After putting Metal Gear Solid off for waaaaay too long, I finally sat down and devoured the entire game in just 2 days, putting 11 hours into it overall. Before this, I've spent a year playing about 100 games between 1990 and 1994, so I'd like to think I got a good idea of what gaming looked like at the start of the 32-bit era. Yes, some fantastic and ambitious games came out in the years between 1994 and 1998, where Metal Gear Solid released, but I can confidently say that Metal Gear Solid was and still is a truly special game.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 9/10
I'm probably the one millionth individual who is about to give a story synopsis for Metal Gear Solid, so I'll cut it short, because the setting of this game is not as impactful as the countless plot twists, bombastic moments, fantastic cutscenes and diverse, iconic characters in this game.
You play Solid Snake (again, for those of you who played Metal Gear 1 and 2 for the MSX, which I doubt you did, if you still haven't played MGS 1 to this day), and Solid Snake is brought in again for a high-stake covert operation. This time, it takes you to Alaska, and the Shadow Moses Island to be more precise, where a nuclear storage facility is situated. It was captured by a certain Liquid Snake and other members of FOXHOUND. They are holding two important officers hostage there, who both have a password each that Liquid Snake and his gang need to make true on their threats against the US government. These threats? Launching a nuclear strike with the help of a secret war tank with capabilities of launching missiles that was secretly being developed in this facility, called Metal Gear REX. Input the two passwords and it gets activated. Solid Snake is tasked with freeing those two officers, but when he gets to them, they mysteriously die by a heart attack, though not without telling Solid Snake that the bad guys got both of their passwords and are ready to launch. Solid Snake is informed that he needs three card keys to deactivate Metal Gear REX again.
Again, this does not do any justice to how wild it gets. Storytelling in some video games has come far, but in 1998, few games match what Hideo Kojima achieved with Metal Gear Solid, and I'd venture to say that no game achieved it by using such well put together cutscenes as he did with this game. The story becomes convoluted, though that's probably an overexaggeration, if you ask any Metal Gear veteran, who are, I hear, used to much, much "worse" after having played all the other canon Metal Gear entries that would follow.
As with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake from 1990, Hideo Kojima uses themes linked to real world issues. The nuclear arms race, the vicious circle of war, its affects on the surviving soldiers and our genes and how (and if) they define us as people. There are several moments in this game that really get you thinking, though this might be lost on you if you take the complete opposite of these moments too seriously. Because in something that Kojima become famous for, Metal Gear Solid is filled with silly interactions and immature moments to mix in with the more serious parts of storytelling. The Yakuza series comes to mind as another that mixes these two parts really well together. I've seen some people take offense to some of it but I think that's taking something way more seriously than you should be. Yakuza games have some of the most impactful main stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing in video gaming, and a side quest where you deliver a pizza even though a foreigner wanted to say visa doesn't diminish that one bit. One point I've read about a couple times is that Solid Snake is a dick for flirting with every female character in the game. While I'm unbothered by it for many reasons (they flirt back or flirt first for example), it also helps round out Solid Snake's character and makes his development more impactful as the game goes on. All the other silly moments in this game help create a similar situation for other characters later on, or are just simply there to lower the tension at a few points.
Characters in this game are very diverse and a lot of them have their own times to shine, including some really beautiful moments, especially for some of the bosses that you end up defeating. The death of one particular boss was really touching and the presentation of it was literally perfection. When these defeated people utter their final words, they give you a peak behind the killer, as they tell you how their own messed up fates led them down the path they took. It makes you feel for them, but it also is another form of meta storytelling, as these kinds of people are formed every single day in the world we live in as a result of war. I can imagine how impactful this must have been for all those people playing it close to release, especially those at a younger age who were mainly used to playing games for the gameplay before this. And while the game has some supernatural elements included, it's always nice to see more "grounded" stories in this medium, which feel like more and more of a rarity.
