Metal Gear Retrospective - part 3: "Metal Gear Solid"

In the mid-to-late '90s, gaming embraced the third dimension and for a time it seemed the only way to make games. Everything we knew in 2D since the beginning of gaming was becoming 3D; Mario, Sonic (though that wouldn't happen until the much later Dreamcast came along), Street Fighter and so on and so forth. So, when Hideo Kojima (who had again moved to other projects, such as "Policenauts") heard of the Sony Playstation's ability to render an unusually (at the time) high number of polygons on the screen, he wanted to try the possibilities it offered. And what better way to do this than making a Metal Gear for this machine?

"Metal Gear Solid" was the new, third installment of the franchise. The subtitle "solid" might seem strange to some, but it's nothing more than a wordplay. "Solid" stood for several things: solid graphics, because now we had models instead of sprites. Solid because the hero is Solid Snake. And solid, because in Japanese, it more or less stands for the cube. So, essentially the title of the game was "Metal Gear ^3" or just "Metal Gear 3".

"Metal Gear Solid" (or MGS as it came to be known) finds hero Solid Snake isolated in Alaska, mushing dogs and drowning his liver to cirrhosis with barrels of whiskey. Colonel Roy Campbell, coming out of retirement himself, sends for him and asks for his participation in a new mission. This time unit FOX-HOUND, Snake and Campbell's former unit, is the enemy. The entire unit has gone rogue and they've taken over the Shadow Moses Island off the coast of Alaska; the island is uninhabited, but there is a US nuclear weapons disposal facility on it. Snake at first resists Campbell's provocations, but as soon as he hears that the leader of FOX-HOUND on the island is a man with the same codename -and same face, apparently- as his, he's quick to accept the mission. Though he doesn't speak out the words, it's obvious that this sad mercenary misses the heat of war.

Snake is once again assisted by Campbell via the radio (now "Codec") and FOX-HOUND's chief of medical staff Dr. Naomi Hunter, as well as data specialist Mei Ling, nuclear expert Nastasha Romanenko (not to be confused with MG2's Natasha Markova) and good ole' Master McDonnel Miller. During the course of the mission, Snake is double-crossed, his friendship with Campbell is tried, he's deceived, used, infected with super-viruses, falls in love, makes new friends, finds and destroys a new Metal Gear and finds out that not only the leader, Liquid Snake, is his brother, but his father Big Boss isn't really his father, but the genetic prototype from whom they cloned him. This game introduced series favorites Revolver Ocelot, Liquid Snake, Otacon, Naomi Hunter, Mei Ling and Meryl, all of who would make appearanced or would be referenced to several times in the series' future.

You kids of today may not understand it now, but back in '98, this game was the shit. Pardon my stereotypical talk, but back in the day, this was the God of videogames. Not because it was perfect, or because of the hype, but because MGS was the first game that had the balls to really show what the Playstation was capable of and because it was, overall, a very complete experience. "Metal Gear Solid" was the first transition from 2D to the 3rd dimension that was done almost unchanged and still so refined that it made it impossible to believe this was ever a top-down, 2D, 8-bit game. Though dated now, the mechanics were great in the day. The exhileration of running around and hiding, the cinematic camera angles, the almost-perfect controls, the beautiful and detailed graphics, everything. True to his intentions, Kojima essentially ported all the mechanics from "Metal Gear 2" in 3D and made a whole new game out of it.

The above can be seen in several parts in the game. Despite featuring a whole new story that deals with nuclear weapons, genes and anti-war themes, the gameplay has entire chunks lifted off MG2: the radio conversations. The "save" through the radio feature. The radar. The DARPA chief, a hostage you have to rescue, is injected with a transmitter that will show on the radar- just like Dr. Marv. Campbell's niece Meryl is disguised as an enemy soldier and you have to follow her in the women's lavatories- just like Natasha/Gustava. There is a ninja who has a past with Snake- like Black Color/Ninja. There is a staircase chase, like in MG2. The keys to deactivate Metal Gear are one key that changes shape in different temperatures- like Gustava's Brooch in MG2. The leading strategy to beating Vulcan Raven is essentially the same as beating the Running Man in MG2. And I'm sure there's more I can't remember.

