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Solid Snake is based upon the Kurt Russel character "Snake Plissken" from Escape from New York and Escape from LA. It is again referenced when Snake in MGS2 is disguised as "Lt. Plissken", and the infamouse eye patch in MGS3.

The guy who wrote the screenplays for Watchmen, X-Men and X2, is the voice of Solid Snake.

"One fine masterpeice"

As soon as Metal Gear Solid made its debut, it became an instant classic. This fine masterpeice is a great example of what the PlayStation can really do. Metal Gear Solid refined the genre of action adventure games. Proving that espionage games are very fun and exciting. MGS (Metal Gear Solid)has breath taking graphics, clear crisp sound effects, and game play that will astound you. Spooky bad guys and a vast array of high tech weaponray will keep you on the edge of your seat.

This game takes place during the 21st century. The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska's Fox Archipelago is attacked and captured by Next Generation Special Forces led by members of Fox-Hound. Terrorists capurted hunderds of nuclear warheads and they are demanding that the government turn over the remains of Big Boss. They threaten that if the demands are not complied within 24 hrs, they will launch a nuclear weapon. Your assignment must single handedly sneak into the nuclear weapons disposal site and rescue two hostages. DARPA Chief Donald Anderson and the President of Arms Tech, Kenneth Baker, and then neutralize the terrorists threat & prevent a nuclear launch. Time is of the essence. You will be heading in alone. So you must be quick, lethal, and most importantly stealthy.

MGS's gameplay is unprecedented. This game provides the player a thrill they will never forget. Controls in the game are straightforward and easy to learn. A simple button layout and an on screen radar map help you fight your way to your mission objectives. The dual shock analog controller is compatible with this game, making the experience even more enjoyable. The rumbles from the controller match the game's activities. For example, if the player gets shot up by bullets you'll feel a jolt in the controller. A really nice touch to the game. The game's difficulty is adjustable to the players liking. There are four difficulty settings: easy, normal, hard, and extreme. The Hard and Extreme settings disable the radar map for increased difficulty. A real life situation story line keeps the player on their toes, making them guess what's going to happen next. The characters in the game are filled with unique personalities. Each of them with cool evil voices and personal agendas that give them the personalities of true terrorists. Camera views are amazing and take a while to adjust too. All these camera angles provide a cinematic atmosphere. Another nice feature in the game. If you find yourself in a jam, you can ask for some advice from your military advisors on your Codec (radio of some sort, used for contact).

Weapons & equipment are a key factors of success when dealing with a ton of rotten bad guys. The player has the choice of utilizing a little over 10 weapons. These consist of a: Socom pistol, fa-mas assault rifle, C-4 explosives, some grenades, chaff grenade (used to jam electronic equipment), stun grenade, Nikita (Remote controlled missile), claymore land mines, Stinger missiles, PSG-1 Sniper rifle, and a digital camera. Your equipment consists of the basic infiltration essentials which are: Scope (binoculars), some cigarettes, rations, Card levels, thermal goggles, nightvision goggles, etc. Most of these items must be found by the player. They are hidden in locations throughout the game. At first the player will only have the Scope and some cigarettes. The player should familiarize themselves with each weapon's characteristics and use them wisely. You have the option to contact one of your advisors via Codec to learn more about the different weapons and equipment.

Menus in the game are easily navigable. There are no complications and they are easily understandable. It's a breeze to configure the settings to your liking. Typical options such as: Caption, sound, controller vibration, key configuration, adjust screen brightness, and training mode.

The VR training modes are hype. They allow the player to practice their skills and trains the player to have the potential of an assassin. There a few modes, these modes are: Time attack mode, gun shooting mode, and survival mode. As the game progresses your awarded with more menu choices. It is in the VR training missions that allow you to perfect the advanced techniques that you must acquire in order to reach your ultimate goal. With practice you'll of course get better. But with out practice, your on a suicide mission. I recommend checking out the VR missions for beginning players.

MGS has state of the art graphics that please the player's eye. They cinematic graphics are consistent, meaning are the same throughout the game, whether it being playing time or cut scene time. There are no CG movies in here. There's no need for them because the graphics are all ready top notch. By the way, having a consistent graphical representation, the game's loading time is decreased dramatically. Therefore making the game fast in a way. Lighting effects such as the bullets flying out of a Famas assault rifle are spectacular. From grenade explosions to cigarette smoke, they look amazing. If your in the snow you'll be able to see the foot prints you make and your hot breath condensing with the cold outside air. Another nice touch to the game. Sound effects and music are pleasing to the ear. The music consists of some orchestral scores, none of that rock and roll or rap stuff in here. The game doesn't really need that kind of a feeling. Gunfire and character voice overs are terrific. They sound authentic to a real movie. If fact, your actually playing in a movie, because MGS provides such a cinematic feel.

