Vimm's Lair: PS1 Reviews - Metal Gear Solid

PlayStation
Metal Gear Solid

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
8.28
8.85
8.59
8.66
Votes: 74
Reviews: 1


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Reviewer: Blake Date: Mar 26, 2023
Metal gear solid was the first modern video game. By that I mean that it had everything a modern game needs. Deep characters and a great story. Sure, games released before still had great stories, but this game told it in a way that no other game had successfully done. The game centers around Solid Snake, a retired soldier, brought back to infiltrate a nuclear weapons facility in Alaska. Basically some guys from his old team went rogue and are preparing to launch a nuke. The story goes a hell of a lot deeper, but any more and I'd be spoiling a lot.

Graphics: 7
The ps1 graphics actually work well with metal gear, as most of the environments are rectangular rooms with big metal crates and tanks. However, the outside areas such as the snowfield look a lot more dated, along with the biggest problem with the whole game, character faces. Oh Christ, the character faces look like play-doh. This somewhat breaks the immersion however, that issue is saved by some of the greatest voice acting to ever grace gaming.

Sound: 10
The voice acting was revolutionary and is still better than a lot of games we have now. Imagine going from the chaos that was the Resident Evil voice acting, to the near perfection of this. Iconic performances from David Hayter and Cam Clarke as well as some of the most well known sound effects in all of gaming. The surprise noise used in every meme in the history of YouTube is from this game. The soundtrack, specifically the main theme and alert theme are amazing and work perfectly with the game.

Gameplay: 10
Despite the original 2 Metal Gears being released on obscure computers and having very similar gameplay, this is where the stealth genre was truly born. There are 3 states of gameplay, infiltration, which is where you are not being actively hunted. Evasion, where your enemies have heard a noise or barely seen you and are investigating. Then there is alert mode, where enemies know your location and are hunting you down. To escape alert mode, you must hide and wait for them to return to their usual patrol. Weapons include pistols, FAMAS rifles, sniper rifles, grenades and RPGs.

Overall: 10
This is one of very few ps1 games to hold up incredibly today and should be on modern platforms. Despite this, Konami's greed and hatred of Hideo Kojima has kept this game from being re-released outside of a GOG port.
This is easily better than Ocarina of Time and half life which are far more often celebrated as the GOTY for 1998.