Metal Gear Solid

PSone review by Sophie Cheshire, published on Saturday 4th September 2004

One day it would be so great to go up to Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear games and say to him about Metal Gear Solid, ”Sir, you have created a game that is both original and good. Sadly the parts that are good are not original and the parts that are original are not good.”

Harsh? I don’t think so. Metal Gear Solid is a massively overrated game. Although it breaks new ground in its fantastic graphics and superb sound, its gameplay is often badly flawed and plot-wise is almost laughable in its political naivety and Z-grade writing. But before we get started here is the obligatory information stuff that all reviews must contain by law in case you have never heard of this game before.

Metal Gear Solid is a game that probably needs no introduction, but here is one anyway. It was released in 1999 by Konami on the PlayStation and updated into three dimensions the adventures of Solid Snake a covert operative from the group Fox Hound. Previous Metal Gear adventures on the NES and MSX were fairly basic but innovative stealth action games where going in with all guns blazing was not the sensible option. The PlayStation incarnation sees Solid Snake being sent to a base in Alaska where members of Fox Hound have taken control of a huge robot called Metal Gear Rex. It’s Snakes job to defeat them. Unusually for such a console style game, it was also released for the PC a year later to a fairly muted reception.

You are supported by various helpful people via a radio in your ear called your Codec. This allows you to ask for and receive advice, gain information and save your game. Your action is viewed from a top down third person viewpoint that can be switched to a first person (static) view for looking around in detail. Support items such as infra-red goggles, cardboard boxes etc are kept on one side of the screen and weapons such as the Socom and Nikita on the other. Weapons and items can be accessed using the rear controller buttons to select and scroll through them and as you progress through the game you collect a fearsome arsenal.

Each type of weapon is effective against certain Bosses, for example Sniper Wolf needs to be taken out with a sniper rifle, the Surface-to-Air Missile Launcher needs to be used versus Liquid Snake and his helicopter. But outside of Boss confrontations your main tactic is to sneak about, sneaking everywhere is the key. You rarely need weapons unless you are in a boss battle. The elegant controls give you a wide range of crawling, sliding, ducking options.

The graphics and sound are beautiful on the lowly PlayStation, and despite the colour palette being heavy on the greens and greys it was still a stunning achievement from the little grey box. The voice acting is still far superior to most of what has gone before or since.

The plot forms a huge part of the game with long discussions and cut scenes cropping up at regular intervals. With its strong anti-war message the game is often preachy and unsubtle in it’s ”fighting’s bad mmkay” proselytising and considering the overall content of the game one of the rankest pieces of hypocrisy ever to be committed to any medium.

So what’s wrong then? Well lots. For a start, the much vaunted stealth aspects of the game are not as original as many would have you believe. The first NES games may have included stealth elements for the first time in gaming but the way they have been implemented in MGS are much more reminiscent of N64 game Goldeneye and the superb ninja stealth game Tenchu. But whereas in those games enemies could spot you from a great distance and if a surveillance camera spied you, it was pretty much mission over, in MGS its just plain dumb. For example if you are spotted by a camera or guard you only have to avoid them for about ten seconds before they get bored and go back to patrolling. EH??? And for some reason these genetically modified genome soldiers can only see ten feet in front of them. Stay out of range using your handy radar and you can run right in front of them and not be seen. Ridiculous.

In the same vein, the super bad bosses who are so much tougher than you, all seem to have very low IQs. They happily pause and show you a weak spot for you to hit, and as you spend ages wearing their health down, they will refuse to change tactics, which is nice. Also in a blatant attempt to make the game seem bigger, much backtracking to unlock doors early on in the game using key cards obtained later on. A tactic which has proved just as tiresome in the Survival Horror genre.

There are also some terrible attempts to introduce post-modernism into videogames. That means a cultural text that acknowledges it is a work of fiction by addressing the reader/viewer/player. In this case, its demanding you remove the controller in a boss fight, having Psycho Mantis read your memory card and Snake referring to the vibration of the controller to sooth his poor, sore arm. This struck me at the time as a rather odd thing to do, when so much of the game is supposedly geared to sucking you into its story. to suddenly bring you up short by yelling ”hey this is a game yah know!” seems to be very strange and schizophrenic.