Now for the negative flaws in the game. There aren't a lot but quite a few. Controlling Snake (main character) can be rather difficult at times when using the analog stick. Sometimes the slightest movement of the stick can push Snake out of a good hiding place and revealing him to sentinels (guards). Or sometimes when you stealthily sneak up behind a guard and try to snap his neck, the player might over do the motion of Snake and ruin the ambush attack. To sum it up Snake can be a little hard to control at times. Only through practice will you master this. It takes a lot of patience and practice to be a true stealthy master killer. Another downside to MGS is the long frequent cut scenes. It is like every 4 min. of play result in a Codec transmission or a cutscene. Making the game long and tedious to the impatient gamer. But I guess it is only to move the story line along. The first time you play it, the scenes are amazing and important, but when you get to be a real pro and beat the game several times the scenes then become a nuisance. Therefore, reducing the replay value a bit. Another thing that I find trouble some is the aiming of your guns. Konami did not provide any aiming recticles in the game, making the player frustrated at times. The method of aiming is to line up your weapon with the path of your enemy. Again, you'll need practice to overcome this obstacle. Another flaw is the lack of realism. For example, if the player shoots the guard in the leg, the bullet seems to pass through the neck! I don't understand, are these magic bullets? Plus the game is short. I beat the game in 18 hr. the first time I played it. But I guess that' why they have the 24 hr. deadline. Anyway, these are the flaws of the game, I wouldn't say that these flaws should keep you from buying the game. These are minor flaws in my opinion.

Overall Metal Gear Solid is an outstanding representation of a tactical espionage action thriller. I would recommend checking this game out. This masterpiece of the Metal Gear series will astound you with a superb cinematic gaming experience.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 02/20/03

"Miles ahead of its time."

Released in 1998, Metal Gear Solid is a continuation of the little known but cult classic Metal Gear games, directed by the now famous Hideo Kojima. Set in the near future (well not anymore) and released to a huge media fanfare, the game is now revered by many in the gaming community as one of the most influential games ever released. But nearly 10 years later, how good is it? The answer is very, very good.

Story

You play as Solid Snake, the eponymous protagonist with an attitude and a smoking habit. Having been shot out of a submarine, you scuba dive into a vast isolated military complex overrun with mercenaries and genome soldiers. Your former colleagues, members of an elite group named Foxhound, have turned bad and stolen the most powerful weapon on Earth, a giant walking nuclear equipped battle tank named Rex. This is where the game begins, swimming up to an underground dockyard and preparing to infiltrate an entire base alone.

Revealing anymore would be against the rules, even 10 years after the release, but the story is a strong one. Snake has a ‘codec', a tiny earpiece that allows him to communicate with his superiors and it is via this and the excellent cut scene that the story develops. There are plenty of twists and surprises and it is fast paced enough to remain exciting but so well balanced the whole thing is almost believable. There is one section late in the game that lags a bit but the otherwise the storyline and pacing is sublime.

The characters are without exception extremely memorable. The coy data analyst Mei Ling who provides a constant stream of Chinese proverbs, the flirtatious Dr. Naomi Hunter and the legendary Hal Emmerich, a computer genius nicknamed Otacon due to his obsessive love of anime are but a few of the large cast. Even the villains, who provide lengthy monologues before their deaths, are likeable and memorable for all the right reasons.

Graphics

Here the game has inevitably aged somewhat. The scenery is well designed but now looks flat and blocky. The textures don't hold up when zoomed in on and the outdoor areas are poor. Back in 1998 these graphics were spectacular, and certainly don't impede on the gameplay in any way. The rooms all have their own character and look different enough from one another and seeing anime posters on the walls of Otacon's office is still pretty damn cool. When in cold areas you can see Snakes breath and it is possible for the splashes in puddles or footprints in snow to alert the enemy. The level of detail is certainly still impressive.

The character models are fairly decent, they look human enough and there is a passable amount of detail on clothing and guns etc. The genome soldiers all have covered faces, but this is hardly an issue when the whole point is that you're avoiding them anyway.

