A little bit more emphasis on story than what I would like, but overall this is a fantastic game.
You play the game as Solid Snake, a former Government agent who is on a mission to investigate the motives of the special forces unit FOXHOUND and their possible plans of launching a nuclear weapon as well as a walking battle tank known as Metal Gear Rex. Over the course of the game you are given advice or story snippets by Snake's former commanding officer Colonel Baker, who usually points out what your current objective is as well as a few other tips and strategies. Mei Ling, a data analyst who invented your handy dandy radar, allows you to save your progress. Naomi Hunter, the chief of FOXHOUND's medical staff, gives you, of course, medical-based advise. Natasha Romanenko is a famous weapons specialist. So any questions you have on weapons should go to her. There's also Snakes former master, Master Miller, who gives you survival tips. You'll also be able to contact a few other characters throughout the course of the game. Unless you are really in a jam, you'll only need to contact Mei Ling for a majority of the game.
The story is truly the biggest standout for this game, albeit a bit preachy. It provides some unique plot twists and a quirky sense of humor and you'll grow to like some of these characters. The story was very moving and it ultimately led to a rather bittersweet, but overall satisfying conclusion (that is, if you got the bad ending). To help move the story is the great voice acting and dialog. Very rarely will there be a moment of falter. Each character's delivery is great and they each have their own unique personalities. The cinematic quality of the cutscenes help to combine everything together nicely, making it all feel like watching a big Hollywood blockbuster. However if there's one thing to complain about the story is that there is a rather heavy reliance on it compared to the action. Most of the time you will find yourself watching cutscenes or listening story snippets rather than focusing on the gameplay. But seeing as how good the story is, this really isn't a major ordeal.
Now let's get into the gameplay. The gameplay follows the familiar style of the 2-D games. Most of the game is viewed from a top-down perspective, much like the original Legend of Zelda. You won't be able to see anything in front of you unless you want to constantly keep switching to first person mode, but you wouldn't want to do that in a room full of enemies. That's where your soliton radar comes in. Various dots on the radar screen each represent either an enemy or a surveillance camera and each have a cone in front of them which represents their field of vision. So it's simple: Stay away from the cones and you'll never get spotted. However, keep in mind that enemies can still hear loud footsteps and they can see footprints in the snow. But you can also lure enemies with sound to move them away from a specific location or to silently take them out. The controls take a bit of time to get used to but ultimately they work as they should.
If you were to get spotted there are a couple of ways to approach this. You can either pull out a weapon and try to fight or run away and hide. When you get spotted your radar stops working, so you'll have to be quick and mindful. If the enemies lose sight of you there will be a timer counting down. When it stops, everything goes back to normal. It's strange how they don't bother to keep looking for you or call for backup.
You'll also be encountering some unique boss fights throughout the game. I felt very mixed about these fights. I do love the concepts for these fights, but the top down perspective can be a problem trying to fight some of them, especially since you can't shoot or walk in first person. The only time you do get to shoot in first person is when you have a sniper rifle or a rocket launcher.
This game is still one of the most graphically pleasing games to grace the Playstation. The environments are incredibly detailed as are the character models. The game also provides some really cool special effects that a lot of other games couldn't do at the time. I would have to say that the graphical quality of the game helped push the system to its limits. Once again the cinematic styled approach is great. The music is also great, providing the some really memorable pieces. While nothing is really going on the music is calm, but still rather tense and it suits the atmosphere very nicely.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Some of the best graphics for the PS
-Cinematic quality cutscenes
-Fantastic story
-Great characters
-Solid voice acting
-Solid gameplay
-Clever boss concepts
CONS:
-A bit more story than what I would like
-Some boss fights can be a problem because of the top-down perspective
Minor annoyances aside, you really should get this game. It is certainly one of the best games found in the Playstation library. If you're looking for a quality title on the Playstation, especially a game with a good emphasis on story (that isn't an RPG), than this is the answer.