Where Metal Gear Solid tries to break new ground is via its storyline. It tries to present itself as quite radical in its condemnation of war, fighting and the effects on the human spirit. Yes, that’s very nice, but the constant whining of Solid Snake about how bad his lot is and how Meryl shouldn’t want to be a solider is not great, just grating. Especially when you have a bajillion items to commit all kinds of murder in your possession and can strangle and break guards necks with your bare hands. Also by the end the plot seems have careered off at various bizarre tangents. What started out as an interesting tale about political intrigue and genetic experimentation has turned into some kind of idiotic farce. Every other person turns out to be a traitor, and the great threat turns out to be a big robot that can fire missiles off its shoulders or something equally stupid.

Perhaps its worst fault is its moronic vision of global politics. The world we live in is not ever likely to be threatened by super enhanced terrorists using a giant robot to launch nukes. To even try and present it seriously (with footage from global conflicts and Hiroshima amongst others) is an affront. As we have always been shown, if terrorist want to hurt us they attack out basic freedoms by targeting our transport, leisure and centre’s of commerce. What irritates the hell out of me about MGS and the like is the stultifying effect it has on the minds of players who sink into a kind of apathy about world affairs, always assuming there is a quick and violent solution to the deep, protracted, long-term problems of this sick world we live in.

Metal Gear Solid is a lovely game to look at and makes nice noises. But if you really listen to it and probe what its trying to say you’ll find it’s nothing more than primary school politics, with a moral message delivered with all the subtlety of a brick in the face. Its stealth-based gameplay is badly flawed and has been done better elsewhere, both before and since. Snake is possibly one of the most tediously self-centred “heroes” ever to appear in a videogame and to cap it all, the villain, Liquid Snake has an English accent(!). Oh Hideo, stick to the Mech games you obviously really want to be making, this Snake needs a mongoose to put it (and us) out of its misery.

Thunderbolt score: six out of ten

Players: 1

Subtitles: Yes

Online: No

Comments

anthony
wrote on Tuesday 29th April 2008

haha
Nick Akerman
wrote on Thursday 1st May 2008

I've only just seen this review, and cannot believe the score! 6/10? In my opinion, MGS was one of the best games on the PS1, and set the standard for the rest of the series. If any of the MGS games were to get 6/10, it would have to be MGS2.
Patrick Coakley
wrote on Thursday 1st May 2008

I can't believe this score. MGS was one of the best games of that era, and easily among the top 10 best PSX games of all time.
Ben Philpott
wrote on Thursday 1st May 2008

I saw this score before i joined Thunderbolt, was kinda shocked by it. Haha, it almost warrants a re-review but at least the PC version received a 10! I agree though, this is one of the landmark titles on the PS1.
Anthony Karge
wrote on Friday 2nd May 2008

I gave the PC version a 10 to hopefully offset this score ;)
killswitch
wrote on Sunday 18th May 2008

Agree 100%. Everything you talked about exactly outlines my comlpaints of this wretched game, except playing it now in 2008 the graphics are laughably awful so it has nothing going for it. It's a bad stealth game, a bad action game, and the INCESSANT ridiculous plot is detracting. I gave it a 4.5/10
James Frazer
wrote on Sunday 18th May 2008

It was good, but to call it a game is an overstatement. Just a movie with a few seconds of gameplay in between.
Matt Wadleigh
wrote on Sunday 18th May 2008

Metal Gear Solid is amazing and you're all a bunch of crazies for thinking otherwise.
Ben
wrote on Sunday 18th May 2008

I'm playing through all the main MGS games again before MGS4. Since my MGS1 is with a mate I've started with Twin Snakes, so far the plot is brilliant as ever and the gameplay is great. Why people complain i have no idea, it is a classic.
eugh
wrote on Wednesday 21st May 2008

wow

nice work reviewing a 10 year old game to todays standards numbnuts
Ender
wrote on Wednesday 21st May 2008

Wow, how dumb can you get with this review?

I'd go all over the individual aspects of this review, but it's so bad it's not worth my time.

If you by any chance want to play Metal Gear Solid, look for other, better in-depth reviews. This certainly does it no justice.
Anonymous
wrote on Wednesday 21st May 2008

Wow at "Every other person turns out to be a traitor, and the great threat turns out to be a big robot that can fire missiles off its shoulders or something equally stupid."

