Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation was a great interactive cinematic experience, with incredible in-engine cutscenes, and a storyline above typical videogame fluff. Some would even say that Metal Gear Solid is to the PlayStation what Half-Life is to the PC.

14In Metal Gear Solid you take on the role of Solid Snake, a special forces operative brought out of retirement to resolve a terrorist situation in Alaska. It appears that an elite group of “Next Generation Special Forces” has taken over a nuclear weapons depot and plan on launching nukes everywhere. These guys are a collection of eccentric commandos, each with their own weird names. There’s Sniper Wolf, a deadly marksman; Vulcan Raven, a guy that carries a vulcan mini-cannon; Revolver Ocelot, and many more. Your job is to infiltrate and neutralize.

The story unfolds through a mix of in-engine cutscenes, audio dialogue through your Codec (a communicator built into your ear), and a tiny bit of full-motion-video. Most of the game is played from an overhead perspective (with the exceptions of when you’re using binoculars, using the Look button to scope out an area, or sniping). Control is best with a gamepad, though is a bit sensitive in first-person mode, making aiming cumbersome.

Metal Gear Solid is a sneaker at heart. While you will find yourself in wild firefights, most of your is spent time avoiding the enemy. To make things easier, a personal radar system tells you where the guards are and what their cone of vision is. However, there will be times when detection is unavoidable. In these situations Snake can punch out guards or even grab them and break their necks. As you get farther in the game, you’ll eventually scrounge up an impressive arsenal, including remote-controlled missiles, assault rifles or mines.

20There are a few extras from the PlayStation version. First off, if you start a game on the “very easy” setting, you’ll have a silenced MP5 with unlimited ammo. You’ll also be able to increase the resolution up to 1024×768. Sadly, Microsoft didn’t add any more polygons, or bump up the texture detail. The graphics overall aren’t nearly as sharp as many PC games from the same period, but that’s to be expected. The game is a worthy classic nonetheless, and if you can take the retro graphics and console-style gameplay (floating power-ups and all) then Metal Gear Solid won’t let you down.


System Requirements: Pentium 90 MHz, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95


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