MGS Series review.
With the release of MGS4 I have taken a tour down memory lane and played through the Metal gear SOLID games once again, and would like to give you a little personal opinion of the entire series as a whole, as well as pull out the various pro?s and con?s of the series as well as each individual game.
(Before I begin, Metal gear and Metal Gear 2 solid snake will not be featured here, because they are not part of the SOLID series, and even though they are canon with the rest of the series, they are still viewed, in my eyes, as a different series.)
Metal Gear Solid 1998
?The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island was attacked and captured by next generation special forces, being led by members of unit foxhound??
- Roy Campbell
After almost 8 years of being in retirement, Solid Snake was pulled back into action in the 1998 Stealth action game METAL GEAR SOLID.
The game is set 6 years after the fall Zanzibar land. And having retired from Foxhound Solid Snake is living a life in solitude in the Alaskan wilderness. After being ?politely? called off to a nuclear submarine, Snake finds his old C.O Colonel Roy Campbell, being pulled out of retired as well. Snake is told that the Submarine is headed for Shadow Moses Island, where Foxhound, Snakes Former Unit, have taken control of the entire island and is threatening the White House with the launch of a nuclear weapon if their demands, 1 billion dollars and the corpse of the legendary soldier Big Boss, are not met.
In addition to the nuclear threat, two VIP?s were present on the island during the ?revolution? the Chief of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency): Donald Anderson and the president of Arms tech, Kenneth baker.
Snake is given two objectives
1: He is to rescue the hostages and get them safely off the island
2: He is to investigate whether or not, the terrorists have the ability to launch a nuclear strike and stop them if they do.
Story:
The story of MGS is filled with plots and twists that will leave a lot of people surprised and shocked. It follows the skeleton of a well thought Hollywood summer action blockbuster, it had a well balanced cast of characters, and they all seemed fleshed out even the villains, that only appeared for a boss fight and then get killed off. It?s smart and entertaining and isn?t filled with the same dreadful amount of exposition that some of the later games will carry in spades. Metal gear solid is also a very good singular game and has a huge advantage of being able to stand as a solo title.
Foxhound:
being Snakes former unit, consisted of 6 members and each of them represented a different approach to fighting, this gave each member a very unique personality as well as giving some of the most memorable fights in gaming history, especially with the units psychic: Psycho mantis.
Game play:
Metal Gear Solid was the game the practically started off the Stealth action genre, with its emphasis on stealth rather than gunplay it gave a nice change from the Half-life wave the swept over the pc?s that year. However even so the controls where still a bit clunky, from the fixed camera position to the horrible aiming mechanics, the game could sometimes be very frustrating, but since the gun controls were mildly bad, the player would opt for stealth. Snakes inventory was also very limited; Snakes weapon inventory consisted of very few weapons, though each had its purpose within the game, unlike later titles that would overburden the player with an abundance of weapons that the player had no use for. MGS?s core game plays was very simple, sneak around the guards and avoid detection, if the player is detected, an alarm will go off and guards will swarm area and hunt Snake down, if the player hid out of sight or ran into a new area, the alarm would be sounded off. This Alert > Evasion > Normal, mechanic have ALWAYS existed in the MGS series and have been improved in later games. The guards where stupid to say the least, they would have the same sight as a nearly blind man and even though an explosion went off near them, they would have to be quite close to it before noticing, however if they became alerted by it, it would result in a instant alert mode. Many of the basic ideas in MGS have been kept in later titles, like the titular knock on walls to attract an enemy guard?s attention, to the chokehold. The game had very little loading times and had no screen tearing what so ever.
Graphics/Sound
Even though the Metal Gear Solid series never sold itself off of its graphics the series have held a very high graphic quality, and Metal Gear solid was no exception, it rendered the entire landscape in full 3D and its cut scenes (which there were plenty of) were done on the in game engine. The games detail and level design, is still great even by today?s standards, and I personally find this game to be one of the? if not the prettiest game on the PSX.
The voice work in Metal gear solid was phenomenal and the voice cast that featured 10 years ago, is still the same that we hear in MGS4, the voice work for the characters, was the main reason that made the characters in the game, from being a 3d polygon figure to being a fully fleshed sympathetic character.
Overall verdict:
MGS did something that few had done before, and had a very clear theme of trying to imitate a Hollywood summer action movie. This did make the plot sometimes a little too predictable. The length of the game was very short and I personally think that some of the dialogue, even though there were considerably less than later titles, still had certain parts that could be cut off.
The monologue that each boss had, even though it gave more background to the bosses, felt like it was put on because it didn?t fit in anywhere else and it did become a test of patience when they spewed out their ?last? words.
The control took some time to get used to, but didn?t really hamper the experience, but was something that could be worked with. The Star Wars esque plot twist between Solid and Liquid made me almost choke.
The graphics became a little bland in the latter parts of the game, with the games constant usage of different shades of concrete grey.
Overall I liked MGS and it is a complete title, with an engaging storyline as well as thrilling boss fights as well as letting you live out the dream of being in a Hollywood blockbuster.
It is almost impossible to find this game anymore, but if you do find it, I suggest that you?
