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GRAPHICS: A+ (10) Metal Gear Solid is the most awaited game of the century (at least for PlayStation fans). It has won "Game of the show" awards in both E3 and the Tokyo Game Show for 3 consecutive years for its excellent graphics and revolutionary gameplay. If you got a chance to play the demo that was released recently (prior to the game's release in the US) in the Official PlayStation Magazine, you got the chance to experience the very first part of this magnificent game. While it was excellent and challenging, it seems very crude after playing the rest of this masterpiece. It is unbelievable how good the graphics get later on in the game. Cameras change automatically to better suit the situation, such as when sneaking among walls, the camera will zoom in closer as you reach a corner, and changes to an angle that shows what's around that corner. Gameplay is usually played from an elevated third person view which changes/zooms according to the character's relation to its environment. For a better look, you can change the prespective to first-person, and look around in all directions (but you can't use weapons/items or walk in this mode). Snake (the main character) can either walk or crawl, and can often climb on certain things, or hide underneath others. If you crawl under an object (such as a tank, a bed, a desk, etc.) the camera again changes to first-person, only this time, he can keep crawling with this view. Crawling under objects can help you hide if you're being chased, sometimes it reveals items, and others it is actually a ventilation or something that leads you to a different area. The graphics in this game can sometimes be breathtaking. Looking around reveals that this game has no pop-up, and the textures in every object have infinitive detail. A door which requires a level 4 access security card for example, will have the appropriate number printed on it. Light-sourcing is used often in the game and reflects off of everything else. Cut-scenes are done with the game's own polygon engine, but sometimes look better than a CG cut-scene would have looked in its place, simply because of the outstanding graphics engine Metal Gear Solid runs on. Explosions and other pyrographical effects use very good light sourcing and transparency, and are done with the game's polygonal engine as well. All animations in this game are top-notch, and reveal more details that were not necessary, but add a lot of realism. Enemies of different types (such as arctic guards or light infantry) walk differently and have different personalities. Arctic guards react to the freezing temperatures of the winter night by shrugging and stretching, and sometimes even fall asleep during active duty. You can practically see how cold it is there by the visible breath that both Snake and the guards release. If snake walks on the snow, a guard may pick up the footprints and follow them until the falling snow covers them, and so, you can really confuse guards for hours. Making noise such as walking over a pool of water tapping or on various surfaces can also put guards in alert mode (a question mark will appear over their heads and they'll say something like: "What's that sound?" or "Who's there?!". Being cought by a guard (or a surveillance camera) will sound an alert sending many guards at you, which can be very hard to prevent sometimes.
There are some effects used in Metal Gear Solid that had never been used in any PlayStation game (or on any other console). One such special effect is the one used whenever Snake steps into water. The polygons will ripple and create waves, giving the illusion that the camera is really underwater. The screen used whenever you are communicating with your higher-ups has animated portraits of the characters faces, which change depending on the situation. They don't look particularly exciting, but get the job done. On the top-right of the screen during gameplay is the radar map, it shows the area you're in, the enemies and their field of vision, and yourself. In order to avoid an enemy seeing you, you have to avoid their field of vision, sometimes your only escape is to hide behind or underneath an object. The graphical resolution may seem a little low at first, but soon you realize how wrong you were, the graphics are as perfect as they come. SOUND/MUSIC: A+ (10) I was one of the lucky people to get the soundtrack for Metal Gear Solid with my reservation, so I got a taste of the music before the game was even released in the US. I can easily tell you that this game contains the best music in a game since Final Fantasy VII. The soundtrack is mostly classical-style war music, complete with a choir, and fully orchestrated. This music is definitely not MIDI, which is what Final Fantasy VII used. Music in Metal Gear Solid changes according to the situation you're in. If an enemy spots you, a fast paced, high-pitched theme starts that gets your heart pounding, get away from the trouble and the music slowly fades back to the regular background music. This contributes to an experience rarely seen in a typical video game. Sound effects greatly influence gameplay. Making a lot of noise calls the attention of the enemies around you. You can puposely make noise to lead the enemies in the wrong path, allowing you to easily sneak into an area. Sounds such as explosions, weaponfire, etc. are as realistic as they'll ever get in video games, actually sounding like their real-life counterparts. The voice acting during this game (which you'll hear very often, as this game is almost overly storyline-abundant) is of the highest quality. Konami must have had to pay for very expensive actors for both the American and Japanese versions, because it really shows they have acting skills, unlike other games (Resident Evil ring a bell?). It sometimes seems like there is more plot-building cutscenes/conversations than actual gameplay, but luckily, it's all of the highest quality. GAMEPLAY: A+ (10) There are moments in this game that you think you're watching an action/espionage flick rather than playing a 32-bit video game. The action is just so tense and realistic, that you'll be consumed into the fantastic world of Metal Gear Solid from the very start. The gameplay consists of many different abilities your character has. You learn many of these abilities through the game's ten training missions called VR training. VR training teaches you the essence of Metal Gear Solid, sneaking past many obstacles in a highly-realistic world in order to succeed in the missions you partake in. Through the game, you'll learn that patience and stealth will get you farther than brute force. The game starts out with snake arriving at the port of the enemy base, armed with nothing but a scope (with which you can zoom-in on great distances and plot out your moves) and a pack of cigarrets you hid from your commander (the irony is that Dr. Naomi, responsible for the strip-search, asks how they will be of any use, and Snake responds in a foreshadowing way "You never know", and it turns out they are used later on in the game to see infrared sensors which you must avoid to live), and you must use stealth to arm yourself (you can kill enemies by grabbing them from behind and snapping their necks, but you must not do that at first because it will affect the outcome of the game). If you call too much attention, it can become nearly impossible to survive the countless herds of guards that come after you, so you must try everything possible to avoid anyone seeing you. Metal Gear Solid makes excellent use of the Dual-Shock Analog Controller, in fact, it makes best use of it. Not only is the controller involved with the gameplay, but also, in most parts of the cutscenes that explain the storyline, the Dual-Shock is put into excellent use (perhaps the best example is when a character is having a heart attack, the controller simulates the pounding of a heart that beats faster and faster until it suddenly stops, and the character is dead). Every area you enter offers you a different challenge, and it never gets repetitive.
FUN AND REPLAY VALUE: A (9.75) The only problem with this game; length. It is not necessarily short, the thing is, you don't want it to end. Fortunately, this is an experience you can relive over and over again, without ever getting tired of it, because of its realism and infinite fun-factor (it has multiple endings). This game has a certain unexplainable mood throughout, that easily lets you share the character's emotions. WORTH BUYING: YES This game is not only worth buying, this is the game you have to go and buy.
OVERALL: A+ (10) As of today, a PlayStation without Metal Gear Solid is like a violin without strings. A praise to Konami for giving us the greatest experience yet on the PlayStation.Get this game now. To order Metal Gear Solid,
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