Metal Gear Solid (1998)

This title is a landmark in the stealth-action genre, widely regarded as one of the most influential games of its era. The MC is called Solid Snake, a legendary operative sent to infiltrate a nuclear weapons facility and neutralize a rogue special forces unit threatening global security. Unlike traditional action games of the time, it emphasizes stealth and strategy, encouraging you to avoid direct confrontation, use distractions, and carefully plan their approach to each encounter.

The game’s storytelling is cinematic and ambitious, featuring long cutscenes, fully voiced dialogue, and complex characters with memorable personalities and motives. Themes of loyalty, identity, and the consequences of warfare are explored through a layered narrative filled with twists and moral ambiguity. Iconic boss battles, each requiring unique tactics, blend gameplay challenge with narrative significance, making every encounter feel meaningful.

One of the most iconic ones, even for today's standards, is the Psycho Mantis one, which can mess around with the controller port that you are using, and even read your memory far information in order to know which games you have been playing recently. And while this may sound like a fun gimmick, it was a ground-breaking feature at the time, not just on a technical level, but also on a more creative one too.

Graphically, the game made the most of the PlayStation hardware, creating detailed environments and memorable set pieces, while the sound design, including an atmospheric soundtrack and realistic sound effects, heightens tension and immersion. While modern players may find the tank controls and fixed camera angles somewhat cumbersome, these limitations never detract from the game’s overall impact.

This game is not just a videogame, it’s an experience that combines stealth gameplay, cinematic storytelling, and unforgettable characters, leaving a lasting influence on the video game industry and inspiring countless games in its wake. This is simply one of the best games of all time, and an absolute must-play even for people that are not really into the stealth genre in general, but if you are at least a bit interested in gaming story-telling. And lastly, there is also a remake for this title, which is not really a good game in comparison, even though the graphics are way better, I still recommend just playing this OG version instead.

4/5

Played on the master collection on PS5.

This game is so far ahead of it's time, nothing like any other PS1 game I've played. Pushing the boundaries of the technology in terms of cinematic storytelling. The story itself is also well told with some interesting twists along the way. It leans into shlocky B-movie campiness with self-awareness which is charming. The controls and some of the game design hasn't aged well but largely it holds up today. Great runtime too without a huge amount of padding.

STEALTH ACTION - Solid Snake infiltrates Shadow Moses to stop Liquid Snake's plan to unleash Metal Gear Rex on the world.

PROS:

++ Surprisingly cinematic. Not knowing anything about the influence MGS had on gaming, I was pleasantly surprised at how cinematic this game was. Cutscenes were choreographed well, story had depth, and the voice acting was great (barring some cheesy lines here and there).

++ Enjoyable boss fights. Though the combat was less than stellar, I really enjoyed the boss fights! They had the perfect amount of difficulty, and they were interspersed well. Highlights were Psycho Mantis, Metal Gear Rex, and Gray Fox.

++ Interesting characters. They weren't so one-dimensional, and the game made you really want to get to know more about them.

++ Good stealth mechanics.

++ CODEC calls. I liked the incorporation of CODEC calls when it came to figuring things out in the game, or learning more about certain situations. It made the game more immersive.

++ Phenomenal soundtrack.

CONS:

-- Controls did not age well. The major cons of the game are due to its age and me being a modern gamer. I mostly struggled with the fixed camera because it made stealth difficult and made combat incredibly inconvenient because I'm so used to modern aiming controls.

-- Limited stealth scenarios. Though it's meant to be a stealth game, I felt like I engaged more in combat scenarios than I did in stealth scenarios.

-- Backtracking. The first was when I needed to find the sniper for the fight with Sniper Wolf, and the second was when you had to change the shape of the PAL key. Both instances felt like a waste of time.