Buy it.
With the release of MGS4 I have taken a tour down memory lane and played through the Metal gear SOLID games once again, and would like to give you a little personal opinion of the entire series as a whole, as well as pull out the various pro?s and con?s of the series as well as each individual game.
(Before I begin, Metal gear and Metal Gear 2 solid snake will not be featured here, because they are not part of the SOLID series, and even though they are canon with the rest of the series, they are still viewed, in my eyes, as a different series.)
Metal Gear Solid 1998
?The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island was attacked and captured by next generation special forces, being led by members of unit foxhound??
- Roy Campbell
After almost 8 years of being in retirement, Solid Snake was pulled back into action in the 1998 Stealth action game METAL GEAR SOLID.
The game is set 6 years after the fall Zanzibar land. And having retired from Foxhound Solid Snake is living a life in solitude in the Alaskan wilderness. After being ?politely? called off to a nuclear submarine, Snake finds his old C.O Colonel Roy Campbell, being pulled out of retired as well. Snake is told that the Submarine is headed for Shadow Moses Island, where Foxhound, Snakes Former Unit, have taken control of the entire island and is threatening the White House with the launch of a nuclear weapon if their demands, 1 billion dollars and the corpse of the legendary soldier Big Boss, are not met.
In addition to the nuclear threat, two VIP?s were present on the island during the ?revolution? the Chief of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency): Donald Anderson and the president of Arms tech, Kenneth baker.
Snake is given two objectives
1: He is to rescue the hostages and get them safely off the island
2: He is to investigate whether or not, the terrorists have the ability to launch a nuclear strike and stop them if they do.
Story:
The story of MGS is filled with plots and twists that will leave a lot of people surprised and shocked. It follows the skeleton of a well thought Hollywood summer action blockbuster, it had a well balanced cast of characters, and they all seemed fleshed out even the villains, that only appeared for a boss fight and then get killed off. It?s smart and entertaining and isn?t filled with the same dreadful amount of exposition that some of the later games will carry in spades. Metal gear solid is also a very good singular game and has a huge advantage of being able to stand as a solo title.
Foxhound:
being Snakes former unit, consisted of 6 members and each of them represented a different approach to fighting, this gave each member a very unique personality as well as giving some of the most memorable fights in gaming history, especially with the units psychic: Psycho mantis.
Game play:
Metal Gear Solid was the game the practically started off the Stealth action genre, with its emphasis on stealth rather than gunplay it gave a nice change from the Half-life wave the swept over the pc?s that year. However even so the controls where still a bit clunky, from the fixed camera position to the horrible aiming mechanics, the game could sometimes be very frustrating, but since the gun controls were mildly bad, the player would opt for stealth. Snakes inventory was also very limited; Snakes weapon inventory consisted of very few weapons, though each had its purpose within the game, unlike later titles that would overburden the player with an abundance of weapons that the player had no use for. MGS?s core game plays was very simple, sneak around the guards and avoid detection, if the player is detected, an alarm will go off and guards will swarm area and hunt Snake down, if the player hid out of sight or ran into a new area, the alarm would be sounded off. This Alert > Evasion > Normal, mechanic have ALWAYS existed in the MGS series and have been improved in later games. The guards where stupid to say the least, they would have the same sight as a nearly blind man and even though an explosion went off near them, they would have to be quite close to it before noticing, however if they became alerted by it, it would result in a instant alert mode. Many of the basic ideas in MGS have been kept in later titles, like the titular knock on walls to attract an enemy guard?s attention, to the chokehold. The game had very little loading times and had no screen tearing what so ever.
Graphics/Sound
Even though the Metal Gear Solid series never sold itself off of its graphics the series have held a very high graphic quality, and Metal Gear solid was no exception, it rendered the entire landscape in full 3D and its cut scenes (which there were plenty of) were done on the in game engine. The games detail and level design, is still great even by today?s standards, and I personally find this game to be one of the? if not the prettiest game on the PSX.
The voice work in Metal gear solid was phenomenal and the voice cast that featured 10 years ago, is still the same that we hear in MGS4, the voice work for the characters, was the main reason that made the characters in the game, from being a 3d polygon figure to being a fully fleshed sympathetic character.
Overall verdict:
MGS did something that few had done before, and had a very clear theme of trying to imitate a Hollywood summer action movie. This did make the plot sometimes a little too predictable. The length of the game was very short and I personally think that some of the dialogue, even though there were considerably less than later titles, still had certain parts that could be cut off.
The monologue that each boss had, even though it gave more background to the bosses, felt like it was put on because it didn?t fit in anywhere else and it did become a test of patience when they spewed out their ?last? words.
The control took some time to get used to, but didn?t really hamper the experience, but was something that could be worked with. The Star Wars esque plot twist between Solid and Liquid made me almost choke.
The graphics became a little bland in the latter parts of the game, with the games constant usage of different shades of concrete grey.
Overall I liked MGS and it is a complete title, with an engaging storyline as well as thrilling boss fights as well as letting you live out the dream of being in a Hollywood blockbuster.
It is almost impossible to find this game anymore, but if you do find it, I suggest that you?
Buy it.
