// Metal Gear Solid Review

I grew up a child of the original PlayStation. 3D adventure games and platformers were mainly my bread and butter. Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Klonoa, even a little Blasto here and there.

I’ve carried this love of PlayStation with me through the years. Not in an Xbox-hating way, but I’ll usually be there day one for the next big Sony release. I enjoy the AAA, cinematic, sad dad stories. That said, I’m not such a Sony Pony to pretend I don’t miss the days when they made more experimental stuff.

It was a very interesting experience to play Metal Gear Solid and find a game that’s been here since I was picking up a controller for the first time (at the ripe old age of three) that marries everything I love about PlayStation into one (well, two) discs.

While I could say, “I loved Metal Gear Solid because of PlayStation games,” it might be more appropriate to say, “I love PlayStation games because of Metal Gear Solid.”

// Metal Gear Cinema

Metal Gear Solid was originally released on the PlayStation in 1998. While it would be hyperbolic to say it’s the base of the family tree that connects all modern Sony games, it undoubtedly popularized doing a lot of things before anyone else had.

People these days like to joke that Hideo Kojima would rather be making movies than video games. Whether or not you believe this to be true, there’s no denying how films have influenced the way he makes games. Just look at some of the cutscenes he puts in those things. But back in 1998, it wasn’t that he had longer cutscenes than everyone else, it’s that he had the only cutscenes that were consistently held to a higher degree of cinematic quality.

Of course there were other games getting more cinematic and messing with the camera in interesting ways. Both Resident Evil and Final Fantasy 7 come to mind immediately. Those released in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

But nothing else carried the same weight as a total cinematic experience like Metal Gear Solid. I was constantly stopping to admire just how good the game looks, and how creatively it’s presented to the player. They were really “shooting” this game like a film.

Even by today’s standard, the game was a treat to just look at. Creative framing during gameplay sections makes the moment-to-moment stuff flashy without intruding on the gameplay. The cutscenes are composed in such a way that they feel completely ingrained in the storytelling.

Further out shots that pan around foreground objects make you feel like a distant observer in a tender moment, not wanting to intrude. Close cut shots during or just after moments of intensity make Snake feel larger than life – otherworldly.

The game also uses *actual* film with some FMV at the beginning and ending of the game.

But this would all be for naught if the game didn’t look good. In my opinion, the PS1 is the console generation that has aged the least gracefully of them all. A lot of games taking their first foray into three dimensions didn’t come out looking all that hot.

Thankfully, Metal Gear Solid is not one of those cases! This game is brimming with art direction.

If there was any doubt, take a look at this comparison of the same shot from the original Metal Gear Solid and the master collection. Hard proof that more pixels doesn’t outweigh good art direction. Credit to my friend Pierceyonder for grabbing the screenshots and making the comparison originally when we were playing.

Sounds like a great film, eh? Well this is a video game. This would all be meaningless if it wasn’t fun to play. Thankfully, it is very fun to play.

// Metal Gear Sneaking

Metal Gear Solid is a third-person stealth shooter. “Tactical Espionage Action,” if you buy what they’re selling on the cover. In addition to its cinematic influence, it’s also credited with popularizing the stealth genre. This credit of course goes to the original Metal Gear games as well.

You’ll spend your time sneaking and/or shooting your way through Shadow Moses, a secret nuclear weapons facility on an island in Alaska filled to the brim with generic goons and genetically enhanced freaks. The game’s excellent camera work is also present during gameplay sections.

The game controls remarkably well. Manoeuvring is snappy and responsive, shooting and combat feels natural, and sorting through and using your grab-bad of items and gear is unintrusive. I could make the argument that trying to choke out dudes in the early game is a bit awkward, but it could also simply be a Skill Issue.

On that note, the game has a distinctly different feel in the first half than the second half. In the early areas you’ll be scoping out your roots, sneaking around, choking out guys – pure, well-executed stealth. 

This shifts later on as the game becomes a little bit more action oriented. Snake builds out his arsenal of assault rifles and bazookas, more or less trivializing the everyday goons you’ll encounter. It also feels like there are just fewer areas designed with stealth in mind in the later half of the game.

It feels like an evolution that matches the unravelling plot as you progress through it. The intensity ratchets up as you go from crawling through vents to battling helicopters with a lock-on rocket launcher.

While I think this raising-of-the-stakes makes sense, I did miss the stealthy, open-ended sections of the early hours.

The game hits you with a couple of back-tracking segments in the second half, which were a wee bit annoying. While they don’t amount to more than 15–20 minutes of extra work, it stands out as the only major blemish on an otherwise polished experience.

Aside from deciding between quietly killing dudes or loudly killing dudes, snake will end up with an impossible amount of gear stuffed into his pockets by the end of the game which you’ll need to utilize. Things like night vision goggle, heat vision goggles, jamming grenades, ketchup – the typical espionage stuff. I’d be remiss to exclude mention of the classic cardboard boxes.

The game doesn’t hold your hand about when to use all these things, but you can always call in help via the codec. Available to you at all times are a handful of people with their own specialties who can advise you. It’s worth giving them a call whenever you can just to see what they might say.

// Metal Gear Story

If Metal Gear Solid is known for one thing among the broader gaming community, it’s probably it’s nearly incomprehensible potlines. Hideo Kojima and Tetsuya Nomura stand shoulder to shoulder protecting the “what the fuck is going on” shelf of video games.

It’s my pleasure to tell you that this video game – much like the first Kingdom Hearts – is actually comprehensible.

This is a relatively simple premise with lots of fun twists and turns to keep you guessing. It’s seasoned just right with that Kojima spice, where some entries feel more like the cap fell off while shaking. There’s definitely some weirdness, but in a quantity that I’m into.

Terrorist organization FOXHOUND is threatening to use the secretly-developed nuclear mech Metal Gear REX. Snake gets called to sneak in there and sort it out.

You’ll encounter a memorable cast of companions like Meryl and Otacon. You’ll also brush up against an antagonistic force of previously-mentioned genetically-altered freakazoids. The gunslinger Revolver Occelot, the dog-loving sniper aptly named Sniper Wolf, and the iconic Psycho Mantis who is basically what would have happened if Mewtwo joined Slipknot.

All of these characters and more enter the general gaming lexicon because of their distinct and unique identities.

Psycho Mantis’ boss battle in particular is quite unique. He’ll break the fourth wall and read other games on your memory card, and claim to make your controller move all on its own as it rumbles across the floor. To win this fight, you must switch your controller from the first port to the second on your PlayStation.

There are lots of moments like this in Metal Gear Solid. Others include finding codec numbers on the back of the CD case, and a character telling you not to use “rapidfire” during a button mashing sequence. There are many more you can read about here.

It’s not always easy to balance a serious – sometimes almost melodramatic – property with silly and absurd moments like this, but Metal Gear Solid manages to pull it off. Of course, we are quite used to this in Kojima’s games by now, but this would have really stood in 1998.

// Conclusion

I went into Metal Gear Solid with a curiosity. Overall, I’m not really a big stealth game guy. I was also concerned about some of the weirder mechanics not aging all that well. I wanted to experience this piece of gaming history, but it was never something I was totally jonesing to play.

Thankfully my concerns were put to rest very quickly. Metal Gear Solid gets its hooks in you quick.

Aside from a couple of moments where the gameplay drags, this thing is solid from start to finish. The storytelling is a cinematic treat, the gameplay is flexible and satisfying, and it’s just weird enough to stand out without being incomprehensible. 

There’s also a guy called Deepthroat.

Metal Gear Solid gets my recommendation.