pretty sure the Metal Gear 1 & 2 script books are entirely the result of someone playing the games and transcribing all the text, instead of someone digging into Kojima's decades-old production notes. Nonetheless, they're still pretty neat. It's nice to have easy access to all the CODEC conversations without having to experiment with every single variable in the games to potentially trigger alternate dialogue. It would have been cooler if you could access each of the scenes - with their audio - from within the book, but that would have been much more of a logistical nightmare.
The Master Collection release of MGS1 is a pretty cool package for hardcore fans of the game, and it does the job of bringing MGS1 to new hardware for less demanding players, too. It's not the end-all, be-all definitive release that some seem convinced they're entitled to, but I'm satisfied enough with all the things it does to stop myself from buying those alternate PAL discs. That's an achievement. If you're not rabid enough to have bought it already, either wishlist it on the platform you find most appealing, until it's inevitably on sale for a good discount, or stick with an emulator you already like. There's not much real value in investing in the wider online discourse.
When you're as deep in the hole as I am, the idea of playing the entire thing through in French actually sounds like a compelling proposition. I'm quite impressed by how seriously late-90s KCEJ approached an international release. It wasn't common to see much beyond French and German options in PAL releases, and very few games had as much writing in them as MGS1 did. Especially not spoken dialogue. Sequels stripped back on localisation efforts, with only Japanese and English audio tracks, but every single line in MGS1 had been recorded in Japanese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It's interesting to hear the game with different voice direction. Some of the cutscenes play a little differently with the unique interpretations of each relationship. Without exception, I think all the female characters in French MGS1 sound really great, though many of the boys lose a lot of their nuance. Like the Japanese version, Liquid mainly just sounds like a big tough guy, lacking some of the pompousness and elegance of Cam Clarke's performance. I was really looking forward to French Revolver Ocelot, but he mainly just sounds like some old geezer. Jim Houseman didn't even sound particularly well recorded. French Snake has moments of brilliance, but his delivery is a little one-note, lacking some of Akio Ohtsuka and David Hayter's range. For my money, Mei Ling is the real stand-out among the French cast, sounding much bouncier and more excitable. I never would have expected a world-class designer of military technology to sound so... cute.
I think the biggest issue with this release is in its visual presentation. I'm completely on the side of whoever decided to stick with the PS1's 240p rendering, with reverence to the original team's approach to presentation, but I don't think it's scaling to HD resolutions correctly. The visuals are far below the standard of a PS1 with a clean RGB output, with the Master Collection release blurring over the dithered texturework that I love so dearly. It's perhaps closer to the composite signal that the majority of players will be used to, but I've grown to associate the game with a much cleaner image. Apparently this port is from M2, most widely known for their brilliant SEGA AGES releases, but I think this is their first time working with a PS1 game, and the lack of tweakable emulation settings may be the result of that. Scanlines are reportedly on their way via a patch, but I really hope display settings go much further than that. Throw in a Duckstation-style hi-res mode for the kiddiwinks if you must, but please give me a mode that presents those original 76,800 pixels as sharply as possible.
The extras in the pack aren't all that exciting. I've heard alternating reports of what the "Master Book" actually is, with some claiming it's a new English version of an old Konami MGS1 book. No. It's new. The fact that it's new might actually be the most interesting thing about it, as it presents the series' timeline with knowledge of all the retcons and inconsistencies that have been injected into the series up to the end of The Phantom Pain. There's even a page that bluntly explains everything that's said about Ocelot's backstory in MGS1 is a bare-faced lie. This is "the official version" of the series' story, although I'd never suggest that those who play Metal Gear 1 for the first time today ought to be thinking about Major Zero and Venom Snake. The book's fine, though its presentation is a little closer to a modern Konami website than a Japan-only 1998 MGS1 book, which would typically be filled with bespoke artwork, debug-mode screenshots of each environment, and often, interviews with the game's key staff. There's a lot of notes on secrets and checklists to follow through the game, but it can't be accessed while you're playing, so it could be a little more useful.
The script book is a little cooler. There have been officially-released script books for MGS1, 2, 3, 4 and Peace Walker in Japan, though I think western fans are being presumptuous about the vintage of these. They're based on the games' English localisations, and I'd assume the direction notes are newly-written, as opposed to insight into how the games were originally written. I'm pretty sure the Metal Gear 1 & 2 script books are entirely the result of someone playing the games and transcribing all the text, instead of someone digging into Kojima's decades-old production notes. Nonetheless, they're still pretty neat. It's nice to have easy access to all the CODEC conversations without having to experiment with every single variable in the games to potentially trigger alternate dialogue. It would have been cooler if you could access each of the scenes - with their audio - from within the book, but that would have been much more of a logistical nightmare.
The Master Collection release of MGS1 is a pretty cool package for hardcore fans of the game, and it does the job of bringing MGS1 to new hardware for less demanding players, too. It's not the end-all, be-all definitive release that some seem convinced they're entitled to, but I'm satisfied enough with all the things it does to stop myself from buying those alternate PAL discs. That's an achievement. If you're not rabid enough to have bought it already, either wishlist it on the platform you find most appealing, until it's inevitably on sale for a good discount, or stick with an emulator you already like. There's not much real value in investing in the wider online discourse.
This game aged so well. I don’t have any complaints with it. Obviously the gameplay gets better as the series goes on but simplicity is supreme here. Probably has the best pacing in a game I’ve ever seen. Story, gameplay, and music all great. I actually forgot the plot since I played it last so it all felt fresh in my mind. Honestly this deserves a remake more than 3.
I'll be honest, it took me a long time to start playing this series. I knew that MGS3 and MGSV were well-known, but I didn't care much
gladly i got a computer so... i started emulating
The desire to play MGS2 and MGS3 was definitely what motivated me to play this, but MGS1 wasn't at all bad, in fact, it's one of my favorite games
The entire narrative is so skillfully built that it's difficult to believe that everything mentioned matters, the plot twists were something that really caught me off guard and considering this game does not have the best in the series makes my dopamine receptors fry
if yall ever say that "the plot is way to complicated" pls shut up, thast honestly what makes this whole game good and the rest of the series ( probably )
the whole anime-esque but not exagerrated part of this game makes it much better tbh it just adds a bit of comedic relief and stupid things that any other games couldnt pull without being corny
im definitely not great with reviews but at least i tried expressing my love for this title, hope mgs2 as good or better
LOVE YOU KOJIMA <3
gladly i got a computer so... i started emulating
The desire to play MGS2 and MGS3 was definitely what motivated me to play this, but MGS1 wasn't at all bad, in fact, it's one of my favorite games
The entire narrative is so skillfully built that it's difficult to believe that everything mentioned matters, the plot twists were something that really caught me off guard and considering this game does not have the best in the series makes my dopamine receptors fry
if yall ever say that "the plot is way to complicated" pls shut up, thast honestly what makes this whole game good and the rest of the series ( probably )
the whole anime-esque but not exagerrated part of this game makes it much better tbh it just adds a bit of comedic relief and stupid things that any other games couldnt pull without being corny
im definitely not great with reviews but at least i tried expressing my love for this title, hope mgs2 as good or better
LOVE YOU KOJIMA <3
An essential video game, now and forever.
