(Played the PC port)
After playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengence I wanted to play the rest of the Metal Gear franchise, so obviously I had to start at the beginning โ€“ Metal Gear.
So how does a game from 1987 hold up? (If I could capitalize numbers, I would) There is no point in even asking the question. Of course, it doesnโ€™t hold up. The only reason to play it is to just see where the legendary series started.
Still, I donโ€™t hate it. At the end of the day, I did finish it. (With a guide) While throughout most of it, I was quite bored, there were some genuinely intriguing moments where I thought that, had I played it when it came out, my jaw would be on the floor.
Honestly play it. It's worth it to see just how far gaming has come.

๐’๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ
Apologies, I didnโ€™t pay much attention during history class, so my Metal Gear lore knowledge isnโ€™t that deep. I donโ€™t know whether this game connects to the wider universe of the series.
You play as Solid Snake, a special forces operative, who is tasked with infiltrating the Outer Heaven to destroy a weapon by the name of Metal Gear. Getting dรฉjร  vu?
There isnโ€™t much of a story, but there is still more than I expected for 1987, and it did surprise me at a few points.

๐Œ๐ž๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ข๐œ๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ ๐š๐ฆ๐ž๐ฉ๐ฅ๐š๐ฒ
It attempts to be a stealth game, and it only succeeds when you have the patience to take the โ€œstealthโ€ seriously. You see, the combination of multiple exploits, awful AI, and unexplained mechanics led to me becoming bored with trying to play as intended and just brute-forced the rest of the game.
The use of a guide is highly recommended. There is very little that is explained properly and unless you want the authentic 1987 experience of banging your head against a wall, look up the solution.

๐†๐ซ๐š๐ฉ๐ก๐ข๐œ๐ฌ/๐€๐ซ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฅ๐ž
2D-pixel graphics were the pinnacle of quality back then, the same can't be said for today.

๐€๐ญ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž/๐ˆ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง
There isnโ€™t much of an atmosphere or immersion in Metal Gear. I do wonder whether the people who played it on release had a different experience.

๐’๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ค
Back then the hardware used to play such games could make many sounds as such the soundtrack had to accommodate that. This led to it being a bit hard on the ears. Still, it is better than I expected. My favourite part is โ€œRed Alertโ€.

๐…๐ข๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐“๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ
As for my quest to complete the Metal Gear series, I stopped at Metal Gear Solid (the first) as I realized stealth games just are not for me. Maybe someday I will return.

Reviewed on Apr 28, 2024


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