If she couldn't understand the plot of Metal Gear Solid, don't let this bitch near MGS2 for her own safety. Her head would fucking explode.
Hideo Kojima
wrote on Wednesday 21st May 2008

>Sophie Cheshire

>Metal Gear Solid
>six out of ten

>Sheep, Dog and Wolf
>eight out of ten

>Final Fantasy X
>eight out of ten

>Pop Idol
>nine out of ten

wat
Bridget
wrote on Wednesday 21st May 2008

you'd almost swear she made this how she did just to rile people up.

Sure, MGS's combat and whatnot can be meh from time to time, but playing 2, and ESPECIALLY 3 the characters are distinctive, memorable, and god dammit, put down the game Raiden.

FISSION MAILED.
Matt Wadleigh
wrote on Wednesday 21st May 2008

So because Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 had good characters, Bridget, we should excuse the mistakes that this game made well before those other games were even considered being made?
James
wrote on Friday 13th March 2009

Unbelieveably bad review, This game was seminal in making and creating the games that you sit and play now, Never before had a game been created that was so sophisticated and diverse in it’s gaming capabilities. People have commented on this that now looking back on it it is terribly made and that the cut scenes look like a bad action movie. the fact is that back in 98 we all drunk this stuff up, take Face/Off for instance, great movie in the day but take a look at it now and it makes you cringe at how bad it was. All in all this game was superb and anything saying or thinking otherwise are just trying to be a pathetic rebel and trying to go against the grain to be out there. 10/10 every time,
James
wrote on Friday 13th March 2009

So you mean bad review because you disagree with what’s written, or bad review because it’s not 10/10?
Benjamin D.Z. Brown
wrote on Friday 10th April 2009

Not only do I completely disagree with this review, I don’t think that the reviewer proof read it very well. It’s absolutely riddled with typos! And, also, what’s with everyone complaining about the game’s anti-war message? I know that there were some cut scenes with said message, but all the reviews make it seem like it’s in every cut scene. WTF? C’mon, at least give this game an 8 point something!
Brandon Ramsey
wrote on Friday 8th May 2009

See, this is why I don’t believe in reviews, even if it’s of a game past its prime.
Leonardo
wrote on Friday 22nd May 2009

First of all it was the first metal gear in a 3d environment. They practically started from nothing and even so they develop one of the best game engines ever, as matter of fact the engine used for the last game was an evolution of that first one developed for the ps1. Also at the time it was a very realistic game, but it still was a game.. it had to be something that anyone could play, imagine the soldiers with a vision of a mile long, how could you move? or play it?? it could be very frustrating.. But it had it’s moments of frustration, remember the commanders room in front of the metal gear? (before you input all the pal codes) if you got caught by the camera the door was closed and the room was filled with poison gas, the only option was death. The bosses fights were particularly systematic, but still very intuitive. I really think you are being to hard reviewing this game, knowing the fact that the AI, gameplay, graphics, and general design were significantly improved in the following games. The story was very powerful in many aspects remarking the emotional and the moral.
Uncle harry
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

Lol, Ok, seriously, this woman needs to go to a psychiatrist. When was any game original in the first place? And Metal gear solid series is considered original because it may take stuff from movies, but thats whhy its good. It makes it better and it dsnt in the first place actually copy anything. The teachings in the game, philosophy, gameplay, music, cinematics.. THIS IS THE BEST SERIES EVER MADE…

I mean seriously, Im not a hardcore fan, but now that I think of it, Im becoming a hardcore fan, because this series is the best game series ever, its a league of its own..

The only over rated thing I see is this review, lolm seriously, WAKE UP WOMAN! :P
Ekyo
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

The one who wrote this review, should be kicked out of work. MGS is considered one of the best games of all time and here you have this person saying something. One of the most useless reviews ever. The reviewer found one think which SHE/HE did not like and she just speaks about it for 3 pages. Useless, pointless, it is not even constructive criticism. It is just one sentence repeated for 5 times. Besides thsi game was made in 1999? Back then all IQ were lame, so DONT JUDGE GAMES BY TODAYS STANDARTS.

Two last words to sum it up: You Fail. : )

I hope you learn how to do a good review next time.
Anthony
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

Parody review.

There are countless other sites that have already used the “give good games bad scores” gimmick, and they’ve done it much better than you. Either that, or you’re giving it a negative score to attract attention for yourself. Well, congratulations. You’re getting attention. Was it all that you’d hoped for?