this was the moment in which the playstation made any and all competition look like a goddamned embarassment. if final fantasy vii wasn't already enough of an indicator that maybe nintendo should've reconsidered that cd-rom collaboration with sony, the release of metal gear solid is where they must've looked at themselves with their dicks in their hands and gone, "what the hell are we even doing here?" regardless of personal opinion or subjective takeaway, there is an objective throughline to the narrative design and storytelling of essentially the entire modern single-player gaming industry that leads back to 1998's metal gear solid. to call it one of the most influential video games ever made doesn't do its legacy justice. it's a game that continues to morph, bend, and redefine itself almost 25 years after its initial release. hell, it's a shame it didn't inspire MORE of the modern gaming world, in the sense that its experimentation and willingness to dip into the absurd and self-aware clearly was left behind in the shuffle tothe current generation's blockbusters. metal gear solid is a timeless experience that must truly be experienced to be believed.
the cumbersome burden of solid snake is felt in the control scheme, and while on some objective level it's aged, i'm willing to consider it part of the character and how the game defines snake in a metatextual sense to the player; the two may work in symbiosis by design of it being a video game, but there's also a discreet awareness in metal gear solid as a series that this is all, indeed, a video game - so regardless of whether it's intended or not (i'm willing to admit the likelihood kojima was bullshitting when he brought this up down the line, lol) i think it works to an effect. metal gear solid isn't difficult to control if you're used to titles of the era. the level design is immaculate - truly has an intentional "video game-y" feel especially in areas like the second vulcan raven duel, or the section where snake can't use his weapons, or the furnace section - that carries a distinctly futuristic and militant vibe heightened by the score. every piece of music in this game has to be etched into my skull at this point, the highest point of all undoubtedly being the vocal track "the best is yet to come" and its various instances in leitmotifs throughout the game. of course one can't discuss metal gear solid without nodding to the truly game-changing, top class voice performances across the entire class. this had to be a deep scare to the rest of the market at the time - english dubs of this level and with this much spoken dialogue was unheard of in this day and age, and to this day the performances and writing have aged tremendously.
the cinematography and scene composition of metal gear solid is truly amorphous. there are sequences where you might get away with calling this a horror game; the hallway before the cyborg ninja battle where you meet otacon, or the entirety of the psycho mantis sequence. there are moments in which characters' tension or intimacy is highlighted; the seductive ferocity of sniper wolf and snake's interactions, or the sparse moments of genuine care and peace between snake and meryl, or otacon. threats often are 'shot' to feel larger than life, like the sequence with the hind on the roof top, or the titular metal gear rex, which the game forces you to consider the sheer scope of by actually having you traverse its entire scale. while the narrative storytelling is deserving of its constant praise, i think it's these instances of master 'camera work' and visual storytelling that help the game feel a true cut above all the same.
there's much to be said about metal gear solid's sociopolitical messages or the means with which it deconstructs the media it draws much of its inspiration from, but i think one of the most prevelant themes of the game that resonated with me when i first played it as a teenager, especially in tandem with its sequel (a game i wonder if i could even talk about here to any level of justice) was its warcry in the name of individualism. what it means to be a free person, what freedom means and who, if anyone, has the means to attain it. metal gear solid makes it clear there is no war and no country that might offer you peace and liberty - it's a matter of self-attained enlightenment and a tranquility with your reality and surroundings that offers man the means to find true freedom. snake, otacon, fox, meryl, liquid, mantis, wolf, they're all soldiers of circumstance. to be a dog of war is to offer your life for the sake of freedom to observers - we see meryl go through the motions as she realizes, though, she IS green and that her perception of war and heroism was also propoganda all along. pretty girls and gruff rambo would-be's get shot and bleed out, too. the masters of war turn a blind eye and deploy the next one. if you want freedom, as dave and hal find out, you're going to have to go off the grid and find it yourself, no matter the cost.
metal gear solid wasn't afraid to consider possibilities that major titles even now tiptoe around - today's gaming industry has seen massive shooter franchises no longer even disguising their ulterior motives as nationalist propoganda. we've seen an industry willing to trounce creators and small teams in hopes of following trends that peter out within months. we've seen games that dare to question the status quo and dare to do something unique and challenging, thanks in no small part to this pioneer, only to be met with backlash about how games "are all political now" or some centrist hogwash talkpiece nonsense like that. look to the past, to metal gear solid, to learn the truth; when savant visionaries are given the resources, this is a medium that can offer truly life-changing experiences that will force discomfort and challenge preconcieved notions to its entire audience, while remaining heartfelt, loving and tender - universal. a story, a work of art without borders. in the 24 years since its release, metal gear solid still remains damn near the top of the line - one of the finest works of art in this entire medium.
the cumbersome burden of solid snake is felt in the control scheme, and while on some objective level it's aged, i'm willing to consider it part of the character and how the game defines snake in a metatextual sense to the player; the two may work in symbiosis by design of it being a video game, but there's also a discreet awareness in metal gear solid as a series that this is all, indeed, a video game - so regardless of whether it's intended or not (i'm willing to admit the likelihood kojima was bullshitting when he brought this up down the line, lol) i think it works to an effect. metal gear solid isn't difficult to control if you're used to titles of the era. the level design is immaculate - truly has an intentional "video game-y" feel especially in areas like the second vulcan raven duel, or the section where snake can't use his weapons, or the furnace section - that carries a distinctly futuristic and militant vibe heightened by the score. every piece of music in this game has to be etched into my skull at this point, the highest point of all undoubtedly being the vocal track "the best is yet to come" and its various instances in leitmotifs throughout the game. of course one can't discuss metal gear solid without nodding to the truly game-changing, top class voice performances across the entire class. this had to be a deep scare to the rest of the market at the time - english dubs of this level and with this much spoken dialogue was unheard of in this day and age, and to this day the performances and writing have aged tremendously.
the cinematography and scene composition of metal gear solid is truly amorphous. there are sequences where you might get away with calling this a horror game; the hallway before the cyborg ninja battle where you meet otacon, or the entirety of the psycho mantis sequence. there are moments in which characters' tension or intimacy is highlighted; the seductive ferocity of sniper wolf and snake's interactions, or the sparse moments of genuine care and peace between snake and meryl, or otacon. threats often are 'shot' to feel larger than life, like the sequence with the hind on the roof top, or the titular metal gear rex, which the game forces you to consider the sheer scope of by actually having you traverse its entire scale. while the narrative storytelling is deserving of its constant praise, i think it's these instances of master 'camera work' and visual storytelling that help the game feel a true cut above all the same.
there's much to be said about metal gear solid's sociopolitical messages or the means with which it deconstructs the media it draws much of its inspiration from, but i think one of the most prevelant themes of the game that resonated with me when i first played it as a teenager, especially in tandem with its sequel (a game i wonder if i could even talk about here to any level of justice) was its warcry in the name of individualism. what it means to be a free person, what freedom means and who, if anyone, has the means to attain it. metal gear solid makes it clear there is no war and no country that might offer you peace and liberty - it's a matter of self-attained enlightenment and a tranquility with your reality and surroundings that offers man the means to find true freedom. snake, otacon, fox, meryl, liquid, mantis, wolf, they're all soldiers of circumstance. to be a dog of war is to offer your life for the sake of freedom to observers - we see meryl go through the motions as she realizes, though, she IS green and that her perception of war and heroism was also propoganda all along. pretty girls and gruff rambo would-be's get shot and bleed out, too. the masters of war turn a blind eye and deploy the next one. if you want freedom, as dave and hal find out, you're going to have to go off the grid and find it yourself, no matter the cost.
