After playing the original two MG titles thanks to the Master Collection, I was in the mood to revisit a classic I haven't played in years.

I've been a huge fan of Metal Gear since high school, Snake Eater was the first in the series I completed, then I went back and played the first two games (I tried MGS2 prior but wasn't into it) and my obsession began. Obviously this is a special game to me, so I'm happy to report that not only does it hold up, it's somehow even better than I remember. Revisiting Shadow Moses was every bit as fun and engaging as it was the first time I played through all those years ago. Obviously it took some relearning to get back into the swing of things, but once I did I played it over and over again.

I long maintained that this was the best MG title (I know 3 is the most beloved, but I slightly love this one more, and I didn't religiously replay 2 did the others), and I still feel confident in that opinion, although I'm likely going to set up my PS3 to play the HD collection since playing this again reignited my love for Metal Gear. It has my favorite story, my favorite cast, and several of my favorite lines and scenes in the series (plus the codec call with Mei Ling after the Hind boss fight is my favorite call in the series, still amazing after all these years).

I haven't played the VR missions until now so I wanted to try getting them out of the way before the main story (due to a misunderstanding with the trophy requirements, I ended up doing a few playthroughs on Integral to unlock a few missions). Some of the missions were super simple and straight forward, some needed trial-and-error, some were very funny (protecting Meryl from a Godzilla-sized guard was absurd in the best way). Many of them were rage-inducing horseshit that made me question whether or not it was worth it. To add insult to injury there were OVER 300 MISSIONS, I ended up taking almost 10 hours of playtime to finally finish them. I admit some of it was trial-and-error and a skill issue on my part, but many mission required you to play in ways that actively work against the gameplay loop (a good portion of them demand you kill guards as if you were Rambo, while still getting killed fast if you played poorly). Too many of the missions refuse to play to the game's strengths, and it leads to a very frustrating experience.

To say something else about my trophy hunting, my Fox playthrough was pretty funny. I did 5 (!) playthroughs in preparation and had most of it memorized, then the AI does things that actively tried to sabotaged my playthrough. In all my years of playing the game, it was the first time Mantis instantly shot Meryl before I had a chance to knock her out.

I admit this log isn't my most organized or most well written post here, but it's hard to post my thoughts on a game this special to me in a cohesive manner. I'll definitely replay it again soon, and likely will regularly replay it after. I think after revisiting it with the MC, I can safely say that this is my favorite game of all time.

10/10

Can love bloom on the Battlefield?

Yes.

Is it more about loving oneself, accepting your genes, and overcoming fate to live your life by your own means?

Definitely.

Funny that I played two games in a row about overcoming family stuff. This with the added nuclear threat looming over head. Wild that in 2024 nuclear war is still on the table from multiple sources and neuralink feeling a little too close to us getting nanomachines being put in our bodies. Kojima is a little too hot on the button.

Really the story is pretty great in this. The themes of understanding our own genes to uncover truths of our past and to not let them control our fate is pretty beautiful and woven in well with the conspiracies and nuclear paranoia. Also the voice acting was also pretty great. It's nice that not everything in the game is extremely serious. Some of the lines in this are so goofy it's amazing. It made the long cutscenes very enjoyable (it's fun to go back to this game see that Kojima has not changed with the long cutscenes and that he's made them longer. Very cool to see his progression as director and the film inspiration on the direction of the cutscenes). I love all of the 4th wall breaks in the game. Psycho mantis shaking the controller was my favorite, mad me laugh like a maniac.

The gameplay also holds up surprisingly well despite the sometimes janky controls. The sneaking was good albeit kind of easy with being able to see exactly what every camera and enemy could see. It was fun to figure out the puzzles, googled some stuff lol, and the boss fights were all pretty enjoyable.

Excited for mgs2 and learn what all the memes are about.

I started playing this game on a whim randomly about a year ago, and it led to me doing a marathon of the entire Metal Gear Solid series with a few of my friends.

I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to play this game in the year it came out.
I was blown away with pretty much ever aspect of it.
From story to art direction to music to stealth mechanics, all of it is lightyears ahead of its time.
Great time, albeit with the asterisk of that one bit near the end with the keycard.
Regardless, definitely an all-time classic.

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 version played on Nintendo Switch

If someone repeated everything I said in a questioning manner as much as Snake I'd probably punch them in the throat

Having played Snake Eater first I was expecting a miserable experience with Metal Gear Solid but was pleasantly proven wrong. Although rough around the edges and with gameplay not as refined and diverse as later entries, Solid does a tremendous job with its limited hardware capabilities at producing a thoroughly enjoyable game with a gripping coherent story and fun creative gameplay. Some parts are a little hit or miss, with some clever meta-level ideas that are cool but don't translate well to newer releases and systems, but go to show just how unique and creative Hideo Kojima is and has always been. The combat is made enjoyable through excellent aim assist and pairs very well with a simple yet surprisingly strong stealth system. Certain things seem rather unknowable and I admittedly had to look it up but this isn't enough of an issue considering the answers can be found within the games codec system itself with a little prodding and remembering.

Overall this game greatly surprised me and is on-par with its later entries despite being understandably outshined by them in most departments.

9/10

what can i say? this game's legendary status is more than earned. i cannot imagine playing this for the first time in 1998, it must have been absolutely mind-exploding. playing it for the first time in 2024, sure, there are some rough edges. some of the bosses aren't great and the gameplay leaves a little bit to be desired.

but, when you have a story as good as this, when the voice acting is as great as this, when you have the brilliant ability to balance comedy and drama and sometimes seamlessly combine the two, when the music is this great, when the codec conversations are probably the best out of any MGS game (thanks to yoji shinkawa's incredible character portraits), when you have the brilliant fourth-wall shattering, and when the overall atmosphere and colour palette is one of the most immersive of any game i've ever played in spite of the aged graphics, fucking hell man. i cannot help but adore this game. hideo kojima is a horny little genius.

pros:
- great atmosphere + soundtrack
- memorable characters
- good humor

cons:
- gameplay can be pretty stiff, resulting in unintended actions
- some of the dialogue has aged not too well
- some boss fights are pretty annoying (this mainly due to gameplay limitations)

Surpised by how well this one holds up. The gameplay feels quite good despite its age and the voice acting is way ahead of its time. The story has some great twists and turns, especially with its political themes (The US destroying their past not out of shame, but because it would mean a PR disaster? Surely only fiction).

There are quite a lot of flaws though. For how many tools you get, you barely get to use them. There are few stealth sections after like 3 hours and most of those can be solved by a chaff or stun grenade. Also the game makes you do a surprising amount of direct combat instead of stealth which in most cases feels quite bad. The bosses for that matter are also quite hit or miss. All of them have great concepts but only a few actually feel fun to fight. At times the story also is quite overburdened and clumsy. Gray Fox is quite underexplored here and Meryl feels like she's only here to fulfill a trope. The exposition is also really backloaded which made large parts of the game more confusing than it needed to be.

Anyway great start to a series, excited to see where it goes (and how Twin Snakes uses this material).