One of the factors I talk about quite a bit is how video games towards the late 90's began to take a more cinematic approach. It would revolutionize the presentation of video games for the foreseeable future. I personally never thought of that as a good thing, because it would mean all of the biggest games would be overly drawn out talkies (Final Fantasy VII much?), but I digress. Perhaps the game most notable for ushering Hollywood style directing and elements seen mostly in motion pictures up to this point on consoles was Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid.

Now there were many games on PC, notable titles like Wing Commander, Night Trap, and Phantasmagoria, but they were full-motion video point-n-click titles. Metal Gear Solid was the first to truly blur the lines in gameplay and well done cut scenes with substantial writing, voice acting, and artistic camera shots. I can't realistically place the early Resident Evil games in that category, despite how much I love that campy dialogue. Metal Gear Solid feels like a movie, for better or worse. The cutscenes can get pretty lengthy, but the performances from the voice actors are very compelling and can keep you engaged, even if you have little clue what they're talking about. This also was one of the first games that utilized the freshly coined DualShock technology in abundance, using it to simulate a heart attack (DARPA chief Donald Anderson and former ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker), and when Snake is strapped to a torture device. I can't confirm this, but I feel like I read in a gaming magazine back in the day that Kojima originally had a hand in the implementation of DualShock tech during its early development.

Now, I can be particularly frank with my feelings about Hideo Kojima and his games, especially after revisiting some of his titles prior to their mainstream success. Policenauts and Snatcher were both graphic adventure titles with strong ties to sci-fi and political intrigue, relying very little on actual integral gameplay. Based on his career, Kojima came off to me as a film student who wanted to make his own versions of Bladerunner, The Terminator, and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers all in one movie, but with the entire school's budget.

Metal Gear Solid is practically the same as those titles in regards to themes, except it actually turns into a video game every now and then when CODEC conversations were over. It moves at a methodical pace, focusing on either sneaking around enemies or quietly dispatching them while being sure to leave as few tracks to your presence as possible. By its design, you can't really "chop-socky" or run-n-gun your way through it, or rather it's highly ill-advised to try. "Not with that attitude", I say. Solid emphasizes use of Snake's gadgets to disarm security systems or distract/misdirect guards. Since I never really played the NES Metal Gear all that much (it was something I watched my cousins play while I enjoyed Castlevania), this felt like a different beast compared to the Legacy of Kains and Ninja: Shadow of Darkness action titles that were around the time. It controls good, takes a little bit to get used to switching things on the fly. Since it was the early attempts to emulate the controller equivalent of hot keys, I never felt it took too long to get acclimated to cycling through the item/weapon menus on the fly. 

Snake moves around pretty well, he feels simultaneously very mechanical and fluid. General mobility is adequate, switching between crouching, crawling, prone to a wall are mostly just the press of a button. Whether melee combat or firing a sidearm, Snake kind of turns into a turret. Only a few fights call for some fisticuffs, like Grey Fox and I think it's one of the least welcome parts of actually playing. Throughout all the Metal Gear games (Rising Revengeance notwithstanding, because that was PlatinumGames) bare-handed fighting felt like Johnny Knoxville's old grandpa character doing American Kenpo. For funzies, I'll try to get the jump on some guards, only to catch a butt of the rifle to the face. 

Graphics wise, as previously mentioned regarding the cinematic presentation, it looks very good and there's a lot done with the textures in Metal gear Solid to make up for the fact that faces were merely creatively utilized shaded textures. As much as I dislike talking heads in my video games that prohibit me from playing it, the CODEC talkie portions with the Shinkawa artwork were my favorite part of Metal Gear Solid's story, it was fascinating to look at.

I might be in the minority on this, but the slightly overhead camera view in this game sometimes gave me fits, it's more a pet peeve. It obscures my visions just enough to make me feel like I got cheesed for some damage, like despite the fact tat it's a boss fight, Raven's damn tank somehow gets the jump on me occasionally. Only because it make me look like a goof does this get under my skin.

There's just a handful of instances like that where I wish the camera was pulled back just a little bit further so I can see a tiny more of the playing field, or at least what's ahead of me, is all I ask. I know the series for the most part has always been laid out in this fashion.

It's also hard to NOT talk Metal Gear Solid without bringing up some of its more iconic/cryptic moments that it calls its own. Things like Psycho Mantis reading your mind and being able to predict your every move unless you put your controller in the second port. If you played any other Konami games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and there's a save slot on your memory card, he'll be sure to point it out, and that can be a surreal experience. It's made even bizarre that it seems like the game pulls this out of nowhere, but Col. Campbell actually tells you how to beat him. Or Campbell lets you know that Meryl's CODEC code is on the back of your Metal Gear Solid jewel case. I always wondered how the PC or GOG ports of this game handled that Psycho Mantis fight...

All in all, I had some fun with this game. I never really considered myself a fan of Hideo Kojima or Metal Gear, but they're decently made games and there's an oddball charm to seeing his musings (Death Stranding notwithstanding). Solid I always felt was the only one I really like to revisit every now and then. There's a charm to this game's completely wacky story that takes a lot of its elements WAY too seriously, and it only got more self-indulgent as the series progressed. Metal Gear Solid is the entry that feels the most like a video game.

It's aged well enough that playing this again is easy-peasy. The music and voice acting is incredible (David Hayter still best Snake), the ambitious directorial style shows that Kojima does have a ton of good ideas, as long as he's surrounded by people who can ground a lot of his creative liberties within sensibility. By the time he got to Guns of the Patriots after running off writer Tomokazu Fukushima, the series really went off the rails. Fukushima in particular is why the anti-Americanism and dissenting views of mass-production felt like a greater deal. With that influence gone, the games just got even more weird and dabbled further into incomprehensible sci-fi jargon.

All those feelings left aside, Metal Gear Solid is a blast to play. It's loaded with Easter eggs, references to his past works, some memorable villains and moments, and finding different ways to mess around with the Genome Soldiers seldom gets old.