metal gear solid wasn't afraid to consider possibilities that major titles even now tiptoe around - today's gaming industry has seen massive shooter franchises no longer even disguising their ulterior motives as nationalist propoganda. we've seen an industry willing to trounce creators and small teams in hopes of following trends that peter out within months. we've seen games that dare to question the status quo and dare to do something unique and challenging, thanks in no small part to this pioneer, only to be met with backlash about how games "are all political now" or some centrist hogwash talkpiece nonsense like that. look to the past, to metal gear solid, to learn the truth; when savant visionaries are given the resources, this is a medium that can offer truly life-changing experiences that will force discomfort and challenge preconcieved notions to its entire audience, while remaining heartfelt, loving and tender - universal. a story, a work of art without borders. in the 24 years since its release, metal gear solid still remains damn near the top of the line - one of the finest works of art in this entire medium.
I've had my eye on the Metal Gear Solid series for a while now and eventually I got the incentive to try the first game in the series after @wheatie assigned it to me. Had a decent time with it!
Metal Gear Solid is a classic stealth game - you sneak your way past enemies, and usually don't face them head on. (Else you have to deal with really frustrating aiming controls!) Your tools consist of several weapons like a silenced pistol, a sniper or even a rocket launcher, but also handy gadgets like EMP grenades and... a cardboard box?
The overarching narrative was engaging and consisted of many, fully voice-acted cutscenes. Some of them longer than others, ranging from quick Codec calls to villains monologuing for minutes on the brink of death. I have to admit that there were times where the exposition and monologues went on for a bit too long for my taste and apparently the cutscenes are only getting longer in the later games. A shame, since I believe those moments drag down the pacing quite a bit.
As I mentioned before, my other main complaint are the controls. Sure, this game is 25 year old at the time of writing this, but other games released in that period had more understandable controls too (an example being Ocarina of Time). The worst offender was definitely the aiming, but then again I didn't find out until after the beating the game that there was auto-aiming. Oh well, too late now.
That aside, Metal Gear Solid was enjoyable enough to make me want to check out the rest of the series as well, considering MGS2 and MGS3 are praised highly. It's a fairly short game and was just the right experience to play after Red Dead Redemption 2, which took me about a month to beat. But let me tell you, going from the graphics of RDR2 to PS1 models was certainly something! Have a good day.
Metal Gear Solid is a classic stealth game - you sneak your way past enemies, and usually don't face them head on. (Else you have to deal with really frustrating aiming controls!) Your tools consist of several weapons like a silenced pistol, a sniper or even a rocket launcher, but also handy gadgets like EMP grenades and... a cardboard box?
The overarching narrative was engaging and consisted of many, fully voice-acted cutscenes. Some of them longer than others, ranging from quick Codec calls to villains monologuing for minutes on the brink of death. I have to admit that there were times where the exposition and monologues went on for a bit too long for my taste and apparently the cutscenes are only getting longer in the later games. A shame, since I believe those moments drag down the pacing quite a bit.
As I mentioned before, my other main complaint are the controls. Sure, this game is 25 year old at the time of writing this, but other games released in that period had more understandable controls too (an example being Ocarina of Time). The worst offender was definitely the aiming, but then again I didn't find out until after the beating the game that there was auto-aiming. Oh well, too late now.
That aside, Metal Gear Solid was enjoyable enough to make me want to check out the rest of the series as well, considering MGS2 and MGS3 are praised highly. It's a fairly short game and was just the right experience to play after Red Dead Redemption 2, which took me about a month to beat. But let me tell you, going from the graphics of RDR2 to PS1 models was certainly something! Have a good day.
lost in the bloody shadows of war are the cries of those who seek the light.
the golden standard for equally balanced gameplay and story. blended together in such a way where one cannot exist without the other. each and every guard we come across, unknowingly trapped as pawns in a much deeper game whose players show blatant disregard for their own pieces on the board. everyone has selfish reasons for fighting, despite war never ending in favor of its soldiers turned victims. victory is reliant on how mercilessly you can move forward while forgetting the scent of past’s bloody aroma.
i’m a huge fan of every character here but the one i felt most connected to was surprisingly meryl. she’s almost like this self insert for some of the audience with her portrayal of the battlefield as this larger-than-life action flick displaying heroes and villains. as the game goes on, both us and meryl slowly discover the truth of it. there are no heroes, no villains. on the surface there appears to be two different sides, but on the battlefield there are just people, people who simply do what they’re told. mgs1 doesn’t sugarcoat anything, conveying the cold truths beneath what we know as “war.” the mysteries run deeper than we initially thought.
the game’s content wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if not for the unconventional yet effective writing combined with the surprising amount of production value. at times it can be a bit infodumpy but the subject matter is relevant and intriguing enough to keep me interested. the cutscene presentation was initially what blew me away like many others. each scene has some really good shot composition and directing. it’s definitely reminiscent of the terminators and the predators of the time while still managing to be distinct in its own right. there’s a noticeable amount of attention to detail paid to both the cinematics and gameplay. when roaming the foreboding mechanical hallways of shadow moses you have all the tools at your disposal, it’s up to you to figure out how to use those tools realistically and efficiently. there’s no one set way to do basically anything in the game. experimentation is encouraged and even today i find it to be pretty ingenious.
the past can be used as an excuse to justify our present actions. in our strive for personal benefit sometimes we lose sight of who we really are. the past is important, no doubt, but what we make of ourselves now is what counts (if you can excuse my bit of cliche regurgitation). live on snake, otacon, meryl.
metal gear solid’s legacy speaks for itself. there’s not much more i can add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said. it’s considered one of the greatest games ever made for a reason, setting a new standard for the medium that still echoes throughout the modern gaming world. one of the most revolutionary titles i’ve played in recent memory.
the golden standard for equally balanced gameplay and story. blended together in such a way where one cannot exist without the other. each and every guard we come across, unknowingly trapped as pawns in a much deeper game whose players show blatant disregard for their own pieces on the board. everyone has selfish reasons for fighting, despite war never ending in favor of its soldiers turned victims. victory is reliant on how mercilessly you can move forward while forgetting the scent of past’s bloody aroma.
i’m a huge fan of every character here but the one i felt most connected to was surprisingly meryl. she’s almost like this self insert for some of the audience with her portrayal of the battlefield as this larger-than-life action flick displaying heroes and villains. as the game goes on, both us and meryl slowly discover the truth of it. there are no heroes, no villains. on the surface there appears to be two different sides, but on the battlefield there are just people, people who simply do what they’re told. mgs1 doesn’t sugarcoat anything, conveying the cold truths beneath what we know as “war.” the mysteries run deeper than we initially thought.
