Metal Gear (1987)

You probably got this warning a lot, when you wanted to experience the original Metal Gear game and the first go to was the NES port of the MSX, and please for everything that is extremely good in this world, don't play the NES version.

I did not play the MSX version for obvious reasons, but from folks that did and enjoyed it, I will let you know why there is a criticize for the NES port.

It is not about the graphics, although, many did say it was a downgrade from the MSX, I didn't mind the NES', and somewhat enjoyed it.

I went through playing this game blindsided without any guide whatsoever, and by miracle, I was able to finish the game. let's say: I don't like this game (or this port specifically; I don't care to try the MSX port).

It's a frustrating game. you don't know what you're doing for the most part, and when you do, the game barely does anything to help or reward you back for your intelligence or skill. this is the part where this game just becomes another product of a bygone era. it share a lot of what the market was doing at the time, and did nothing to improvise. the moment you know each point of the game, you will run through it in a matter of hour session. even 30 minutes too.

I don't know exactly if I hated this game because of this port, but I do know that I hated what was presented here. still, it is worth at least playing it once to understand how far we've come from.

Preliminary: I like that my mission is clearly stated (albeit with some translation spelling mistakes), with a cool ahead-of-its-time transceiver UI. I love the MSX and MSX2, they imo are on par with NES with advancing mid-80s gaming. (For reviews from now on, though they will still end with Feel and Attachment more often than not, I will not always have Look first. It'll be based on the first things I notice as playing)

Play: 9/10 Wow, I'm getting into this right away. I didn't think I was big into the stealth genre, often requiring tedious patience, and figured early versions of it would be real rough. So far so good. The collision masks are awful, but I'm sure I will get used to them. Anyway, I like the feeling of rushing to get the Gas Mask, and the Resident Evil esque "get access card somewhere, use access card somewhere," and also like I've mentioned before, the quality and enjoyment of the guide I use can often determine how much I enjoy a game. I like that I'm just relying on a map with items labeled, and I can always reference the StrategyWiki if I get really lost but the map with items marked and transmissions are enough so far! Love that feeling! Like being young again.

I really like how the items are used, it's like you set them in the bottom right of the UI and they're constantly activated. It's like wearing the Gas Mask, or having the Access Card ready to use. Neat. The Inventory system and menu are clear and easy to use, reminding me of the Konami Goonies II game too which is coming up. pI do wish you could move diagonally, especially since the enemies can shoot diagonally.

Pro-tip: it seems most Rations and Ammo boxes respawn, so just exit reenter exit reenter till you're topped off! And with higher class (from saving Prisoners) comes higher capacity!

On my 2nd play session/evening of playing, by the time I got back to the first building's basement to rescue the doctor's daughter, I felt like I was great with the controls even without diagonal movement. I was going back and forth shooting, knowing exactly the line of sight, etc. Very responsive controls, again the MSX2 impressing me. It had that Castlevania feel to the controls by this point. Good stuff. Another pro-tip: get to 4-class rank! and trust Jennifer, not Big Boss!! Her tips were critical.

Look: 8/10 Also right off the bat I noticed the excellent Look. The MSX2 really is top-notch. The UI was great both for the menus and the gameplay screen. The dialog boxes were neat and tidy.

On my 2nd play session, even without a strikingly amazing Look, this could be a Favorite still because of how much I love the gameplay and how addictive/attaching it was. After all, it certainly achieves its goal of a stealthy action-adventure with the Look and Sound, even if there isn't much sentimental with it. Hopefully the ending will have a great jingle and end screen! Ha. Otherwise, only the UIs and the Transreceiver screens were particularly striking, oh and the item icons in the inventory!

Sound: 8/10 Not in love with the initial music, but it's not bad. It's got an NES quality to it, but thankfully, less annoying than most NES music.

