So, I finally played Metal Gear Solid 1.... WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, KOJIMA?!

I can definitely see why this game was revolutionary at the time of its release. MGS 1 and Half Life 1 were really pushing the boundaries in terms of cinematic storytelling in gaming.

The story, the characters and the voice acting are definitely the strongest points of this game. The plot is just as unique, interesting and engaging as it is weird, bizarre and downright hilarious. There are also many iconic 4th wall breaking moments.

The dialog is absolutely top tier. One moment it's extremely serious, the next it's comedic gold. I don't think I've ever laughed this hard while playing a game.

'-You've got a great butt.
-Ah, I see. First, it's my eyes. Now it's my butt. What's next?
-On the battlefield you never think about what's next.'

The game was also surpsingly easy to control (except for the shooting omg). Both the weapon and the item menus are really easy to navigate. You find lots of different items and weapons throughout the game, and they are all pretty useful. Even the grenades, which is pretty rare when it comes to old games. This wide variety of gadgets helps to tailor the gameplay to your play style.

So, what's the bad then? Well, it's the gameplay itself, mainly the gunplay. It did not age well. Aiming with your weapon is extremely clunky, which is unfortunate as you die really fast in this game.
The fight against Sniperwolf is the worst offender here. Your sniper rifle's scope zooms in too much, and it takes 5 years to aim at her. When she hits you, your crosshair flies away.

There's also lots of backtracking. At one point even Snake comments on it, asking if he really has to go all the back to the beginning of the level to find an item. It's weird because it feels like they did this on purpose to annoy the player.

One section at the end of the game is a backtracking nightmare. You have to climb up on the metal gear and plug a key into three different computers, but the key's temperature has to be modified for each computer.
When you climb up, you drop the key so you have to climb down and find it again. Then climp up again. Enter code 1. Now climb down again, go back a few rooms and freeze the key. Climb up again, enter 2nd code. Now climb down again, and go back even more rooms to warm up the key. Then climb up again and enter the 3rd code. WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY?!!!

Anyway, I look forward to playing the sequels now.

I've had my eye on the Metal Gear Solid series for a while now and eventually I got the incentive to try the first game in the series after @wheatie assigned it to me. Had a decent time with it!

Metal Gear Solid is a classic stealth game - you sneak your way past enemies, and usually don't face them head on. (Else you have to deal with really frustrating aiming controls!) Your tools consist of several weapons like a silenced pistol, a sniper or even a rocket launcher, but also handy gadgets like EMP grenades and... a cardboard box?

The overarching narrative was engaging and consisted of many, fully voice-acted cutscenes. Some of them longer than others, ranging from quick Codec calls to villains monologuing for minutes on the brink of death. I have to admit that there were times where the exposition and monologues went on for a bit too long for my taste and apparently the cutscenes are only getting longer in the later games. A shame, since I believe those moments drag down the pacing quite a bit.

As I mentioned before, my other main complaint are the controls. Sure, this game is 25 year old at the time of writing this, but other games released in that period had more understandable controls too (an example being Ocarina of Time). The worst offender was definitely the aiming, but then again I didn't find out until after the beating the game that there was auto-aiming. Oh well, too late now.

That aside, Metal Gear Solid was enjoyable enough to make me want to check out the rest of the series as well, considering MGS2 and MGS3 are praised highly. It's a fairly short game and was just the right experience to play after Red Dead Redemption 2, which took me about a month to beat. But let me tell you, going from the graphics of RDR2 to PS1 models was certainly something! Have a good day.

lost in the bloody shadows of war are the cries of those who seek the light.

the golden standard for equally balanced gameplay and story. blended together in such a way where one cannot exist without the other. each and every guard we come across, unknowingly trapped as pawns in a much deeper game whose players show blatant disregard for their own pieces on the board. everyone has selfish reasons for fighting, despite war never ending in favor of its soldiers turned victims. victory is reliant on how mercilessly you can move forward while forgetting the scent of past’s bloody aroma.

i’m a huge fan of every character here but the one i felt most connected to was surprisingly meryl. she’s almost like this self insert for some of the audience with her portrayal of the battlefield as this larger-than-life action flick displaying heroes and villains. as the game goes on, both us and meryl slowly discover the truth of it. there are no heroes, no villains. on the surface there appears to be two different sides, but on the battlefield there are just people, people who simply do what they’re told. mgs1 doesn’t sugarcoat anything, conveying the cold truths beneath what we know as “war.” the mysteries run deeper than we initially thought.
the game’s content wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if not for the unconventional yet effective writing combined with the surprising amount of production value. at times it can be a bit infodumpy but the subject matter is relevant and intriguing enough to keep me interested. the cutscene presentation was initially what blew me away like many others. each scene has some really good shot composition and directing. it’s definitely reminiscent of the terminators and the predators of the time while still managing to be distinct in its own right. there’s a noticeable amount of attention to detail paid to both the cinematics and gameplay. when roaming the foreboding mechanical hallways of shadow moses you have all the tools at your disposal, it’s up to you to figure out how to use those tools realistically and efficiently. there’s no one set way to do basically anything in the game. experimentation is encouraged and even today i find it to be pretty ingenious.

the past can be used as an excuse to justify our present actions. in our strive for personal benefit sometimes we lose sight of who we really are. the past is important, no doubt, but what we make of ourselves now is what counts (if you can excuse my bit of cliche regurgitation). live on snake, otacon, meryl.

metal gear solid’s legacy speaks for itself. there’s not much more i can add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said. it’s considered one of the greatest games ever made for a reason, setting a new standard for the medium that still echoes throughout the modern gaming world. one of the most revolutionary titles i’ve played in recent memory.