the game’s content wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if not for the unconventional yet effective writing combined with the surprising amount of production value. at times it can be a bit infodumpy but the subject matter is relevant and intriguing enough to keep me interested. the cutscene presentation was initially what blew me away like many others. each scene has some really good shot composition and directing. it’s definitely reminiscent of the terminators and the predators of the time while still managing to be distinct in its own right. there’s a noticeable amount of attention to detail paid to both the cinematics and gameplay. when roaming the foreboding mechanical hallways of shadow moses you have all the tools at your disposal, it’s up to you to figure out how to use those tools realistically and efficiently. there’s no one set way to do basically anything in the game. experimentation is encouraged and even today i find it to be pretty ingenious.
the past can be used as an excuse to justify our present actions. in our strive for personal benefit sometimes we lose sight of who we really are. the past is important, no doubt, but what we make of ourselves now is what counts (if you can excuse my bit of cliche regurgitation). live on snake, otacon, meryl.
metal gear solid’s legacy speaks for itself. there’s not much more i can add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said. it’s considered one of the greatest games ever made for a reason, setting a new standard for the medium that still echoes throughout the modern gaming world. one of the most revolutionary titles i’ve played in recent memory.
I think Hideo Kojima should do a Rose/M. Bison type thing where he splits his artistic side and his misogynistic side into two completely different people
If "The Best is yet to Come" does not play as I'm dying on the ground while making an emotional speech about environmentalism or something, I simply refuse to die until it does.
In Metal Gear Solid you play as a man named Snake who wears a bandana and is a clone of another man named Snake who also wore a bandana, as well as the brother of another man named Snake who does not wear a bandana and is also blond. You fight a man named Ocelot who thinks he is a cowboy, as well as a man in a gas mask who knows what games you like, as well as an invisible ninja who makes an otaku pee himself, as well as an Alaskan shaman who carries a gatling gun on his back, as well as a blonde woman who has her tiddies out in sub-zero temperatures. You also become best friends with the otaku who pissed himself and can save a woman with a nice butt if you mash buttons fast enough. Also, there is a giant robot that shoots nukes, and the plot is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how dominant and recessive genes work.
Despite all of this, Metal Gear Solid is a deeply impactful game, and I count it among my favorites.
Despite all of this, Metal Gear Solid is a deeply impactful game, and I count it among my favorites.
Amazing narrative and groundbreaking game controls and mechanics for its time for being a stealth game. I understand the love everyone has for this series already and Kojima as well. Being able to cook up themes that involve the series with real life issues as well as personal issues such as controlling your own fate, being a better version of yourself and pushing for a better tomorrow.
HOW A STEALTH GAME SHOULD BE FOR A CONSOLE WITH LIMITED HW
A true masterpiece that marked a generation of gamers.
Beautiful storyline with its characters and their many facets.
Excellent level design and beautiful (for the times) graphics.
Despite the years I still replay it with pleasure from time to time
A true masterpiece that marked a generation of gamers.
Beautiful storyline with its characters and their many facets.
Excellent level design and beautiful (for the times) graphics.
Despite the years I still replay it with pleasure from time to time
20+ year old mechanics can't dilute this timeless classic. The earnest storytelling, the colorful/campy characters, the damn MUSIC, the strangely moving ending; never have so few pixels felt so alive to me.
"-if even soldiers could fall in love..."
"-if even soldiers could fall in love..."
Definitely recognized one of those stock explosion shots from Spongebob.
I remember my old college roommate telling me about how much he loved this game. We were talking one of the first days back on campus and trying to make common interests (We didn't have many outside of both liking Halo) and he mentioned how much he loved this game. As some added context, my roommate was the most normie person I had ever met in my life. He would get laid by random chicks like once a week. He exclusively used his computer to study and play that shitty looking amazon mmo. He literally didn't know the name of a single youtuber or internet personality in general. And even him, King of the Normans, had played and loved this game before me, a "Capital G Gamer" had. What a shame.
In possibly the least shocking turn of events ever, I also liked it quite a bit. I expected it to be some kind of old PS1 level jank but it was surprisingly fun throughout! The "Advanced Pac-Man" tier stealth was engaging throughout the playtime, it never got dull cutting as close as possible to the dogshit AI grunts and narrowly weaving through cameras to save on prescious Chaff Grenades, or just throwing caution to the wind and running through hordes of grunts until you can hide out just long enough. Feels very arcade-y in the best way possible. Lot of fun setpieces too! A couple of mild stinkers in there (I have literally no idea how the roping section was supposed to work) but for the most part enjoyed them for how varied they were. That includes the staircase ambush. And the torture segment. I thought both were cool.
Bosses are a bit more iffy. Each of them can be fit neatly into one of three camps: Too easy to note (Mantis, Ocelot), mildly frustrating until you get the hang of it (Wolf the first time, REX), or very fun to cheese (Standing behind a tree and peppering Wolf with missiles the second time, playing peekaboo with Raven around a box forever). Felt like maybe there were a couple too many, but they rarely got in the way.
Then there's story. The big ticket thing. The first truly cinematic experience in vidja, showing once and for all that Sony Does What Nintendon't. God, it's insane how much a decent sense of direction and moderately good voice actng can make a story as infodump-y and long winded at times seem not boring! You'd think more games would take that approach. The Codec calls of staring at barely moving portraits can drag a bit but other than that it was thoroughly engaging, especially for the time period. I find it hard to add anything new to the conversation of Kojima's odd writing style but I will say man knows how to write a gripping military political thriller with heavyhanded references to real world topics! Except for the whole situation with the Master, I have no idea how he thought that would fool anyone. No offense to Cam Clarke, he's great in plenty of other stuff (killer7 and Back at the Barnyard) but he really can't convince me that those are two different people.
Good game. Very good game. Unsurprisingly. Now, I gotta go tell Paul his ex-roommate has played his favorite kino.
I remember my old college roommate telling me about how much he loved this game. We were talking one of the first days back on campus and trying to make common interests (We didn't have many outside of both liking Halo) and he mentioned how much he loved this game. As some added context, my roommate was the most normie person I had ever met in my life. He would get laid by random chicks like once a week. He exclusively used his computer to study and play that shitty looking amazon mmo. He literally didn't know the name of a single youtuber or internet personality in general. And even him, King of the Normans, had played and loved this game before me, a "Capital G Gamer" had. What a shame.
In possibly the least shocking turn of events ever, I also liked it quite a bit. I expected it to be some kind of old PS1 level jank but it was surprisingly fun throughout! The "Advanced Pac-Man" tier stealth was engaging throughout the playtime, it never got dull cutting as close as possible to the dogshit AI grunts and narrowly weaving through cameras to save on prescious Chaff Grenades, or just throwing caution to the wind and running through hordes of grunts until you can hide out just long enough. Feels very arcade-y in the best way possible. Lot of fun setpieces too! A couple of mild stinkers in there (I have literally no idea how the roping section was supposed to work) but for the most part enjoyed them for how varied they were. That includes the staircase ambush. And the torture segment. I thought both were cool.
Bosses are a bit more iffy. Each of them can be fit neatly into one of three camps: Too easy to note (Mantis, Ocelot), mildly frustrating until you get the hang of it (Wolf the first time, REX), or very fun to cheese (Standing behind a tree and peppering Wolf with missiles the second time, playing peekaboo with Raven around a box forever). Felt like maybe there were a couple too many, but they rarely got in the way.
