It holds up pretty good as a Zelda-like. Like a lot of 80s games, it can be esoteric to the point of cruelty sometimes; deliberately misleading you or gating progress by you writing something down hours ago.
The game was bought on GOG.com.
The first game in Metal Gear series. Though it's really good good game for the time, it just didn't age well. Item grinding, primitive stealth system with guards having the literal line of sight, easily cheesable bosses and unfair traps. Still, I really enjoy the game. Really good, though really short OST and competent map design help this game stay afloat. This game is truly a product of its time.
The first game in Metal Gear series. Though it's really good good game for the time, it just didn't age well. Item grinding, primitive stealth system with guards having the literal line of sight, easily cheesable bosses and unfair traps. Still, I really enjoy the game. Really good, though really short OST and competent map design help this game stay afloat. This game is truly a product of its time.
It's alright but pretty frustrating to play. A lot of backtracking to get items to progress so gets annoying real quick. Story was barebones but I'll let it pass. MGSV definitely helped recontextualized the plot so it's cool. Hope Metal Gear 2 is a step up!
(Played the PC port)
After playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengence I wanted to play the rest of the Metal Gear franchise, so obviously I had to start at the beginning – Metal Gear.
So how does a game from 1987 hold up? (If I could capitalize numbers, I would) There is no point in even asking the question. Of course, it doesn’t hold up. The only reason to play it is to just see where the legendary series started.
Still, I don’t hate it. At the end of the day, I did finish it. (With a guide) While throughout most of it, I was quite bored, there were some genuinely intriguing moments where I thought that, had I played it when it came out, my jaw would be on the floor.
Honestly play it. It's worth it to see just how far gaming has come.
𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
Apologies, I didn’t pay much attention during history class, so my Metal Gear lore knowledge isn’t that deep. I don’t know whether this game connects to the wider universe of the series.
You play as Solid Snake, a special forces operative, who is tasked with infiltrating the Outer Heaven to destroy a weapon by the name of Metal Gear. Getting déjà vu?
There isn’t much of a story, but there is still more than I expected for 1987, and it did surprise me at a few points.
𝐌𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲
It attempts to be a stealth game, and it only succeeds when you have the patience to take the “stealth” seriously. You see, the combination of multiple exploits, awful AI, and unexplained mechanics led to me becoming bored with trying to play as intended and just brute-forced the rest of the game.
The use of a guide is highly recommended. There is very little that is explained properly and unless you want the authentic 1987 experience of banging your head against a wall, look up the solution.
𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬/𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞
2D-pixel graphics were the pinnacle of quality back then, the same can't be said for today.
𝐀𝐭𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞/𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
There isn’t much of an atmosphere or immersion in Metal Gear. I do wonder whether the people who played it on release had a different experience.
𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤
Back then the hardware used to play such games could make many sounds as such the soundtrack had to accommodate that. This led to it being a bit hard on the ears. Still, it is better than I expected. My favourite part is “Red Alert”.
𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
As for my quest to complete the Metal Gear series, I stopped at Metal Gear Solid (the first) as I realized stealth games just are not for me. Maybe someday I will return.
After playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengence I wanted to play the rest of the Metal Gear franchise, so obviously I had to start at the beginning – Metal Gear.
So how does a game from 1987 hold up? (If I could capitalize numbers, I would) There is no point in even asking the question. Of course, it doesn’t hold up. The only reason to play it is to just see where the legendary series started.
Still, I don’t hate it. At the end of the day, I did finish it. (With a guide) While throughout most of it, I was quite bored, there were some genuinely intriguing moments where I thought that, had I played it when it came out, my jaw would be on the floor.
Honestly play it. It's worth it to see just how far gaming has come.
𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
Apologies, I didn’t pay much attention during history class, so my Metal Gear lore knowledge isn’t that deep. I don’t know whether this game connects to the wider universe of the series.
You play as Solid Snake, a special forces operative, who is tasked with infiltrating the Outer Heaven to destroy a weapon by the name of Metal Gear. Getting déjà vu?
There isn’t much of a story, but there is still more than I expected for 1987, and it did surprise me at a few points.
𝐌𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲
It attempts to be a stealth game, and it only succeeds when you have the patience to take the “stealth” seriously. You see, the combination of multiple exploits, awful AI, and unexplained mechanics led to me becoming bored with trying to play as intended and just brute-forced the rest of the game.
The use of a guide is highly recommended. There is very little that is explained properly and unless you want the authentic 1987 experience of banging your head against a wall, look up the solution.
𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬/𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞
2D-pixel graphics were the pinnacle of quality back then, the same can't be said for today.
