Hideo Kojima's first installment in his Metal Gear reboot is maybe the coolest video game of all time.
Snowy Alaska. Secret military operation. Badass action hero. That's what pulls you in. But what's gonna keep you there is an intriguing story with its own twists and turns and level design that is masterfully crafted around the stealth mechanics of the game.
Creeping past cameras and sneaking around enemy soldiers has never felt more heart racing. Any sighting means an instant exposure to all enemy forces in the area, so there's no room for mistakes: only natural in an operation like this. When it comes to the combat aspect of the gameplay however, not much positive can be said. There is a good variety of weapons at your disposal, but its using them that is the issue. The game is painfully dated. Shooting is a severe nuisance no matter the weapon. If its the rifle or the pistol, there's no telling where the bullets are going, you just gotta aim in a general direction and make micro adjustments that hopefully don't completely set you off course and earn you a couple rounds to the face. If it's the sniper of the missile launcher however, you get a scope that allows for genuine precision. The downside to this however is it seems that Solid Snake seems to suffer from anxiety when holding weapons like some teenage girl. The scope will sway out of balance unreasonably unless you consumed some diazapam which spawns just about every 1 in 100 drops. You could also engage in hand to hand combat but this is essentially useless outside of the few times in the story when it is required.
These gameplay discrepancies make what could have been great moments incredibly frustrating. For example: Both Sniper Wolf fights, the first Raven fight, the helicopter fight with Liquid, the Metal Gear fight with Liquid, the car chase with Liquid, and the elevator surprise. All of these moments, which were great and effective in the narrative of the game become unreasonably irritating to get through because of this games age. I can't hold the game back too much for this, but it's an issue that is impossible to avoid.
I know I just dogged on most every boss fight in this game just a bit ago, but I can not write a log for Metal Gear Solid and not mention Psycho Mantis. Without a doubt--one of the best boss fights in all of video games. So. Damn. Cool. Sadly, I hadn't any games on my memory card that Mantis recognized but holy shit that is so cool. I cannot even fathom what that moment felt like for a first time player back in the day. Has to be one of the most immersive moments in gaming history. From there he does even more cool shit like recite your play style and make your controller move WITH HIS MIND. Obviously it's not rocket science how this works, but that's not the point. The point is Kojima's intuitive crafting of a video game beyond the software, being one of the first (and few to do it effectively even to present day) to utilize the hardware of the system to elevate the players immersion to the next level. After Psycho Mantis blows your damn mind and cuts the signal to your TV (and cleverly displaying "HIDEO" (Kojima) (can you even trust your own system at this point, I mean how much betrayal can you take?) where the "VIDEO" (it rhymes) signal on older analog TV's (a novelty lost on any modern hardware you are likely to be playing on) was traditionally displayed) he's going to beat the dogshit out of you. Assuming you didn't use thermal vision like a little bitch, he's going to seem impossible to take down. And he is. Because he can READ YOUR MIND. It's a gimmick obviously but it's still really cool. If you don't figure it out on your own, Colonel's gonna chime in with the ingenious idea to plug your controller into port 2. Holy shit. Kojima, what can't you do? From there he's not that hard to beat, but you can tell he's not exactly the ideal soldier from his skinny stature and visual ribs so it makes sense. But that's not the end of this game's unique game design. There's a puzzle of sorts that's solved by looking at your physical CD case of the game and a moment where you use the controller in real life on yourself to heal snake, but to my grave disappointment these unique elements of design do not permeate throughout the entire runtime of the game. Once you beat Psycho Mantis its almost as if they ran out of ideas or ditched the idea completely. This takes nothing away from their effectiveness in their respective moments obviously, but it is an intense let down that the latter half of the game returns to traditional methods.
Even so, the latter half of the game can still be considered the superior portion. While I personally believe the gameplay takes a deep dive, not everyone may agree. What is not in contention however is the strength that the story picks up. The final third of the game gradually uncovers all of the mysteries the story planted through it's runtime, and concludes the story in an explosive and emotional finale that ties together the themes of the story in the same over the top tone that was carried throughout with a touch of wholesomeness to cap the thing off.
But what is Metal Gear Solid about? I think it's about a lot of things. Survival for one, glory for another, and how war maliciously entwines the two for a third, but there is also love. The "blooming of love on a battlefield." Why, in a place of drowning bloodshed and relentless destruction can love bloom anew? Why can a girl love the man who killed her parents as a brother? Why can a man and woman fall in love in a nuclear candyland? Why? Because above all else, humanities fighting spirit is unparalleled. No matter selfish gene theory nor asymmetry theory, humans will fight. Defying explanation and reasonability the human spirit will ravage through war and famine to continue to love and continue to fight. If fate was the decider FoxDie would kill Solid Snake as soon as the mission ended. If genes were the decider the clones of Big Boss wouldn't have been so different. The decider is you. You get to choose your fight, you get to choose how hard you fight. You get to choose love.