If there is anything I didn't enjoy here, it's probably the fact that Meryl's character is inconsistently written and that there are some awkward parts in the game's writing.
GAMEPLAY | 17/20
Great storytelling with great gameplay is always the best possible mix, and it's present here. As someone who did play Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake before this, I was surprised at how familiar it felt. This game truly is Metal Gear 2 in 3D, so much so that certain boss fights and challenges were used in pretty similar fashion. The differently-colored walls that can be blown up, the shape-shifting key, the mine detector part and several boss fights felt more modernized and had some slightly different challenges tied to them, but Hideo Kojima did re-use some of his ideas for a brighter audience, not to say that it is a bad thing at all.
Metal Gear Solid's gameplay is a lot of fun and it is pretty challenging. It's extremely challenging, if you choose one of the higher difficulties, but even on Easy you will die plenty of times (like me). Enemies have a certain field of vision that you can track on the radar in the top right, and stepping into it alerts them to your position. You avoid them by, well, staying out of the FOV, but also by crawling under tanks, tables and other objects, by disabling security cameras with chaff grenades, by shooting them with a silenced pistol and more. It's a stealth game pretty much, and one with little to no similar games to lean on for influence at that.
There are a lot of optional items to collect as well that can make your life easier in this game. You can find them by exploring or by backtracking to areas and opening up doors that were previously inaccessible to you. You acquire key cards with different security levels to do so. There are some smaller items to grab, like Body Armor, cardboard boxes, night-vision goggles and more, but also some more important items can also be optional pick-ups if you want to make it harder on yourself for whatever reason, such as the suppressor to your pistol, the mine detector, diazepam (removes trembling when you aim with your sniper) and even the gas mask is optional I believe, though I might be mistaken on that.
Generally, there are enough ways to make your way through areas undetected, though I suspect the number of options will increase by a lot in the upcoming sequels. What's most important however is that you always feel challenged, the gameplay maintains a level of tension that keeps it from ever becoming boring and at the same time, punishment for being detected is not instantly fatal depending on your difficulty, so even players who aren't the most skilled should get through this game with not much issue.
An optional part of gameplay, if you want to call it that, is interacting with the Codec. It leads to dialogue, so gameplay is pushing it, but as you are free to move around, you can use the Codec to make dozens upon dozens of optional calls to your contacts to learn more about your mission, the characters and the Metal Gear universe as a whole. Talking to Nastasha for example gives you a lot of information about the nuclear arms race, while talking to Master Miller leads to tips addressed to both Snake and the player himself, such as not staying up too late because your reflexes would be slowest at 3 am in the morning.
Overall, the 10-11 hours flew by thanks to well balanced story and gameplay segments and generally a fun gameplay loop.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 10/10
The voice acting is surprisingly great in this. I knew David Hayter nailed it as Snake, but nearly the entire cast did a great job. I think Mei Ling's VA takes the cake though with her reading of "SNAAAAAAAKE". The best voice acted line in gaming history I think. The sound design is not even worth mentioning here because everyone knows how iconic it is, while the soundtrack is equally fantastic. The track that plays at the end of the game gave me goosebumps, but a lot of tracks here are very memorable.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 9/10
The graphics judged by modern standards are obviously not great. Judged by 1998 standards, the graphics are solid (heh) but what makes the game stand out is its presentation first and foremost. There are better looking games by 1998 but few that are as well put together in a cinematographic sense. Many beautiful setpieces are present here as well, but it didn't set a new benchmark visually like it did in many other aspects.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 9/10
By now, if you've had any experiences with the series, you'll know what a Metal Gear game feels like, and obviously, this game feels like quintessential Metal Gear, a unique type of feeling to this day. It also makes you feel like a stealth operative on a mission thanks to its presentation, but it feels like it could have been expanded upon by putting you in more memorable locations for some of its bigger story beats. There are a couple of those, but mainly the gameplay takes place in warehouses and blue/grayish buildings.