𝐀𝐭𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞/𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
There isn’t much of an atmosphere or immersion in Metal Gear. I do wonder whether the people who played it on release had a different experience.
𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤
Back then the hardware used to play such games could make many sounds as such the soundtrack had to accommodate that. This led to it being a bit hard on the ears. Still, it is better than I expected. My favourite part is “Red Alert”.
𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬
As for my quest to complete the Metal Gear series, I stopped at Metal Gear Solid (the first) as I realized stealth games just are not for me. Maybe someday I will return.
Long time MG fan finally playing the original thanks to the Master Collection (disclaimer: I just bought MGS1 standalone as I already have the PS3 HD collection and it seemed like the option that made more sense).
Not too much to say here. The foundation of the series is laid here, the beginning of one of gaming's greatest franchises and stories had a pretty straightforward run. There's really not too much to this game, its stealth mechanics are expectedly basic (not saying as a negative) and it has the classic "I'm not sure where to go next so I'll have to look it up" feel games back in its time did. Was still interesting to see the series' roots (it's also physically impossible to not read Snake's dialogue in David Hayter's voice), and it was definitely pretty fun. Now on to MG2.
6/10
Not too much to say here. The foundation of the series is laid here, the beginning of one of gaming's greatest franchises and stories had a pretty straightforward run. There's really not too much to this game, its stealth mechanics are expectedly basic (not saying as a negative) and it has the classic "I'm not sure where to go next so I'll have to look it up" feel games back in its time did. Was still interesting to see the series' roots (it's also physically impossible to not read Snake's dialogue in David Hayter's voice), and it was definitely pretty fun. Now on to MG2.
6/10
A game that under explains everything to the point where I’m sure the majority of people don’t play it without a guide. A cool concept held back by shoddy enemy AI and the aforementioned obtuseness.
The game has aged horribly. Being in a system outdated that I would say experience this game once and never again
I got 40 minutes into this, died, and realised I'd lost 30 minutes worth of progress just because the save system hasn't been updated in 37 years, which sucks because I was happy to playthrough this game with a guide, but at this moment in time I'm not willing to lose progress again with such finicky save systems. I understand that keeping this feature is to preserve the original experience, but it'd remove nothing to just add an optional quality of life feature that means I won't have to replay a 20 minute area.
Whilst I didn't get past the first boss, in my playthrough I found that apart from this game being really tedious without a guide, the controls are decent compared to other games from the time, with the 'sneaking', combat and shooting not being as bad as I thought they'd be. It was also neat seeing the origins of some series staples, as well as some scenes which clearly were repurposed in the first Metal Gear Solid.
Overall I think Metal Gear is a decent start to the Metal Gear series, and has the usual faults I'd expect from the first game in a series that started out as 8-bit, with similar stuff being seen in NES Zelda and Metroid, but unless the Master Collection adds save states then I'm not going to play through this just to experience an admittedly barebones story that I can much more easily read about. Out of everything I'd expect from an 8-bit game, the save system was not the the thing I'd think would get me to stop playing.
Whilst I didn't get past the first boss, in my playthrough I found that apart from this game being really tedious without a guide, the controls are decent compared to other games from the time, with the 'sneaking', combat and shooting not being as bad as I thought they'd be. It was also neat seeing the origins of some series staples, as well as some scenes which clearly were repurposed in the first Metal Gear Solid.
Overall I think Metal Gear is a decent start to the Metal Gear series, and has the usual faults I'd expect from the first game in a series that started out as 8-bit, with similar stuff being seen in NES Zelda and Metroid, but unless the Master Collection adds save states then I'm not going to play through this just to experience an admittedly barebones story that I can much more easily read about. Out of everything I'd expect from an 8-bit game, the save system was not the the thing I'd think would get me to stop playing.
Gracias a Dios es un juego corto porque si perdía mi progreso de 30 minutos una vez más podría llegar a formar mi propia nación de soldados sin banderas. Es interesante ver el formato de Metal Gear en 2D, aunque en este juego es muy repetitivo y muchas veces muy laberíntico. Muchas veces no tienes idea de lo que tienes que hacer y te la pasas dando un montón de vueltas. Lo que más me jodió es que solamente podías guardar en los ascensores, entonces en algunas zonas que eran muy largas y tardabas mucho tiempo en hacerlas podías llegar a perder el progreso de un buen rato si morías, y eso era bastante normal debido a que algunas secciones están repletas de trampas o cosas que no te dicen. La historia pensé que iba a tener muchos más diálogos considerando los juegos que se hicieron después, pero supongo que debe ser por limitaciones técnicas o algo así. En general fue entretenido sacando las malas pasadas que me daba el tema de las partidas; fue lindo ver el origen de la saga y finalmente terminar uno de mis grandes juegos pendientes.
