Great Games: Metal Gear Solid
When I was putting together my great games list, I was trying really hard to include games that were great on their own, not simply ones that were “great” because they were the first game to do a particular thing. That is, games that you’d still want to go back and play today, not just games that were revolutionary when they came out. Well, Metal Gear Solid is both–it was revolutionary (to me, at least) when it came out, but it’s still a game I would want to go back and play today as well.
Let’s address the revolutionary side first. Back in the early days of video games, enemies had one of two modes of behavior. Either they just moved in a simple, repetitive pattern that you had to learn to avoid (ex. Space Invaders, Super Mario Brothers), or they simply charged toward you (ex. Pac-Man). This actually went on for quite a long time–even as graphics got more sophisticated, enemy behavior stayed pretty basic.
Metal Gear Solid was the first game I ever played that had what I would call realistic enemy behavior. In Metal Gear Solid, enemies at first don’t know you’re there. They’re guarding something, either standing still or moving along their guard route. But they can see and hear things, so if you come into their line of sight or make too much noise, they’ll go after you. And their way of going after you isn’t just to charge at you–they fight semi-intelligently, and call for reinforcements. This means that you want to avoid fighting them if you can, as one guard spotting you can lead to a big battle. So you have to think about what the guards will be able to see, and move to keep out of their line of sight. Furthermore, if you manage to hide after you’re spotted, they’ll search for you for a while before eventually giving up and returning to their guard posts.
This is old hat now, but when I first played the game, the idea of staying out of an enemy’s line of sight and keeping from making noise around the enemy was a real eye-opener. Hell, the idea that you might want to avoid fights, as opposed to simply killing everything you came across, was pretty revolutionary.
So much for the revolutionary part. The reason it’s still a great game today is less to do with the stealth elements (which have been improved upon by other games, such as the Splinter Cell series and later Metal Gear games) and more to do with the characters and boss battles. Hideo Kojima, the brains behind the Metal Gear games, is clearly completely nuts. His stories are off the deep end and often nigh-incomprehensible (if you want to get a Metal Gear fan riled up, ask him about the difference between “dominant” and “recessive” genes, and their application in cloning), but his characters are marvelous. Well, okay, you have to ignore the stupid names, but the Cyborg Ninja, Sniper Wolf and others are interesting, fleshed-out characters, not just cardboard enemies.
In addition to that, the boss battles are marvelous. A particularly strong example is the second battle with Sniper Wolf. You’re out in an open, snowy plain. Around the fringes of the plain, she is hunting you with a sniper rifle. You have to take cover behind what little is available, figure out where she is, and use your sniper bullets to take her out before she kills you. It’s a game of “cat and cat”, if you will, and it’s incredibly fun. So is taking out a helicopter with a rocket launcher, or planting land mines to blow up an enemy who’s virtually indestructible any other way, or any of the other boss fights scattered through the game.
Metal Gear Solid: Revolutionary game, and still a lot of fun to play.
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