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Metal Gear Solid is an action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for Nintendo Switch. It was directed, designed, written and produced by Hideo Kojima, acting as the third canon entry in the Metal Gear franchise following the original MSX2 games Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990). The "Solid" moniker in the game's title serves as a double entendre referring to the game's eponymous protagonist, as well as the transition from the 2D sprite-based presentation of the prior entries, to the fully 3D rendered, 'solid' polygonal graphics.
The game's narrative takes place in the year 2005, six years after the events of Metal Gear 2, and follows Solid Snake, who has now fully retired from active duty. He is called back into action by his former special forces unit FOXHOUND, and is persuaded by his former leading commander Col. Roy Campbell to infiltrate the secluded Shadow Moses Island base in Alaska in order to prevent an escalating uprising spearheaded by a rogue faction of FOXHOUND members, who threaten to launch a worldwide nuclear strike using Metal Gear REX, a new model of the bipedal battle tank being developed by the United States government.
Metal Gear Solid was originally released worldwide throughout fall 1998, scoring critical and commercial success. It is widely regarded among mainstream and gaming outlets as one of the best and most important video game releases ever made, credited for cementing and popularizing the stealth-action game genre, as well as for being an early pioneer of video games that emulated the storytelling and directorial qualities present in mainstream film, employing the use of fully in-engine cutscenes. The game also broke the Metal Gear franchise into mainstream recognition, marking the start of the Solid sub-series which would be followed by the sequels, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty in 2001 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in 2004. A full remake of the game, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, was developed in collaboration with Nintendo and Canadian studio Silicon Knights, releasing exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube in 2004. The game's story has also been adapted into other mediums, such as radio dramas, comic books and a Digital Graphic Novel motion comic adaptation first released in 2006.
The original version of Metal Gear Solid is set to be released both as a standalone digital title on the Nintendo eShop, and as part of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 compilation on October 24, 2023. The Master Collection version was ported to Switch and other modern platforms by Virtuos.
Gameplay[]
Metal Gear Solid builds on and refines the stealth-action gameplay previously featured in its predecessors, Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990). The player controls the game's protagonist, Solid Snake, who must be navigated through various areas within the nuclear weapons facility on Shadow Moses Island without being detected by enemies and other obstacles that obstruct Snake's progress, such as survelliance cameras observing the area, and infrared sensors which can trigger when he comes into contact with them, alerting soldiers to his presence. In the event Snake is either spotted by an enemy or has their cover blown by any of the aforementioned devices, an "Alert" phase begins, where soldiers flank the facility in an attempt to kill Snake and the player must clear the area by defeating the oncoming enemy group or evading them for a full 100 second period. During movement, Snake's current location and surrounding enemies/obstacles are conveyed through the Soliton Radar system designed by tech and communications specialist Mei Ling, which appears as a minimap displayed in the top right corner of the screen, although it is unusable in the event Snake is either spotted or triggers an alert system, as well as specific areas such as the Communications Towers which jam his signal.
To remain obscured, players must utilize a mix of techniques Snake can perform to stay hidden, or the environment itself which can be interacted with to divert attention away from him. Despite the game's transition from the top-down sprite view of the MSX2 games to the 3D overhead viewpoint, many of Snake's abilities and external distractions from the prior Metal Gear games have carried over. As in Metal Gear, Snake is able to procure a cardboard box which he can use as part of traversing the environment, drawing enemy suspicion away due to its nature as an inanimate object. Snake is also able to lay flat on the ground and crawl into tight spaces such as underneath vehicles or inside ventilation ducts as a means of either staying hidden or progressing to other areas within the facility. A new addition to Metal Gear Solid is Snake's ability to hug against any wall or surface in front of him to get an immediate view of the path in front. He is also able to knock on particular objects such as walls and containers while in this position, to distract guards in his immediate vicinity, prompting them to check the sound's source and allowing him to make quicker escapes. Outside of physical abilities, Snake is also able to procure various items around the environment which aid him with traversal or combat to help progress the game, such as infrared goggles which help him better visualize infrared lasers in secret passages, and Rations which when consumed, partially restore Snake's health.
In combat, Snake is able to perform a three-hit punch combo and hip throw in front of enemies to disable or stun them while they aren't looking in his direction. As a means of permanently killing soldiers during stealth sequences, Snake is able to put guards in a chokehold by repeatedly pressing the action button at a standstill next to them, which will cause them to die and disappear off the map if successful. When killed, guards also have a chance at dropping an item pick up for Snake to collect. Snake can also procure a variety of weapons for long-range combat, such as a SOCOM pistol which can be modded with a silencer for quiet kills, a FAMAS assault rifle, a sniper rifle, remote controlled missiles, C4 bombs which can be attached to walls and detonated to reveal hidden routes, stinger missiles, and other firearms.
The game's narrative is conveyed through a mix of in-game cinematic cutscenes featuring extensive dialogue and exposition, as well as frequent calls from Snake's support team which are accessed via the Codec radio embedded into his ear. The Codec may also contain special interactions where the support team may call the player out for not proceeding with the current objective, or relaying him advice on life, his mission, or gameplay information.
