Metal Gear Solid

"The Legacy of Awesome... Just one fault."

I hardly ever give a 10/10 review, as I'd save that for something completely flawless and special, but this game deserves at least a 9/10 for all its achievements. It's truly special in the way it delivers with a feeling of Covert Ops mixed in with lots of Politics and Mystery. There is also chemical warfare and betrayal. It's a superb bag of tricks brought to us by Hideo Kojima and the rest of the folks at Konami.

When I look at this game I actually feel bad for other games with similar aspects. They all just fail miserably when comparing them to MGS. The game runs so smoothly and it's so interesting to watch all the characters develop. It's also extremely fun to kill all the bosses and sneak around the bases, it's just an awesome game.

It has led me to venture out and pursue other games with tactical type situations. Rainbow 6 comes to mind as one of the games I tried out because of MGS. Of course, it can't compare... Then again, I guess it IS a FPS.

Back on its feet, Metal Gear Solid (MGS) brings a whole new way of life to the game. Now in full 3D with multiple camera angles, it leaves the player a sense of realism and tension in close combat situations. I love this game dearly and I'll get to why now...

Gameplay:

If you're wondering about the type of gaming you'll be doing in MGS you might as well forget it. This game has so many different types of gameplay, it's hard to really pinpoint what to call it.

You'll be doing some gunning down of terrorists at certain parts of the game, so you could call it a "Shoot-Em-Up". You'll be doing a bunch of sneaking around in the game so you could call it a "Tactical, Covert-Ops" deal. You'll be watching cut scenes and movie scenes a lot so you could call it a "Movie Adventure". You'll also be doing a couple of puzzles, so that's there too.

As you can see, it's not really easy to label what MGS is exactly. Most people just prefer to call it an "Action" game. But that's really not good enough to describe it. Read on and decide for yourself, but I'm telling you it's a bunch of things combined.

The actual mechanics of MGS's gameplay is one of supreme authority. It's comprised of easy to use controls and quick camera changes dependent upon your situation. Your view is never obstructed. You could try to force the game to obstruct your view and it wouldn't be possible.

When you're just running around, the camera is in an overhead view of the area. It's looking down on Snake and whatever else is around him. This allows for a better sight of things around. In this mode, you'll never have to worry about enemies sneaking up on you. You can see them from a good distance away.

The other camera angle is when you're propped up against a wall. The camera will pan to the front of Snake so it's looking behind him in the direction of the wall he's leaned against. This serves as a staple to get a great of view of everything you could always need to see.

On top of that, there's actually a third camera angle for first person view. So many games miss these things and it makes them hardly playable. MGS just lays it out for you so you'll actually enjoy the game and never really get upset over cheap kills due to bad viewing restrictions.

The controls are set up in a way that it makes the game very enjoyable to play as well. You have a button for attacking, a button for grabbing, and button for crouching, and a button for going into First Person view. The shoulder buttons are used to bring up your Item Inventory and your Weapon Inventory as well as to cycle through each one.

These controls make for extremely fast and easy gameplay. I can't explain enough how much I enjoyed the controls in this game. They are such an improvement over games like Resident Evil 2. In fact, when comparing the two side-by-side, one can only feel that RE: 2 is completely broken and pathetic.

Granted, they aren't the same genre per-say, they are still very similar in terms of action and adventure, but enough of RE: 2. MGS also has an easy item finding/pickup system. You just run over the item! How fun is that? Who needs to have to click a button to pick up an item anyway? Again, it makes for a very fast and smooth gaming experience.

You'll get tons of gadgets along your way through this game. They range from a pack of cigarettes to night vision goggles to body armor, plus a bunch more! You'll use basically all of these items in different parts of the game. Their uses are never separated into sections but are rather leveled out through the game. I hate games when you get an item and use it for about ten minutes right after you get it then never use it again. This game levels out all the items' uses and it makes it feel much more smooth and realistic.

Cosmetics:

The graphics in this game are pretty awesome for Konami's first shot at MGS in 3D. They get the job done and never limit any visuals or gameplay. The character art in the Codec system, as well as the whole Codec System itself, are also done very nicely. I would have preferred they didn't use real movie/video sequences in the very few parts they did, but it's not that big of a deal.

You have the normal game's graphics, then you have some in-game automated sequences, and then you have real video type cut scenes. They are all used very well and directed extremely well. Again, much better than any other games of the same genre. Very beautiful.

The voice acting in this game is awesome! It's probably the best voice acting jobs done by a Japanese video game company I've ever heard. The only one I was so-so about is Raven's voice actor. Other than that, I was in love with all of the voice acting and I couldn't have asked for any better. Each one brought a great personality to the character.

The music, while non-varying, is well done. There aren't that many tracks in the game, but the ones that are there are superb. It does a great job of setting the moods even if it does get slightly repetitive later on in the game and it loses a point for that. The credit screen's track is very very good. Never-the-less, it's true that I got tired of hearing the same "sad yet uplifting" track all the time.

If I had to compare the music type to another game, I'd compare it to the whole Midgar of FF7 feel. Most of the tracks just had that dark, atmospheric, Sci-Fi feeling to it.

Storyline:

MGS's storyline revolves around Solid Snake and his travels to an Alaskan Army Base. There, a bunch of goons have gone rebellious and are threatening to launch nukes on a major city. Your job is to infiltrate the area, rescue a couple people, and stop the terrorists before there is any serious damage.

As simple as that sounds, it gets a lot deeper as the game goes on. Politics come heavily into play, betrayal pops up a few times, bad guys aren't what they seem, etc. etc. You will do well to pay more attention to the storyline than the actual game, because that's what MGS is all about.

It may be extremely fun to fight and kill all the bosses, but MGS excels GREATLY at story telling. The dialog is all very intelligent and done with great care, the characters all seem to be understandable and passionate about their causes, and the twists and turns are enough to make your mind do jumps through hoops when commanded to.

Speaking of characters... This game has some of the best characters ever to grace a video game screen. You have your team of big government types, and they have their team of evil and rebellious killing machines. They all go a lot deeper than that, of course, but that's your job to find out.

Within this mix of espionage and spying, there are also a bunch of flares of comedy. Living up to realism, in one situation you can get a wolf to urinate on an item of yours. This will cause all the other wolves to be friendly towards you. How's that for goofy entertainment? I love these little details. They make for such a better time.

Overall/Explanation:

MGS is a video game that you have to buy. There is no question of "rent or buy," you just buy it. That's all one can say about MGS in terms of recommendations. You just have to have this game. It's made for everyone because there are so many elements to the gameplay. You'll also get some replay time out of it due to secret items you get and multiple endings.

My explanation is pretty clear. This game is one of the greatest games to ever grace the home console systems and it shouldn't be overlooked. I'll admit, I'm a little biased when it comes to my reviewing. I favor story over graphics, I favor music over gameplay, I favor the more... "Inner" sides to a video game rather than the "outer" sides. But that doesn't matter, because this game has it all.

The game plays a lot like a movie with bursts of gameplay in between. If you can't handle that, than shame on you, because you're missing one hell of a story. The bosses are also extremely fun to fight, so why skip it? Go buy it now if you don't have it or feel the wrath of Solid Snake.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/24/06