Then there's story. The big ticket thing. The first truly cinematic experience in vidja, showing once and for all that Sony Does What Nintendon't. God, it's insane how much a decent sense of direction and moderately good voice actng can make a story as infodump-y and long winded at times seem not boring! You'd think more games would take that approach. The Codec calls of staring at barely moving portraits can drag a bit but other than that it was thoroughly engaging, especially for the time period. I find it hard to add anything new to the conversation of Kojima's odd writing style but I will say man knows how to write a gripping military political thriller with heavyhanded references to real world topics! Except for the whole situation with the Master, I have no idea how he thought that would fool anyone. No offense to Cam Clarke, he's great in plenty of other stuff (killer7 and Back at the Barnyard) but he really can't convince me that those are two different people.
Good game. Very good game. Unsurprisingly. Now, I gotta go tell Paul his ex-roommate has played his favorite kino.
domino effect meme where the little domino says "solid snake using vents to escape enemy detection in 1998's mgs1" and the big domino says "venting in among us"
This is the first time I have completed a Metal Gear game and my first proper Kojima experience. And wow expectations are blown.
You always hear how Kojima is one of the greats, how his games blend film and gameplay into an unbeatable cohesive experience. So, after finally completing one of his masterpieces, I now understand the experience is not just online chatter but in fact very true.
For a game that released in 1998 its unbelievable how polished the experience is. My gripes with the game are limited to a handful of annoying checkpoints that can be circumvented by using the save system and exiting to the menu, or a couple of combat encounters with a few to many respawning guards or a tedious boss. Otherwise, this game is great especially for its age.
Metal Gear Solid is absolutely not for everyone but those who are willing to give it a go are in for a wild ride.
You always hear how Kojima is one of the greats, how his games blend film and gameplay into an unbeatable cohesive experience. So, after finally completing one of his masterpieces, I now understand the experience is not just online chatter but in fact very true.
For a game that released in 1998 its unbelievable how polished the experience is. My gripes with the game are limited to a handful of annoying checkpoints that can be circumvented by using the save system and exiting to the menu, or a couple of combat encounters with a few to many respawning guards or a tedious boss. Otherwise, this game is great especially for its age.
Metal Gear Solid is absolutely not for everyone but those who are willing to give it a go are in for a wild ride.
This review contains spoilers
Ah, Metal Gear Solid. I've heard so many legends about you from friends and the overarching video game community, but I never got around to playing until this week. So after playing through Kojima's earlier works Snatcher and Policenauts last year and loving those separate narratives, I decided to finally get past my hesitation and tackle the big one.
What surprised me perhaps the most is that despite its age, it has held up magnificently well. The stealth is relatively simple: you just gotta stay out of sight against these so called super soldiers with enhanced sight and hearing (as enhanced as it can be in 1998, anyways) and getting caught will suck because then come the endless waves of gunfire. Admittingly I'm not sure how well the idea of stealth is supposed to hold up when you can use your Stinger to blow up cameras or use an unsilenced sniper rifle to take out patrolling soldiers halfway across the room, but you know, it's that era of gaming so I'll willingly suspend my disbelief. I'll also choose to suspend my disbelief that you make tons of noise sneaking around in a cardboard box because you can't tip top/crawl while inside the box so it's actually super dangerous at times to use the box as compared to crawling out in the open. (Don't think I'll ever say that sentence again.) That said, you will be forced into combat at multiple points in the game (both boss fights and some forced fights vs super soldiers) and this is where the game really shows its age. Aiming is unfortunately kind of janky because you need to aim from a top down perspective with the joystick with no aim assist whatsoever on a controller. It doesn't sound that bad, until you're being swarmed by multiple super soldiers constantly moving and shooting you (so you're in hitstun as well) and then it becomes a bit more annoying. Also, some of the weapons will instantly switch to 3D mode (notably the sniper rifle and the Stinger) and that's also a wrench in the machine for aiming; you better hope you were looking in the right direction when you switched to those weapons, because otherwise it's going to take you an eternity to turn/parse over to your actual targets while you're being attacked. As I said earlier, most of this is not too big of a deal, but there are times where getting swarmed by soldiers (ex: the communication towers ascension) can make combat feel a bit clumsy at times, and a very specific instance during Sniper Wolf's first fight where getting shot would cause my current aim to wildly fly out of control so getting clear shots myself was a bit of a nightmare and really caused me to seethe during the whole sequence. But otherwise, I adapted and mostly got by; besides some instances where my Nikita missile got clipped by walls or where during the final fight vs Metal Gear I couldn't quite aim high enough at times to hit the cockpit, everything worked out okay.
I suppose the other major complaint I had was the occasional need for major backtracking; you'll need to backtrack twice, once for the sniper rifle and then again to transform your PAL key in the warehouse AND the furnace. This did unfortunately create a bit of a lull in the 2nd half of the game that had plenty of boss fights and batshit crazy exposition and cutscenes, and I would have just preferred if the game proceeded organically to new sections without this need to force me to go back entire sections. It also doesn't really help that the backtracking does involve you running through previous obstacles, so it's not just simple trekking through previous rooms, but rather involves a need to disable cameras, dodge claymores and soldiers that weren't there before, etc.
Now despite my major criticisms (mainly due to this game showing its age), I still ended up giving it a 4/5. Why? Because despite its flaws of the time, it is an extraordinary combination of narrative and gameplay that's practically unmatched for anything in its time and incredibly influential on expanding creativity of meshing these two together in future games. I love the batshit crazy narrative of nanomachines + nuclear weapons + government conspiracies and how all these bosses and heroes have these wild backstories and colorful personalities. I love how after several hours of sneaking around soldiers in a cardboard box and blowing up tanks with rocket launchers and grenades, you get this out of the blue yarn about how "love can bloom on the battlefield" by this weeb that's being forced to develop stealth suits and a giant transformer that fires nukes without fuel so they can't even be classified as missiles or be detected by radar, all while a Kurdish sniper breathes her last breath in the painted snow. And of course, I love everything about the Psycho Mantis fight and how I was terrified that switching ports might be too much for my Duckstation emulator to properly defeat Psycho Mantis, and how I told my uninformed friend who was watching "we interrupt our regularly televised content to bring you an impromptu break of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" because I really, really, hoped that he'd bring that up as soon as I came back after finding the first save point. (Psycho Mantis did not bring that up unfortunately; might have just been an issue with how Duckstation handles the virtual memory card or maybe it was too soon, who knows.) Either way, what I'm trying to say is, Metal Gear Solid is a fucking ride despite all the jank from its era, and I love how it tried to do so many different things, with many of those things outright succeeding and even more influencing game development as we know it.
So yeah, I think Metal Gear Solid is a pretty alright game. Maybe it's a product of its time due to its technical limitations at times, but it's also an extraordinary step forward in terms of visuals, scope of storytelling, excellently voice acted cutscenes with great banter and non sequiturs, and plenty of gameplay sequences that really impressed me due to how they forced me to think outside of the box. I'm glad I finally got through the original, and here's looking forward to traversing the upcoming installments within the next 10 years.
