Oh yes, there will be blood spoilers.

Game: Metal Gear Solid

Console: PlayStation

Year released: 1998

Developer: KCEJ

Publisher: Konami

This game (and this series in general) is one of the primary reasons why I’m doing this entire Backlog series. I know a ton about Metal Gear, I’d go so far as to call myself a fan of the series. It’s a series of games that almost seems like it was made for me. I enjoy the game play, the stories the series decides to tell and I love a lot of the acting, even when it reaches hammy levels. Every time a new trailer comes out for a new game in the series, I rewatch and rewatch the trailers over and over. I’m the kind of person, that Kojima decided to troll when it came to Metal Gear Solid 2 and I love it.

That said, I have a really embarrassing confession to make. I’ve only ever beaten two Metal Gear games. I’ve beat Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and I’ve beaten the newest addition to the series, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and in terms of the latter, that’s not exactly an accomplishment, the main campaign lasts, at best, a whole whopping two hours (I’ll defend the game to my grave though, the amount of extra content in the game makes the game worth the price of admission). So, that’s my embarrassing admission and I’m sure a lot of other hard core gamers, clicked off of this blog right then and there. So, I’ve seen the original Metal Gear Solid game been beaten, I was there watching the game be beaten by my friend James (he, being much better at games than I am) shortly after it came out back in 1998, but I myself have never beat the game.

Gladly, I can say that this is no longer the case. Before this play though, the furthest I had been was the tank Vulcan Raven boss battle, which for those that have not beat the game, is at best an hour and a half, two hours in to the game. I’ve done it though and couldn’t be prouder of myself, because as I said, this game and series in general is one of the primary reasons I even wanted to do this Backlog. I got the for a lack of a better word, “bad” ending. Meryl died, because I gave in to Ocelot’s torture. I went and watched the Meryl lives ending on YouTube and I have to say, I like the Otacon ending better. Meryl’s voice actress is one of the few that I did not enjoy, for this game in particular, I thought Otacon’s voice actor did a better job and Meryl dying tied into the themes of the game better, for me.

A lot of games leave me with the feeling that I’ve played too much of it. The Batman Arkham series is a good example, after I beat the game for the first back log, I’m struggling to get in to the portable sequel. Metal Gear had the opposite effect on me, beating Metal Gear Solid got me pumped to play more Metal Gear. I definitely feel for Hideo Kojima (the creator of the series), the ending of this game makes you feel like he said everything he had to say in this game and Konami seemingly will not let him make another game (and with the types of games he likes to make, him going to start his own studio separate from Konami does not seem economically viable) and Metal Gear Solid 2, seems as if it is a direct reaction to this, but on the other hand, I kind of love it. This game easily vaulted to one of my favorite games ever made and I expect much of the same from the rest of the Kojima Metal Gear games.

And the game held up surprisingly well. I mean yeah, you can tell the game came from another era, but the game is sixteen years old, so it’s hard to hold any old school gaming mechanics against it, because that’s exactly what they are. In terms of voice acting, the game is still pretty top notch. Knowing enough about the series, I think this game is easily David Hayter’s best performance of the series. Everyone else shines for the most part too and man, so many memorable moments, the first time the title screen shows I get chills every time. The Sniper Wolf battles are still great (as is the wolf cave and what you have to do to pass it), the Psycho Mantis fight is still effective, though probably not quite as effective as playing the game on an original PlayStation and the ending, fighting against Metal Gear Rex and then Liquid Snake on top of Rex is amazing stuff (and makes me appreciate the ending of MGS4 even more!).

The game cinematically just holds up extremely well and while I know that is one of the big criticisms of Kojima, that he should just go make a movie, well I would hate that. Because I would be deprived of some of my favorite games, because the stealth game play just clicks with me extremely well. I have a ton of fun playing these games and honestly, the likelihood of the next game I review on this backlog being Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, is pretty high. I wish I knew less about that game, but I’m excited, knowing what I know about it and am still hopeful that Kojima has some surprises in store for me, because he certainly did with the first game, no joke, I had several jaw drops and man, I just love this series.

5/5