Feel: 9/10 Many obvious Feels came to mind--Resident Evils as I had to collect ammo (ah! it's not built into the handgun I found? lol) and with the typewriter sounds for the dialog.. and the dogs!... and the Rocket Launcher and the Sub Machine Gun and the Grenade Launcher lol lots. And the way there were different paths to return to a building, like say the Mansion in RE1 :-p or the different paths you could take in RE Survivor! Oh right lol and it reminded me of the Metal Gear Solids of course lol. Even that Mortal Kombat game where it was an action-adventure type game, what was that called. Ah, Mortal Kombat Special Forces. One other Feel that surprisingly came to mind was the later Zeldas heh, when you're having to avoid the deeper water parts till you have a certain item. This game did a lot of things first/early!

Lol! I love the Cardboard Box item/mechanic! And I love the little hints the Prisoners give. Coupled with the many contacts you have on the Transreceiver, I barely had to use the StrategyWiki tips! And all the guard/etc. situations I was able to solve. Tho I do think I would've been overwhelmed without the map with items marked, trial and error would've been fun because I find the controls well-done, the concept interesting, and the areas clearly referred to (unlike Zelda's absurdly cryptic wordings). Now, if only the Sound were better (people seem to like the MSX soundtrack apparently...) and the Look more striking (tho it was high quality... like they didn't have to include the light reflecting on the floor but they did haha

On the 2nd play session I was still having a blast. I lovvvve this 4th wall breaking and the plot twist associated with it, I wont reveal too much :-p as predictable as it is now, this was definitely the first non-text-adventure videogame with such a plot twist I've played so far in the chronology project.

Attachment: 9/10 Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised how much I loved this. Again, with the Sound and Look more remarkable, this easily would've been a new Favorite. Especially with the additional Feel of bringing up Resident Evils and starting a franchise I later loved as Metal Gear Solid. I came in expecting a lot of tedious mechanics and outdated ways of achieving the stealth genre, but I was thoroughly impressed. I saw a lot of reviews talk about the many issues of the game, but I'm realizing those were mostly for the NES version. I was going to play Runescape tonight--my husband is out of town and I've been gaming during our usual movie time--but this wound up sucking me in. Can I beat it all in one sitting?! The fact I have that urge, the fact I know I will tell my brothers about this and likely play it again, the fact it has such a strong Play and Feel--this deserves a high Attachment and overall rating. Maybe it will become a Favorite as I play the later Metal Gears and garner more nostalgia for the early parts of the series.

Omg wait! There's no way I can beat this tonight. This is so long! I thought I was nearing the end but this was all just the first building of 3! This is a long game!! I hope it can keep my interest--the first building was delicious. Interesting that it is so non-linear, in that you could skip entire sections, or savor the entire plotline return to Building 1 later etc (just now learning all this from StrategyWiki. Okay yea I would not have figured all this out with trial and error lol, like finding the Enemy Uniform etc. Like sheesh, I realize Schneider tells you the general location but uff, borderline Zelda type stuff but with logical in-game hints and well, more logical ha). I will of course be doing the full game, like I always do with Resident Evils. I wound up doing the path to Building 2 the first night, tho I said I'd only do Building 1. Sign of a good game right there.

Welp. I'm still having fun the 2nd night, tho a bit intimidated by the length. Lol that Big Boss calls me to tell me the signal had been jammed... no crap! I got the Antenna, at great risk mind you, for that very reason haha. And thank goodness these soldiers don't think to go into elevators, even during High Alert :-p And another funny quirk: just realized you can shoot Prisoners (and lose rank) >.< Thank goodness for the high-quality save system, and relatively forgiving death/continue system. The NES password system can't compare. Omg! And when Steve, Diane's husband, answers the transreceiver lol! In the middle of an intense boss battle (lol and then in the middle of me stressing about the overly hard final 2 bosses, the humor of her feelings toward you :-p ). Well-done humor. This game would be a lot more frustrating without a Map and guide letting me know which Access Card for each door, having to trial and error it while getting smashed by a cyborg would not be cool. But playing it as I did--a blast!