What surprised me perhaps the most is that despite its age, it has held up magnificently well. The stealth is relatively simple: you just gotta stay out of sight against these so called super soldiers with enhanced sight and hearing (as enhanced as it can be in 1998, anyways) and getting caught will suck because then come the endless waves of gunfire. Admittingly I'm not sure how well the idea of stealth is supposed to hold up when you can use your Stinger to blow up cameras or use an unsilenced sniper rifle to take out patrolling soldiers halfway across the room, but you know, it's that era of gaming so I'll willingly suspend my disbelief. I'll also choose to suspend my disbelief that you make tons of noise sneaking around in a cardboard box because you can't tip top/crawl while inside the box so it's actually super dangerous at times to use the box as compared to crawling out in the open. (Don't think I'll ever say that sentence again.) That said, you will be forced into combat at multiple points in the game (both boss fights and some forced fights vs super soldiers) and this is where the game really shows its age. Aiming is unfortunately kind of janky because you need to aim from a top down perspective with the joystick with no aim assist whatsoever on a controller. It doesn't sound that bad, until you're being swarmed by multiple super soldiers constantly moving and shooting you (so you're in hitstun as well) and then it becomes a bit more annoying. Also, some of the weapons will instantly switch to 3D mode (notably the sniper rifle and the Stinger) and that's also a wrench in the machine for aiming; you better hope you were looking in the right direction when you switched to those weapons, because otherwise it's going to take you an eternity to turn/parse over to your actual targets while you're being attacked. As I said earlier, most of this is not too big of a deal, but there are times where getting swarmed by soldiers (ex: the communication towers ascension) can make combat feel a bit clumsy at times, and a very specific instance during Sniper Wolf's first fight where getting shot would cause my current aim to wildly fly out of control so getting clear shots myself was a bit of a nightmare and really caused me to seethe during the whole sequence. But otherwise, I adapted and mostly got by; besides some instances where my Nikita missile got clipped by walls or where during the final fight vs Metal Gear I couldn't quite aim high enough at times to hit the cockpit, everything worked out okay.
I suppose the other major complaint I had was the occasional need for major backtracking; you'll need to backtrack twice, once for the sniper rifle and then again to transform your PAL key in the warehouse AND the furnace. This did unfortunately create a bit of a lull in the 2nd half of the game that had plenty of boss fights and batshit crazy exposition and cutscenes, and I would have just preferred if the game proceeded organically to new sections without this need to force me to go back entire sections. It also doesn't really help that the backtracking does involve you running through previous obstacles, so it's not just simple trekking through previous rooms, but rather involves a need to disable cameras, dodge claymores and soldiers that weren't there before, etc.
Now despite my major criticisms (mainly due to this game showing its age), I still ended up giving it a 4/5. Why? Because despite its flaws of the time, it is an extraordinary combination of narrative and gameplay that's practically unmatched for anything in its time and incredibly influential on expanding creativity of meshing these two together in future games. I love the batshit crazy narrative of nanomachines + nuclear weapons + government conspiracies and how all these bosses and heroes have these wild backstories and colorful personalities. I love how after several hours of sneaking around soldiers in a cardboard box and blowing up tanks with rocket launchers and grenades, you get this out of the blue yarn about how "love can bloom on the battlefield" by this weeb that's being forced to develop stealth suits and a giant transformer that fires nukes without fuel so they can't even be classified as missiles or be detected by radar, all while a Kurdish sniper breathes her last breath in the painted snow. And of course, I love everything about the Psycho Mantis fight and how I was terrified that switching ports might be too much for my Duckstation emulator to properly defeat Psycho Mantis, and how I told my uninformed friend who was watching "we interrupt our regularly televised content to bring you an impromptu break of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" because I really, really, hoped that he'd bring that up as soon as I came back after finding the first save point. (Psycho Mantis did not bring that up unfortunately; might have just been an issue with how Duckstation handles the virtual memory card or maybe it was too soon, who knows.) Either way, what I'm trying to say is, Metal Gear Solid is a fucking ride despite all the jank from its era, and I love how it tried to do so many different things, with many of those things outright succeeding and even more influencing game development as we know it.
So yeah, I think Metal Gear Solid is a pretty alright game. Maybe it's a product of its time due to its technical limitations at times, but it's also an extraordinary step forward in terms of visuals, scope of storytelling, excellently voice acted cutscenes with great banter and non sequiturs, and plenty of gameplay sequences that really impressed me due to how they forced me to think outside of the box. I'm glad I finally got through the original, and here's looking forward to traversing the upcoming installments within the next 10 years.
Metal Gear Solid is one the defining games in not just the stealth genre, but gaming as a whole. The game features a simple but complex story as you get further into the game and also some of the most iconic characters and mechanics in gaming history. The graphics and gameplay have definitely aged in some aspects such as the shooting and the models being really glitching during some cutscenes on the PC port.
Aside from all that this is still one of the greatest games of all time.
Aside from all that this is still one of the greatest games of all time.
This review contains spoilers
Well, well, well, the time has finally come for me to play the Solid part of the Metal Gear series and can now come to understand what everyone online is always talking about!! As stated in my earlier reviews, I’m going into this series completely blind, so my opinions of Metal Gear are pretty unaffected by other people. I absolutely LOVED Metal Gear Solid, and completely understand why it’s so many people’s favorite game. It’s genuinely a masterpiece, even now 15 years later.
After Metal Gear 2, I had my expectations set pretty high for how Metal Gear Solid was going to improve on an already very ahead of its time game and Jesus Christ, MGS did NOT disappoint. The games both do have quite a few similarities, so I’ll be referencing MG2 a lot throughout this review.
Everything about the actual gameplay of Metal Gear Solid is perfect. The graphics? Groundbreaking. The music? Perfect. The scenes with real people? Hard-hitting and emotional. The voice acting? Very, very good, especially for the time. UI? Simple, yet stylized. And the sneaking and fighting component? Perfected. There’s so much I could say about just how much of a masterpiece this game is just as a video game. The cards immediately conjoin into one ID card (thank GOD), the weapon variety is fun while not being overwhelming and also now includes an awesome grenade that jams the cameras. Saving isn’t necessarily as quick and tidy as in Metal Gear 2, but it involves interacting with the cast and using your equipment which is super charming. I think I ended up preferring it. The maps of the entire game are much neater and packed together than in Metal Gear 2, which started to feel a little too spread-out. Metal Gear Solid’s layout I feel was the perfect size to not get tedious but without taking away the exploring premise. While Metal Gear 2 secured the sneak element of the series by removing your map when alerting the guards, I feel Metal Gear Solid really perfected it in making the game impossible levels of difficulty when you get caught. They add more into the gameplay of course to make sneaking your first priority! The angles to check for guards are perfect and very cinematic, the first-person view also allows you to see where guards are located without being caught, and now there’s three boxes to use to get around, conveniently sending you to different buildings depending on the box you choose. Thank God, no more accidentally getting in the wrong truck anymore lol. Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 both had 4th-wall breaking aspects that were pretty clever and added to their respective stories. I went into Metal Gear Solid expecting some pretty awesome 4th-wall breaks, and I would say I’m pretty satisfied. I already knew about Psycho Mantis, but liked the little details such as checking the CD-case and such.
