Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation)

Metal Gear Solid is an amazing game about a soldier codename Solid Snake who is a retired veteran of war. He is a very mysterious person, who has a lot of secrets that he doesn't want anyone to know about, he is afraid to open up to anyone, because he is scared of getting hurt. Anyway, taking on the role of Snake you are assigned to a special mission: to stop Metal Gear from launching Nuclear Weapons, and killing everyone. Metal Gear is a secret operation that almost no one knows about. When you are dealing with a "top secret" mission you don't really know whom to trust. In the end you will find out who was your friend and who was just using you to try to gain fame or fortune.

The graphics in Metal Gear Solid are excellent considering that the game came out in 1998 and still is better than a lot of games that have been released recently. The main screen is fairly clear, with minimal blotches and blemishes. The FMV's (Full-motion video) are also done fairly decent. The only thing that really looks bad in the FMV's is your character. Snake's uniform is about 100 different shades of the color black. At first it looks kind of ridiculous, but you will eventually get used to it and it shouldn't bother you too much. Every enemy soldier has either a white suit, or a black suit (depending on where you are) and it can get very boring seeing the same uniform over and over again.

Metal Gear Solid has the best voice acting out of any game ever! There really isn't even a close comparison in my opinion (at the time of writing). Snake's voice is very deep and course, he really sounds like your typical hero when he talks. You come in contact with many different people along your quest to stop Metal Gear from launching a nuke and destroying the world. Through a recent invention called "codec," which is like a telephone built inside of you, you are able to communicate at any time with the people that are helping you along in your mission. All of the characters voices are done very well. There voice matches their overall persona perfectly, and each characters words come across very fluently.

The second great thing about the sound is the detail that Konami put into it. If there is an enemy soldier within a certain range of you, and you walk over a puddle or a noisy steel grate, the soldier will hear you. If he hears you then you are going to have to look for a place to hide fast because if he catches up to you then he will pump you full of lead. So you really have to look and pay attention to where you are going. Metal Gear Solid is really a game of skillful movements (stealth). The sound captures everything from, as I mentioned before, walking over steel grates, to the fiery explosive sound of you blowing down walls with C4.

The background music is also incredible. It sets the perfect mood for whatever situation you are in. Even though there isn't much background music, because you are doing a lot of talking, it is still very good.

The only reason that MGS isn't perfect is because of the length of the game, and the replay value. If you excluded all of the videos that went on in the game, it would be about a 6-hour game. I took around 12 hours to complete it. So as you can see that almost half of the game is story. The replay value isn't great either because you will most likely only want to play through the game one time. The only reason to play the game again would be to try to get the alternate ending.

The actual gameplay is incredible though. You must utilize every skill that you have learned how to perform. If you were very skillful, you could make it through the game without firing a single shot. (Except at the bosses) Along your quest you must find specific weapons and know how to utilize them correctly. Everything is explained to you through the codec, and if you can't get your answer from that then just fool around a little bit with the buttons, and I am sure you will figure it out. There are many different places to go so when you are playing try to remember what certain things look like, where you have been, and where you haven't been. MGS can get to be a very complicated game, but if you pay attention to what is going on then you should have no problem.

The controls in Metal Gear Solid aren't really that bad, accept for one thing. That is the fact that it is very hard to aim your gun. When you have your assault rifle out and ready to go you don't know where the bullets are going to go. The controller is so sensitive that if you just tap the D-pad your gun will shoot in the complete opposite direction! Everything else about the controls is great besides the fact of poor gun control. When you are in the normal view mode, your character will move easily and effortlessly across whatever terrain you are in. Some of the views that you can get in MGS are incredible. You can see in first person mode, the regular "outer-shot", and the "wall view". Let me explain what I mean by "wall view". If your character is pressed up against a wall you can actually look past the wall, while you are still behind it! It is really hard to explain, but if you play the game you will know what I mean.

An Overall Look at Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid is an overall great game. With the exception of minor graphical glitches and minor problems with the controls MGS is a 5 star game. Your equip menu is very easy to navigate through, and very easy to use/understand. (All that you have to do is use the L2 and R2 buttons then you can scroll through it.) Like I said before, just take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with how the controls work, and you should be all set. MGS is a game full of fun, twists, and turns everywhere you look. I actually think that if someone wanted to they could make Metal Gear Solid into a movie. The storyline is laid out just like a movie is, and I really think that it would work. Hell they made Tomb Raider into a movie why not MGS? I know that you will have a lot of fun with this game, and if you ever get around to playing it leave me some comments and tell me what you think.