I like that the only reason MGSV exists is that this one can make sense in the series continuity
Before Solid, there was this, Metal Gear, which tells the story of Solid Snake infiltrating a top secret base where the nuclear war tank "Metal Gear" is being secretly built. FOXHOUND member Solid Snake is sent into a fortress known as Outer Heaven to investigate, and from here things are pretty simple. It's a minimal story with a surprising amount of dialogue for a late 80's game, as well as a decent twist that is foreshadowed really well using the games radio, I was genuinely impressed by that.
The gameplay itself is solid enough, it's a top down game where you must sneak around the base, find items to progress and defeat bosses with specific items. Stealth is encouraged as enemies will swarm you if you're seen, and early on it's easy to stay undetected as all the enemies have a severe case of tunnel vision. As long as they aren't looking directly at you, they won't see you, and you can punch them or shoot them without bringing attention to yourself, especially if you have the weapon suppressor.
If you are spotted, you either need to run, or fight, but combat is clunky. Weapons work but often don't seem to hit targets, so it's often better to run away. To be fair if you do need to just spam your guns, running out of ammo or health packs is never really an issue as item pick ups respawn when leaving and re-entering a room.
All of this is functional and fundamentally playable, but the big issue with this game is how cryptic it is, often requiring you to do things you are never told about, find items by backtracking, blowing up walls that look no different to other walls and defeating bosses with specific weapons. It's very possible to become totally soft locked, so without a guide, you aren't beating this.
It starts okay, but just nosedives into obscurity in the second half, so unless your really curious, I would skip this one - 3.5/10
The gameplay itself is solid enough, it's a top down game where you must sneak around the base, find items to progress and defeat bosses with specific items. Stealth is encouraged as enemies will swarm you if you're seen, and early on it's easy to stay undetected as all the enemies have a severe case of tunnel vision. As long as they aren't looking directly at you, they won't see you, and you can punch them or shoot them without bringing attention to yourself, especially if you have the weapon suppressor.
If you are spotted, you either need to run, or fight, but combat is clunky. Weapons work but often don't seem to hit targets, so it's often better to run away. To be fair if you do need to just spam your guns, running out of ammo or health packs is never really an issue as item pick ups respawn when leaving and re-entering a room.
All of this is functional and fundamentally playable, but the big issue with this game is how cryptic it is, often requiring you to do things you are never told about, find items by backtracking, blowing up walls that look no different to other walls and defeating bosses with specific weapons. It's very possible to become totally soft locked, so without a guide, you aren't beating this.
It starts okay, but just nosedives into obscurity in the second half, so unless your really curious, I would skip this one - 3.5/10
i felt old playing this
If you were able to finish this game without a guide telling you where to go, props to you. Too bad I needed it
The game is also pretty meh overall, has a couple good moments, but basically wanted it to be over as soon as I got to the good MGS games
The game is also pretty meh overall, has a couple good moments, but basically wanted it to be over as soon as I got to the good MGS games
Very impressive for it's time, still pretty fun, though it's sequel is so much better
The greatest directorial debut in games history. The Citizen Kane of games if you think about it.
Liked Metal Gear classic way more than I expected. It's just a weird jank metroidvania and I appreciate it. I feel like this was amazing at the time like so many cool ideas here for a video game that came out in 1987.
the one song in this game gives me nightmares
So much friction that it's unplayable without a guide, but you can see the seeds of greatness and what was still undeniably an incredibly inventive game. I'm glad I played it finally.
This review contains spoilers
Metal Gear has aged really well in a number of aspects- there was clearly a lot of thought put into it in pretty much every aspect and it feels limited by its hardware rather than its creativity.
For starters, the plot is actually pretty alright- considering it came out in 1987 there being a solid narrative with a genuinely good plot twist is a shocker. This is only two years after Super Mario Bros and we have a game not only trying to tell a story but having the story influence the gameplay.
The twist of Big Boss being the head of Outer Heaven all along ties into the gameplay a lot more than I would expect- throughout Metal Gear I was frustrated that he often gives shit advice (He tells you to put a gas mask on halfway through the gas room and later in the game when Snake is progressing more than he expected he outright leads you into traps multiple times) and chalked it up to either a translation error that had been left in for authenticity or just not great design- to have the twist suddenly recontextualise parts of the game in a lightbulb moment was great. I did not expect a game that came out this early in the medium's history to pull something like that, even with the franchise's reputation of getting clever.