Find a new hobby, you hack.
Ekyo
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

Ou and also, why the mgs pc version got a 10 out of 10, but this one 6??? they are the same ffs!!!!
Anthony Karge
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

We have a fairly informal policy here on Thunderbolt where we individually review each game rather than taking a more consensus-type approach. I gave MGS a 10 because I loved the game, and Sophie gave it a 6 because she didn’t really care for it.
Gengar
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

THIS is why we can’t have girls playing video games. They should just stick to cooking and cleaning I swear.
Benny
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

Oh dear…
alex
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

wow,what a stupid review
Sean Kelley
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

This is why people have freedom of thought, so they might disagree with one another on occasion.
Crunkmonkey
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

Gengar, presumably you’ll be lifting weights while drinking beer and thinking about women and guns as she’s cooking and cleaning, right? You uber-male you.

This review was published nearly FIVE years ago, dear god people let it go! I’m sure for every review thats gives MGS a score like this there are 5 or 10 more that work themselves into a masturbatory frenzy over how good it is. Do you think people who don’t like MGS spend their time posting “Kojima suckz azz” messages on those reviews a decade after the event?
Richard
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

You can bash the review all you want, you’re the one’s getting all riled up over one person’s opinion; not to mention you’re all five years late to the party anyway.

Some people will like MGS, some will hate it. I may not agree with the review myself, but reviews like this - that go against the norm - are refreshing. It’d be boring if we were all forced to think the same just to avoid upsetting the fanboys.
GwynbleiddiuM
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

@Richard
In my opinion her opinion worth as much as Ahmadinejad’s opinion on Israel of which I believe I can bash such an immoral opinion the way I want and is flushing it down deep in the toilet.

You can respect her, leak her ass, despise such a retarded opinion. Not every opinion ought to be respected, not every ass kissing A-Hos should be at a women’s side.
Bart
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

Excuse me? Somebody’s opinion on a video game is tantamount to Holocaust denial? You’ve got some serious prioritizing to do in your life, buddy. I had no idea that video game reviews could be considered “immoral opinion”.
Evo
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

THIS COMMENT SECTION RULES YEAH WOOOO!
Solve
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

This review & subsequent comments = WIN
Nick Akerman
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

I know I commented on this a year ago, but I’ve just realised two thing about this score:

1) You gave Kung Fu Panda the same.
2) You gave Pop Idol 3 points more.

*SLAPS HEAD*
Evo
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

HEY NAKES!
Tel Gage
wrote on Wednesday 27th May 2009

I DISAGREE WITH YOUR REVIEW SCORE THEREFOR YOUR OPINION IS WRONG!

Nothing like giving a lower than expected score to a beloved series to get the hardcore fanboys riled up :)
Gengar
wrote on Thursday 28th May 2009

Crunkmonkey, I was being facetious.
Turtle Boy
wrote on Thursday 28th May 2009

I like turtles.
Fraser
wrote on Thursday 28th May 2009

Six is still a good score.
Benny
wrote on Thursday 28th May 2009

No it isn’t. =\
crunkmonkey
wrote on Friday 29th May 2009

Gengar, apologies then, hard to get tone in text.
Anywho, I’m off to review FInal Fantasy VII and tell everyone it’s a pile of shite. 4 million hits instantly!!
connor
wrote on Thursday 4th June 2009

well in all fairness i hate people who just post comments calling the author a moron or a twat or a complete idiot but honestly now i get why they do it you my friend are a moron. Id explain why but i dont have to in this case cause this is mgs so i dont really have to defend my case
skeeter
wrote on Sunday 23rd August 2009

6 out of 10?! You gotta be kidding me! It’s 11 out of 10 at the very least!
Squall
wrote on Wednesday 9th September 2009

all i can say about this review is LOL, MGS1 getting 6/10 ?? that actually made me read this crappy review which didn’t make much sense.. dude go play games on you level.. like madden or NFL.. and leave games like metal gear to people who can actually understand it.
Tel Gage
wrote on Saturday 12th September 2009

This comments section always makes me chuckle.

For what it’s worth, MGS is incredibly pretentious, the gameplay while inventive in some respects, is definitely flawed in others, and - as with others in the series - the pacing is utter crap. To dislike it for these and similar reasons is totally understandable, in the same way I don’t like MMOs for all the grinding and lack of solid narrative.

However, I love the barmy nature of MGS. It makes it far more interesting and likeable than the sombre, po-faced Splinter Cell, for example.