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.