It's impossible for me to get into the headspace of an MSX2 player from 1987.
I was still liquid at the time.
But now I am luckily solid, and so I played Metal Gear.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh boy did I play Metal Gear.
In my darkest, most cynical moments, I sometimes feel like Kojima really only had the one trick in the bag. Finally playing the original after playing and replaying most of the other Metal Gear games is a weird experience. So many little touches, mechanics, ideas and details litter this game which would come to fruition in later installments of the franchise. To say the later games retread covered ground is like saying "the sky is blue". Certainly accurate but there's more to it.
In interviews regarding Metal Gear Solid V Kojimas sometimes mentions that V was the game he wanted to make 30 years ago. This is something I can't see in Metal Gear, but I can certainly feel it. Something you could say about most Metal Gear games is that they are Stealth Action games with an uncanny amount of attention to detail and an anti-war/violence message.
(See link in case of confusion) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdJE_u7WsAAAGv_.jpg
All those things I just mentioned are certainly also true about Metal Gear. I can hardly imagine this game coming out while people just got done playing the hot new game Rock Man on their famicom. To say Metal Gear is complex and nuanced for its time is surely an understatement. Between the numerous mechanics and all new cutting edge stealth gameplay, what shocked me the most was the results screen. The beloved results screen makes its debut here. So do the special weapons in fact and the code name ratings. One of the items you're being rated on is straight up "Humans Killed", just in case you thought the anti violence message was not in place at this time.
Gameplay is perfectly serviceable, especially for the time. I find myself liking moving around the most. Navigating Snake is fun, like it always is. Stealth actually has some pretty interesting nuances. How enemies sight lines work being one of them. Figuring out they can only spot you on a specific line coming from their sprite is fun to find out and even more fun to abuse. Shooting is meh. The big highlight gameplay wise are the bosses. Bosses? Good? In Metal Gear? Nahhhhhhhh.
Find the right weapon for the job is a necessity. You are almost always outmatched, so finding the correct tool for the job and the right strategy to match feels like you won with your wits and not with the brute force of your arsenal.
(Kinda like in a Metal Gear game.)
The items and gadgets in the game are numerous, but mostly glorified keys. Thinking about it now, it's got some Metroidvania vibes going on. This wasn't entirely groundbreaking however, since the original Metroid released about a year prior. While the weapons and gadgets aren't all that interesting for modern standards, some of them have secret little secondary uses which aren't communicated to you at all. While it's fun finding those uses, it's a little less fun if finding this hidden mechanic is necessary for progression.
Elephant in the room time.
This game is bullshit. It's littered with 1980s gaming horseshit. Stand in this specific spot and use the radio frequency that one NPC told you about like 2 hours ago, fuck you. Stuff like that is all over this game. A lot of trial and error, so to speak. I actually got through most of the game without looking stuff up, but even I have my limits with this bullshit. Finding hidden rooms by blowing up random walls is a progress relevant task, multiple times. That shit's not for secrets, that's just mandatory my dude.
Oh, and don't forget, place your plastic explosives at Metal Gears legs in the following order:
R, R, L, R, L, L, R, L, L, R, R, L, R, L, R, R.
If you don't, Metal Gear won't take damage and you need 16 charges to destroy it, so don't mess up or show up unprepared. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I like it doe.
It's got some strange charm which I can't quite put into words.
I hear the second one if way better, so maybe play that one.
I was still liquid at the time.
But now I am luckily solid, and so I played Metal Gear.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh boy did I play Metal Gear.
In my darkest, most cynical moments, I sometimes feel like Kojima really only had the one trick in the bag. Finally playing the original after playing and replaying most of the other Metal Gear games is a weird experience. So many little touches, mechanics, ideas and details litter this game which would come to fruition in later installments of the franchise. To say the later games retread covered ground is like saying "the sky is blue". Certainly accurate but there's more to it.
In interviews regarding Metal Gear Solid V Kojimas sometimes mentions that V was the game he wanted to make 30 years ago. This is something I can't see in Metal Gear, but I can certainly feel it. Something you could say about most Metal Gear games is that they are Stealth Action games with an uncanny amount of attention to detail and an anti-war/violence message.
(See link in case of confusion) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdJE_u7WsAAAGv_.jpg
All those things I just mentioned are certainly also true about Metal Gear. I can hardly imagine this game coming out while people just got done playing the hot new game Rock Man on their famicom. To say Metal Gear is complex and nuanced for its time is surely an understatement. Between the numerous mechanics and all new cutting edge stealth gameplay, what shocked me the most was the results screen. The beloved results screen makes its debut here. So do the special weapons in fact and the code name ratings. One of the items you're being rated on is straight up "Humans Killed", just in case you thought the anti violence message was not in place at this time.
Gameplay is perfectly serviceable, especially for the time. I find myself liking moving around the most. Navigating Snake is fun, like it always is. Stealth actually has some pretty interesting nuances. How enemies sight lines work being one of them. Figuring out they can only spot you on a specific line coming from their sprite is fun to find out and even more fun to abuse. Shooting is meh. The big highlight gameplay wise are the bosses. Bosses? Good? In Metal Gear? Nahhhhhhhh.
Find the right weapon for the job is a necessity. You are almost always outmatched, so finding the correct tool for the job and the right strategy to match feels like you won with your wits and not with the brute force of your arsenal.
(Kinda like in a Metal Gear game.)
The items and gadgets in the game are numerous, but mostly glorified keys. Thinking about it now, it's got some Metroidvania vibes going on. This wasn't entirely groundbreaking however, since the original Metroid released about a year prior. While the weapons and gadgets aren't all that interesting for modern standards, some of them have secret little secondary uses which aren't communicated to you at all. While it's fun finding those uses, it's a little less fun if finding this hidden mechanic is necessary for progression.
Elephant in the room time.
This game is bullshit. It's littered with 1980s gaming horseshit. Stand in this specific spot and use the radio frequency that one NPC told you about like 2 hours ago, fuck you. Stuff like that is all over this game. A lot of trial and error, so to speak. I actually got through most of the game without looking stuff up, but even I have my limits with this bullshit. Finding hidden rooms by blowing up random walls is a progress relevant task, multiple times. That shit's not for secrets, that's just mandatory my dude.
Oh, and don't forget, place your plastic explosives at Metal Gears legs in the following order:
R, R, L, R, L, L, R, L, L, R, R, L, R, L, R, R.
If you don't, Metal Gear won't take damage and you need 16 charges to destroy it, so don't mess up or show up unprepared. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I like it doe.
It's got some strange charm which I can't quite put into words.
I hear the second one if way better, so maybe play that one.