CONTENT | 9/10
Don't get me wrong. I love modern gaming. But from time to time, it's nice to play a game with no collectable distractions. Just one, linear main story and paced in one specific way. That pacing is phenomenal for the majority of the game. There is one annoyance though, which is the backtracking you have to do. It's not a lot of backtracking, don't worry, but it's enough that it made me yawn a couple of times. It's not egregious though, and if there is a silver lining, it's that it sends you back to certain special locations where you defeated bosses, and not seeing them there anymore is a pretty cool, yet sad visual.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 9/10
The backtracking is not great, as established. But the level design overall is great otherwise, and there are plenty of unique levels to mix things up. Rarely are you doing the exact same thing twice, and levels are designed in a way that makes sense. They're also not too small that there is just one clear path forward, and not too large that they just end up having a lot of empty space. If there is one improvement I would like, it would probably be that there are more alternative routes through the levels a la Deus Ex for example, so that the player can feel clever as they discover them and so that levels feel more replayable.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 10/10
We could debate ad nauseam how influential Metal Gear Solid has been. I'd say it has a unique concept more than it is influential, but I also would say that it is pretty influential. First and foremost, conceptually, this game is fantastic. Really well balanced story/gameplay segments, a cinematic approach to storytelling, a unique style of gameplay (stealth) that was pretty rare at the time and a game that tackles multiple real world themes. The stealth gameplay and cinematic storytelling approach might be the two most influential parts about this game, and I'd say they increased the value video games provide for me, which is all I'm looking for for a 10/10. The latter part might have been overdone in future entries (I'll be the judge of that when I get to playing them), but it's very well balanced here.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
Higher difficulties, finding some hidden items in future playthroughs, engaging in more optional Codec conversations and ... well, I think that's it. Not a lot of replayability here in terms of new stuff to find and do after beating it initially.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 89/100
It's definitely among my absolute favorite games of the 90s, and you could say among my favorites all time as well, as great games don't age in my opinion. I got wowed and moved by the story and characters several times, I laughed, I was in deep thought about some of the real world issues the game brings up and I had a blast with the gameplay. It left me very satisfied with the story conclusion and hyped af for the sequel with that after-credits scene. I think I'll jump right on that after posting this review.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 9/10
I'm probably the one millionth individual who is about to give a story synopsis for Metal Gear Solid, so I'll cut it short, because the setting of this game is not as impactful as the countless plot twists, bombastic moments, fantastic cutscenes and diverse, iconic characters in this game.
You play Solid Snake (again, for those of you who played Metal Gear 1 and 2 for the MSX, which I doubt you did, if you still haven't played MGS 1 to this day), and Solid Snake is brought in again for a high-stake covert operation. This time, it takes you to Alaska, and the Shadow Moses Island to be more precise, where a nuclear storage facility is situated. It was captured by a certain Liquid Snake and other members of FOXHOUND. They are holding two important officers hostage there, who both have a password each that Liquid Snake and his gang need to make true on their threats against the US government. These threats? Launching a nuclear strike with the help of a secret war tank with capabilities of launching missiles that was secretly being developed in this facility, called Metal Gear REX. Input the two passwords and it gets activated. Solid Snake is tasked with freeing those two officers, but when he gets to them, they mysteriously die by a heart attack, though not without telling Solid Snake that the bad guys got both of their passwords and are ready to launch. Solid Snake is informed that he needs three card keys to deactivate Metal Gear REX again.
Again, this does not do any justice to how wild it gets. Storytelling in some video games has come far, but in 1998, few games match what Hideo Kojima achieved with Metal Gear Solid, and I'd venture to say that no game achieved it by using such well put together cutscenes as he did with this game. The story becomes convoluted, though that's probably an overexaggeration, if you ask any Metal Gear veteran, who are, I hear, used to much, much "worse" after having played all the other canon Metal Gear entries that would follow.
