Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid is the rarest of things: a video game with looks, brains, and heart. Its combination of excellent action and superb story line makes it one of the PlayStation's top titles.

Very few games that spend a long time in development are able to live up to the hype and expectations heaped upon them. After three years in development, and several promising previews, Metal Gear Solid has a lot to live up to, especially since it's a sequel to one of the most beloved video games ever released--Metal Gear for the NES. Fortunately, Metal Gear Solid easily meets expectations, and, in most cases, surpass them. Solid is a gaming masterpiece that can safely join the elite ranks of the greatest PlayStation titles of all time. Don't believe it? Compare Metal Gear to the top PlayStation action titles and the competition just wilts. What we've got here is a masterpiece; nothing else even comes close.

Solid Script and Storyline
Metal Gear Solid is an innovative combination of cinema storytelling, action, and strategy. Using an engrossing storyline, and the best use of the Dual Shock controller to date, Metal Gear completely envelops you in its story and tightens its suspenseful grip.

Solid continues the story of special forces' member, Solid Snake. Snake gets dragged out of retirement and sent on one last mission: Stop a group of terrorists from launching a nuclear missile from their Alaskan-island stronghold. Even unarmed, Snake is deadly: He can beat down guards, snap necks with his bare hands, and crawl inside small spaces like air ducts. Snake begins the mission armed only with a pair of binoculars and pack of cigarettes, but you can collect weapons and other items, including firearms, scopes, explosives, and even cardboard boxes.

Cardboard boxes, huh? That's right! Unlike most action games, Solid encourages stealth-n-sneak over run-n-gun. It's to your advantage to avoid fights by sneaking past, or even hiding from, enemies.

Emphasizing this "stealth is best" philosophy is an incredible enemy A.I. Your adversaries are smart: They defend themselves, investigate strange noises, follow your footsteps in the snow, and, once alerted to your presence, hunt you down until you elude, or kill, them. Multiple camera views help keep you one step ahead of the action and in the game. You can always see your enemies: from the game's default overhead view, first-person perspective, or around a corner while pressing against an adjacent wall. Picture a combination of Tenchu, GoldenEye 007, and Resident Evil with the intensity of the movie Die Hard, and you get an idea of how Solid plays.

Snake Eyes
Integrated into Solid's play engine is a fascinating and well-crafted scenario. You interact with several characters--friends and foes alike. The dialogue and voices are high points of these sequences: The script is sharp, witty, and the complex scenario remains exciting every step of the way (plus, characters don't spastically convulse their bodies when they talk, unlike other games). Superb voices do the written words perfect justice. Punctuating the dialogue in the cutscenes is stylish direction that heightens the impact with dramatic framing, mon-tage, and other striking cinema techniques.

Dual Shock controls help bridge the gap be-tween gameplay and cinemas. Near-perfect controls keep you in solid command of Snake, and the controller's good vibrations help draw you into the action. Whether it's a quick shake that accompanies a guard spotting you, or fast-paced thumping during an onscreen heart attack, the Dual Shock (or equivalent thereof) keeps you on the edge of your seat and riveted throughout.

Besides Metal Gear's rock-solid regular game are several excellent options and extras. The best extra feature is the VR Trainer. Here, you can practice your sneaking and shooting skills, and you can even unlock secret training modes. Another cool option is Briefing mode that covers every aspect of the mission in great detail.

Metal Gear Masterpiece
However, Metal Gear's solid works get slowed by a few wrenches. An inconsistent frame rate occasionally stalls the eye-catching graphics. Especially annoying are instances where you zoom in with binoculars or the rifle scope, and the graphics slow to a crawl while you pan back and forth. Another annoyance is in the early stages of the game, as you're constantly interrupted with advice from your team that's all listed in the instruction manual.

Yet, even with its minor and distracting faults, Solid is this season's top offering and one game no self-respecting gamer should be without. Forget fast-food action titles with rehashed formulas that never worked; Metal Gear Solid elevates video gaming to high art.

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