But that wasn't all. People who have started with the sequels may not understand and I doubt that people who don't like MGS' style will even bother to try, but what Kojima did at the time was make a movie using a game engine. But not in the trivial, degrading way that opponents of the series' style put it. It wasn't just the story, or the fact that there was actual voice acting -good voice acting. It wasn't that there were tons of cinematics, sometimes admittedly getting in the way of the gameplay's flow. It was the fact that there was so much detail on the presentation and so much focus on generating emotions that by the time you ended it, it really felt like a journey; just like a good movie does.

I seem to praise it a lot, when in fact it's not even my favorite in the series. The thing is that despite being the third game in the franchise, for the vast majority of people who know this series today, it was the first and at the time, it was an experience that I can't put into words. Moments like the first time you break an enemy's neck from behind, the shock when you see the DARPA chief dying in front of your eyes, the excitement when you're running around chasing Ocelot, the freaking out when "HIDEO" shows up on screen with a bleep during the fight with Psycho Mantis, the anger when Meryl's shot down, the wonder when the hints and twists start popping up, the sadness when Sniper Wolf dies (even though you wanted to gouge her eyes 2 minutes earlier), the loud (literally) "WTF" when Metal Gear is activated out of the blue and you realize you actually have to fight the beast (you couldn't think that was possible for a game this down-to-earth at the time), the depression when Meryl dies (I always do the Otacon ending, even if the Meryl one is the official) and the relief when the credits roll with that beautiful music and your hero starting a new life. These are only the most special moments that hit me back when I first played the game. Moments new to us. And unfortunately, moments that whoever missed them then, won't be enjoying the experience as much now; if at all.

"Metal Gear Solid" sold several millions of copies worldwide and was met with critical acclaim. It generated a huge fanbase and an entire series (with the "Solid" subtitle becoming part of the main title). It was followed shortly after with an "expasion" "VR Missions" disk, that contained a buttload of small missions to play through, an "Integral" release in Japan (that included the original MGS and said expansion disk) and a PC port of "Integral" by Microsoft in 2000. The game was re-made for the Nintendo Gamecube in 2004, featuring new cutscenes and gameplay, based on the engine of MGS' sequel and dubbed "The Twin Snakes" (we'll be touching the remake another time).

It's often considered the best Playstation game and one of the best games ever made. Whether the claim is true or not is irrelevant; the fact that Hideo Kojima managed to turn an experiment into a game that can make such claims is reason enough for credit."Metal Gear Solid" introduced the stealth element to a whole new and different generation of gamers and made it mainstream, made good and fluid acting a necessity for games, gave the nod for well-established storylines (which at the time were only featured in adventure games and RPGs), upped the ant in terms of production value and attention to detail and played a considerable role to making the consoles a serious deal (something that PC gamers were claiming exclusivity to until then).

Having just finished MGS again a few hours ago, I have to admit myself that the game hasn't aged very well. The top-notch-at-the-time graphics are not showing well at all in new high-def LCD screens/TVs. The controls feel non-responsive when compared to the fluid schemes and superior controllers in the industry now. The gameplay mechanics seem the most aged of all- like a twisted joke, this happens mainly because every game that used a similar mechanic afterwards had the chance to refine it through new technology. Ironically, if the sequels to MGS hadn't improved so much on that formula, MGS' mechanics would still feel pretty decent.

After the overwhelming success of MGS, Hideo Kojima became famous worldwide and wasted no time in starting the production of MGS2, this time on the new Playstation 2. That too hid a taste of irony; MGS, just like its predecessors, is the only game in the "Solid" series that ties up almost every loose end and can stand entirely on its own. Whether you leave with Meryl or Otacon, Snake is the winner, Liquid is dead, people don't know you survived and you ride off to the sunset to start your new life. Still, it was the success of that game that made Kojima (whether on his own or because Konami forced him) pick it up for a sequel immediately after it first launched. And it would be after the latter installations, which left a lot of unanswered questions, that Kojima would attempt to leave the series and move on to other projects.

But whether it was profit that led him to making a sequel or he had something to say, "Metal Gear Solid 2" was on its way to the PS2 and history...