One of the traits of the series is that cut scenes play out in real time graphics – none of it is pre rendered. Here, where the player sits and watches as oppose to plays the game suffers. The characters have completely immobile faces, and during the sometimes lengthy speech scenes you can sit and watch a motionless face talk. Watching it now it looks terrible but even so, if a gamer were to play it through for the first time tomorrow the story line is so riveting I don't imagine they would care one bit. Graphics after all do not make a good game, the gameplay does, and this is where the sheer innovativeness of MGS shines through.

Gameplay

This is one reason the game still rocks. I have to get past a guard covering an air vent and in plain sight of a CCTV camera early in the game. I decide to wait around a bit, and notice the cheeky soldier has fallen asleep. So I wake him up. Tapping on a steel surface, I make enough noise to wake him up, but then fall silent and watch amused as he decides its nothing and goes right back to sleep. This time, I continue banging on the wall like an enraged chimp and sure enough Mr Sleepy wakes up and runs to check on the commotion. Sneaking behind him, I snap his neck before he realises what's going on. Guard out of the way, I hug the wall over the air vent and avoid the gaze of the camera. Perfect. This is still great fun today and back in 98 was nothing but incredible.

Stealth is obviously the name of the game, and it is a joy to evade detection. The tension of thinking you are going to be caught between two enemy patrols only to slip away unnoticed with second to spare makes MGS amazingly hard to put down. It is not without comedic value either, hiding in a cardboard and sitting deadly still whilst a none the wiser soldier inspects the box quizzically is as cool today as it ever was. Planting a stick of C4 on someones back and waiting for them to walk somewhere before hitting the fuse is such good fun I still laugh at it now.

The weapons are well designed and include some original ideas. The NIKITA launcher allows one to control the path of a slow moving missile as it flies towards your chosen targets. The sniper rifle actually moves whilst you aim due to breathing, common nowadays but a completely new feature 10 years ago. You can wear Thermal and Night Vision goggles which come in handy at points but for me the joy lies in proceeding using a few weapons as possible, and trying to remain undetected as opposed to resorting to violence.

The numerous boss battles are varied and a lot of fun. They provide a fair challenge and are a couple a memorable set pieces. Psycho Mantis, a master of telekinesis, is probably the coolest boss in any game on the Playstation. I won't ruin it for you but he is one pretty cheeky for a self proclaimed master villain, and one of the best uses of a Rumble Pad I've ever seen. The final fight with Snakes' arch nemesis provides a great climax to the action and is a worthy final boss.

The top down view is probably the only significantly annoying aspect of the gameplay. You can only see so far ahead with a birds eye view and the game suffers from the same problem as the early 2D GTA's in that you can make mistakes simply because you can't see far enough. The radar and the limited visual range of the guards do help rectify this but it still isn't ideal. Aiming with pistols and machine guns does not go into a first person view and can take a lot of practice to get accurate. It is also disappointing that the player doesn't have to dispose of bodies – sometimes half the challenge and fun is in hiding the evidence but in a game of this age this is truly plucking straws.

Sound

The sound quality is high throughout. The music is atmospheric whilst not being too obtrusive, and provides a fitting background to the events that unfold. During boss battles the music helps raise the tempo and makes the whole thing even more exciting. The sound effects are brilliant – the comments of the soldiers can be witty and funny and the alarm which sounds when spotted is so loud and abrasive it puts the player into an even bigger state of panic as they scramble to a safe spot under gunfire.

The voice acting is where the game surpasses itself though – the actors do a tremendous job. Not one character sounds out of place, they are superbly cast to the roles and nothing sounds scripted. Every line is performed marvellously and Snakes' rustic tones have made David Hayter famous. The whole cast make the game seem professional and could it make for a Hollywood movie – a tremendous achievement for something released in the late 90s.

Replay value and Conclusion

One criticism continuously levelled at MGS is the short length. The first time through will take all of 5/6 hours to complete and follow up plays will be shorter still. The criticism is valid, the game is very short, but the amount of action that is packed in I think goes some way to make the difference. There is a lot of fun to be had and many hours can be spent experimenting with different things. Konami attempt to keep the replay value high with a complex ranking system that gives a rank at the end of the game, but the main incentive to play through multiple times are all the goodies that can be won upon the games completion. I can't spoil it but it is great that Konami have kept their sense of humour when deciding how to reward the player for completing the game.

It is very hard to complain about this masterpiece even though it is now so outdated. Just writing this review has made me nostalgic for the good old days and I don't think I have finished with MGS yet. 10 years and countless playthroughs on it is still entertaining enough that I cannot justify anything less than a perfect score.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/08

Game Release: Metal Gear Solid (EU, 02/26/99)