Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Instant classic"

Thanks to the Essential Collection i managed to play what i consider to be the best PS1 game ever made. MGS released back in 1998 was way ahead of its time. During that time there were other great games like Resident Evil 2, but they cant match the magic that MGS had.

You are solid snake a former Fox Hound member called back to take on some terrorists in an Alaskan island called Shadow Moses. The terrorists are threatening with launching a nuke if their demands are not made. Your mission is to go in there find out if the terrorists are capable of launching a nuke and stop them if they are. As you play through the game.. you will see there is more to your mission...

By today's standards the graphics in MGS are pretty blocky and bad, but by the standards of the late 90's this game really pushed the PS1 to its limit. I have trouble thinking of a better looking game in the PS1... Resident Evil 3 might come to mind, but the backgrounds were all pre rendered.. while in MGS they are all real time.

In my opinion MGS had some of the best boss battles in any MGS game. The fights with Raven, Psycho Mantis, Liquid, Sniper Wolf, Ocelot, and of course Metal Gear Rex were all epic. Only MGS3 can come close thanks to some epic boss battles like the The End. Followed by a great story line that will not confuse you like the one in MGS2.

Voice acting for all the characters is well done and the sound track is great. Unlike MGS4 you can call a lot more people on the codec, and even if there isn't as much voice acting as in the newer MGS games, there is plenty of it in MGS. They needed two compac discs to fit it all, but it was sure worth it.

Younger generations who were probably too young back in 98 to play this game or maybe because you never got a chance to buy it should pick it up now with the Essential Collection.. if you can find it. It's an old game, but still better then most games today... specially when it comes to the story and characters.


Story: 9.5
Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 7.5
Value: 8