Metal Gear (Spoilers)

Hello and welcome to ToriJ's Video Game Reviews. Today we're going back to 1987 to see how another long-time running series got its start. The very first Metal Gear by Konami. Metal Gear was originally developed on the MSX2 computer and later ported to other systems, but we don't talk about the NES version. It stars Solid Snake as he infiltrates Outer Heaven to save FOXHOUND member Gray Fox, and destroy the ultimate weapon, Metal Gear.

  I hope I never have to swim my way to a base ever again!

Something that will be unheard of for anyone who started off on Metal Gear Solid, this game begins with no long cut-scene! Granted, that's because they couldn't do that kind of thing back then, but still. Even by 1987 standards this game had a lot more dialog than other games that was around at the time, so the story progression in later games doesn't come as any surprise.

The life bar starts out at the halfway point and will fill in the blank space as you progress through the game. Same thing with the stars next to class. Class affects certain things like how much ammunition you can carry. As always the key is to be stealthy. It's not about shooting your way through hundreds of soldiers like MGS4, it's about staying out of sight and completing your mission objective. Much like MGS1, if you get caught there's a good chance you're boned. Soldiers will dog pile you and go trigger happy. There seems to be inconsistencies when going into new rooms cancels the red alert. If that happens consider yourself lucky.

  Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

All Snake has at the beginning are the clothes on his back and a pack of cigarettes, and yes the cigarettes can still see infrared sensors. Basically, all the things a lot of us were introduced to with MGS1 goes back as far as the first game. Key cards, boxes, even the old gas room and electrified floor. I was surprised to find cameras considering how shocked Snake was to see them in Shadow Moses.

Guards are divided by gray and red. I'm assuming that the red guards are stronger, but I wasn't crazy enough to pick a fight with them to find out. You can find weapons to defend yourself like a pistol or the mines as seen above. As you can expect these are last resort as using the gun will alert enemies to your presence unless you find the suppressor to equip with it.

 Good to see .85 has always been around in one form or another.

In this game Big Boss is your main contact and does all the things that people who played MGS1 are used to Roy Campbell doing. If you thought Roy was annoying when he called you to explain useless information then you're going to hate Big Boss with a passion. Imagine having a fixed Codec call every time you went into a room. Yeah, any room where Big Boss is programmed to tell you something he will repeatedly call every time you go back to that room. It doesn't matter if you already did what he told you, he will KEEP calling you.

Why did they program him like that? Did they think gamers have amnesia or something? You're not forced to answer or anything, but it gets annoying hearing the transceiver go off again and again for just having to enter that room again. STOP FUCKING CALLING! To makes matters worse, Big Boss tells you about a Resistance's leader you're supposed to contact to help you on your mission but doesn't tell you his frequency. You're supposed to just try every possible frequency to find him or just look it up online. I eventually learned that his frequency is 120.79, but that's not the case if you play the game on the original difficulty setting (I'm playing through MGS3 Subsistence) I didn't get a response and couldn't find him! What kind of a deal is that?

Going up!

The only checkpoints you have in the game are the lifts. When you die you get sent back to the last lift you went through. Even if you save the game manually on the memory card when you load her up that's where you go back to. A fair restarting point all things considered, but it's still extremely frustrating when you die before you can make it back to the lift after getting a necessary item just to have to go back and get it all over again. That level two security card is NOT easy to attain.

First elevator you find is being guarded by two red guards which you have to wait for a shift change in order to get inside. The second elevator you discover is protected by two soldiers who never move. They just stand there turning in only two directions. You have to walk behind and then between them straight into the elevator unseen. I couldn't believe they didn't see me. Good thing people don't know how to turn their heads or I might be a dead Snake. I'm sure there are probably other elevators, but truth be told I didn't get that far.

  GRAY FOX! That prisoner is Gray Fox! Somehow, that just doesn't have the same ring to it.

There are actually a lot of hostages you can rescue on your way to Gray Fox. Some of them offer useful hints that helps you down the line while others are just happy to be free. You have to get caught on purpose in order to get close to Gray Fox. Don't worry, you just need to find the right room and a scene will trigger so you get captured. From there you need to literally punch your way through into Gray Fox's cell. I understand that the walls were probably weak or something, but why is it that Snake can punch through solid walls, but has so much trouble fighting soldiers with his bare hands!?

Playing through this it's easy to see where they got the inspiration for the cell scene in Metal Gear Solid, and the painted over walls in the second floor basement of the Tank Hangar. The more I play this game, the more I come to appreciate MGS1 and all the little nods and throwbacks to the original game, though at the same time some could see them as tired repeats of the older games, like the first boss of FFVII being like the one in VI, or Ocarina of Time Past and Future being like the Light and Dark World in A Link to the Past. These games got away with it because a lot of people started the series with these entries so it was brand new to them. In Metal Gear's case I feel it was more meant as references than just a blatant rehash as these things either fuse or separate older ideas bringing them into a new light. Rather than just copying the old formula.

  Nice name. You stay up all night working on that?

After escaping the cell you have to contend with the first boss of the game, Shotmaker. He sprays you with bullets and the only cover you have is the one on the right. Every time you get out into the open he sprays you with more bullets making it nearly impossible to get anywhere near him, and you need to if you want to get your shots in. You also have to go into the door near the right to get your stuff back before you can even hope of having a chance of beating him. Sorry to say, this is as far as I made it into the game. If the first boss is this hard I don't want to see the other bosses.

Metal Gear has always had an amazing soundtrack and this entry is no exception. The songs that play during the course of the game are very catchy. I still have Theme of Tara stuck in my head. Anyone who played the V.R. Missions in MGS1 will know what I'm talking about. The theme is a little different here (obviously due to tech limitations) and some different tones, but I honestly prefer it to the MGS1 version.

Long story short, Big Boss is actually the Outer Heaven mercenary leader and doesn't want Snake to succeed. I guess all those things he forgot to mention wasn't just because of poor memory. Hell, like most Metal Gear games, Big Boss even breaks the fourth wall and tells you to turn off the console at one point. That's right, even back in the older games Snake was being used for an end goal, though not nearly on as big a scale as MGS1. Boss just wanted Snake to get captured to feed misinformation back to authorities, but grossly underestimated Snake's abilities. Serves him right. The plot twist is a good one and has plenty of clues leading up to it, maybe even too obvious at times. Liquid is a lot like his dad, setting a bomb and giving them a time limit to their battle. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

  It's nice they put the instructions on the title screen. I bet people still don't read it.

Metal Gear is a fun, challenging game to play, and a great game to play if you're like me and started off with MGS1. Seeing where all the inspiration and staples of the series began is a nice treat and the game still holds up reasonably well today. If you like old school stealth games I'd recommend it without hesitation. Until next time, my frequency is 181.80. I'm NOT Liquid. Or Solid Snake.

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