In general, Metal Gear is definitely ahead of its time. Manually punching in a few different radio codes to speak to different characters is charming and the huge amount of items with only a use or two is really cute- it feels much more immersive than having a small set of tools you routinely cycle through. It's a primitive stealth game, no doubt, but it does its best to feel immersive.
Unfortunately time has shone light on a few flaws, most of them fairly big and the only reasons the game isn't rated significantly higher. The combat is pretty bad, there are only a scant few tracks on the OST, most of which you'll hear on loop, and the stealth feels very dated. It's worth emphasising that none of these are due to any sort of fault in Metal Gear's design, which I think is actually fairly bulletproof as a foundation- it's just that it's 36 years old and the hardware is puny by today's standards. The MSX is just not sophisticated enough for a good combat system or good stealth.
Definitely worth a play, very excited to get into the rest of this legendary franchise.
For starters, the plot is actually pretty alright- considering it came out in 1987 there being a solid narrative with a genuinely good plot twist is a shocker. This is only two years after Super Mario Bros and we have a game not only trying to tell a story but having the story influence the gameplay.
The twist of Big Boss being the head of Outer Heaven all along ties into the gameplay a lot more than I would expect- throughout Metal Gear I was frustrated that he often gives shit advice (He tells you to put a gas mask on halfway through the gas room and later in the game when Snake is progressing more than he expected he outright leads you into traps multiple times) and chalked it up to either a translation error that had been left in for authenticity or just not great design- to have the twist suddenly recontextualise parts of the game in a lightbulb moment was great. I did not expect a game that came out this early in the medium's history to pull something like that, even with the franchise's reputation of getting clever.
In general, Metal Gear is definitely ahead of its time. Manually punching in a few different radio codes to speak to different characters is charming and the huge amount of items with only a use or two is really cute- it feels much more immersive than having a small set of tools you routinely cycle through. It's a primitive stealth game, no doubt, but it does its best to feel immersive.
Unfortunately time has shone light on a few flaws, most of them fairly big and the only reasons the game isn't rated significantly higher. The combat is pretty bad, there are only a scant few tracks on the OST, most of which you'll hear on loop, and the stealth feels very dated. It's worth emphasising that none of these are due to any sort of fault in Metal Gear's design, which I think is actually fairly bulletproof as a foundation- it's just that it's 36 years old and the hardware is puny by today's standards. The MSX is just not sophisticated enough for a good combat system or good stealth.
Definitely worth a play, very excited to get into the rest of this legendary franchise.
É um bom clássico, a trilha sonora e o design aqui são os melhores pontos do jogo
Its old and wierd, but its interesting to see where one of my favorite game series stared. Metal gear has aged like milk and practically requires a guide, but if you love the series as much as I do give it a shot, if not just for the historical importance.
Better than any Metal Gear Solid game.
This review contains spoilers
I decided to start my Metal Gear journey with this game, and for what it was, I had fun with it, at least as someone who has never gotten into the series. It's definitely archaic in many respects but nonetheless, I was able to appreciate what the developers were aiming for on the MSX2. The stealth mechanics, while rudimentary, seem pretty impressive for the time even if it's really easy to manipulate and work around. Moreover, I was able to appreciate how even back then, Kojima was toying around with how to tell narratives in video games that went beyond obscure story details in the manual. Big Boss giving you bad advice and intel towards the end of the game is something you didn't see other developers do at the time and It's cool how he utilizes it's systems to tell interesting stories.
My biggest complaints about the game are how cryptic the game can be at times and that there are some trial and error aspects to the game design that can be a nuisance. A lot of this comes down to the fact that the developers hid a lot of crucial information in the manual of the game as a sort of early form of copyright protection and unfortunately, Konami has not provided a translated version of the manual in the master collection. The manual they do provide is useful, but it's still missing important info like what Schneider's frequencies are or that you need to have all rankings to get all the weapons in order to beat the game. Looking up a guide helped me avoid some of these issues, but I can imagine a new player not privy to these things might struggle.
The game can also feel a bit too repetitive with all the backtracking you have to do. It's not the as bad as some metroidvanias out there, but you can definitely start feeling a bit fatigued by how much you need to backtrack at certain parts of the game, especially when the game introduces other buildings in the mix. This gets really annoying when the game introduces traps that can transport you to other buildings. Add on a checkpoint system that can feel unforgiving at times (though you can take advantage of it to help you out.), and parts of this game can feel frustrating.
Overall, I think this game was really fun despite its game and faults, though I will admit that I'm more willing to deal with old game design and jank than most modern gamers. If you're willing to look past it's faults, I think you'll find fun, short stealth experience the laid the foundation for a lot of the series tropes.