Development[]
Metal Gear franchise creator and director Hideo Kojima had initially planned his third entry in the series to release on the Panasonic 3DO Interactive Multiplayer while developing the game Policenauts (1994), which had released on there. While prepping for Metal Gear Solid, Kojima had hired character designer Yoji Shinkawa to conceptualize the game's various characters, and had also planned to reprise a major character in Policenauts, Meryl Silverburgh, who would be depicted as a novice soldier and potential love interest for Solid Snake within the story. Concept pieces of Snake, Silverburgh and the FOXHOUND support team were included with the Pilot Disk demo version of Policenauts preceding the game's full release, although development of the planned third Metal Gear game would soon shift to the upcoming PlayStation console from Sony Computer Entertainment after the 3DO's discontinuation following that game's release.
The game's titling as Metal Gear Solid was chosen over simply referring to it as Metal Gear 3 for multiple reasons. Chief among them being that the original MSX2 entries, Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990) were not widely known outside Japan. A port of Metal Gear was released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) around the time of the MSX2 version, as well as its own sequel titled Snake's Revenge (1990) around the period that Metal Gear 2 was released in Japan, however neither game was led by or had any input from the original series developers. The word "Solid" was also chosen as the game's moniker to simultaneously refer to the game's protagonist Solid Snake as Metal Gear 2's subtitle did, but also to symbolize the game's transition from a two-dimensional, sprite-based game with a "flat" presentation, to the more solidified look of 3D computer graphics that was accomplished by the PlayStation hardware.
During MGS's development, the team aimed for accuracy and realism in the game's depiction of various combat and weaponry techniques, bringing various members of the Huntington Beach SWAT unit and weapons advisor Motosada Mori as technical advisors to the developers, providing real-time demonstrations of various vehicles, weapons and explosives used in military operations. The team also ventured to the Fort Irwin training grounds in northern San Bernadino, and attended firing sessions at Stembridge Gun Rentals, which was a provider of prop firearms to various film and television productions from 1920 to 2007 based in Hollywood, California. Kojima believed that accuracy to real world black ops missions was of the utmost importance to the game's success, stating that "if the player isn't tricked into believing that the world is real, then there's no point in making the game."
To visualize environmental designs and the various camera views offered by the game engine, Kojima recreated the game's areas using LEGO bricks. The game's staff initially comprised roughly twenty people, intentional on Kojima's part due to a desire to know everyone on the team personally and strengthen employee morale. The game's staff numbers peaked around September 1996.
Music[]
The musical score of Metal Gear Solid was composed by Konami's in-house musicians, including Kazuki Muraoka, Hiroyuki Togo, Takanari Ishiyama, Lee Jeon Myung, and Maki Kirioka. Composer and lyricist Rika Muranaka scored and wrote the game's end-credits theme, "The Best is Yet to Come", which was performed by Irish vocalist Aoife Ní Fhearraigh. The game's title track, "Metal Gear Solid Main Theme", was composed by Tappi "TAPPY" Iwase, who also worked on Konami's role-playing franchise, Suikoden. The track would infamously draw controversy in the mid-2000's due to Russian lawyers observing similarities between the song's composition, and that of a similar piece written by composer Georgy Sviridov called "The Winter Road". The ensuing internal discussion at Konami regarding potential plagarism prompted the publisher to remove any motifs related to the main theme from upcoming Metal Gear games at the time, including Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (2006), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008), and its initially planned appearance in the My Music tracklist for the Shadow Moses Island stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which featured Solid Snake as a playable character.
Voice acting[]
With the exception of David Hayter, who provides the English voice performance for Solid Snake, the majority of Metal Gear Solid's voice cast used pseudonyms when credited in the game for their respective roles. This was reportedly due to the ambiguous guidelines issued by the Screen Actors Guild at the time for signing on to roles in video games. However, the entire cast were permitted to be credited with their real names upon re-recording their roles for the 2004 Nintendo GameCube remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
Release[]
Metal Gear Solid will be released for Nintendo Switch on October 24, 2023 as a standalone digital release for the console's Nintendo eShop. It will also be included as part of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 compilation alongside Metal Gear (1987), Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004). The Master Collection version of the game will be an upscaled port of the Integral re-release, being primarily based on the game's original PlayStation release as opposed to The Twin Snakes, and also being bundled with the additional set of 300 VR Missions previously included with Integral in Japan, as well as the standalone Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions disc in North America, and the game's initial Windows port.
External links[]
| Metal Gear series | |
|---|---|
| Main series | Metal Gear • Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake • Metal Gear Solid (Master Collection) • 2: Sons of Liberty • 3: Snake Eater (Master Collection) • Master Collection Vol. 1 |
| Non-Canon games | Snake's Revenge • Metal Gear: Ghost Babel |
| People | Hideo Kojima • Yoji Shinkawa • Shinta Nojiri • Mineshi Kimura • Harry Gregson-Williams • Norihiko Hibino • David Hayter • Akio Otsuka • Project Itoh |
| Related | Hybrid Heaven • Super Smash Bros. |