Review of Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid is an action-adventure stealth play-station video game directed, produced and co-written by Hideo Kojima of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan. The story is set, six years after the events of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and 10 years after the events of the original Metal Gear. You play as Solid Snake (Voiced by David Hayter), a retired US Elite Special Forces operative, called back into action to stop a his former team, now rogue, FOXHOUND lead by Liquid Snake (Voiced by Cam Clarke) from infiltrated a nuclear disposal site and threatening to use a new nuclear launching device walking tank, Metal Gear Rex, to attack the White House. The remainder of the story is told through cut scenes like historical footage from Cold War & WWII, or Japanese anime, mixed with codec or cartoony type low computer animation representation cut-scenes. This gives the game, a realistic tone that immerse the player into the game. Still, there is a stark contrast between the real life and cartoon. It's kinda jarred at times. The animation is dated in the effects. It's funny to watch a lot of depth exposition, being spoken from featureless facial characters. Honestly, the game might have too much exposition that slows the gameplay. I kinda got bored at times, waiting for the exposition to get done. Do we need a long death scene from every minor character? Parts of the game consist of tens of minutes of codec conversations sprinkled with mere seconds of gameplay. Thankfully these instances are rare. They really put so much into the story. The gameplay is similar to its predecessor, as a stealth mission. It not easy being detected by enemies, but I do find it funny that using boxes as cover is a great way to hide from enemies. In addition to the stealth gameplay, there are set piece sequences that entail firefights between the player and enemies from the third-person and first-person perspectives. You have to encounter mini bosses like Revolver Ocelot (Voiced by Patric Laine) a Western-style gunslinger and expert interrogator whose weapon of choice is the Colt Single Action Army; Sniper Wolf (Voice by Tasia Valenza), a preternatural sniper; Vulcan Raven (Voiced by Peter Lurie), a hulking Alaskan shaman armed with an M61 Vulcan torn from a downed F-16; and Psycho Mantis (Voiced by Doug Stone), a psychic profiler and psychokinesis expert. To progress, players must discover the weaknesses of each boss and defeat them. Still, the enemies are just too beneficial in defeat to the hero. Come on! If he's not getting help from the enemies, he's help by supporting characters like Naomi Hunter (Voiced by Jennifer Hale), who gives medical advice; Nastasha Romanenko (Voiced by Renee Raudman), who provides item and weapon tips; and Mei Ling (Voiced by Kim Mai), who invented the radar system used in the mission and is also in charge of mission data; the player can call her to save the game. Other supporting characters worth noting is Colonel Campbell (Voiced by Paul Eiding), Meryl (Voiced by Debi Mae West), Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich (Voiced by Christopher Randolph) and others. They help you a lot, but some of these characters could be cut out. Anyways, the game action is pretty advance for the time. I can't imagine how mind-blown, people were in 1998. From tank battles, helicopter battles & sniper battles. The game also have side missions are fun to play. Try to find the "VR Disc" version of the game. It features over 300 missions testing the player's sneaking and fighting skills, as well as less conventional tests, such as murder mysteries, battling giant genome soldiers, and three missions where the player controls the Cyborg Ninja. Still, that game animation is indeed dated. The textures in the game are really bad when looking at it, compare to modern games. I mean, there are massive blocks on just about every texture in the game. The characters don't have faces as much as a mush of different colored squares that kind of resemble a face. Animations was very stiff during that time. If you find the remake of the game call Twin Snakes. The story, and gameplay is mostly the same, but graphics are way better. It's updated to match those of MGS2. Sony's decision to use CDs for the PS1 was a masterstroke & allowed for games to have much more effective scores. This was one of the first games to have a great soundtrack. Music played in-game has a synthetic feel with increased pace and introduction of strings during tense moments, with a looping style endemic to video games. Overtly cinematic music, with stronger orchestral and choral elements, appears in cut-scenes are just brilliant at the time. The song by lyricist Rika Muranaka "The Best is Yet To Come" for the game's ending credits sequence is just amazing and beautiful to listen. The song is performed in Irish by Aoife Ní Fhearraigh in the English version. The main theme song of Metal Gear Solid was still in an early stage here, but the game main theme song got better with its sequels. The soundtrack from MGS is fantastic & still holds up today. The game got a lot of influence coming from films like (1968) 2001: Space Odyssey, and 1981's Escape from New York. You can see it, throughout the game. Overall: Incredibly cinematic with excellent music, great plot & some great twists in the story with good gameplay. A true pioneer in the world of video games. The game become so popular, that it launch a series of games. Metal Gear Solid is often recognized as one of the key titles involved in popularizing the stealth game genre. Still holds its own, even today.