A Game to Stand the Test of Time
Every console generation has its fair share of gold standard games. That said, very few games can be seen as a changing point for a genre, after which nothing can be the same. Games like Mario 64, Halo, and Bioshock were not only awesome in their own right, but radically altered our expectations of what games could do and what they could be. Fourteen years after its release, Metal Gear Solid’s influence cannot be denied. It was one of the first games to include full voice acting; it introduced a functional (albeit imperfect) sneaking system, and it gave us a new and unique hero who we cared for more as a unique individual than a generic avatar for the player. MGS is certainly not without its fair share of issues, but even fourteen years later, the game still has an absolutely unique style that combined with its propulsive story, makes it almost impossible to put down.
Although many of the concepts from MGS have been appropriated or outright copied in the years since its release, the premise and story are still very unique. The game begins as Solid Snake, the hero of the first two Metal Gear games for the MSX and NES consoles, is briefed for a solo sneaking mission into a small Alaskan island called Shadow Moses. Fox Hound, Snake’s former unit, has gone rogue and has hijacked a top secret nuclear facility on the island. They are threatening to launch a nuke if they don’t receive a large amount of cash, as well as the remains of their former leader (and Snake’s father) Big Boss. Snake’s mission is to extract the leaders of the facility, and prevent nuclear war. What starts out as a simple “kill the bad guys” premise quickly becomes complicated when Snake learns that Shadow Moses Island is really a front for creating a bipedal, nuclear equipped giant robot called Metal Gear Rex.
One of the game’s biggest strengths is the ways in which it uses strong characterization and popular film techniques to turn a somewhat generic premise into a narrative that is complex and emotionally satisfying. Solid Snake is a hero that’s almost impossible not to fall in love with. Not only does he break the mold of the silent protagonist, but David Hayter does a great job of imbuing the character with real pathos and drama. He is perhaps the first true antihero in videogames, insisting throughout the narrative that there is nothing heroic about his actions. He is a man doing a job that only he can do, and he doesn’t take pleasure in his work. The game also has a great supporting cast including a group of over the top villains such as the chain gun wielding Vulcan Raven, and Sniper Wolf, a woman who falls in love with her targets before brutally gunning them down. There is also a large group of supporting characters we only meet over the radio, but add a great deal of depth and complexity to the story.
Your enjoyment of the game will largely depend on how invested you’re able to become in the game’s rather complex storyline. There are some great cut scenes that rival the best action movies out there, but you will also spend a lot of time starring at a static screen while Snake chats with people over his codec radio. These conversations are essential to the plot, but can be extremely longwinded and visually uninteresting. The game’s voice work is uniformly great, but if you need a constant stream of moment to moment action, this might not be the game for you.
Next to its story, MGS is mostly known as one of the first successful entries into the stealth game genre. Despite his extreme lethality, Snake is just one man, and he isn’t able to take on a large number of enemies without being quickly overwhelmed and defeated. Rather than fighting every enemy you encounter, the name of the game here is to avoid them. You’ll need to watch your radar and make sure that Snake stays out of the sightline of enemy soldiers and surveillance cameras. If you’re spotted, you’ll need to run and hide until the enemy starts to lose interest. The sneaking gameplay works well for the most part, but it’s definitely silly that enemies can only see you if you’re standing about three feet in front of their faces. Still, this type of gameplay was utterly unique and interesting at the time, and makes for an interesting, if a bit unrealistic experience today.
The biggest and most frequent complaint about MGS is that the gameplay is fun, but there is very little of it. It’s hard to argue against this point, except to say that once you get wrapped up in the story, you probably won’t care. The actual geography of the game is fairly small, and you’ll find yourself backtracking throughout the facility several times completing various objectives. A few inventory upgrades make the sneaking portions rather easy to complete, which leaves the boss battles as some of the most interesting playable moments in the game. Without giving too much away, fights against bosses like the Cyborg Ninja and Psycho Mantis are incredible, unique, and almost impossible to forget.
The one aspect of MGS that doesn't hold up is its graphics. The game’s cutscenes animate well, but the textures are very blurry and muddy looking. There is some minor facial animation in the hand drawn codec sequences, but during actual gameplay, everyone’s faces are static. This wouldn’t be a problem if there wasn’t so much spoken dialogue in the game. Throughout the game, Snake has a neutral, almost constipated, look on his face that makes some of the more dialogue heavy cutscenes feel rather awkward and mechanical. Also, the game is fully rendered in a 3D polygonal space, but your view of what is actually happening often gets hindered by the game’s forced overhead perspective. You can switch to a first person view to get a better look around, but this isn’t always convenient, especially in tense combat situations.
MGS has an intricate and addicting plot, a great cast of characters, and a satisfying conclusion. The actual gameplay is entertaining and fits well with the story, but it definitely plays second fiddle to the game’s more cinematic elements. Even though it has some problems, the whole experience is so polished and unique that it really needs to be played by anyone who finds the concept even remotely interesting. Metal Gear Solid was a game changer upon release, but it still stands up today as a unique experience that’s absolutely worth revisiting.
