Metal Gear Solid: Survival Guide [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ J. Douglas Arnold (Author), Mark Elies (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

To survive in Metal Gear Solid, you need stealth, weapons and other gear as well as guts and intelligence. Not just brains and an expert trigger finger, but the kind of briefing intelligence that gets you through the tough spots. Information you can rely on when the going gets too tough and you're stuck: that's the Metal Gear Solid Survival Guide. The world's best book for the world's best game. To bring you the most complete and accurate Metal Gear Solid book, our dedicated expert gamers played through different versions of the game for hundreds of hours, completing each mission dozens of times so  they could report to you the best tactics and strategy for each area, where to find the useful items and what to do with them, tips to make things a little easier, and a complete walkthrough solution. Their full-color book is jam-packed with everything you need to get the most enjoyment from Metal Gear Solid.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Sandwich Islands Publishing; illustrated edition edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884364314
• ISBN-13: 978-1884364310
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,308,068 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid guide, but it has a few holes., November 5, 1998

By	Mark Maestas ([e-mail]) (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

If you want a guide that's direct and to the point, Sandwich Islands Publishing's (SIP) Metal Gear Solid Survival Guide is what you want. The book provides a simple picture-and-caption layout to help you easily find what you need. It's straight forward and you don't have to do a lot of reading to find out what you want to know. The only drawback is that some detailed information is lost in this manner, but it's up to you to decide what you want. Through parts of this review, I will be making references to Versus's MGS guide for comparisons.

The maps detail almost every area of the game with the locations of all the items that can be found. The guide put out by Versus has maps but the item locations are nowhere to be found on them. However, the only thing they managed to put on the maps was the security levels of the doors which, ironically, is missing from SIP's maps. While I'd like to have both, I'll take the item locations.

The walkthrough proceeds step-by-step and anyone can follow along. You go from one picture to the next with simple, solid instructions. The Versus guide seemed to be filled with lots of clutter amidst the walkthrough. The only down side is that I found some of the strategies a little on the light side, especially for the "bosses". This is one aspect that I felt Versus' guide did a very good job on. Their guide had multiple, detailed and effective tactics for dealing with each encounter.

While I consider myself an "advanced player", the book did detail several details that I overlooked the first time through the game. There are several places where little secrets and Easter Eggs are in the game but again, this was sparse in comparison with the Versus guide. I also found that the rankings chart had some holes on how to get each rank. The rank shown on the screenshot on the previous page ("Grizzly") was conspicuously missing from the chart. The SIP guide also has a partial list of the "Ghosts", but no screenshots of those and no updates on the Web Site.

Aside from all of that, the biggest disappointment for me was that the VR Training mode was completely M.I.A. from the SIP guide. Sure you don't need to do anything in here to finish the game, but I found it one of the most challenging aspects of the game! A section on this mode is definitely needed.

Sandwich Island Publishing's Metal Gear Solid Guide does what it sets out to do, which is to provide a walkthrough of the adventure. It has some good strategies for staying alive, however, I wouldn't consider this guide to be complete. The price slightly higher than the Versus guide too, which is a bit of a drawback considering that the Versus guide also contains a lame poster and some useless (but somewhat interesting) info on the real life aspects of things found in the game.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars You won't get stuck..., January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This one's a really tough call. If you own Metal Gear Solid, and are stuck in a particular area, or need some tips getting past a boss, then look no further than this guide; this book gives a very precise walkthrough of the game. What it does fail to do, however, is provide DETAILED maps of each location, and reveal to players some things that can be found by backtracking (namely some pretty cool, yet unessential items). This is something to consider when considering a strategy guide for any game. In the case of MGS, there are 5 known published guides, but this one I feel does the best job in their organization and presentation of the material; there just wasn't enough of it, and not enough detail in what was there (for some players, at least). There was just too much of the game that was sparsely covered, or not covered at all (i.e. replay options, VR training mode). And if a book starts a section on pointless secrets, such as the hidden ghosts found in the game, it should be complete--after all, what are people spending their money on a guide for? But given the fact that few of the other guides even make mention of this, it's more trivial than the above-mentioned. On a positive note, the weapon, item, and tactics sections were very well presented, as reasons are given when, where, and why to use the specific pieces of equipment at your disposal. If deciding on a guide for this game, the one you choose depends on the type of guide you're looking for--if you're stuck and want a walkthrough and a more detailed instruction book, go for this one, hands down. But if you're willing to settle for a bit less organization, and thrive on more game detail, decent maps, background info, and other stuff, you'd most likely be better off with one of the official guides. It's your call.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets you there without the bells & whistles., November 2, 1998

By A Customer

MGS is a detailed game with many items to find, bosses to defeat, and methods of solving puzzles. If you get stuck, the above guide can help. It gives a step-by-step walkthrough for the entire game, complete with pictures, item descriptions and locations, and strategies. It's not bogged down by useless information, and is great for a fast, easy solution. It doesn't offer much else and the maps aren't terribly detailed, but they do get the job done.