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Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are some of the most influential games of all time. They are pretty much responsible for the stealth genre of video games. Yes, there were a few stealth games before this (one of them being the first Wolfenstein game); but Metal Gear was the one to truly bring the genre into the mainstream. These are not the original MSX games, but ports of them; and pretty decent ones at that. While I am disappointed with the lack of customization when it comes to keyboard controls, these games play just fine with a controller and it’s even recommended to play with one. What I am more frustrated with is the inability to access the game manual while playing. This is especially important for Metal Gear 2 because one of the anti-piracy measures of the original game was to include information needed to progress the game in the manual, which you’ll still need to look at while playing this port. This makes it all the more baffling why I have to close the game to see it.
Metal Gear was originally released in 1987, and it shows. While the game is solid (heh) and figuring out what to do or where to go isn’t too hard for the most part, there is some pretty obtuse 80s game design in here. You’ll run into things having to punch certain walls that don’t look any different to the rest of the base in order to progress, or instant death pitfall traps that will kill you if so much a a pixel of Snake is touching it; neither of which are communicated well, with the latter possibly trapping you and forcing you to die or reset. Supposedly, the characters on the radio explain some of this, but they’ll only answer the radio in specific rooms that you’re supposed to intuit somehow. Then there’s the infamous keycard shuffle this game will have you do every single time you want to open a door. By far the worst design choice is a softlock that you can find yourself in if you kill a hostage during the boss fight with Dirty Duck. A character will tell you that she won’t help you should you let a hostage die, but what she fails to mention is that you will literally not be able to beat the titular Metal Gear fight if you do and you’ll have to start the entire game over again if you had saved after losing a hostage in the fight.
The story of Metal Gear is pretty barebones, which is a little surprising considering how insane this series gets even by the next game, but it works for this game. You are the rookie Solid Snake, and your objective is to rescue your comrade Grey Fox and save the world from the new weapon the base is constructing; Metal Gear. But even with a barebones plot like that, it still manages to throw in a twist near the end in a clever way.
The stealth is simple, but satisfying. Enemies only perceive what’s directly in front of them, but the layout of Outer Heaven will force you to think about timing and movement. Getting caught isn’t a death sentence in most cases, but you will certainly want to avoid it with how little health you have; especially at the start. The boss fights… exist. This series may be known for their boss fights, but that reputation did not start here.
Overall, Metal Gear is a relatively short game. I completed it in about 3 hours with minimal help from a guide. A lot of elements of this game make it into almost all of the sequels from both a plot and gameplay perspective, which is cool to see. But while Metal Gear is a good game, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is a great game.
Metal Gear 2 is honestly one of my top 5 favorite games in the series. From the opening credits, you can see the huge improvement in presentation. This is still one of the coolest intros to a video game ever. And the improvements continue across the board. The gameplay is such a huge leap that its influence dominates the design philosophy of the next three games in the series. You can crouch and crawl under objects, you have your soliton radar that shows the map and enemy movements, enemies have cones of vision instead of a straight line and patrol more than just what’s on the screen, the radio support characters are much more helpful and almost eliminate the need for a guide (they can still be useless sometimes, especially if you accidentally skip dialogue that they won’t repeat), bosses have more narrative weight behind them and require some creative thinking to beat (well, some of them at least), and there’s so much backtracking! Okay that last one is actually a huge complaint I have about this game, but it’s funny how pretty much all of this applies to Metal Gear Solid.
The plot of Metal Gear 2 is one of the most important of the series, recontextualizing the previous game’s events and shaping the characters for the rest of the series through the events in this game. Real world history and politics are woven into this game’s narrative much more than the last, and character motivations are directly influenced by their experience with it. The thing holding this game back narratively is its 2D presentation with characters having long, static text conversations between each other, as well as some rather annoying pacing issues that ties into the backtracking complaint I have about its gameplay.
If you are new to the Metal Gear series, this is honestly the best place to start. Metal Gear, and especially Metal Gear 2, are great games; even today. And a lot of Metal Gear 2’s plot is vital to the rest of the series. Availability was always the problem with these games, but the ports are a good fix for that; and there is a ton of great bonus content such as the full screenplays for these games that are a treasure for long time fans like myself.