Have you ever seen a good game? If you have seen one did you know it was something special? Chances are that you did. Way back in the middle of '98 I heard of this game called Metal Gear Solid. I had heard of the name Metal Gear from way back in my NES games but I didn't really like those titles. Mario was more my cup of tea (sorry I was four years old). I was not all that interested in the PSX iteration of the series but I figured I would read some more about it. I found out that it would be the first type of game that you would have to seriously sneak around and not be detected by enemy soldiers. I thought it was cool, then I read about all of the actual fighting you get to do, even better. So to me it was becoming a mix of something like Golgo 13 and Contra from the NES days. Then I read about multiple endings, over 10,000 words of actual speech, amazing boss encounters and a ninja that uses cloaking technology while attacking you. My interest piqued in September and I had nothing to hold me over until the middle of October when it would finally be released. I got my chance. In a short time the October issue of the Official Playstation Magazine came out with a demo of it. After school that day I ran the few blocks to the Software Etc. and feverishly smacked $7.99 on the counter just to get the demo. I got home and I got to play two glorious missions of gaming nirvana. It was better than I could have ever imagined. The stealth techniques worked flawlessly. Nothing could ever recapture the feeling of snapping the neck of one of the Genome soldiers for the first time. Oh yes, my obsession for the next few months had arrived. The best game the PSX has ever, and probably will ever see (except for maybe Chrono Cross but we'll see about that in the fall) was about to be unleashed on the world.
Graphics
This is the second best looking PSX game yet, second only to FF8. I would go as far as to say that it doesn't evenly look like much of a PSX game. It looks like a rough first generation DC game with crappy textures. Seriously, this game just looks absolutely fantastic. The polgonaly characters look incredible. They have a huge range of emotions that we can see on their face-less polygonal bodies just through the way they act. That's some cool stuff. Everything just looks real good and polished. Every explosion and bullet looks good. Just wait until you get to the last boss, I don't want to spoil it but let me say it is fantastic. The only stumbling block is the texture quality but this is only because the PSX sucks at anything graphical that isn't a polygon. By the way, the framerate is always constant.
Sound
Sonically, this is as close as most of us nerdy gamers will come to aural sex (snicker). Everything just sounds so right. The music is fantastic, fan-tast-ic. It is just the coolest music you will hear while fighting armies of Genome soldiers. The voices of the characters are even better. After the B-movie type voices found in the Resident Evil series this is Mozart. We don't here anymore voices emphasizing the wrong word like Barry's "You, Jill, the MASTER of LOCKPICKING" (Obvious hint right?) from RE now we get "SNAKE! THERE IN THE ELEVATOR WITH YOU!" The sound effects are even better. Ever wanted to know what a grenade sounds like while exploding? Or how about the sound of a bullet coming out of a silenced gun barrel? Everything is in there, everything. Aural sex sums it right up.
Control
I have seen many a game destroyed by crappy controls and mechanics. Driving Emotion Type-S is the most recent example. A great game turns crap when you press a button and a second later the action comes out. This is probably the best conceived control mechanics on any game I have ever seen. Snake is not as stiff as the RE character set yet not as loose as as say the Donkey Kong 64 character set. It is a nice control scheme. Everything is not more than a touch away, be it rations or a long winded conversation with Otacon. It fits.
Gameplay
Polygon for polygon, this is the best action title you going to find for a long time. Everything just clicks. The long drawn out stealth parts are balanced by the short yet incredibly sweet action sequences. I will never ever forget rapelling down the side of a building while being shot at, or ascending the tower with Fa-Mas in hand, or fighting Liquid Snake in the helicopter. Gaming goodness at its finest. I am speechless to tell you the truth. One of the very best games that I have ever played. Some may say that it is too short but with 15 hours of gameplay in the first play through and multiple endings I say they are stupid. If you buy this game you will never ever regret it. It was selected the best PSX game of all time by IGNPSX. I whole-heartedly agree. Buy this game, trust me, it is worth the the money especially now that it is a best seller and goes for $20.
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Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Control: 10
Gameplay: 10
Replay Value: 7
Overall:9.7
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