Ugh! Well, here will be the true test of whether I really love this game. I got all the way to Metal Gear, I felt plenty stocked... but turns out you need at least 16 plastic explosives (correct me if I'm wrong). I thought I stocked up enough before coming!!! Luckily it looks like Plastic Explosives are available at an early part of Building 2... but that's a long journey back from the Metal Gear weapon ugh. Maybe I should call it quits? Well, I went back for the Plastic Explosives. Now debating where to find Rations. They don't seem to be anywhere. Gonna try the final area/bosses one more time and if can't manage it, so it goes. The Metal Gear mechanic was tedious and frustrating, I can only imagine how the final boss will be :-p (Oh duh! Another pro-tip I meant to mention earlier: punching guards makes a chance for them to drop Rations, and that's how I restocked on them in Building 2 before returning to the final push :-p ). Ugh yea the Metal Gear segment just outright sucks. Super annoying mechanics. Welp I finished it at last. Good thing I had the hint from Jennifer's brother for which ladder to use. The ending jingle was good but not as spectacular as I had hoped (and the ending was pretty lame overall, I like the Transreceiver screen but give me something really new and special! I did like the comments after the credits ended, but wanted some like flash of Big Boss's face or something). It says a lot that I went back for the Plastic Explosives, but I may wait to see if/when I return to this before I make it a Favorite. Excellent game regardless.

Completion: Main Story Playtime: ~4h 30m

Darn, I thought my new system would make my reviews cleaner... this was a mess yet again ha. sorry. I wanna try to wait to write till the end of a game, but I'm always overthinking)

I first played this on my PS2 copy of Metal Gear Solid 3, but did not get very far. I figured why play it like that when I can abuse save states. Now years later I beat the NES version, and I am pretty sure the PS2 version is the msx. The game started off poorly with that whole jungle section. It was far too unforgiving and trial and error based. I especially hated how I was spotted instantly after getting out of a truck despite stealth killing that guard just prior, among other similar situations. This was the worst part of the game for me. How can it be called a stealth game if it is impossible to not be detected at places? And there was no real penalty for setting off the alarm, just leave the screen and everything was back to normal. Defeated guards should have stayed defeated, with alerts lasting until you died, to incentivize more careful tactical stealth play. But perhaps that was beyond the capability of the hardware.

I also did not like the item hunt aspect, the truck moving, and how it took way too long to get the pistol. Checking each key card 1 at a time to figure out which opened each door was terrible design. It really should have been automatic, with the cards not even being equipable. As it was I found myself most often leaving the cards equipped rather than the body armor. The start button should have been a shortcut to the equip screen; pause was a useless feature given the game paused while in the menu. Due to these annoyances and not wanting to stumble around, I followed a walkthrough for about the first half of the game. After that I just used a map. There should have been an in game map as an item, and use that to solve the stupid maze screens. Despite all these flaws, there was a lot of good game design here. The game was reminiscent of Metroid and the Legend of Zelda, only not as good as either; an open world action game with respawning enemies, puzzles, and items that allow progress. The combat was much more fun with the gun, though enemies should have dropped ammo and rations. The bosses were well done and probably the best part of the game, with the music coming in next. I killed them with fancy handgun shooting, anticipating their movements and sending bullets for them to walk into while barely getting out of the way of theirs, unless I needed a stronger weapon. I did not use the SMG or cardboard box, though I did see how they could be slightly useful. I watched a let's play of the msx version to see how different it was. The entire jungle section was gone with the gun being obtained earlier. The stealth seemed more forgiving and less trial and error, there were more boss fights, no dumb maze screens, the pit traps were doable without exploits, the scorpions were far more aggressive, and there was a metal gear at the end instead of a lame computer. There were even laser turrets at the metal gear to make blowing it up a challenge, though to be fair I died to the soldiers there after running the electric gauntlet. The core gameplay and most of the world layout was the same. Dialog was better though the plot was the same. I did not like the romance message at the end, which was not in the NES, because it did not fit at all.

I doubt I would have had the patience to play this as a kid, though there was some good game design here. The msx version was clearly better.

6.0/10 for NES 7.0/10 for msx

First of all: I played the NES version of this game, which I now understand is not exactly the best way to play Metal Gear 1.

