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RTTP: Metal Gear Solid (PS1) - Still a GOTY contender today!

Weirdly enough, MGS was the last Metal Gear Solid title I played of the series. It holds up well in a lot of ways, but there are a few sections that feel really dated. The game wants to be like an action movie, so it throws action-movie setpieces into a game that doesn't support them well. The game is pretty clunky/unfun in these sections, IMO.

Examples:
- Shooting at a doorway while enemies stream in.
- Hand to hand combat sections (both of them)
- The long staircase
- Rappelling
- The jeep chase

That said, the basic stealth action is still very strong, even if it's not as open-ended as its successors. There's a purity to the system that works very well with the level design which, with the possible exception of the dog cave, is always good at showing you what you need to see, and providing interesting puzzles to get past enemies. Unlike the games that would follow, which allow the player to get away with a lot by shooting tranqs at heads, or go far enough that straight-up action play becomes a viable option, MGS remains a true stealth game.

The story in MGS also feels a lot better, partially due to a much more natural-sounding translation. It does wonders for those codec conversations that were insufferable in MGS2.
 
MGS1 wasn't even a GOTY contender in the stealth genre back in 1998, let alone be a good game in 2010. I played MGS back when it came out on PC and boy I hated this game's mechanics, it made me sceptical towards the stealth genre as a whole as it was my first experience with it. Luckily I played Thief a couple of months later...
 
During the
MGS1 flashback/gameplay sequence in MGS4
, was anyone else really hoping it was going to let you play the entire game? I'd have done it no question, I have a feeling it would have been more enjoyable than the rest of MGS4.
 
I remember me and a buddy playing a demo of MGS before it hit retail. The strange part was that, where the demo usually ended (somewhere before the holding cells I'm positive), we got to the DARPA chief and started the conversation. Demo ended after he had the heart attack. To this day I can't recreate how we did that.
 
Last time I played this game a year or so I tried an Extreme run. It was an exercise in frustration, I couldn't re-adjust to the dated crap controls. At least not in that difficulty. I don't think I got too far. :P Maybe I should try it again on hard and normal, see if it's still enjoyable there. Well I'll always have my memories of 1998.
 
disappeared said:
I remember me and a buddy playing a demo of MGS before it hit retail. The strange part was that, where the demo usually ended (somewhere before the holding cells I'm positive), we got to the DARPA chief and started the conversation. Demo ended after he had the heart attack. To this day I can't recreate how we did that.

Wasn't a time limited demo? So if you were pretty fast you could reach until that conversation?
 
sonicmj1 said:
The story in MGS also feels a lot better, partially due to a much more natural-sounding translation. It does wonders for those codec conversations that were insufferable in MGS2.
What really helped out in this manner was that MGS1 is still the only game in the series (and one of the very few games, period) that had the benefit of having the cast being able to record together in joint sessions. This is big reason why a lot of the coversations flow better than in other games, despite the writing being just as verbose and, well, hammy as the rest of the games in the series. I've always been sad that they moved away from that method, but I do know that joint sessions are not cheap.
 
Relaxed Muscle said:
Wasn't a time limited demo? So if you were pretty fast you could reach until that conversation?

I thought so too, but I swear the demo ends whenever you crawl into either one of the vents going into the complex. I could be completely wrong, it was twelve years ago! :lol
 
Only bettered by MGS3.

MGS is an absolutely superb game that I completed at least a dozen times. The last half an hour is such a fantastic change of pace with the fight and escape. Brilliant.

I really need to get Peace Walker..
 
Are PS1 games like this worth getting a PSP? This thread has convinced me to get MGS, so I'll at least play it on the PS3. I'm been trying to convince myself to get a PSP, but I just know as soon as I get a PSP, a month later the PSP2 will be announced.
 
Ridley327 said:
The cardboard box trick is easier than it looks; just stay idle in the box near a wolf and one will eventually walk on over and pee on it. From that point forward, you won't have to deal with the wolves if you're inside the box.
Whenever I do that they just go "!" and run to me and then charge the box and break it (even if I haven't moved before they saw me).
 
infinityBCRT said:
Whenever I do that they just go "!" and run to me and then charge the box and break it (even if I haven't moved before they saw me).
I may have confused that with the trick with Meryl's baby wolf, so I know that one works for sure. Of course, if you're already past that point, it's a bit of a moot point.
 
disappeared said:
I thought so too, but I swear the demo ends whenever you crawl into either one of the vents going into the complex. I could be completely wrong, it was twelve years ago! :lol

Damn I feel old now! :lol

infinityBCRT said:
Whenever I do that they just go "!" and run to me and then charge the box and break it.