As with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake from 1990, Hideo Kojima uses themes linked to real world issues. The nuclear arms race, the vicious circle of war, its affects on the surviving soldiers and our genes and how (and if) they define us as people. There are several moments in this game that really get you thinking, though this might be lost on you if you take the complete opposite of these moments too seriously. Because in something that Kojima become famous for, Metal Gear Solid is filled with silly interactions and immature moments to mix in with the more serious parts of storytelling. The Yakuza series comes to mind as another that mixes these two parts really well together. I've seen some people take offense to some of it but I think that's taking something way more seriously than you should be. Yakuza games have some of the most impactful main stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing in video gaming, and a side quest where you deliver a pizza even though a foreigner wanted to say visa doesn't diminish that one bit. One point I've read about a couple times is that Solid Snake is a dick for flirting with every female character in the game. While I'm unbothered by it for many reasons (they flirt back or flirt first for example), it also helps round out Solid Snake's character and makes his development more impactful as the game goes on. All the other silly moments in this game help create a similar situation for other characters later on, or are just simply there to lower the tension at a few points.
Characters in this game are very diverse and a lot of them have their own times to shine, including some really beautiful moments, especially for some of the bosses that you end up defeating. The death of one particular boss was really touching and the presentation of it was literally perfection. When these defeated people utter their final words, they give you a peak behind the killer, as they tell you how their own messed up fates led them down the path they took. It makes you feel for them, but it also is another form of meta storytelling, as these kinds of people are formed every single day in the world we live in as a result of war. I can imagine how impactful this must have been for all those people playing it close to release, especially those at a younger age who were mainly used to playing games for the gameplay before this. And while the game has some supernatural elements included, it's always nice to see more "grounded" stories in this medium, which feel like more and more of a rarity.
If there is anything I didn't enjoy here, it's probably the fact that Meryl's character is inconsistently written and that there are some awkward parts in the game's writing.
GAMEPLAY | 17/20
Great storytelling with great gameplay is always the best possible mix, and it's present here. As someone who did play Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake before this, I was surprised at how familiar it felt. This game truly is Metal Gear 2 in 3D, so much so that certain boss fights and challenges were used in pretty similar fashion. The differently-colored walls that can be blown up, the shape-shifting key, the mine detector part and several boss fights felt more modernized and had some slightly different challenges tied to them, but Hideo Kojima did re-use some of his ideas for a brighter audience, not to say that it is a bad thing at all.
Metal Gear Solid's gameplay is a lot of fun and it is pretty challenging. It's extremely challenging, if you choose one of the higher difficulties, but even on Easy you will die plenty of times (like me). Enemies have a certain field of vision that you can track on the radar in the top right, and stepping into it alerts them to your position. You avoid them by, well, staying out of the FOV, but also by crawling under tanks, tables and other objects, by disabling security cameras with chaff grenades, by shooting them with a silenced pistol and more. It's a stealth game pretty much, and one with little to no similar games to lean on for influence at that.
There are a lot of optional items to collect as well that can make your life easier in this game. You can find them by exploring or by backtracking to areas and opening up doors that were previously inaccessible to you. You acquire key cards with different security levels to do so. There are some smaller items to grab, like Body Armor, cardboard boxes, night-vision goggles and more, but also some more important items can also be optional pick-ups if you want to make it harder on yourself for whatever reason, such as the suppressor to your pistol, the mine detector, diazepam (removes trembling when you aim with your sniper) and even the gas mask is optional I believe, though I might be mistaken on that.
Generally, there are enough ways to make your way through areas undetected, though I suspect the number of options will increase by a lot in the upcoming sequels. What's most important however is that you always feel challenged, the gameplay maintains a level of tension that keeps it from ever becoming boring and at the same time, punishment for being detected is not instantly fatal depending on your difficulty, so even players who aren't the most skilled should get through this game with not much issue.
