A hard-action, in your face stealth game that doesnt leave you throwing your game pad against the TV.
Metal Gear Solid... three words that will stick with me forever. The game is solely based on one character... Solid Snake (Thats You!), and your mission is to infiltrate a nuclear weapons disposal facility, currently being held by renegade forces known as Foxhound... Primary objective - Find and rescue the Darpa Chief. But you end up with more trouble than you bargained for.
The story develops from a small insignificant mission to being the biggest threat to the world and only you can stop it.
Gameplay wise, this is great fun... it gets your heart pumping fast, and you feel that adrenaline running through, as if you were actually there in the silo. Using the walls, boxes, tanks or anything you can see, you must not be detected, and if they see you, your'e screwed. Simple.
Now don't go asking yourself...
"If I get seen, do i have to start again?"
because you don't... only if you let them kill you. There are millions of ways to hide away from the enemy, or you could go for the old fashioned, kneel behind a box and shoot everyone - not the best of plans, but sometimes it works.
The interactivity with the game is pretty basic for the PS1, you don't have that modern physics like you do with the PS3 or XBOX 360, but thats expected... what you do get though is an assortment of items, that you can use to discover certain aspects of the game. Using your cigarette smoke to uncover hidden lasers, or your mine detector to... well you know... find those mines! After taking down an enemy soldier, you can drag his dead carcass to the nearest cabinet, or darkened area, where the rest of the enemies are unlikely to find him... and if your lucky he might drop something valuable... rations, ammo etc.
Graphics are indeed basic... it has as much as you can expect from PS1, blocky, un-detailed, facial blurs... but this isn't what the game is about. Instead of trying to see what colour eyes snake has... you should be concentrating on where the enemy is! or is going to be... thats what makes this game interesting, the patterns of the soldiers help you determine whether you should take that route or not.
Overall this game is fantastic... it's not one of those stealth games where if you get seen, it's game over for you. Use your knowledge of the area, watch where the enemy steps, and be sure to wrap up warm... you can catch a cold, and if they hear you sneeze, you better be prepared to run.
Fantastic game, in my top 10. The developers really tried to go places with this... and they most certainly did.