LADYDRAGON.COM - Metal Gear Solid

From the very first moments of this game when you hear the strains of classical chamber music playing as you swim towards an enemy military base, its obvious that there's something special going on here. This is a game not easily compared to anything else you've played before and which provides a unique gaming experience.Metal Gear Solid is among the "A" list of playstation titles and one of the most eagerly anticipated games to be released since Final Fantasy VII. You play as the man with the code name of Solid Snake and your mission is to infiltrate a terrorist enclave and prevent your enemies from lauching a nuclear missile at an unspecified target. During the course of your mission, you discover that these terrorists have taken control of a secret super weapon called Metal Gear. Metal Gear is a tank with legs that can walk over any terrain and launch missiles from any location on the face of the earth, and Solid Snake has had to do battle with it before. The story has a kind of X-Files type of angle to it, with government conspiracies and shadow operations, but other plot elements have a more realistic and familiar ring to them. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that the Russian economic crisis fits into this.You get specific objectives in this game that eventually lead up to the successful completion of this operation. How you go about satisfying these objectives is left up to you. You can try to kill every terrorist guard in sight or you can use stealth to get around them while avoiding detection. In most situations, violence is not the best option, and this sets up one of the things that make this game so special. To avoid being detected, you have to avoid being seen. Watching enemy guards from the shadows and then moving past them quickly when they're not looking in your direction works very well. It also creates a lot of tension. In addition, you have to be careful about not being heard. You can succesfully run behind a guard and then accidently step into a puddle of water, creating a loud splash, and before you know it, you're surrounded by hostile terrorists. This game also rewards non-traditional thinking. At one stage in the game, a pack of vicious guard dogs blocks your way, waiting to rip you to shreds. They can smell you, so there is no way to avoid being noticed by them. The obvious solution would be to pull out your machine gun and open fire, and this will work. But, you could also use a handkerchief that belongs to the guard dogs' master to get by them without firing a bullet. Solid Snake gets friendly with a tank.	Solid Snake trying not to sneeze. the handkerchief has the scent of the dogs' master on it and if you hold it while you approach them they'll think you're a friend and let you go by untouched.You can't get through the entire game as if you're trying to win The Lady Byng trophy for sportsmanlike conduct. As Solid Snake says at one point, "Some people just need killing." But true to the rest of this game, even killing can be done quietly. You can sneak up behind a guard and strangle him without creating any noise. However, this requires patience, timing and nerves of steel. As you get closer and closer to the guard, you never know when he'll abruptly turn around, spot you and riddle you with weapon fire. Open, unabashed, noisy and spectacular sessions of violence do rear their head from time to time in Metal Gear Solid. There are some truly over the top boss characters that have to be destroyed and which put your reflexes to the test. A Russian made Hind D attack helicopter is one of these characters and presents a daunting challenge as you fire Stinger missiles at it from a rooftop while it strafes you with machine guns. While most of the game sees Solid Snake facing his enemies alone, he is in constant contact with a group of military and technical advisers through a communication device called a Codec. These advisers can be called upon at any time to give you hints and update your mission objectives and they serve to explain the storyline. The voice acting done for these advisers is superb; easily one of the best jobs I've ever seen. With the amount of dialogue in Metal Gear Solid, this game would've been unbareable to play had the voice acting been of a lesser quality.Graphically, this game is at or near the limit of what a playstation is technically capable of and effects like motion blur and different qualities and quantities of light serve to create a cinematic feel and enhance the mood. Control is very good, especially if you have a dual shock controller. When you're using a sniper rifle you can feel your character's heart beat vibrate your hands and see how it throws off your aim.One complaint I have though, is the fact that Solid Snake cannot hold two objects at the same time. This is silly, and creates unnecessary problems at various points in the game. On the whole, Metal Gear Solid, while not flawless, is a phenomenal piece of software. It's a lot of fun to play, it provides some unique challenges, and is destined to be classic. If you own a playstation, you owe it to yourself to try this one out.	Companies Developer Konami Publisher Konami Category Action - Adventure Notes Originality: 94% Gameplay: 96% Interest: 95% Graphic: 91% Control: 89% Sound: 90% TOTAL: 94% Requirements Console PlayStation Analog Controller Compatible Vibration Function Compatible Memory Card 1 Block Multi-tap Not Compatible Multiplayer None Rated by ESRB "M" Mature