I really didn't enjoy this game at all. Honestly, I think it's terrible. Still, I can't deny that it has a huge value as an influential title that lays the foundation for many other stealth games.

The worst thing about the game has to be the menu system. Dear God. I hated the fact that you have to manually choose the right keycard EVERY TIME you want to open a damn door. I also didn't enjoy having to search for all the prisoners required to progress through the game. At some point I got stuck because I missed one of them and had to go back basically the entire game to find it. I also think it's completely absurd that certain enemies are defeated only with a specific weapon and all the others do not do any damage to them, even though they look quite lethal.

In short, I recommend it only if you really want to complete your backlog with the old Metal Gear games, but be prepared for a headache.

METAL GEAR.... it begins....

I spent an embarrassing amount of time not using the box wondering why rooms were unfair until I realized you could just use the box for the cameras. I'm an idiot.

Abusing the ammo spawns so I can just use the suppresser on everything. I like how some rooms force you to learn guard patterns but also I'm sorry I just want to continue fast, pew pew

I like how the RA achievement for getting captured is "I M SO SMRT!!!".

If you released a game called Metal Gear, but there is no Metal Gear in said game, is it a Metal Gear game?

Also, if your own creator disowns said version of game and doesn't call it part of the canon, is it a Metal Gear game?

I'm not sure what Konami (Ultra) was doing with this NES conversion, but it misses everything that makes Metal Gear great.

The focus on stealth. This game really doesn't have it. How much of it is set up, you need to confront the bad guys head on. At times it feels like overhead Contra.

The wide array of items. You have that here, but it's done poorly. You need to go to the menu screen and get them, but often you take a ton of damage while doing so, which makes changing to certain items more of a chore than necessary.

The bad English translation. This was a thing common around this time with a lot of NES games. I won't hold that totally against Metal Gear.

And worst of all, no Metal Gear. Instead, line up some bombs to blow up a computer. Yay?

Skip this one.

Taking a break from Resident Evil to play probably the oldest possible game I can play on the shiny new console I spent hundreds of dollars on. The original, the 8-bit wonder, 1987's very own Metal Gear, hold the Solid, played on the MGS HD Collection.

This game is a testament to how absolutely bonkers my tastes are. It, by all accounts, aged like milk that's been sitting out since 1987. It's straight up not-good. There's not much of a story, the stealth is laughable, and my god is this game obtuse. But I love it. I love the way Big Boss calls you IN the gas room to tell you "oops I forgot, you gotta wear a gas mask." I love the embarrassingly easy boss fight cheese. The completely nonsensical things everyone on the radio says and the utterly illogical puzzles. And unironically the soundtrack is good. There's only like 5 tracks, but they're all decent.

My only complaint is that I wish they kept the original names of the bosses. Not that the new names are good, by any stretch of the imagination.

Not the first stealth game, I think that was... Castle Wolfenstein? In 84? Something like that. But it really did do a lot and started a legacy. Really, I'm just glad it was good enough that they made a trash tier NES port, made an unauthorized sequel that was even worse, so Kojima and his team said "nope, we gotta show how it's done" and Metal Gear 2 was made. That game is top tier.

Okay, let me start by saying that if you really wanna experience the origins of Metal Gear, do NOT play the nes port.

You should always go for the Msx version (Better graphics, story and soundtrack).

Infiltrating the Outer Heaven base is not easy, it will take you several hours punctuated by failures and trial and error to figure out how to infiltrate and bypass every obstacle that will block your route. I probably could've never figured out how to finish the game without a walkthrough.

3.1 out of 5, with the right guide and mindset, i found the game generally enjoyable ! It can get really frustrating and confusing at times, sure, but i'd say the twist ending makes it all worth it.

(Ps : That 4th wall break when Big boss asks you to turn off the console though, 10/10)

History:

I've actually never played a Metal Gear game before... Like... At all. Never been a fan of the series, never bothered to sit down and actually try one of the games before outside of the occasional minute or less at a friend's house.

