Metal Gear Solid

"Who just went into that elevator? Meh, it was probably the wind..."

After playing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and being extremely under-whelmed, I was skeptical of trying out the original Metal Gear Solid, a game that has become a legend to gamers everywhere. When I plugged in the old PlayStation into my wall and plugged the analog-less controller into the gray machine, I was immediately swept into a simple game full of entertainment, no matter what the situation in the game is. I found it hard to put the controller down after playing and I was so impressed that I just felt the need to write my 60th review on it.

Snake is a spy and of course can do things spies do (like crawl on their bellies!) The controllers are very simple, which makes this game much more enjoyable than newer stealth games. In most stealth games these days, there's a million different buttons to do simple commands. Metal Gear Solid decides to keep things simple as they should be. The triangle button goes into a first-person mode (to press buttons on elevators and such). The circle button is the attack command. The cool part about the attacks in Metal Gear Solid is that people can be aware of you and you can still pull them off with ease. Snake fights people with hand-to-hand combat like a freaking ninja and also does some grapple moves like flipping enemies onto their backs. The X button helps Snake get onto his stomach so he can crawl into air vents or under things to get to safety. L2 and R2 control your inventory (one being key items and the other being weapons). R1 fires. These controls are so easy to get used to that even casual gamers shouldn't have problems with them. The ease of control makes Metal Gear Solid and easily enjoyable game.

Radar at the top-right of the screen shows you where enemies are at. The famous system shows you how far an enemy can see by a small shading of sorts. These shadings emit from dots which differ in color depending on who is actually in the vicinity. For example, a blue dot means it's a regular guard while a yellow dot means it's a security camera. This radar is especially useful for showing you where good cover is and adds a level to the stealth games that just makes them more fun to play through. Honestly, is it better walking blindly into a mass of people, dying, and then having to start back over or will you have more fun messing with guards? Honestly, they should just tack this radar into every stealth game that's made; it makes things so much simpler.

Of course, since it's a stealth game, you would think that hiding would be one of the greatest factors in the game. On the contrary, you almost never really have to sit and hide from people. Instead, you just need to find ways to get past them. Another plus is that you don't have to worry about how quiet you're being. Some people complain that it makes the game unrealistic, but I believe that video games that try really hard to be real are sometimes not all that great. These games can sometimes can get too hard and turn some gamers off from them. Metal Gear Solid makes the gameplay not so much hard but just enjoyable. That's what makes it a great game. It's not the graphics or how realistic it is, it is the sheer and simple enjoyment that can be obtained from the title.

Sometimes, it is more fun to just mess around in the game. I often found myself just messing with guards than playing the actual game. I loved getting a guard to spot me so he would chase me around boxes and I loved running up on guards from behind and beating the crap out of them. The bad AI in this game makes it that much more enjoyable. Sure, some people think this takes some of the challenge from the game, but I believe that if a game is entertaining without being hard, then the game is a good game. Honestly, Metal Gear Solid would be mediocre if it wasn't just so easy to screw with guards.

Of course, what would a spy game be without weapons? In Metal Gear Solid, you don't really need to watch your ammo because you rarely ever need to use it. This gives the player the freedom to choose to shoot guards or not. Some people will say that other stealth games let you choose to use guns also, but other stealth games keep the ammo level low so the game is harder if you choose to not do it stealthily. Metal Gear Solid actually gives you the choice and made either choice entirely possible.

The health system in Metal Gear Solid was also something I greatly enjoyed to play around with. If you simply have a healing item selected with the left inventory and get hurt really bad, Snake automatically heals using the item. This ensures that a player doesn't have to keep healing Snake manually and makes the game even more fun than it already is. Other items in the left inventory are things like Snake's cigarettes, which have somewhat of a funny thing with them. When you make Snake smoke, his health actually drains. Also, you can swim in Metal Gear Solid and, of course, Snake's oxygen has a health bar all of its own.

Some readers who have seen the score I gave this title will be wondering, “If you loved it so much, why didn't it receive full marks?” Well, Metal Gear Solid isn't a perfect game. The lighting in air vents is horrible and it's nearly impossible to see where you're going. This is a real pain, especially since the camera in the vents are first person, meaning you can easily get mixed-up on which direction you are going. Another complaint I have with Metal Gear Solid is the fact that sneaking past some security cameras is virtually impossible. Some people praise the messed-up ways Hideo Kojima hid some codes in the game, but I find this annoying and it kind of ruins the game in a way.

I was worried that the main thing I hate about PlayStation games would be present in Metal Gear Solid. The thing I'm talking about is the lack of checkpoints. This means the player has to constantly save, which is really annoying, especially with the codec system in Metal Gear Solid. I was glad to find a checkpoint system in Metal Gear Solid, a feature rarely found in modern stealth games.

I always hear about how amazing Metal Gear Solid's story is. I didn't really find anything too amazing about it, but it was okay. The stupid codec really waters everything down though because you're constantly urged to answer it. I was really expecting something that would blow me out of the water, but I don't really have much complaints about the story Metal Gear Solid offers (dispute the weird continuity errors I've noticed from playing later games in the series before playing the original).

The story itself is basically about an agent named Snake sent to stop a nuclear weapon. Snake is a comical character and he is very sarcastic, so you're in for a very hilarious gaming experience. The way Snake responds to situations is funny, also. Every other character in the game have spark to them, also, so you won't get bored with any of the characters' back stories.

Since this game is played on the original PlayStation, you can't expect much in the graphics department. However, I felt that the graphics could have been just a little better. The character's faces are basically non-existent which is very annoying. However, it's also hilarious watching the character's talk with emotion and just wave around like idiots. The texturing, of course, is horrible but I can't really complain about it. The camera angles in the cut-scenes make everything seem very cinematic which is kind of annoying simply because of how unrealistic the game looks.

The voice-acting in Metal Gear Solid is superb, but very easy to make fun of. I felt that some of the voice-actors were just trying to be cheesy on purpose and it somewhat ruins the full audio experience. The score isn't much to be proud of and the guns sound like someone playing ping-pong. Snake's footsteps louder than the gunshots! Also, some of the guards are pretty stupid about hearing things, which is very annoying. However, depending on your taste in video games, the bad AI can either be a blessing or a curse. All-in-all, the audio could go either way.

Two discs chronicle the adventure in Metal Gear Solid. The game is somewhat lengthy, but that's only if you get stuck in some parts (which you probably will if you're not using a guide). Trust me, you will want to keep playing the game so the length doesn't really ruin the game and it doesn't really better it. However, I somewhat wish that the talking was cut down a tad, however, because this greatly aided in the two disc-span in Metal Gear Solid.

There is basically no replayability in Metal Gear Solid unless you feel like replaying to mess with the guards. I really doubt that you'll ever feel the need to go through the long game more than once and if any gamer ever feels the need for that, they really need to get some new games. This is the reason that the game didn't get the score it should've gotten, but I've noticed the newer games in the series have much more replayability. The major downside of these newer games is that the actual campaign isn't as great as the original. Hideo Kojima needs to put these features together and he could create the perfect game.

If you have an old PlayStation lying around and you know where to get a copy of Metal Gear Solid, you should definitely check it out. I guarantee that you will be entertained by either messing around or actually playing through the game. If you're a fan of Splinter Cell, you probably won't like the game because it's unrealistic, but if you are any other gamer you will more than likely fall in love with the game. However, I wouldn't suggest playing any of the lackluster sequels that followed this legend in gaming history. I am glad that my 60th review could be over one of the best games I have ever played as a gamer.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/07