TEH. BEST. GAMES. EVAR.
By Andr'e Swartley

Issue #20
Metal Gear Solid
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Platform: PC, Playstation 1, Playstation Network
Rating: M for Mature

Note: today's review contains minor spoilers about the Metal Gear series.

Hideo Kojima is one of the best known video game developers in the world. His games consistently bend and break whatever genre they're supposed to fit into, and in the case of the Metal Gear franchise, have created new genres all together. In a medium that depends as heavily on established conventions as video games, it is a happy mistake that Kojima's games were ever even made, let alone became worldwide bestsellers.

Kojima's name has appeared in the credits of many popular game series including Snatcher, Policenauts, Zone of the Enders, and, most famously, Metal Gear. Kojima has also been tapped for the Castlevania reboot due out on home consoles later this year. His success eventually led Konami-one of the largest game publishers in Japan-to establish Kojima Productions, a separate but well funded arm of the company in which Kojima can play, create, and dream with impunity.

Kojima Productions's latest project, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, is due out in Japan this month on the PSP, with the US seeing a release in June. It is the eighth game in the immensely complicated Metal Gear series, and Kojima himself has said that its rightful title would be Metal Gear Solid 5 if it were not appearing on a handheld console (high profile games and sequels typically grace the most powerful home consoles).

Which brings us to today's review of Metal Gear Solid. Debuting on the original Playstation, MGS was the third game in the series, but is currently the sixth game in the Metal Gear story timeline. (I told you it was complicated.) Stated as simply as possible, Metal Gear is-so far-a 60-year story chronicling the above-top-secret missions of a perfect American soldier and his clones.

I know what you're thinking: been there, done that. Let me assure you that Metal Gear is anything but a typical war game. For one thing, the overarching story has so many twists and turns that it makes Lost look like a Dick & Jane primer. Even more unusual is the fact that Hideo Kojima is an outspoken pacifist.

Metal Gear Solid follows the supposedly final mission of a genetically engineered super soldier with the unfortunate code name Solid Snake. Snake was also the hero of Metal Gear and the Japan-only Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. But Metal Gear Solid marked Snake's first appearance in 3D, and Kojima made sure players would need to use all three of those dimensions to survive the game's many and varied locations.

As mentioned above, Metal Gear defied genre by allowing and/or requiring players to use a strategic combination of stealth and attack. Kojima calls this style of play Tactical Espionage Action. Snake's job from the very beginning of the game is to infiltrate a secret military compound known as Shadow Moses. Masked guards prowl every inch of the compound, and if any one of them spots Snake crouching in the shadows an alarm sounds. You must either try to fight your way out (possible, but unlikely) or dive under a truck or into an air vent until the soldiers decide the alarm must have been false.

The best option is not to trigger the alarm at all. Snake is equipped with a radar device that generates a map of his current room along with the location and line-of-sight of all guards and cameras in the room. If the patrols are too tight to dodge, you still have five options: find a new route; tap on a floor or wall to entice the guard away from his patrol; disable a camera, which will eventually be noticed; incapacitate (or kill) a guard, which again will be noticed; or hide under a box, scooting toward your goal whenever the guard and camera are looking elsewhere. This last is a tongue-in-cheek staple of the Metal Gear series.

This level of freedom and creativity vaulted Metal Gear Solid to the status of instant classic. But believe it or not, gameplay was the smallest part of the game. Much of the convoluted story played out as dialogue over Snake's radio headset, graphically represented by talking heads on either side of a black screen. David Hayter's growling portrayal of Solid Snake is still perhaps the most recognizable vocal performance in any video game.

The grandest plot points were rendered in the game's powerful 3D engine. Metal Gear Solid joined Final Fantasy VII as graphical showcases for the original Playstation, and even though both games look dated now, both still provide a sense of style unmatched by many current games.

Snake's trip though Shadow Moses brought him into contact with a handful of tenuous allies and game-changing super villains. All of the game's bosses required players to forget video game conventions and try something new. The most famous example is the psychic boss who can read minds and will dodge every hit Snake throws at him. Damaging this boss is practically impossible until you unplug your controller from the Playstation and plug it back into the Player 2 controller port.

Metal Gear Solid is not for everyone. People with itchy trigger fingers will be annoyed that running and gunning brings pretty much instant death. And people who don't care about stories in video games will absolutely hate the long (loooooong) and occasionally heavy-handed cutscenes. But anyone who doesn't mind a healthy dose of the unusual will find a lot to like.

Final Grade: B+