It will probably for the best make your way with punches and pain, use the night vision googles to see the path, actually the area is pretty fast to past by,
 
infinityBCRT said:
Whenever I do that they just go "!" and run to me and then charge the box and break it (even if I haven't moved before they saw me).

Did you attack Meryl or something to piss them off?
 
the easiest way to get past the wolves is to get one to pee on the cardboard box

the easiest way to get a wolf to pee on it is after the psycho mantis fight. when you and meryl are walking around, if you punch her, she whistles and a wolf attacks you. so you have to punch her and cover yourself in the box. he's guaranteed to pee on it instead of attacking you iirc

I thought so too, but I swear the demo ends whenever you crawl into either one of the vents going into the complex. I could be completely wrong, it was twelve years ago!
there was more than one demo. i remember i had one that stopped when you crawled into the vents, while my cousin had another that stopped later, i think when you got into the elevator? i can't remember.
 
Green Biker Dude said:
there was more than one demo. i remember i had one that stopped when you crawled into the vents, while my cousin had another that stopped later, i think when you got into the elevator? i can't remember.

Nice! Thanks for the clarification.
 
Ridley327 said:
The cardboard box trick is easier than it looks; just stay idle in the box near a wolf and one will eventually walk on over and pee on it. From that point forward, you won't have to deal with the wolves if you're inside the box.

Optionally, when returning from "THERE ARE NO CONTINUES, MY FRIEND" you can use the handkerchief to get past the dogs if you were a sadistic bastard and killed the dogs to get through the area two times before.
 
I played this game on Normal a bunch. There's pretty much no way I can avoid revisiting it on harder difficulty levels, now.
 
Tain said:
I played this game on Normal a bunch. There's pretty much no way I can avoid revisiting it on harder difficulty levels, now.

Try a Big Boss codename run.

Only five saves. 5 hours. 0 kills 0 alerts.

*tee-hee*

MGS is easily the game of the Playstation (with Parasite Eve 1/2 being after it for me) and is the game that made me want to get into the game industry. There is no game since that has had tight camera work in-engine cutscenes like it. :(
 
i have to post this in every MGS1 thread

the german dub is just FAAANTASTIC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ocgU8fbAjk

and by fantastic i mean terrible :lol but me and my friends love it. everytime we're drunk we're screaming random quotes out of the game :lol "UND DU HAST ALS EINZIIIIIIGEEEEEEER VON NIX GEWUUUUUUUUUUUSST"

i think i own the game 4 or 5 times. as coolio said, it was way ahead of its time. i still remember the first time playing it. the story, the betrayaltons. i was like "is this really just a videogame?"

i was flashed and i still play it quite often :D just a few weeks ago me and my buddies filmed ourselves playing MGS1. 4 hours for the eternity.
 
TheSeks said:
Try a Big Boss codename run.

Only five saves. 5 hours. 0 kills 0 alerts.

*tee-hee*
This is actually wrong, due to MGS1 not having any non-lethal methods of taking down the bosses. The actual requirements for Big Boss in MGS1 are:

-Beat the game in Extreme mode
-Finish the game in 3 hours or less
-Use no continues
-Use one or no rations
-Kill 25 or less
-Found 4 times or less (this might as well be zero alerts, since the 4 alerts that they allow you come from cutscenes anyways, like the cell shootout and the elevator battle with the stealth soldiers)
 
Z_Y said:
I've been meaning to play through the series for ...years now. I beat MGS back in 1998 (?) when it launched and then got about halfway through MGS2 (again..at launch) before I lost interest. I picked up the essentials collection due to MGS4 hype and then later on picked up MGS4 on the cheap. Got all 4 sitting here in front of me but need motivation to get started.




GAF...motivate me. Go!

One day... you will die.
 
i played it in German too. i remember reading reviews saying that the dub would be horrible but i totally forgot how it sounded. until today....:lol

and i am glad that i am not the only one who wants a mgs game for psp with a fixed camera like mgs1.
 
You know, I just played this game for the first time about a week ago in preparation for MGS4 (Just bought a ps3). I was thinking the same thing as OP. Holds up extremely well, despite a few flaws, definitely up in my top 5 now.
 
Roude Leiw said:
i played it in German too. i remember reading reviews saying that the dub would be horrible but i totally forgot how it sounded. until today....:lol

and i am glad that i am not the only one who wants a mgs game for psp with a fixed camera like mgs1.
The worst thing about Portable Ops was that it would have benefitted so much from having a fixed camera, as the level design was a return to the boxier MGS1/2 trappings. It would have alleviated so many of the awful things that went wrong with the game.

