Metal Gear Solid

by Konami

Product Features

• Lightly Armed and facing an army of foes, Snake must avoid firefights in order to survive.
• If Snake can locate them he can utilize advanced hardware, ranging from silenced pistols to ground-to-air missiles.
• Enemies react to sight and sound - so stay quiet and stay in the shadows.
• State-of-the-art graphics, textures, transparencies, models & explosions.
• Taut, gripping story with multiple endings - a truly cinematic experience.

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00001X50M
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: February 15, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (307 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,819 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Editorial Review

You are Solid Snake, a superspy who's half James Bond, half Snake Plissken, and you are mean. Your mission isn't terribly new (infiltrate a terrorist base and blow everything up), but the gameplay is: your numerous enemies are watching for you, and you are encouraged to sneak rather than simply charge in. Every level brings new challenges. You fight snipers, invisible ninjas, psychic warriors, and even an M-1 tank! As the father of the modern spy game genre, this game is an instant classic.

Your allies and superiors speak to you via a cool, implanted radio, monitoring your progress, offering tips--but failing to give you the full story. The combination of a mysterious and engaging plot and high in-game tension makes this a thrilling ride. Campy humor also abounds as you rescue beautiful women, verbally spar with your allies, and blow up enemies in the bathroom. A user-friendly control interface allows for sniping, hiding, crawling, and running, and the graphics leave nothing to be desired. If you like espionage, spy movies, or just want to own and play a piece of gaming history, then this is a must have. Metal Gear Solid is one of the all-time greats. Game tip: Secretly attach plastic explosives behind an enemy, sneak out of the room, and see what happens. --Allen Stewart

Pros:

• Story well-integrated into gameplay
• Stealth favored over brute force
• Challenging puzzles

Cons:

• Puzzles can be frustrating
• Torture scene too intense for younger gamers

GameSpot Review

Metal Gear Solid is the game that has been sending chills down the back of this industry for over two years. Konami leaked bits of information about it here and there, but there was no hiding the notion that Metal Gear Solid would be an adventure of epic proportions. Now, all the waiting has ceased, and the game is finally upon us. But does Metal Gear Solid live up to the years of hype? That really depends on your perspective.

At its core, Metal Gear Solid is truly a lesson in stealth. Forget about running into rooms with your gun blazing, leaving nothing alive but an occasional rat. Here, living by the gun readily equates into dying by the gun. Why bother fighting the guards when you can just sneak around behind their backs, crawl along walls just out of the sight range of surveillance cameras, and hide behind boxes?

Unlike most other games, Metal Gear Solid really knows how to tell a story. You, as retired supersneaky agent Solid Snake, must infiltrate a base that has been overrun by terrorists. These terrorists, however, are members of your old unit, a top secret organization known as Fox Hound. The hounders are sitting on a supersecret new weapon and enough nuclear warheads to send the planet back to the Ice Age. Your mission (no choice here - you're forced to accept) is to infiltrate the base carrying nothing but a pair of binoculars and a pack of smokes, check up on a couple hostages, find out if Fox Hound even has the ability to carry out its apocalyptic threats, and if it does, stop it. The storyline unfolds in a seemingly never-ending collection of cutscenes, all extremely well rendered using the game engine. The game doesn't need FMV to clog up the process (given the amount of time spent watching cutscenes, FMV probably would have made MGS a three- or four-disc game), although it does use video in a few isolated cases and uses it reasonably well.