Expectations:

I've been told that this is a very difficult game, but I seem to have more luck with shooters than any other genre on this console, so I'm hoping for a good time. I really don't know what to expect.

Day 1:

I love Engrish.

So... this game...

I hate this game.

I don't really know what to say but I really am not enjoying myself at all. It's bringing on bad memories from Perfect Dark. There's not enough action in the game to make me not care about what I'm actually doing, and the visuals are only just functional.

I find myself spending more time trying to figure out how to cheese the game than trying to play it properly, as the gameplay feels very boring to me. It's all a game of find the thing to open the door while sneaking around the guys and if they spot you then no worries, just run back a screen and everything resets. It's a lot of trial and error, scouring everything to make sure you find all the items you'll need further in.

It's not a kind of gameplay I personally care for.

The game got a bit better when I was able to arm myself and play it more like an action game, but even then...

...yeah that.

Day 2:

I went in on day two intent on giving this game more of a fair chance than I did last time, and I actually wound up playing off on through most of the day, which is a good thing.

I was happy to see the cardboard box make its debut, though I can't say it got much use.

I was able to pick up on how the game wanted to be played, I think, and had a better time as a result. Still, it's really not my kind of game, and after a while I found myself more frustrated than anything else. The whole game revolves around infiltrating an enemy compound to save your comrades, blow up a walking tank and possible rescue some scientist who always seems to be in another castle.

My problems with this game come from pacing, both in gameplay and the game itself. A lot of this is the product of the era, and probably can't be helped, but the act of actually "doing" anything in Metal Gear becomes quite cumbersome thanks to a slow menu system that needs to accessed CONSTANTLY.

Doors in the game are typically locked, and must be opened using a specific key card. In my time with the game I found four different cards, and every door in the game required one of those four cards to unlock, and there was no indication as to which. This wouldn't be a problem is figuring it out didn't mean spending 30+ seconds going in and out and in and out of the game's menu system trying different cards. This is a simple problem that could have easily been alleviated by either having numbers on the doors, or by just requiring you to have the right key in your inventory rather than having to actually equip it.

Therein lies another one of my issues with Metal Gear. It's effectively one giant exercise in trial and error. There's very little skill involved, and everything comes down to making sure you didn't miss that one room way back after getting the key to unlock it so that you'd have the item you needed to move forward.

Additionally, the game seems inconsistent, though this may have just been me. I played through the first 20-30 minutes of the game several times. I had all the patterns down for each screen as there was very little, if any, variation in enemy patterns and reactions. Infiltrating the first building was the same every time, but on occasion, all the guards would suddenly go into high alert mode! I don't know if this was based on ranks, or how I handled guards or what, but it seemed completely random to me.

I will say I liked the ranking system though. It's a nice way of progression that feels natural enough and is very rewarding. Unfortunately, that alone isn't enough to make me want to keep at it.

Snake!? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!

Conclusion:

I actually (accidentally) put most of my conclusions into the body of this post, but there's a bit more to be said. I realize I made it sound like I hated playing this game, but I really didn't. I find the game deeply flawed and unfocused, and I don't see myself coming back to it any time soon, but I didn't hate it.

I think my biggest issue with Metal Gear was that all I could see was missed potential. I actually really with there was a Super Metal Gear on the SNES modeled after this one but with the kind of polishing and perfection that seemed to come with game entries on that console. Come to think of it the fact that there was no SNES Metal Gear is a bit odd, considering we got two Castlevanias, Gradius III, Contra III and more from Konami.

I will say though, after seeing the conception of this series and knowing how obscenely popular it's become, I'm actually really interested in playing future entries. Much more so than I was a few days ago.

Liked:

- Game had a lot of good ideas, even if they weren't executed very well.
- Controls handled fairly well.
- Handgun + Silencer makes the game much more fun!

Disliked:

- Clunky menu system broke up the flow of the game too much.
- That same menu system inadvertently let you cheese portions of the game.
- Questionable AI and hit detection.
- Dying in the game sets you very far back, and the password save system is terrible.
- Missing an item in the game is an exercise in frustration.

Personal Score: