Metal Gear Solid – A 90s Cinematic Gaming Experience
Welcome to Game Thoughts!
A blog series where I discuss the games I play (even though I don’t make as much time for gaming these days as I used to.)
This series will be a blog exclusive. That will give others a good reason to visit my site.
Enough preamble, on to the game.
A military science fiction story
Like many, Metal Gear Solid (MGS) was my introduction to this series. I was trying to remember when I first played it…! (Metal Gear Solid alert sound!) I got it.
It was at my cousin’s house. He had a small TV we were huddled around looking at the first level. I recall being surprised he even had the new Sony PlayStation. I wanted to stay longer and play the game, but we had to go home.
I wouldn’t see it again until 3 or so years later when I was in high school. MGS 2 was getting ready to release, so I wanted to play the first one. In a first, I drove myself to the game store (I think it was a KB Toys) and got a greatest hits version of the game for $20.
Then I went home and turned it on. I had no idea how legendary it would be playing as the legend “Solid Snake”.
Eyes of a child
Two things stood out to me about the game back then: it was dark and hard.
The darker colors, story, and mood were a far cry from the brighter colored games like Final Fantasy I typically enjoyed.
And damn, the challenge! This game had me sweating during every boss battle and sneaking section. I was always afraid to game over every time I picked up the controller.
But it was fun. The way it broke the fourth wall was interesting and unique. I’d never seen a game do that before.
Replaying it over two decades later, those moments surprised again (there’s no CD case to look on the back of! the Psycho Mantis “I’ll read your mind” trick falls flat when you have no PS1 games saved. etc.)
But back then, these were the scenes my friends and I discussed over lunch with excited seriousness. I miss those pre-internet days when the only way to explore a game was to play it over and over again–or ask a friend for help.
What was it like playing it in 2024?
It was good, although slightly annoying.
Good because all the major themes I didn’t know or care about back in high school caught my attention.
MGS was groundbreaking for several reasons. Here are a few:
- The “Tactical Espionage Action” genre didn’t exist before this game. MGS popularized and established many of the genre’s defining traits.
- Mixing actual CG footage into a game had been done before, but it’s inclusion in MGS was another leap for it toward the mainstream
- The MGS alert sound (that I swear I hear at least once a month in a YouTube video)
But you probably already knew all these things. But did you know the story is really good too?
Solid Snake’s fight to stop a terrorist organization from launching a nuclear weapon sounds like a cliche of a story on paper. But in execution, MGS nails it.
The English voice acting is a gold standard. This is ESPECIALLY true because it was released in the late 1990s, when voice acting in localized games tended to be on the low-quality cringy side. It’s clear Hideo Kojima wanted the best he could find at the time and he found it.
The visuals -as I mentioned before- are dark, but detailed. Once again, for the standard at the time MGS’s environments, character models, and motion capture were exceptional.
Yes, similar to most PS1 era games, the blocky early 3D characters haven’t aged very well, BUT after I settled in for an hour or two, I hardly noticed it, because the story and world was so immersive.
Ahead of its time
One of the reasons I picked up MGS again is because Kojima’s first 3D outing is the exact type of military science fiction story that I write.
I wanted to analyze a pillar piece of gaming art through the eyes of not just a nostalgic gamer, but as a fellow storyteller.
This made me appreciate MGS that much more. It tackles themes like terrorism, love in war, nuclear disarmament, transhumanism, nanotechnology, bioweapons etc. all while keeping its sense of humor and a brisk story pace.
It was a reminder games don’t need to be 30 hours long, full of bloated DLC, and padding to tell a great story. You can pack it all in 10 to 12 hours, then be done.
Outdated, incomplete mechanics
As much as I enjoyed the story, I was annoyed by the old game mechanics.
Snake might be a legend, but his aim is HORRIBLE. Not sure how he passed weapons qualifications aiming like that. (no seriously)
Anytime I had to shoot something, it was “pray and spray”. Fortunately (or unfortunately) these times mostly showed up in boss fights. Making hard battles even more difficult.
The final punch up with Liquid was another I-want-to-break-my-controller fights. His hit box is tiny, while his boot and fist seemed to find me wherever I stood. Took me a while to get to the end.
Conclusion
But in the end, I really enjoyed replaying MGS.
Fun fact: I was planning to play it in Japanese (for the extra practice), but ended up playing it in English. I’m glad I did. I can’t speak for the Japanese voices, but the English voice acting is so good, I’m happy I didn’t miss out on it.