Except, of course, the soldier dragging.
 
duckroll said:
You always see as much as you need to see, and part of the challenge in the game is not to rush in when you don't have a good view of a corridor or angle. Instead simply stopping and holding triangle to look around will often allow you to gain a huge advantage as to knowing whether there are cameras (if the radar is jammed), or if there is a guard in the distance.

Ugh. This shit sucked. Not being able to see what a guard or camera is doing (they had this odd tendency to move around whether you were watching them or not) unless you stand still and press a button was neither fun nor challenging nor an interesting dynamic, just an annoyance. I hated it from the moment I picked up the controller. The camera didn't do the impressive graphics any favors either, with those silly, super-close overhead 2D angles when you were in a hall. The rare time you got a nice over-the-shoulder view, the game looked amazing, like an interactive movie rather than an ugly zoomed in 2D game.

Even the gameplay, though full of ingenious touches, left me unsatisfied. Like every MGS game, it had all kinds of brilliant mechanics but little reason or opportunity to use them. I rarely felt inclined to use the sniper rifle, C4, mines, etc, the game did nothing to promote their use outside the one or two mandatory moments and again if you were just fucking around for the hell of it (C4 on backs, etc). All those tools, but the game is far too short and small to give you enough to do with them. The gameplay is enjoyably eclectic but not meaty at all. VR Missions kind of solved that by giving you more to do, but I wanted more meat to the real game.

And yet even with all that bitching it's still one of my favorite games ever :lol I replay it more than any other game. It just had so much charisma and atmosphere. I went in expecting something totally different... basically a spy simulation a la Goldeneye... (I got the game I expected a year later when Syphon Filter came out), but what I found in MGS was an experience unlike any other. I was put off at first but realized how special the game was when the first villain died in Snake's arms following a melodramatic monologue. Awesome :lol Even the gameplay doesn't bother me as much as it sounds like up there, I enjoy its eccentricities. It was also well paced, tight little pot-boiler compared to MGS2 and 4's bloat.
 
Z_Y said:
I've been meaning to play through the series for ...years now. I beat MGS back in 1998 (?) when it launched and then got about halfway through MGS2 (again..at launch) before I lost interest. I picked up the essentials collection due to MGS4 hype and then later on picked up MGS4 on the cheap. Got all 4 sitting here in front of me but need motivation to get started.




GAF...motivate me. Go!


MGS2 is the worst in the series IMO. That's why you only got half way.

MGS3 and MGS4 are absolutely amazing experiences.
 
AAK said:
Still has the cutscene with the most spectacular voice acting to date!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-xKzg6n1EA

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Metal Gear Solid spanish dub is still considered one of the best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLM8BpViQGE
 
Green Biker Dude said:
there was more than one demo. i remember i had one that stopped when you crawled into the vents, while my cousin had another that stopped later, i think when you got into the elevator? i can't remember.

The demo that I had ended when you reached the DARPA Chief.
 
S1lent said:
The demo that I had ended when you reached the DARPA Chief.

Shit was epic. Made me want the full game like nothing else.

I miss the old days where I could buy an M rated game at 12-years-old. :lol
 
disappeared said:
Shit was epic. Made me want the full game like nothing else.

Yup. I'd never played anything like it before. :D

sonicmj1 said:
The story in MGS also feels a lot better, partially due to a much more natural-sounding translation. It does wonders for those codec conversations that were insufferable in MGS2.

Agreed. The guy that did the translation work for MGS1, Jeremy Blaustein, didn't work on the subsequent games, and they suffered for it IMO.
 
I would even go as far as to say its one of the greatest games ever made. Definitely would put this in my top ten list. I really like how all the items are unique and fun to use, the boss battles are all well thought out and he atmosphere in this game is still one of the best seen in video games. I remember some of my friends who never played video games coming over to my house wanting to play the game. I don't think any newer Metal Gear will reach its level of excellence.

I think the reason it holds up very well today is the simplicity of the top down view and not having to think about the camera at all. I see it as sort of a Mario game, simple to understand and play while still very diverse. It lets the player be very creative.
 
The game blew my mind when I got it. It was just too EPIC. One awesome event after another. Metal Gear Solid? More like Metal Gear AWESOME.

I should replay the original version someday too, hell, why not the whole series.
 
PetriP-TNT said:
The game blew my mind when I got it. It was just too EPIC. One awesome event after another. Metal Gear Solid? More like Metal Gear AWESOME.

I should replay the original version someday too, hell, why not the whole series.

i replayed the whole series shortly before MGS4 hit.

always a pleasure.
 
The game is perfect, it got pretty much everything right - the level design, gameplay, character development. (the best in the series IMO), storyline, atmosphere / music. Subsequent MGS games have never gotten as close to perfect as this game IMO.
 
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