When you first start playing the game, you truly do feel like you're constantly in danger. There are so many ways that guards can be alerted to your presence. The most dangerous, of course, is sight. If you enter the line of sight of a guard or a camera, you've got a fight on your hands. Luckily, their lines of sight are represented by big cones on your radar. Simply stay away from the cones, and you'll never get spotted. If you stomp through a puddle of water or across a metal catwalk, fire off a weapon, or knock on a wall (great for luring the dummies to their doom), nearby guards will hear the noise and check it out. They'll even follow footprints in the snow. If you're spotted, a bunch of guards come out of nowhere and start playing target practice with you. This also starts a two-part timer. The first part of the timer is the danger timer. During this time, guards are extremely alert, and they scurry around, hoping to find you. If you can manage to stay out of sight, the second timer starts. During this time the guards don't look for you quite as actively. If you can stay hidden during that time, the guards stupidly assume that you must have run away, and simply return to their posts. No increased patrols, no manhunts. They just forget they ever saw you and continue to wander aimlessly. While it's understandable that this had to be done for gameplay purposes (getting spotted once and playing the rest of the game with tons of guards on your tail wouldn't exactly be fair), it comes across as more than a little silly. Plus, all of these guards are badly in need of some corrective eyewear, because they can only see about 20 or so feet in front of them. Heck, you can even shoot a guard in the back of the head (it takes multiple shots to kill), and he'll just look around, not see anyone, and go back to standing there like an idiot. -- Jeff Gerstmann
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot logo are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Flawless Game, January 9, 2000

By A Customer

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)

Metal Gear Solid is probably the best game I've ever played. It's not just another action game, its got some really innovative stuff in it. The biggest thing about this game is the fact that you have to be stealthy. This isn't just another game full of mindless gunfights; if you charge into every enemy you see, you won't make it far. Also, MGS has one of the best video game stories ever, and it has great voice talents to back it up. The boss fights are cool too because a lot of them require some neat strategies. For those of you who are fans of first person shooters, don't worry, there's still plenty of weapons and gadgets in MGS. The only complaint I've ever heard about this game is that is's too short. That may be true, but Resident Evil 2 is even shorter and it didn't get critisism over it. Besides, you'll have to play through multiple times to see both endings and use the extras you get for beating the game. Basically, MGS has been setting the standard for games like Syphon Filter, and I think it always will.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Video game perfection., June 18, 2006

By 

Carmilla - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)

The Metal Gear Solid series is one of the greatest series of video games ever made and this is where it all started.

From the story, to the graphics, and to the music and settings, this game will amaze you. The production values and quality of this game are tremendous.

And the gameplay?
Brilliant! As those Guiness guys would say...

The key to this game is stealth and not all out running and gunning. If you fight upwards of two guys at a time, you will die. Its pretty much that simple.

But to help you in your stealth mission is a boatload of cool gadgets that would make James Bond blush. You got silenced handguns and machine guns. Thermal goggles. Night vision goggles. Mine detectors. And the simple yet fun cardboard boxes.
Every item in this game has its own special and unique uses from ketchup to cigarettes.

And the best part of this game are the boss battles. Each boss is truly unique, memorable, and a joy to fight. You will have a blast from Psycho Mantis to the Ninja to the climatic battle vs the towering Metal Gear.

This game was voted as the greatest Playstation game of all time by both IGN and Gamespot and for good reason. It is simply one of the best games ever made and already a timeless classic.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best for the PSX and possibly of all time, June 25, 2003

By 

Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)

When I heard there was to be a Metal Gear game released on the Playstation, I was happy. I had been a long time fan of the series from the very first game on the NES and even through the crappy Snake's Revenge. I didn't know if that next generation of gamers would know anything about the series, but I was hoping for a good game. My expectations were surpassed beyond anything I could have hoped for. Not only was Metal Gear Solid a good game, it was a great game. Metal Gear Solid is one of the best games (if not the best game) on the Playstation and it should take its place as one of the top games of all time.

While previous Metal Gear games had suggested that stealth was the way to go, and other games had used the concept, I had never seen stealth developed as well as it was in Metal Gear Solid. It was not only a good idea, it was the only way to go. You needed to avoid enemies (as best you could) to be able to make it through the game. When you killed an enemy, you had to do it in a way that nobody saw you or heard you. Metal Gear Solid is called a Tactical Espionage game, and it means just that. You are a spy and spies should not be seen or heard.

Like the other Metal Gear games, you play as Solid Snake (now the legendary Solid Snake). It is your mission to infiltrate the Shadow Moses Island in Alaska, rescue a hostage and see what is going on. From the moment that you begin the game, what you know is being tested and your place in the story is being escalated quickly. You are handed a lot of information about the plot and the reasons behind everything. This game has some very memorable scenes and memorable enemies. Overall, this is one of the best games on the system and I would recommend it to anybody.