1990's Games - Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid was one of the main hits for the Playstation console. Developed Hideo Kojima, the game is an extremely popular franchise that first started out as 2D games created by Hideo but Metal Gear Solid is heralded as the “true” start to the series of games which later created spin-offs on hand held consoles and a four part over-arching epic storyline that engrossed audiences since the beginning.

The game’s story is of such a complexity that it lasted and was told over four games involving three different main characters and different time periods. The first game centres upon the Character Solid Snake who is sent on a sneaking mission to infiltrate a Nuclear weapons facility to destroy the terrorist threat from a renegade special forces team known as Foxhound. Snake must save two hostages that include the head of DARPA and the leader of a major weapons manufacturing company.

Metal Gear Solid is a stealth game it its core; the aim of the game is to get Solid Snake through the levels and areas without being detected by the enemy soldiers that patrol the areas while collecting important pieces of the story, important key cards to advance and fighting bosses at specific points in the game. It is very linear but players are free to get to the goal of each location however they which; a hail of bullets or as stealthy as a ninja.

There are numerous controls that allow snake to crawl through tight spaces, hug walls, peak round corners, fire his guns at enemies and have hand to hand fights with them. He is able to knock them out and then hide their bodies so that the enemies cannot find them. Upon detection an Alert Phase begins in which Snake must evade of fight his way through.

The game is renowned for its creative storyline, amazing cut scenes that can span tens of minutes all using the games in-game graphics engine; thus never breaking the immersion. This creatively amazing storyline, along with the intuitive gameplay, heralded as the first stealth game to be popular by the masses, greats an immersive, thrilling and fun game in which you feel as if you’re playing the role of the main character in a film; a truly amazing experience and innovation for the time of the game.

1990's Games - Baldurs Gate

 

Buldur’s Gate is a fantasy RPG game for the PC based upon the Dungeons and Dragons’ Second Edition rules. It runs upon a modified ruleset of the rules updating it for a gaming experience rather than the true complexity that the table top Dungeons and Dragons. The game was created using the Infinity Engine created by Bioware. The game, along with the game Diablo, is recognized as not only revitalising the RPG genre upon the PC but as being the true creators of the genre they defined.

The story is set within the Sword Coast, a location within the Dungeons and Dragons’ fantasy setting Faerun, and is based upon the journey of the Player Character who is an orphan; the story focuses upon the player finding out their true past and heritage which leads to a final confrontation and large boss battle at the end of the game. The story is twisted, covers many cities and locations and is by far as epic as any fantasy novel ever created.

The game can be played in a numerous amount of ways which can include the player pausing time and setting up their actions, before unpausing combat and continuing; or the game can be played as a true real time combat game with players making choices on the fly rather than sitting and thinking about their actions.

The interaction, amount of character development, and the true scope of gameplay and options means that almost every single play through of the game, though leading to the same plot points, can be completely different; with each combat situation, each social encounter and side quest being played out in a different fashion and tactic.

The games interactive feature with Non-player characters, combat and their choices that effect not only the way character react to them in the game, but also the outcome of situations, creates an immersive game play environment and entertaining game in which players feel their actions truly reflect upon the environment.

While the graphics were never the best, and the pseudo isometric view left it very difficult in terms of camera angles and the controls felt a little clunky the depth of the game, story and choices meant that it had many redeeming qualities and remains as a staple and notch in the history of gaming’s bed post.