And as Naomi so aptly put:
"Choose life... then live."
Snowy Alaska. Secret military operation. Badass action hero. That's what pulls you in. But what's gonna keep you there is an intriguing story with its own twists and turns and level design that is masterfully crafted around the stealth mechanics of the game.
Creeping past cameras and sneaking around enemy soldiers has never felt more heart racing. Any sighting means an instant exposure to all enemy forces in the area, so there's no room for mistakes: only natural in an operation like this. When it comes to the combat aspect of the gameplay however, not much positive can be said. There is a good variety of weapons at your disposal, but its using them that is the issue. The game is painfully dated. Shooting is a severe nuisance no matter the weapon. If its the rifle or the pistol, there's no telling where the bullets are going, you just gotta aim in a general direction and make micro adjustments that hopefully don't completely set you off course and earn you a couple rounds to the face. If it's the sniper of the missile launcher however, you get a scope that allows for genuine precision. The downside to this however is it seems that Solid Snake seems to suffer from anxiety when holding weapons like some teenage girl. The scope will sway out of balance unreasonably unless you consumed some diazapam which spawns just about every 1 in 100 drops. You could also engage in hand to hand combat but this is essentially useless outside of the few times in the story when it is required.
These gameplay discrepancies make what could have been great moments incredibly frustrating. For example: Both Sniper Wolf fights, the first Raven fight, the helicopter fight with Liquid, the Metal Gear fight with Liquid, the car chase with Liquid, and the elevator surprise. All of these moments, which were great and effective in the narrative of the game become unreasonably irritating to get through because of this games age. I can't hold the game back too much for this, but it's an issue that is impossible to avoid.
I know I just dogged on most every boss fight in this game just a bit ago, but I can not write a log for Metal Gear Solid and not mention Psycho Mantis. Without a doubt--one of the best boss fights in all of video games. So. Damn. Cool. Sadly, I hadn't any games on my memory card that Mantis recognized but holy shit that is so cool. I cannot even fathom what that moment felt like for a first time player back in the day. Has to be one of the most immersive moments in gaming history. From there he does even more cool shit like recite your play style and make your controller move WITH HIS MIND. Obviously it's not rocket science how this works, but that's not the point. The point is Kojima's intuitive crafting of a video game beyond the software, being one of the first (and few to do it effectively even to present day) to utilize the hardware of the system to elevate the players immersion to the next level. After Psycho Mantis blows your damn mind and cuts the signal to your TV (and cleverly displaying "HIDEO" (Kojima) (can you even trust your own system at this point, I mean how much betrayal can you take?) where the "VIDEO" (it rhymes) signal on older analog TV's (a novelty lost on any modern hardware you are likely to be playing on) was traditionally displayed) he's going to beat the dogshit out of you. Assuming you didn't use thermal vision like a little bitch, he's going to seem impossible to take down. And he is. Because he can READ YOUR MIND. It's a gimmick obviously but it's still really cool. If you don't figure it out on your own, Colonel's gonna chime in with the ingenious idea to plug your controller into port 2. Holy shit. Kojima, what can't you do? From there he's not that hard to beat, but you can tell he's not exactly the ideal soldier from his skinny stature and visual ribs so it makes sense. But that's not the end of this game's unique game design. There's a puzzle of sorts that's solved by looking at your physical CD case of the game and a moment where you use the controller in real life on yourself to heal snake, but to my grave disappointment these unique elements of design do not permeate throughout the entire runtime of the game. Once you beat Psycho Mantis its almost as if they ran out of ideas or ditched the idea completely. This takes nothing away from their effectiveness in their respective moments obviously, but it is an intense let down that the latter half of the game returns to traditional methods.
Even so, the latter half of the game can still be considered the superior portion. While I personally believe the gameplay takes a deep dive, not everyone may agree. What is not in contention however is the strength that the story picks up. The final third of the game gradually uncovers all of the mysteries the story planted through it's runtime, and concludes the story in an explosive and emotional finale that ties together the themes of the story in the same over the top tone that was carried throughout with a touch of wholesomeness to cap the thing off.
But what is Metal Gear Solid about? I think it's about a lot of things. Survival for one, glory for another, and how war maliciously entwines the two for a third, but there is also love. The "blooming of love on a battlefield." Why, in a place of drowning bloodshed and relentless destruction can love bloom anew? Why can a girl love the man who killed her parents as a brother? Why can a man and woman fall in love in a nuclear candyland? Why? Because above all else, humanities fighting spirit is unparalleled. No matter selfish gene theory nor asymmetry theory, humans will fight. Defying explanation and reasonability the human spirit will ravage through war and famine to continue to love and continue to fight. If fate was the decider FoxDie would kill Solid Snake as soon as the mission ended. If genes were the decider the clones of Big Boss wouldn't have been so different. The decider is you. You get to choose your fight, you get to choose how hard you fight. You get to choose love.
And as Naomi so aptly put:
"Choose life... then live."