The game's story follows Solid Snake, a former Special Forces operative who is pulled out of retirement by the U.S. government to infiltrate Shadow Moses, a nuclear weapons facility that has been taken over by rogue unit FOXHOUND, led by Liquid Snake. Directed, produced, and written by Hideo Kojima, the game is the third mainline installment in the Metal Gear series and serves as a sequel to the MSX2 game Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990).

The Story Behind Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid is one of the twenty PlayStation games included in the PlayStation Classic released in 2018. Television and magazine advertisements, in-store samples, and demo giveaways contributed to a total of $8 million in promotional costs. When development of Metal Gear Solid resumed, it was moved over to the PlayStation platform.

Weapons expert Motosada Mori was also tapped as a technical adviser in the research, which included visits to Fort Irwin and firing sessions at Stembridge Gun Rentals. The games detected by Psycho Mantis when he reads the player's memory card were also changed, due to certain games (such as the Tokimeki Memorial series) not being released outside Japan. A Spanish dubbed version was later released on May 1.

How Metal Gear Solid Plays

Play controls and strategies can also be accessed via the Codec, a radio communication device where advice is delivered from Snake's support team; for example, the support team may chastise Snake for not saving his progress often enough, or explain his combat moves in terms of which buttons to press on the gamepad. In addition to the stealth gameplay, set-piece sequences entail firefights between the player and enemies. Progress is punctuated by cutscenes and radio conversations, as well as encounters with bosses.

However, the camera angle will change during certain situations, such as a corner view when Snake flattens himself to a wall next to an open space, or into first-person when crawling under tight spaces or when equipping certain items such as the binoculars or a sniper rifle. The player can also use the first-person view while remaining idle to look around Snake's surroundings and see what is ahead of him. The Codec is also used to provide exposition on the game's backstory.

Why Players Still Load It Up

IGN called it "the founder of the stealth genre." The game is often considered one of the best games for the PlayStation and was featured in best video games lists by Computer and Video Games in 2000, by Electronic Gaming Monthly and Game Informer in 2001, by Retro Gamer in 2004, by GameFAQs and GamePro in 2005, and by Famitsu. The idea of the player being unarmed and having to avoid being seen by enemies rather than fight them has been used in many games since. In 2010, PC Magazine ranked it as seventh in the list of most influential video games of all time, citing its influence on "such stealthy titles as Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell." In 2012, Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time and G4tv ranked it as the 45th top video game of all time.

The review by IGN opined Metal Gear Solid came "closer to perfection than any other game in PlayStation's action genre" and called it "beautiful, engrossing, and innovative...in every conceivable category." Computer and Video Games compared it to "playing a big budget action blockbuster, only better." Arcade magazine praised it for "introducing a brand new genre: the sneak-'em-up" and said it would "herald a tidal wave" of "sneak-'em-ups." They called it a "brilliant, technically stunning, well thought through release that's sure to influence action adventure games for many years." GMR called it a "cinematic classic." GamePro called it "this season's top offering [game] and one game no self-respecting gamer should be without," but criticized the frame rate that "occasionally stalls the eye-catching graphics." GameSpot was critical of how easy it is for the player to avoid being seen, as well as the game's short length, calling it "more of a work of art than ... an actual game." Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "rest assured that this is a game no player should miss and the best reason yet to own a PlayStation." Metal Gear Solid received an Excellence Award for Interactive Art at the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival. During the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Metal Gear Solid for "Game of the Year", "Console Game of the Year", "Console Action Game of the Year", and outstanding achievement in "Interactive Design", "Software Engineering", and "Character or Story Development". PlayStation Official Magazine – UK review called Metal Gear Solid "the best game ever made.

Metal Gear Solid — Frequently Asked Questions