Metal Gear Solid, released in 1998, is a game developed and published by Konami Corporation. The game follows recent retiree Solid Snake in his return to active duty as he attempts to rescue DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and President of ArmsTech Kenneth Baker, both taken hostage by a terrorist group, in order to prevent the terrorists from launching a nuclear warhead.
Playstation 1 has always been a oddball for me. Besides the couple of major titles I've managed always to miss their exclusive titles. Such as this classic stealth action game from 1998. Decided to hook up my old Playstation and pop-in the game for first play-through . Here is my view of this experience.
Hideo Kojima, the creator has since this game made a big name of creating massive storylines and cutscene heavy games. This early Playstation game setting the standard. Gameplay is stealth based action from a isometric view. Snake, the main character can look at world in a 3rd person view to have a better glance at the environment, but this is only used for better overview. 2D map/radar show enemies and their view range which what is used for dodging them. Multiple gadgets and items are used to tackle them as well. Game levels are confined where number of enemies must be avoided/killed to get to next floor. The stealth action is broken down my games multiple boss fights. These vary a lot and keep the game interesting. Lot's of quirky mechanisms is also used such as the psychic boss and massage controller part.
For someone who has managed to avoid these elobrate Metal Gear stories I must admin I was very impressed. It has always been clear these games are cut-scene heavy. Just did have no idea of how polished(political?) it was even on the Playstation 1. And didn't know how deep and in a ways realistic western feel it had. These are just a bunch of made up organizations and so forth but besides the few para-normal occurance's and funny names one couldn't really tell that this is from a Japanese origin.
Graphics are naturally crude on today's standards. Early polygonal models look at times funny. Environment are mostly very grey except for few snow levels. Granted one doesn't play a Playstation game for graphics now a days. Visuals are function and suits the techno-thriller feel of the game well. On audio there is a full voice actor cast which is also another positive surprise I had. Especially seeing the amount there is. Music is at moody cinematic style with memorable melodies. Music also gets more intense on the action scenes. Same way every game today does it.
As mentioned the action is on isometric view which makes the controls to be slightly janky. Such as the shooting which doesn't have any targeting. Just need to have clear view of sight. Snake automatically takes cover when facing a wall which always doesn't work when going around corners with fixed camera position. The item/weapon selection pauses the game which adds a slight tactical edge.
I always knew that the first Metal Gear Solid was a very good game, but didn't really expect it to be so good. 13 years ago this had blown out my mind completely. It is easy to see that this is was a really good game back in late 1990's. Actually it still is! Metal Gear Solid has it's minor faults. Same time I don't feel I have right to deduct anything from this. Especially seeing how it has set the standard to lot of my favorite games. Really looking forward for to playing the sequels now.
Metal Gear Solid(PlayStation) by fuzzysquash on February 03, 2009
Metal Gear Solid is Hideo Kojima's masterpiece that set the stage for one of the most renowned series in videogames of all time. Kojima is one of the founding fathers of the stealth genre, and MGS was his first vision of Metal Gear in a 3-D world. To this day, MGS still holds up as a fun, intense gameplay experience with a gripping story and unhindered display of Kojima's directorial talent and philosophical insights. Suffice it to say when MGS was released almost a decade ago, its production v...
Metal Gear Solid(PlayStation) by contra_dk on July 22, 2008
Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation is in many ways a groundbreaking game. Never before have games felt like an interactive movie this way. With good graphics, great voice acting, an interesting story that stays with you, this is something you must experience. You play as Solid Snake, a soldier that has seen enough of war. However, an old friend pulls him back in to action and Snake must infiltrate a nuclear weapon storage facility called: Shadow Mosses, which has been taken over by members of ...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