An optional part of gameplay, if you want to call it that, is interacting with the Codec. It leads to dialogue, so gameplay is pushing it, but as you are free to move around, you can use the Codec to make dozens upon dozens of optional calls to your contacts to learn more about your mission, the characters and the Metal Gear universe as a whole. Talking to Nastasha for example gives you a lot of information about the nuclear arms race, while talking to Master Miller leads to tips addressed to both Snake and the player himself, such as not staying up too late because your reflexes would be slowest at 3 am in the morning.
Overall, the 10-11 hours flew by thanks to well balanced story and gameplay segments and generally a fun gameplay loop.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 10/10
The voice acting is surprisingly great in this. I knew David Hayter nailed it as Snake, but nearly the entire cast did a great job. I think Mei Ling's VA takes the cake though with her reading of "SNAAAAAAAKE". The best voice acted line in gaming history I think. The sound design is not even worth mentioning here because everyone knows how iconic it is, while the soundtrack is equally fantastic. The track that plays at the end of the game gave me goosebumps, but a lot of tracks here are very memorable.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 9/10
The graphics judged by modern standards are obviously not great. Judged by 1998 standards, the graphics are solid (heh) but what makes the game stand out is its presentation first and foremost. There are better looking games by 1998 but few that are as well put together in a cinematographic sense. Many beautiful setpieces are present here as well, but it didn't set a new benchmark visually like it did in many other aspects.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 9/10
By now, if you've had any experiences with the series, you'll know what a Metal Gear game feels like, and obviously, this game feels like quintessential Metal Gear, a unique type of feeling to this day. It also makes you feel like a stealth operative on a mission thanks to its presentation, but it feels like it could have been expanded upon by putting you in more memorable locations for some of its bigger story beats. There are a couple of those, but mainly the gameplay takes place in warehouses and blue/grayish buildings.
CONTENT | 9/10
Don't get me wrong. I love modern gaming. But from time to time, it's nice to play a game with no collectable distractions. Just one, linear main story and paced in one specific way. That pacing is phenomenal for the majority of the game. There is one annoyance though, which is the backtracking you have to do. It's not a lot of backtracking, don't worry, but it's enough that it made me yawn a couple of times. It's not egregious though, and if there is a silver lining, it's that it sends you back to certain special locations where you defeated bosses, and not seeing them there anymore is a pretty cool, yet sad visual.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 9/10
The backtracking is not great, as established. But the level design overall is great otherwise, and there are plenty of unique levels to mix things up. Rarely are you doing the exact same thing twice, and levels are designed in a way that makes sense. They're also not too small that there is just one clear path forward, and not too large that they just end up having a lot of empty space. If there is one improvement I would like, it would probably be that there are more alternative routes through the levels a la Deus Ex for example, so that the player can feel clever as they discover them and so that levels feel more replayable.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 10/10
We could debate ad nauseam how influential Metal Gear Solid has been. I'd say it has a unique concept more than it is influential, but I also would say that it is pretty influential. First and foremost, conceptually, this game is fantastic. Really well balanced story/gameplay segments, a cinematic approach to storytelling, a unique style of gameplay (stealth) that was pretty rare at the time and a game that tackles multiple real world themes. The stealth gameplay and cinematic storytelling approach might be the two most influential parts about this game, and I'd say they increased the value video games provide for me, which is all I'm looking for for a 10/10. The latter part might have been overdone in future entries (I'll be the judge of that when I get to playing them), but it's very well balanced here.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
Higher difficulties, finding some hidden items in future playthroughs, engaging in more optional Codec conversations and ... well, I think that's it. Not a lot of replayability here in terms of new stuff to find and do after beating it initially.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 89/100
It's definitely among my absolute favorite games of the 90s, and you could say among my favorites all time as well, as great games don't age in my opinion. I got wowed and moved by the story and characters several times, I laughed, I was in deep thought about some of the real world issues the game brings up and I had a blast with the gameplay. It left me very satisfied with the story conclusion and hyped af for the sequel with that after-credits scene. I think I'll jump right on that after posting this review.