My biggest complaints about the game are how cryptic the game can be at times and that there are some trial and error aspects to the game design that can be a nuisance. A lot of this comes down to the fact that the developers hid a lot of crucial information in the manual of the game as a sort of early form of copyright protection and unfortunately, Konami has not provided a translated version of the manual in the master collection. The manual they do provide is useful, but it's still missing important info like what Schneider's frequencies are or that you need to have all rankings to get all the weapons in order to beat the game. Looking up a guide helped me avoid some of these issues, but I can imagine a new player not privy to these things might struggle.
The game can also feel a bit too repetitive with all the backtracking you have to do. It's not the as bad as some metroidvanias out there, but you can definitely start feeling a bit fatigued by how much you need to backtrack at certain parts of the game, especially when the game introduces other buildings in the mix. This gets really annoying when the game introduces traps that can transport you to other buildings. Add on a checkpoint system that can feel unforgiving at times (though you can take advantage of it to help you out.), and parts of this game can feel frustrating.
Overall, I think this game was really fun despite its game and faults, though I will admit that I'm more willing to deal with old game design and jank than most modern gamers. If you're willing to look past it's faults, I think you'll find fun, short stealth experience the laid the foundation for a lot of the series tropes.
a bit outdated but still fun just make sure you have a guide
Repetitive and kinda all over the place. If you don’t have a guide for this game or know what you are doing, god speed. The boss fights were kinda fun at times.
I didn't play the original Metal Gear until I had dozens of runs of MGS and MGS2 under my belt already. As a result, it was impossible for me to scrutinize this game without any biases, but it also allowed me to appreciate the groundwork it laid for the later sequels. There are so many components here, even if not fully fleshed out, that would go on to become staples of the franchise and the stealth subgenre.
The best thing about this game, then, is that it tried to develop the top down action shooter into something with a bit more thought behind it. The inclusion of various items and puzzles, along with the behaviors of the guards forced players to pay closer attention to the world than just mindlessly running through Ikrai Warriors or Contra. While the stealth elements here are certainly not very well developed, and some of that trial and error gameplay can be very frustrating, I think they were necessary steps in refining and evolving the genre.
So on its own merits, I think its a good action stealth game, but the experimentation is what set it apart from so many of its contemporaries and would elevate future titles in the franchise to outright masterpieces.
The best thing about this game, then, is that it tried to develop the top down action shooter into something with a bit more thought behind it. The inclusion of various items and puzzles, along with the behaviors of the guards forced players to pay closer attention to the world than just mindlessly running through Ikrai Warriors or Contra. While the stealth elements here are certainly not very well developed, and some of that trial and error gameplay can be very frustrating, I think they were necessary steps in refining and evolving the genre.
So on its own merits, I think its a good action stealth game, but the experimentation is what set it apart from so many of its contemporaries and would elevate future titles in the franchise to outright masterpieces.
when the gear is metal or smth idfk
Not a bad start to the series. The stealth is kinda terrible but still, such a game hadn’t really existed yet. This is quite the guide game, as much of how to complete it is basically impossible to determine by yourself. And while the codec does help with some of this, it’s not nearly enough.
Did not age well but at the same time aged surprisingly. The main problem is that the map is a maze and a guide is basically necessary to even finish it. But it has so many good ideas that makes it one of the most unique games of that time. And I actually think the bosses are still really fun.
The game actually made me laugh multiple times with the funny bosses and the star of this game, big boss. He just says intentionally funny stuff he's awesome.
I'll just mention here on behalf of all of metal gear. Every game's soundtrack is amazing including this one.
The game actually made me laugh multiple times with the funny bosses and the star of this game, big boss. He just says intentionally funny stuff he's awesome.
I'll just mention here on behalf of all of metal gear. Every game's soundtrack is amazing including this one.
It's pretty interesting how much the series owes to this first entry as primitive as it sometimes seems. So many recurring concepts and gameplay elements got their start here, which is why it's so unfortunate that this game is such a slog. Often overly cryptic and poorly paced, Metal Gear is just not very fun.
With a barely-there plot and so many non-characters given a single line of dialogue, you would never guess that a complex narrative spanning several decades would be built around this little game.
As a big fan of the Solid games, I'm glad to have played this for historical context, but I can safely say I will never be revisiting this.
With a barely-there plot and so many non-characters given a single line of dialogue, you would never guess that a complex narrative spanning several decades would be built around this little game.
As a big fan of the Solid games, I'm glad to have played this for historical context, but I can safely say I will never be revisiting this.