Metal Gear Solid was a pioneer in its day, is it still worth a playthrough over two decades later or is it better left in the nostalgia memory banks?
What Is It? Metal Gear Solid is a stealth game where you control Solid Snake to infiltrate a top secret base and attempt to thwart plans to resurrect a killing machine called Metal Gear. This is the third game in the Metal Gear series but was meant to work as an introduction for newcomers so there is no need to track down the first two games on the MSX2. Credit goes to this title for keeping a straightforward overarching storyline throughout its numerous twists without ever truly going off of the rails. Later entries in the series would prove incapable of maintaining this balance.
Solid Snake is controlled in 3D by way of a mostly top-down camera. There are no camera controls, which works to the game’s favor, but the camera will move to alternate angles when necessary. Situational awareness is provided by a radar in the corner of the screen which shows enemy locations and their vision cones.
Snake will work his way through the facility, navigating through rooms where the goal is typically to simply reach the next one. You will encounter guards just about everywhere and it is up to you how to get by them. You can take them down, distract and slip by, or hide until they are gone before moving on. All approaches are valid, just avoid detection otherwise multiple guards will come running and you might find yourself in an unwanted shootout.
Enemies are mostly entirely predictable in Metal Gear Solid. You can use various tricks to distract them and they will all act the same. This allows you to approach most enemies however you want. Wait behind a corner and then grab them from behind, knock on a wall to get their attention, crawl around under a cardboard box, etc… The effect here is that it makes the player feel really great when they pull off a series of successful maneuvers to get through a room undetected.
The game notably brought a new level of storytelling to video games. It is clear this was an attempt to make a video game that was fun but also played out like a movie. Many story-driven games up to this point were either heavily reliant on text dialogue or pre-rendered CGI cutscenes. Metal Gear Solid’s cutscenes run in the game engine, which means they don’t look great today, but were a revelation when the game first released. The game spends a lot of time on the story and developing the many colorful characters. Even though you will spend a fair amount of time reading dialogue through the Codec, the overall presentation of this story through cutscenes was significantly ahead of its time.
The Best Part: In what would become a theme throughout the MGS series, the boss fights stand out. They aren’t always the easiest to play given the controls, but they are huge, ambitious battles which are memorable over 25 years later. Sniper Wolf, Psycho Mantis, Cyborg Ninja, Rex, Liquid (both times!) are all amazing fights. From heavy artillery combat to intense sniper fights to fourth wall breaking mind tricks, the fights are varied and a whole lot of fun.
The Worst Part: You simply can’t help but wonder how much more smooth the gameplay, particularly the action sequences, would be if this game were given a full remake today. MGS did a fantastic job for the limitations of the time, it controls much better than others of its era, but still cannot escape the occasional clumsy section. This shows up in the boss fights and most any time you need to move quickly. Thankfully, the game is built around stealth, so this doesn’t hinder the overall experience much at all.
The Verdict: Metal Gear Solid was a pioneer of the stealth genre and was one of the first games to blur the lines between video games and other forms of media. Being a pioneer does not necessarily mean that something holds up on its own over time. Thankfully, Metal Gear Solid remains a fun playthrough all these years later with the only real complaint being the dated controls.
How to Play: PlayStation 1. Remake: GameCube. Remaster: PS4/5, Switch, Xbox, PC
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