I’ve been pretty busy last week using every minute I’m not designing #Glo levels scouring the Web for marketing contact details. That means I’ve not got as much news to report. So I thought I’d take the chance to go back in time and remember my favourite game of all time…
Be warned there are spoliers ahead.
There’s so many things that make Metal Gear Solid such a special game to me it’s hard to cover everything or even know where to begin?
At the time I had only recently aquired a Playstation. Up until that point I had mainly played NES, SNES and MegaDrive (Genesis for the US audience) games. I had some experience with PC games but that was mostly FPS and racing games. My concept of a computer game at that point was of something that was primarily focused around the mechanics of the game. Stories in games at that point were more an addition to the game rather than a focus point.
I’d only had my PlayStation for a couple of weeks and was putting a ridiculous amount of time into Gran Turismo and Tench Stealth Assassins. I didn’t have a memory card for the first couple of weeks so I’d gotten really good at the opening stages of both games, lol.
My mum came home from work with a bunch of games that someone lent to her for me to play. One of them, Metal Gear Solid, came with a high recommendation from him (I can’t remember the rest). I’d never heard of Metal Gear at the time and assumed it was some generic mech game which I wasn’t really interested in. It ended up gathering dust for a couple of weeks until my mate Chris noticed it and got really excited that I had it! Reluctantly I decided to put it on. Having not even looked at the blurb on the back I still thought it was going to be a mech game.
The usual PlayStation intro screen came on. Followed by underwater scenes of someone travelling in what looked like a torpedo to a hauntingly memorable theme (it still conjures up emotions of intrigue whenever I think of that theme). After watching the intro and starting the main game I started to realise, although apprehensive, this isn’t what I was expecting.
When we took control of Solid Snake for the first time we had no idea of what type of mechanics the game had. The revelation that you could hide behind walls and knock on them to trick the guards was so amazing that we must have stayed in that underground dock for about an hour confusing the guards. The freedom and fun interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) was unlike anything I’d experienced in a game before. Until then enemies to me were more like grunts solely designed to attack the player or get in the way, they weren’t things you could actually interact with.
When we finally made our way up the elevator we were gripped by the cinematics introducing us to Shadow Moses Island. Followed by even more amazement and time spent having fun tricking the guards with Solid Snakes footsteps in the snow.
I could go on forever reliving every moment in the game…
The amazing thing about the early levels is that they were effectively a tutorial, but they were done in such a fantastic way we didn’t even realise and actually had loads of fun going through them!
The real realisation however for me started when we entered the main facility through our own choice of entrance (we chose the upper level ducts). It was at this point the story started and for me I became gripped. The pacing and mystery of the story in Metal Gear Solid is for me one of the greatest ever told. The intrigue and wonder of what would happen next, I believe, has never been matched in any media to date.
I still remember the relief of finally finding the Darpa Chief after finding out little bits about him from my team, only to be taken aback by what happened next. Continuing the game completely confused and off the back of the adrenaline of a great gun fight we were then treated to the ghostly apparition of some crazy looking floating guy. What on earth was going on? I needed to find out more!
More fantastic level design was complemented by brilliantly paced communications with The Colonel to unravel more of the story.
Then came the game design twists. We were looking for a way to contact Meryl. Apparently we could find her number on a CD case. But where the hell was this CD case? We’d checked the inventory. Looked thoroughly throughout the levels (whilst tricking a few more guards along the way J). We couldn’t find it anywhere… and then… it’s on the actual CD case of the game! WTF!? Genius!! That moment for me still lives on. At that point Metal Gear Solid felt real. It was actually interacting with my real world! Wow!
Blown away we continued the story absolutely hooked. Our emotions were taken everywhere from excitement at stealthily navigating the world, to power when we were controlling a remote controlled missile, to sadness when we lost someone special, to being absolutely out right creeped out when we finally met the ghostly apparition from earlier in the game.
The fight with Pyscho Mantis was another mind blowing experience. Ironic as Psycho Mantis continually reminded us “I can read your mind!” a quote that lives on strong today for me and Chris. Once again the game showed us how real it can feel. When Pyscho Mantis told us to put our controller on the floor, me and Chris looked at each other as if to say “Is he talking to us?” apprehensively we put the controller on the floor. Psycho Mantis then informed us that he was going to move the controller with the power of thought alone. Huh? How? The next thing the controller starts buzzing and moving around the floor! Mind… blown…!
After a gruelling fight with even more real world trickery we finally defeated Psycho Mantis and were given one of the most disturbing and moving deaths in a game… in fact in any media ever. We went from hating this guy to wishing we could somehow save him.
The story continued without missing a single beat to its glorious end. An end which is defined by your determination as a gamer.
Unbelievable…
Some of the things that made Metal Gear Solid so special to me are not necessarily unique to Metal Gear Solid, but for me it was the first time experiencing them and I think they were executed perfectly. That’s why for me it holds the spot of my favourite game ever. Honestly, this is just a mere fraction of the layers of perfection of which I think Metal Gear Solid has. For me no game has ever come close, even the amazing sequels.
The concepts and ideas to interact with the player to this day have never been matched and this is nearly 20 years on!
Even after I had completed the game there was so much depth to secrets that could be found, alternate endings and pure fun just exploring even more of the world. And this isn’t even a role playing game. It didn’t need character progression and conversation choice etc. The progression was in the player understanding the world and experiencing it. The story was so perfectly written you didn’t want any other choices, and you could speak to your team any time you wanted. Even to this day I can replay the game and enjoy it every bit as much as the first time.
Metal Gear Solid was the moment I realised the power of computer games as an artistic medium. No music, art, movie or book has ever influenced me in this way and no other medium has the ability to interact in the same way.
That is why I became a game dev…