When you consider that we were barely out of the SNES era of video games and graphics when Metal Gear Solid came out, you can't be anything but amazed by the achievement that it was. Is the resolution super low and the character models look like claymation figures? Sure! But if I had been used to playing 2D games, and experienced the cinematic quality that was achieved despite that low resolution and very simple character models that have barely any detail, I know that my mind would have been blown out the back of my skull.

One thing that struck me, playing this game today, was how relatively short it was. It does have incredible set-piece boss fights, and you really feel like you have done some amazing things by the end of the game, but given Kojima's modern perception for length, this felt like a short blip.

This was the third Metal Gear game I've beaten, having finished the two 8-bit games on the MSX first (in the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection). I didn't play MGS growing up, so I don't have any nostalgia for the franchise. But, I did love the two earlier games, and to be honest, I love MGS for the PS1. But, I also hate it, so I settled on "Like". I love that it is one of the coolest games I've ever played. There is nothing like it. Great atmosphere, crazy characters, plenty of Kojima self-fellatio/flagellation. The game is bonkers in all the right ways. It oozes style. Gameplay is innovative as all get out. The boss fights are cinematic and more a battle of wits than brawn. The game is always throwing something new cool, idea at you, you'll never be bored, except perhaps with a few long and tedious backtracking sections (there were plenty of those in the MSX games to be fair).

What I hate are the controls and the basic game systems (like combat, stealth, and items) are broken. The MSX games at least had rapidly respawning items so you could stock up if you ran into problems. MGS you can back yourself into a corner as I did several times running out of rations or chaff grenades. Save to different files, and also dying repeatedly the game will eventually gift you health/rations. This wouldn't be too bad if combat and stealth are kinda broken due to the camera and controls. It is a chore to get basic situational awareness at times with the camera. The radar is meant to make up for it, but then there are plenty of situations where the radar is disabled and you are forced to switch between first and 3rd person cameras over and over to try to see enemies 3 ft in front of you. If you get discovered, you may as well just let the guards kill you and start from the last checkpoint most of the time (lack of smooth failure states like later MGS games). Combat is ridiculous. It is like they took the combat from the MSX games, made aiming as finnicky as possible and also made bullets move at realistic speeds so you could no longer dodge them and took away pretty much all the cover. Basically, this means you take damage at frustrating rates in combat unless you are spamming stun grenades at all times.

I recommend this game to people to try. It is a seminal title that is cool as heck. But, I warn folks that it is a product of its time, very archaic and transitional, and the Metal Gear games that came before were more accessible in some ways, and the MGS games that came later improved the series in many ways smoothing out those rough edges. No question, it is a game every Metal Gear fan must finish, but I can't say I "enjoyed" my time with it nearly as much as earlier or later games in the series.

It's a technical masterpiece, great variety, nice visuals, pretty open-ended gameplay considering this is a PS1 title. Gameplay-wise it's a one of the best PS1 games ever.

BUT the characters, the dialogue, the codec calls that grind the game to a halt, the constant "powerful" messages from the characters about morale, love, etc. None of it is impactful and the issue is not the game's age, the themes are just very superficial and shallow. "War is scary, nukes are terrible, love is great, we shape our destiny." None of it is particularly original either, just a lot of cliches and wink-winks towards Hollywood action movies of the last century.

The game as a system functions perfectly: the AI is fun to play with and has different states. The weapons are fun and unique, the CQC options are plentiful but every 15 or so minutes all these things are taken away to dump some more exposition on you. It's as if the game was made by someone who wanted to make movies but could only get into video game production.

I was playing on an emulator and I used the turbo button to get through the ending, the amount of dialogue is ridiculous but the characters themselves keep repeating what they already have said and it all could have been shortened.

The second disk has plenty of backtracking but the reason is interesting enough so I wasn't too bothered and besides, The Vuklan Raven boss battle redeems it, it's the best in the game.

I think the writing improved dramatically in the sequels but they all have their own problems, maybe I'll share which ones a little later.

Still, such a memorable game and series, tons of fun.