Storywise, Metal Gear Solid comes crashing in to let its players know it’s more than just a generic 80’s action film story plot. Though it’s still very clearly heavily influenced by them. I mean, hell, it wouldn’t be Metal Gear if it wasn’t. There’s certain aspects I brush off on its storytelling as being too cheesy, but that really is just part of the series’ charm at this point, as were the movies they’re inspired by.
I go back and forth on how I feel about the story reusing so much of the story from Metal Gear 2. I guess in the end, I can confidently state that it’s not a negative thing, as they really added so much new to the story that I’m fine with the amount they reused. It did make knowing what to do next for the plot a bit easier, as I just naturally did what I did in the past game, such as noticing their emphasis on Meryl being the one female soldier in the building, so I went to wait for her outside the women’s bathroom like with Gustava in MG2. A lot of the stuff they repeated from the past game was just done a lot better too, specifically the FUCKING BROOCH which is now a key card. THANK GOD. They must have listened to me from the distant future and now instead of needing to change the shape of the item ALL THE WAY IN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BUILDINGS, you just need to change the shape with some rooms in the building you’re already in! Ugh, it felt like sweet, sweet candy not needing to figure out how the hell I was going to get back to the area I started in.
This game definitely secured Grey Fox as my favorite character in this series. Nothing hit me harder in a game than fighting this robot ninja and having him slowly start to demand fighting mano-a-mano. Hmm… That’s what I did with Fox at the end of the last game… interesting. Then, he starts taunting you, “Don’t you remember this?” “Doesn’t this feel right?” etc etc. I remember my gut hitting the floor when he started saying this. There was no way, Grey Fox had to be dead! But no, here he was reconstructed and forcing me to fight him like we did at the end of Metal Gear 2. To say I got a little emotional would be an understatement, I was kind of a mess. All right after some dude pisses himself in front of me, too lmao.
Otacon is probably the new character added in that sticks out the most, in a positive way! Hell, the second I met him pissing his pants and talking about Japanese animes, I thought he was hilarious. Him bringing me fucking ketchup of all things to help when locked in the jail cell sealed him as being one of my favorites. He’s super memorable, and a very good Yin to Snake’s Yang, being the super nerdy scaredy cat that goes against Snake’s very smooth cool guy persona, and end up both complementing each other’s weaknesses. I really enjoyed his little romance with Sniper Wolf as well, I’m always a sucker for a nerdy guy with a badass woman, and liked that they had a character lose his love from the troubles of the battlefield.
At the end, it took a more serious turn with Liquid bringing up a valid point towards Snake, just why does he keep listening to his higher ups when over and over again they keep betraying him? Of course, he has to enjoy the chaos and killing of war just as badly as the “bad guys” do, too. The message of what a soldier has to do with their life in a peaceful world was brought up at the end of Metal Gear 2, and I’m very happy they brought it back as the main theme for Solid as well, as it is a very strong and emotional message.
The final fight with Liquid was very cool, especially when he’s in the Metal Gear attacking you. I was practically jumping in my seat when I saw the full 3D Metal Gear and how I was allowed to run around it and finally physically see how big it would be in scale to Snake. The fight was fucking AWESOME too, definitely took me a moment to figure out how to defeat, but after figuring out the good middle of running between the laser and the missiles, I felt so cool. I really was fighting the Metal Gear!! The final fist fight with Liquid was a little lame in my opinion though, as we already went through that in Metal Gear 2, and as we saw earlier in the game, the fist fight aspect was really special and unique to Fox. I felt that giving it to Liquid in addition kind of took away how desperate and sad the final fight with Fox was in MG2 and his follow-up fight in Metal Gear Solid. Though I can’t lie, doing a fist fight ON TOP OF THE DESTROYED METAL GEAR was super fucking cool. Just wish it didn’t take away the connection it had with Grey Fox.
The cons I have with the game are pretty small, but still exist. I’m going to be blunt and say I really don’t like how they wrote Meryl. I can complain, but at the same time I should just know how women in the Metal Gear series are going to be written at this point. Holly and Diane in the past games were obviously not the strongest written characters ever, but I did really like Holly (okay, I kind of fell in love with her, shut up), but I have no idea what the hell they were thinking with Meryl. They took this recently turned 18-year old girl and pushed her to be 33-year old Snake’s love interest, all while constantly mentioning how young and new she is throughout the entire game. On top of all that, they put in this weird mind control thing to make it so she’s not attracted to the opposite sex, which doesn’t really serve any plot reasons (that I know of right now) besides just giving this weird plotline to have Snake successfully seduce a woman that’s supposed to be impossible for men to attract. Some people online say that she’s “cured” (ugh) of it after defeating Psycho Mantis, but it’s not directly brought up. But hey, I guess that kinda writing sounds straight out of an 80’s action film, so whatever, I guess. I’m still not going to be the biggest fan of that decision, and as a lesbian, I don’t know if I’m ever going to come around to a “woman not attracted to man gets swayed off her feet and falls for him” plotline.
This was more so an issue at the very beginning that sort of lost steam throughout, but I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of how weird Snake talks to the female characters, mostly Mei Ling and Naomi. MGS has a lot more dialogue and talking cutscenes than MG2, which I guess they used to their advantage to have Snake hit on Mei Ling every second he talks to her, and asking for Naomi to let him “body search” her as a reward for being good. Again, I know I’m not the target audience for that kind of appeal, but the amount of horny coming out of Snake’s mouth got a little annoying after the first few times he spouted it. It’s me being a bit picky, that’s for sure, but I’m mostly going to pass it off as them figuring out a more strong personality that they were now able to give him in the game and playing with funny dialogue.
I think my only con with the gameplay was my wimpy ass getting upset that the rations no longer completely heal you, instead only filling up a small amount of your Life instead. Hey, it forced me to get good at the game at least!
Overall, Metal Gear Solid is a very, very, VERY good game, I can not stress that enough. It has perfect pacing, a clever story and clearly influenced the future of gaming in massive ways. To tell the truth, I’m already thinking about when I can replay it so I can test out my newly earned bandana! If you haven’t played the Metal Gear series, I really recommend playing MG1 & MG2 beforehand, as it really strengthens all of it, making Metal Gear Solid a truly beautiful game.
After Metal Gear 2, I had my expectations set pretty high for how Metal Gear Solid was going to improve on an already very ahead of its time game and Jesus Christ, MGS did NOT disappoint. The games both do have quite a few similarities, so I’ll be referencing MG2 a lot throughout this review.
