Metal Gear Solid

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Description

Metal Gear Solid is a sequel to Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. After the tragic confrontation with Big Boss, the hero, special agent Solid Snake, decided to retire and has since then lived in a secluded region in Alaska. But the US government recruits him once again for a dangerous mission. The members of Foxhound, a renegade special forces unit, threaten to use a devastating nuclear weapon if the government doesn't hand them the mortal remains of Big Boss, their former commander. Foxhound is now led by a talented, ambitious young man with the codename Liquid Snake. Knowing that the visual resemblance between this new terrorist mastermind and himself can not be coincidental, Solid Snake agrees to infiltrate the new Foxhound base, destroy the unknown nuclear weapon, and find the truth about his own identity.

The gameplay in Metal Gear Solid follows the prototype established in the two earlier Metal Gear games. Solid Snake has a limited arsenal of weapons and cannot allow himself to pave his way to the goal by killing all the enemies. He has to stay unnoticed, hide, crawl, wait for the right moment, sneak, and use various gadgets that will prevent him from alerting the enemy. Boss battles and some other sequences are played out as action-oriented set pieces, with the player having to figure out the weakness of the enemy in order to succeed.

The game utilizes traditional top-down view, but the graphics in this installment are real 3D. Conversations with Snake's allies and cutscenes are used extensively to advance the plot and gain more insight into it.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "特攻神諜" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
• "合金装备" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "MGS" -- Common abbreviation
• "Metal Gear 3" -- Working title
• "Hejin Zhuangbei" -- Chinese title
• "メタルギアソリッド" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Console Generation Exclusive: PlayStation
• Games made into books
• Games made into comics
• Metal Gear series
• PlayStation Greatest Hits releases
• PlayStation Platinum Range releases
• Protagonist: Mullet haircut
• Setting: Future now Past
• Video games turned into board / card games

User Reviews

A good barometer of what console gamers think serious gaming is. That is: Arcadish, overhyped, childish and with lots of cheese.	PlayStation	Zovni (10638)
A legend that put the Metal Gear series on the throne!	PlayStation	lado (28)
Influential, but flawed	PlayStation 3	krisko6 (745)
The Running Gun Blues	PlayStation	Adzuken (854)
Megalomaniac arcade game with verbal diarrhea	PlayStation	Unicorn Lynx (181640)
A game, a hero and the save the world plot get a hellava lot better.	PlayStation	Jason Lee (11)
The definitive PSX experience.	PlayStation	Anatole (61)
A rare classic.	PlayStation	DarkDove (70)
This game lived up to the hype!!	PlayStation	Tarzan Dan (29)
It was more like a movie	PlayStation	Robert C (7)

Critic Reviews

The Video Game Critic	PlayStation	Jul 15, 1999	A+	100
Electric Playground	PlayStation	1998	10 out of 10	100
Darkstation	PlayStation	Jun 12, 2002	10 out of 10	100
GamePro (US)	PlayStation	Jul 13, 2005	5 out of 5	100
GamesAreFun.com (GAF)	PlayStation	Aug 29, 2005	10 out of 10	100
GameGenie	PlayStation	1998		100
PSX Extreme	PlayStation	1998	9.9 out of 10	99
Game Vortex	PlayStation	Nov 12, 2000	98 out of 100	98
Jeuxvideo.com	PlayStation 3	Sep 08, 2014	18 out of 20	90
Gamekult	PlayStation	Oct 30, 2000	9 out of 10	90

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Zovni's (really old) review for this is great!	48	Zovni (10638) Oct 05, 2010

Trivia

Action figures

For the US release of Metal Gear Solid, McFarlane Toys was entrusted with the sculpting of an action figure line based on the game by Konami. Consisting of one series, the lineup includes: Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh, Ninja, Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, Liquid Snake and a limited edition Psycho Mantis repaint. This series has been re-released several times (later in double-packs).

Copy protection

It is rather important to keep the box for the PlayStation version of the game, since it features a frequency for the CODEC communicator thay you will need to progress through the game in one of the screenshots.

Emulation

One of three games to be emulated on the short-lived bleemcast! PlayStation emulator for Dreamcast.

References

Members of the development team hid images of themselves throughout the game. These images or 'ghosts' as they are referred to are only visible by taking photographs of certain areas in the game with the camera item.

References to the game

This game is referenced in the Eiffel 65 song, My Console.

Rumors

There were untrue rumors about Greg Eagles, the actor who voiced Grey Fox, being dead. In fact, he was mistaken for Kaneto Shiozawa, the actor who voiced the same character in the Japanese version of the game, dead in 2000.

Voice acting

Due to union regulations, the voice cast (with the exceptions of David Hayter and Doug Stone) used pseudonyms during the recording sessions, and were credited that way. Here's a list with the voice actors names and their respective pseudonyms: Cam Clarke (James Flinders), Debi Mae West (Mae Zadler), Jennifer Hale (Carren Learning), Christopher Randolph (Christopher Fritz), Paul Eiding (Paul Otis), Kim Mai Guest (Kim Nguyen), Greg Eagles (Greg Byrd), Renée Raudman (Renee Collette), Patric Zimmerman (Patric Laine), Peter Lurie (Chuck Farley), Tasia Valenza (Julie Monroe), Allan Lurie (Bert Stewart) and William Bassett (Frederick Bloggs).

Awards

• Electronic Gaming Monthly
  • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #12 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
• Game Informer
  • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #17 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • October 2004 (Issue #200) - #12 on the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
• GameSpy
  • 2001 – #32 Top Game of All Time
• Retro Gamer
  • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #70 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Ace of Sevens, Big John WV, chirinea, Evil-Jim, Grant McLellan, Indra was here, J. Michael Botorff, PCGamer77 and Zovni

Related Web Sites

• Hints for Metal Gear Solid (The solutions are revealed one tip at a time to give you just the help you need. If you're stuck, these hints will help you.)
• JUNKER HQ (This fansite is dedicated to the games produced and/or designed by Hideo Kojima and contains all kinds of trivia, artwork, plot summaries, discussion forums and more.)
• Metal Gear Solid PC (Official Site)
• Metal Gear Solid: The Unofficial Site (A fansite that contains information about the whole Metal Gear franchise, including galleries, interviews, downloadable content and discussion boards.)
• Wikipedia: Metal Gear Solid (Information about Metal Gear Solid at Wikipedia)