Metal Gear Solid Retrospective Review

PlayStation Top 10

After the announcement of the PlayStation Classic I decided to look back at my personal Top 10 PlayStation games to see if they hold up. Each gets a minimum of 3 hours of game play before I compare how I remember the game and how it plays now.

The rest of my Top 10 games are:

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Motoracer
• Grandia
• Crash Warped
• Resident Evil
• Quake 2
• Final Fantasy VII
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
• Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete

Metal Gear Solid – Then (1998)

Metal Gear Solid first came to Canada in the form of a demo disc. The demo covered the opening segment infiltrating Shadow Moses Island. Snake surfaces from the water, sneaks to the elevator and dodges guards until he enters the air ducts of the secret military compound. That brief glimpse into the most anticipated PlayStation game of 1998 blew my mind.

All of my friends bought the Official PlayStation magazine just to play this demo, and all of played it dozens of times.  By the time MGS launched, we had the opening segment memorized. There was no surprise left in that beginning, but the rest of the game had more than enough to make up for it.

Playing Metal Gear Solid was an experience like no other. Raven’s fight in the tank is memorable, but feeling for him as a character is what I remember being most awed by. Before MGS, you would kill the boss are move on, but here they have something to say as they die. They aren’t cannon fodder; they have personality, history and emotions.

Sniper Wolf is perhaps the best example of this in the entire game. She shares her history as she lays dying on the snow-covered ground. Listening to her story, you wondered if there had been a peaceful way to resolve your conflict rather than killing her. Sadly, there is no option to save Sniper Wolf. I researched the heck out of it online in the days before Google. Killing her was unavoidable.

I loved MGS 1-3, liked MGS4, and dabbled in MGS5: Ground Zeroes. My love for the series tapered off over time, but I can’t deny how impactful MGS was back in 1998. The game play, the graphics, the music, the acting, the story, they all blew my mind. People still talk about MGS as the best game on the PlayStation. It firmly has its place on this top 10 list.

Now I need to re-experience the game for the first time in 15 years. I played the GameCube remake, Twin Snakes, but didn’t finish it. Something felt off with the story. Sillier than the original. Reading reviews online that’s not just my impression. Many reviews talk about changes to the story that create an over the top 80s action flick tone. I’m excited to wash that strange experience away and see how Metal Gear Solid holds up today. Let’s dive in.

Metal Gear Solid – Now (2018)

I forgot most of the details in Metal Gear Solid. That tends to happen after two decades, but I genuinely thought I remembered the game better than that. In three hours, I just finished fighting Psycho Mantis and I’m approaching a scene where Sniper Wolf injures Meryl. Unlike Resident Evil, I decided to finish Metal Gear Solid. Spread over two days it was a quick play, but what a great ride.

Metal Gear Solid plays better than I expected. I recall revisiting it after playing MGS3: Snake Eater and being frustrated by the lack of 1^st person gun play. At the time, the shooting felt too limited. A decade away from that revisit, I don’t miss the 1^st person mode anymore. The limited camera can be frustrating in some situations, but the game is designed around that limit. Enemies will usually come into view so you’re not firing blindly.

If the enemy doesn’t come into view, its because you’re still hidden. There is a first person view to scope your environment and reveal enemy patrol patterns. Sneaking along walls alters the camera angle to give another view of your targets. You have to use your environment to the fullest while remaining undetected. It’s clever game play design by Kojima Productions, and makes navigating the 3D world a breeze.

Backing up the game design is rock solid controls. Analogue aiming allows for smooth tracking of enemies with your laser sighted socom pistol and famas rifle. For small movements such as sneaking between trip lasers, the d-pad’s precise digital input is best. My only gripe is with the choking mechanic Solid Snake uses to dispatch enemies. You must be perfectly still before pressing square, or you’ll throw the enemy, which obviously alerts them to your presence.  There were times I thought I had stopped, but grazing the analogue stick caused him to throw instead of choke the guard. I learned to approach guards using the d-pad, but it’s still annoying. Separating the attacks or making them context specific would have smoothed out the stealth attacks.

Game play remains fun as ever. Sneaking through the levels, avoiding guards, and bypassing cameras is thrilling. The occasional action set pieces, boss fight or not, are tense battles. Metal Gear backs up its stealth focus by making the firefights punishing. Wasting bullets and rations makes the game harder as you progress. Sneaking is the best way to move forward. Thankfully, the balance between stealth and fun never sways too far off course. At no point did I feel stuck, waiting 5 minutes for the guards to move on or provide an opening for a stealth kill. It’s far from realistic, but it’s in the name of enjoyable game play.

The only slog comes during the final sequence. A turret-shooter car chase with genome soldiers and Liquid Snake. After the excellent Metal Gear Rex fight and fisticuffs with Liquid, this was a letdown. Having the player involved in Snake’s escape is a smart move, but the execution is lacking. Turret-shooters are dull at the best of times, and strange camera angles make this far more frustrating than fun. It’s the only section of the game I hated.

Now comes the big question. Does the story and voice acting hold up to my memory? David Hayter is amazing as Snake. His serious tone and gruff attitude contrast with his dark sense of humor. I really didn’t remember Solid Snake being so sexual. He flirts with Naomi and Mei Ling a lot, and remembers Meryl by her “cute” butt. There’s a bit of James Bond to him. Hayter flips between these personality traits with ease, creating a three dimensional character.

Psycho Mantis is creepy, setting up a villain you can’t wait to kill. His now infamous mind reading technique (“You like Castlevania don’t you”) and telekinesis controller movements retain their 4^thwall breaking charm. However, the best moment comes as he helps Snake by opening a hidden passage to progress through the military installation. Mantis says it’s the first time he’s used his powers to help somebody. “It feels kind of…nice” he says just before dying. It could easily have been schlocky, but it comes after he reveals his only goal on Shadow Moses was to kill as many people as possible. This one act doesn’t redeem the character, but shows that in the end he was still human.

All of Metal Gear Solid shows the conflicting aspects of humanity. Otacon unknowing created a weapon of mass destruction. Upon learning the truth about Metal Gear Rex, he wants to destroy the machine, but Snake reminds him he’s not up to the task. Otacon is an engineer, not a solider. He can help in his own way.

Snake has a similar dialogue with Meryl, who lacks experience as a soldier. Grey Fox, a cybernetic ninja, struggles with whether he’s human or a weapon. Sniper Wolf obsesses over her victims, but all she wants is to be alone. Snake constantly reminds Meryl he’s no hero, he’s a killer. The conflicting personalities on display are far more complex than anything seen in a console game in 1998.

Each Metal Gear increasingly focused on cut scenes. MGS4: Guns of the Patriots famously has hour-long cut scenes between game play segments. Revisiting Metal Gear Solid, the balance between story and game is much stronger and favors actual gaming. The story elements can last ten minutes, but they never wear out their welcome. The story is engaging and drives the game forward.

I have more respect for Metal Gear Solid than ever before. I went in thinking I would be disappointed, as I was a decade ago, but distanced from the other entries helped provide perspective. In fact, I jumped immediately into Metal Gear Solid 2’s tanker sequence, and found it less balanced between stealth and fun. Metal Gear Solid managed an impressive balancing act. You’ll have an absolute blast sneaking through Shadow Moses Island as Solid Snake.