Metal Gear Solid - The Birth of Cinematic Gaming.

By Sam Coles:

Metal Gear Solid is a series that I absolutely adore I’m a huge fan and this was the game that really kicked off the cinematic story telling that we all know today with professional cinematography and extensive cutscenes with top notch voice acting.

Metal Gear Solid is actually the third game in Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear series except this time more people knew about it because it was on the Sony Playstation rather than the obscure Japanese home computer known as the MSX 2. It was renowned for pushing the Playstation’s hardware to its limit because it was the first game to render everything in 3D and it was the technical achievement.

The story of Metal Gear Solid is very gripping and complex and I would be here all week if I were to go in depth so I’ll try and give you a basic gist. You play as an agent code named “Solid Snake” and you’ve been tasked to take down a terrorist group who were former members of the next generation special forces called Fox Hound, but they have gone rouge and are demanding for a large cash some and are asking for the remains of Big Boss the legendary Soldier that Snake was cloned from. I would say spoilers but this game is over 15 years old you’ve had plenty of time to play it. If their demands aren’t met in 18 hours they’ll launch a nuke from the mobile tank known as Metal Gear Rex.

You’ll be facing a colourful selection of bosses within the Fox Hound unit you have Revolver Ocelot a master with his Colt Single Action Armies, Psycho Mantis an ex-Soviet Psychic who reads your every move, Vulcan Raven a Native American Shaman with a minigun, Sniper Wolf a seductive sniper that sometimes falls in love with her target and finally you have Liquid Snake Solid’s brother. Each of these bosses are unique and require different strategies to defeat them for example you have to plug your controller in the second port in order to beat Mantis so he can’t read your mind.

Gameplay takes an overhead viewpoint like the first two Metal Gear Games from the MSX 2 which stuck with the series until Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence. These days it does feel incredibly awkward to control, but at the time it gave you a sense of tension because you couldn’t see what was a head, yeah you had a first person view but you could move in that mode and yeah you have radar but it gets jammed easily which makes you very venerable.

When you start your mission you’ll have no weapons and barely any items you have 1 ration, cigarettes and a pair of binoculars you have secure all you weapons and equipment on site all you have are your fists. Even when you’re armed to the teeth you’ll always lose because when you get hit by a bullet it does major damage and when you start the game your health bar is the size of a tadpole. The way you increase your life bar is by defeating bosses and this doesn’t only increase your life bar it increase the amount of ammo, rations and grenades you can carry which becomes very useful in later stages of the game. You gain access to a vast array of weapons and gadgets such as your generic fire arms such as the Socom pistol, Famas to the cool gadgets like the thermal goggles and the remote control rocket launcher called the Nikita.

The things that have dated with this game are the visuals obviously because this game came out in 1998 and the controls can be a bit clunky and stiff when your moving snake around, it feels like he moves grid by grid.

Metal Gear Solid is a great game and if you’re looking to get ready for Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain I would recommend playing this game. It’s really easy to find and it’s not too expensive you can find on the PS1, PS3 on the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection or on the PSN store. I would recommend getting the Legacy Collection.