Everything about the actual gameplay of Metal Gear Solid is perfect. The graphics? Groundbreaking. The music? Perfect. The scenes with real people? Hard-hitting and emotional. The voice acting? Very, very good, especially for the time. UI? Simple, yet stylized. And the sneaking and fighting component? Perfected. There’s so much I could say about just how much of a masterpiece this game is just as a video game. The cards immediately conjoin into one ID card (thank GOD), the weapon variety is fun while not being overwhelming and also now includes an awesome grenade that jams the cameras. Saving isn’t necessarily as quick and tidy as in Metal Gear 2, but it involves interacting with the cast and using your equipment which is super charming. I think I ended up preferring it. The maps of the entire game are much neater and packed together than in Metal Gear 2, which started to feel a little too spread-out. Metal Gear Solid’s layout I feel was the perfect size to not get tedious but without taking away the exploring premise. While Metal Gear 2 secured the sneak element of the series by removing your map when alerting the guards, I feel Metal Gear Solid really perfected it in making the game impossible levels of difficulty when you get caught. They add more into the gameplay of course to make sneaking your first priority! The angles to check for guards are perfect and very cinematic, the first-person view also allows you to see where guards are located without being caught, and now there’s three boxes to use to get around, conveniently sending you to different buildings depending on the box you choose. Thank God, no more accidentally getting in the wrong truck anymore lol. Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 both had 4th-wall breaking aspects that were pretty clever and added to their respective stories. I went into Metal Gear Solid expecting some pretty awesome 4th-wall breaks, and I would say I’m pretty satisfied. I already knew about Psycho Mantis, but liked the little details such as checking the CD-case and such.
Storywise, Metal Gear Solid comes crashing in to let its players know it’s more than just a generic 80’s action film story plot. Though it’s still very clearly heavily influenced by them. I mean, hell, it wouldn’t be Metal Gear if it wasn’t. There’s certain aspects I brush off on its storytelling as being too cheesy, but that really is just part of the series’ charm at this point, as were the movies they’re inspired by.
I go back and forth on how I feel about the story reusing so much of the story from Metal Gear 2. I guess in the end, I can confidently state that it’s not a negative thing, as they really added so much new to the story that I’m fine with the amount they reused. It did make knowing what to do next for the plot a bit easier, as I just naturally did what I did in the past game, such as noticing their emphasis on Meryl being the one female soldier in the building, so I went to wait for her outside the women’s bathroom like with Gustava in MG2. A lot of the stuff they repeated from the past game was just done a lot better too, specifically the FUCKING BROOCH which is now a key card. THANK GOD. They must have listened to me from the distant future and now instead of needing to change the shape of the item ALL THE WAY IN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT BUILDINGS, you just need to change the shape with some rooms in the building you’re already in! Ugh, it felt like sweet, sweet candy not needing to figure out how the hell I was going to get back to the area I started in.
This game definitely secured Grey Fox as my favorite character in this series. Nothing hit me harder in a game than fighting this robot ninja and having him slowly start to demand fighting mano-a-mano. Hmm… That’s what I did with Fox at the end of the last game… interesting. Then, he starts taunting you, “Don’t you remember this?” “Doesn’t this feel right?” etc etc. I remember my gut hitting the floor when he started saying this. There was no way, Grey Fox had to be dead! But no, here he was reconstructed and forcing me to fight him like we did at the end of Metal Gear 2. To say I got a little emotional would be an understatement, I was kind of a mess. All right after some dude pisses himself in front of me, too lmao.
Otacon is probably the new character added in that sticks out the most, in a positive way! Hell, the second I met him pissing his pants and talking about Japanese animes, I thought he was hilarious. Him bringing me fucking ketchup of all things to help when locked in the jail cell sealed him as being one of my favorites. He’s super memorable, and a very good Yin to Snake’s Yang, being the super nerdy scaredy cat that goes against Snake’s very smooth cool guy persona, and end up both complementing each other’s weaknesses. I really enjoyed his little romance with Sniper Wolf as well, I’m always a sucker for a nerdy guy with a badass woman, and liked that they had a character lose his love from the troubles of the battlefield.
At the end, it took a more serious turn with Liquid bringing up a valid point towards Snake, just why does he keep listening to his higher ups when over and over again they keep betraying him? Of course, he has to enjoy the chaos and killing of war just as badly as the “bad guys” do, too. The message of what a soldier has to do with their life in a peaceful world was brought up at the end of Metal Gear 2, and I’m very happy they brought it back as the main theme for Solid as well, as it is a very strong and emotional message.
The final fight with Liquid was very cool, especially when he’s in the Metal Gear attacking you. I was practically jumping in my seat when I saw the full 3D Metal Gear and how I was allowed to run around it and finally physically see how big it would be in scale to Snake. The fight was fucking AWESOME too, definitely took me a moment to figure out how to defeat, but after figuring out the good middle of running between the laser and the missiles, I felt so cool. I really was fighting the Metal Gear!! The final fist fight with Liquid was a little lame in my opinion though, as we already went through that in Metal Gear 2, and as we saw earlier in the game, the fist fight aspect was really special and unique to Fox. I felt that giving it to Liquid in addition kind of took away how desperate and sad the final fight with Fox was in MG2 and his follow-up fight in Metal Gear Solid. Though I can’t lie, doing a fist fight ON TOP OF THE DESTROYED METAL GEAR was super fucking cool. Just wish it didn’t take away the connection it had with Grey Fox.
The cons I have with the game are pretty small, but still exist. I’m going to be blunt and say I really don’t like how they wrote Meryl. I can complain, but at the same time I should just know how women in the Metal Gear series are going to be written at this point. Holly and Diane in the past games were obviously not the strongest written characters ever, but I did really like Holly (okay, I kind of fell in love with her, shut up), but I have no idea what the hell they were thinking with Meryl. They took this recently turned 18-year old girl and pushed her to be 33-year old Snake’s love interest, all while constantly mentioning how young and new she is throughout the entire game. On top of all that, they put in this weird mind control thing to make it so she’s not attracted to the opposite sex, which doesn’t really serve any plot reasons (that I know of right now) besides just giving this weird plotline to have Snake successfully seduce a woman that’s supposed to be impossible for men to attract. Some people online say that she’s “cured” (ugh) of it after defeating Psycho Mantis, but it’s not directly brought up. But hey, I guess that kinda writing sounds straight out of an 80’s action film, so whatever, I guess. I’m still not going to be the biggest fan of that decision, and as a lesbian, I don’t know if I’m ever going to come around to a “woman not attracted to man gets swayed off her feet and falls for him” plotline.
This was more so an issue at the very beginning that sort of lost steam throughout, but I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of how weird Snake talks to the female characters, mostly Mei Ling and Naomi. MGS has a lot more dialogue and talking cutscenes than MG2, which I guess they used to their advantage to have Snake hit on Mei Ling every second he talks to her, and asking for Naomi to let him “body search” her as a reward for being good. Again, I know I’m not the target audience for that kind of appeal, but the amount of horny coming out of Snake’s mouth got a little annoying after the first few times he spouted it. It’s me being a bit picky, that’s for sure, but I’m mostly going to pass it off as them figuring out a more strong personality that they were now able to give him in the game and playing with funny dialogue.
I think my only con with the gameplay was my wimpy ass getting upset that the rations no longer completely heal you, instead only filling up a small amount of your Life instead. Hey, it forced me to get good at the game at least!
Overall, Metal Gear Solid is a very, very, VERY good game, I can not stress that enough. It has perfect pacing, a clever story and clearly influenced the future of gaming in massive ways. To tell the truth, I’m already thinking about when I can replay it so I can test out my newly earned bandana! If you haven’t played the Metal Gear series, I really recommend playing MG1 & MG2 beforehand, as it really strengthens all of it, making Metal Gear Solid a truly beautiful game.