I first came across the Metal Gear series with the release of Metal Gear Solid on the PSOne. It was being raved about by reviewers as revolutionary and the greatest PSOne title to date. And, its safe to say, I wasn't disappointed by the stealthy game play, gripping storyline and some of the best graphics on the PSOne. I believed it to be the beginning of an excellent series. However, I soon learned that it wasn't the beginning, and that in fact the original Metal Gear had appeared on consoles man years before. With this in mind, I began to hunt the original game.
There are two versions of Metal Gear: one for the MSX, which is in fact the first version and a version for the NES. The NES version, however, is quite different from the original MSX version, so I will be concentrating on the MSX version.
The story follows a young Solid Snake, the hero of Metal Gear Solid, who is a rookie member of the Special Ops team known as FOXHOUND. Under the orders of the FOXHOUND leader, aptly named Big Boss, Snake is sent to a terrorist strong-hold known as Outer Heaven, were he is to make contact with, and rescue, veteran FOXHOUND member Grey Fox.
The game play is simple enough, however revolutionary it was at the time. You make your way around the Outer Heaven base, avoiding conflict with enemy soldiers as much as possible. Between areas there are intervals were Snake must battle with various 'boss' characters, before reaching the ultimate(and surprising) final boss, who is controlling the ultimate weapon: a bipedal, walking battle tank called Metal Gear.
The controls are simple enough to master and the interface is quite user friendly. However, the restrictions of ancient 2D graphics mean that it is quite difficult to make your way from A to B without being spotted by the enemy. Also, when this does happen(which is frequent on your first play through) every guard in the area is alerted to your presence, making the idea of fighting back a rather dangerous one. This is really frustrating, and you find yourself restarting more times than you would like. But, persistence makes the game all the more rewarding.
Music and sound is used to good effect, considering the restrictions of the developers. The music provides a worthy atmosphere, and long spells of stealth can make the sudden sound of being identified quite frightening.
All in all, this game is really good, considering the ancient technology used to develop it. It is also interesting to see Snake's origin and the early battles that make him the warrior he is in Metal Gear Solid. A worthy purchase.
