In 1998, three major stealth titles were released: Thief: The Dark Project, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and Metal Gear Solid. There's a whole video on the subject by the Game Maker's Toolkit, and he explains how, before these three titles in this one lone year, stealth wasn't really a thing in gaming...or, at the very least, it was extremely niche. But with the release of these games, the gaming landscape would shift dramatically and now we see stealth titles everywhere. Many games, particularly open-world sandboxes, even shoehorn in a stealth section or two.
So I decided to go back to 1998, when CRT displays were still in vogue and the Backstreet Boys were at the height of their popularity. I decided to play Metal Gear Solid, on the PlayStation 1. I had for a while already owned the majority of the Metal Gear games released thanks to the Legacy Collection, which contains most of the canon games up until but not including Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. And I felt guilty letting this series languish on my shelf. So, despite my already excessive backlog, I caved and decided to see what all the fuss was about - starting with the first entry in the series.
And what did I think? I think it's fantastic! I can see why people fell in love with Metal Gear Solid all those years ago. And bear in mind, this game predates my existence by two whole years. So that gives you an idea of how old it is. But despite its age, it manages to hold up really, really well. Now, the game's greatest strength is its core gameplay. The feeling of sneaking around in a frozen military nuclear disposal facility is so good, and this feeling of "Tactical Espionage Action" is something I've always wanted in a video game. Every item and weapon has its own usage, with weapons like the PSG-1 providing devastating power in exchange for punishing your poor aiming or items like the scope which allow you to survey the area and prepare for the enemies and traps ahead. There's also a significant amount of attention to detail: Solid Snake's breath in the snow, the many particle effects, metallic footsteps echoing through the dingy halls...it elevates not only the atmosphere, but also the tension as, in a strange way, you become immersed in this world because of these little details despite the game's aged graphics. And the bosses! The bosses are very varied and unique, each one requiring a different approach and strategy. I was almost looking forward to each one when they came up because each boss was so colourful and characterful, in both...character and gameplay - and that goes for basically every character in the game, not just the bosses.
Now, of course, Metal Gear Solid isn't the first game to tackle the concept of having the player be a master infiltrator or spy. After all, one of the biggest games on the N64 was GoldenEye 007 which sold millions and millions of copies and has a place in the hearts of many, many gamers. And it does achieve this feeling of being a super-spy (except there's not a lot of sneaking in GoldenEye - it's more action-oriented). But more importantly, GoldenEye is just far more dated to me than MGS is - which is kind of crazy to think about, considering MGS is only a year younger than GoldenEye. It's a testament to MGS that after all these years, it's still fun and still exceptional in many areas.
However, MGS does show its age a bit - which means there are some things I didn't enjoy as much as the rest of the game. And also, I have a bit of an issue with how the game is structured. But let's first talk about the things that I didn't enjoy. Namely, the choking mechanics and the aiming. I'm not sure if it's just me, but stealth choking is really hard in MGS. Now, I'm gonna hold up my hands here and say, "Yes, I'm not very good at most games." I acknowledge that, and have done in most of my reviews. But trying to choke enemies can be so frustrating for the reason that, if you walk too far, you will step through the enemy to choke them, alert them and have to deal with trying to escape while having enemies swarm at your position. And that's if you even manage to choke them. 'Cause if you're moving with the directional buttons at all, then try and choke them, you will instead flip the enemy over. And of course, I know choking can be avoided if I merely had the confidence just to watch the enemy patrol routes and then slip past without being noticed - but it was still annoying nonetheless.
Now, about the aiming. Whether it be with a regular weapon or with the Sniper Rifle, it's either really slow (in the case of the Sniper Rifle) or really imprecise. And it was only after I finished the game that I realised I could play with the thumb sticks rather than with the D-Pad...which would have been so much easier - in general, not just with the aiming. But I do recognise that not realising that the thumb sticks were an option was a mistake on my part. But nonetheless, I thought it was worth bringing up.
Finally, MGS's biggest flaw is with the way it is structured. By the end of the game, I just wasn't that invested in what was going on because the final hour or so is such a slog to get through - backtracking to cool down and heat up a security card to stop this mecha Metal Gear Rex from launching a nuclear strike, traveling on a elevator several times for what seems like an eternity...and the cutscenes! I'm afraid that in the last hour and a bit, they finally got the better of me. To MGS's credit, throughout the game, the long cutscenes provided a moment of reprieve and respite from the tense gameplay. But by the end, I was just begging for the characters to get to the point! Not to mention that the story is pretty convoluted and a tangled spaghetti mess, with twists, double twists and military acronyms and organisations being thrown around...it was hard keeping track of it all in my head. I got the gist of what was going on - but my investment wasn't as strong as it could have been because, at some point, I just said, "Screw it!" and didn't really try to make sense of everything that was happening. And that doesn't even include all the philosophising and ideologies that were butting heads!
...But would I still recommend Metal Gear Solid? Honestly, despite its issues, absolutely! There's still lots of things that this game does very, very well. But I only really recommend it if you can put up with the game's long if kind of entertaining nonsensical plot and if you can aim and choke better than I can...Don't take that out of context.
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