#shadowtemplecs

Disclaimer: This isn’t spoiler free. Starting here on out, all of my game reviews won’t be spoiler free, so... sorry. Either skip to my closing summary at the bottom or don’t read the review.

To veterans of my dungeon reviews:  As game reviews are a whole different beast from my dungeon reviews, there will be no points for each category, but rather points given for a general score at the end of the review, per usual. There will also be no categories with questions at the beginning, but rather given categories as I go along the review. I’m judging these games as games, not how they revolutionize the game industry, nor how they fit into the series they’re in.

By the very nature of a review of a game, you can guess that it won’t be completely and utterly factual. Whether you like it or not, games are subjective, just like any other form of media. This is my interpretation, not a general population interpretation, mine. This review isn’t 100% fact. There is bias involved, which is a very human ideology that everyone has in the end.

Review Bias

Expectations: Almost none. The only indication I got from Scott was “Skip the game, don’t waste your time.” I’d also known it hadn’t aged well.

Experience: At the time of playing the game, I had barely seen anything of the other Metal Gear games except for MGS3. At the time, I had just finished MGS3, but nothing else.

Methodology of Playtime: Played on Easy difficulty which means bosses were easier to kill and guards were more likely to drop ammo and rations. Played via MGS3HD’s rerelease of the game in the Legacy Collection. I also used this guide: http://www.gamefaqs.com/msx/578853-metal-gear/faqs/12398

Summary: No expectations, MGS3 experience, on Easy difficulty, MGS3HD version, and I used a guide.

Gameplay

The Metal Gear series is known for its stealth mechanics, and this is where the series started it all, with the earliest example of a stealth action game in video game history. The player navigates a solider named Solid Snake through Outer Heaven, the game’s setting. You have to navigate him through various locations around Outer Heaven while avoiding visual contact and direct confrontation with patrolling guards. If the player is seen, the game enters Alert Mode, where Snake must escape from the enemy’s sight in order to resume the mission.

The methods of escaping vary widely on how you’re discovered. If Snake is seen and a single red exclamation mark appears, only the enemies in the player’s screen see him, and Snake can simply go to another screen. This usually occurs when a single guard sees you. However, if two exclamation marks appear, which usually occur if it’s a guard in a radically different color, if a camera/sensor discovers you, or you use an un-suppressed weapon, the entire base goes on alert. That means reinforcements will go after you in plentiful numbers, and Snake can escape by killing ALL incoming enemies, going outdoors, or by using an elevator.

The player starts the game completely unarmed, but eventually acquires firearms such as a pistol and a grenade launcher, as well as explosives such as missiles and landmines. Ammo for weapons are limited, but are replenished by ammo crates, which can usually be found by killing guards or in certain rooms. Weapons can be used to kill enemies, explosives can be used to destroy hollow walls, missiles can destroy boxes for electrified floors, etc.

Numerous amounts of equipment can be found to help Snake through his mission. These can vary from rations to restore Snake’s health, a parachute to keep him alive as he jumps off a building into a courtyard, special cards to open doors, to a gas mask to help against... gas. But here’s a tip: if you want to get more rations, exit and enter the room. They never programmed so the rations would stay gone, so you can enter and exit rooms with rations to get as much rations that you want.

Snake can also use his fists to punch and kill patrolling enemies. It takes three punches to kill the common mook, and it’s usually very effective. Usually because Snake moves like a damn tank, and walking up to punch someone can usually get you spotted, although occasionally, a successful takeout with fists lands you ammo or a ration. The guards are also extremely nearsighted and can usually only see in one direction.

The enemy base, Outer Heaven, consists of three different buildings with multiple floors within them. Snake uses key cards and other items such as plastic explosives to unlock doors and explore new areas. Each door will only open to its corresponding card, which means you’ll have to cycle through figuring out which card opens which. Information can be obtained by rescuing hostages being held within the buildings, and after rescuing enough hostages, Snake’s rank increases by one star, which allows him to have more health and to hold more ammo for weapons and more rations. If a hostage is killed, however, Snake’s rank goes down.

A transceiver is used for Snake to communicate with Big Boss, his... boss, and to communicate with the resistance members, which range from Schneider a weapon specialist to Jennifer who helps Snake with doors and such. Snake must keep track of his allies’ frequency numbers in order to contact them, and all of the radio messages are dependent on the room you’re in.

The gameplay overall is very simplistic, and works very well. The game has enough level design to keep things fresh, and the pacing contains brevity. It’s fun to play, and the classic formula of avoiding detection, running around and collecting items, progressing, and then defeating bosses is still a fun and addicting scheme today.

That said, the gameplay does come with gripes. The key cards are the most guilty, since doors do not have a symbol saying which card is required to open it up, it means you have to cycle through your cards until you find the right one. This can be incredibly frustrating if you’re in a room with gas or a room with a camera/guard, where you have to go as fast as possible to find the right card before the gas kills you or you’re spotted.

There’s also numerous rooms with frustrating elements. A prime example is the rolling pin rooms, with a rolling pin that instantly kills you if it touches you as it goes back and forth. This wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t have the elevator you need to go to and there was a trap almost in front of the elevator, which you never would’ve noticed. There’s also the tunnel full of traps, which requires a huge amount of trial and error.

This game is a prime example of a Guide Game, a game you can’t really enjoy without a guide. There are walls you would never guess you have to use an explosive for (you would never know to punch them in the first place), you need the Codecs for Schneider and others that were in a manual, etc.

Backtracking is also heavily rampant. You need to get key cards for new areas, which requires you to go all the way to the beginning and use that key card, get something, and go all the way back, repeat 5 times.

Gameplay Summary

Simplistic gameplay that works pretty well, but not without its rampant frustrations. You are going to need a guide for this game. But otherwise, the gameplay worked then, and it still works fine today, minus the key cards, backtracking, a few poor room designs, and backtracking.

Presentation

Visuals

Definitely not the greatest for the MSX, and it certainly doesn’t hold up today. Many of the rooms look similar, which is terrible since you’re going to be backtracking quite a lot, so you’re going to be lost many times (again, guide game).

The color palette is also nasty. Way too many shades of gray and brown, and nothing really looks interesting or good to see. The only things notable about the visuals were possibly the bosses or Metal Gear, but otherwise, it’s quite nasty to look at. The MSX has seen better days.

However, dialogue via codec and bosses still looks nice.

Music

A mixed crowd. Most of the music is easily forgettable and doesn’t stick around for long, but there are a few of note. The Alert theme, for one, definitely gets you on your feet, and it sounds really nice too. The Theme of Tara is also a beautiful piece.... if it wasn’t on repeat for almost the whole game. The escape song is also really good, and it stays in your head long after you exit the game.

Sound effect wise, works really well. Shooting and explosions sound on point, but they get old after a while.

Presentation Summary

Mixed music with honorable mentions, but the visuals have not aged well.

Narrative

Story

So, near the end of the 20th century, we discover that a WOMD has been made in Outer Heaven, a mercenary camp north of South Africa. FOXHOUND sends a badass agent named Grey Fox to the camp, but they lose contact after a few days, with the last transmission being “Metal Gear...”

To discover what happened, Snake is sent to Outer Heaven to rescue any hostages, find out Grey Fox, and find the identity of Metal Gear. After rescuing a few hostages with the help of codec conversations between Big Boss and Schneider (Diane is completely useless), Snake rescues Fox, where Fox tells him that Metal Gear is a nuclear-equipped bipedal walking tank, which can engage in all forms of combat and launch nuclear weapons from any location. Outer Heaven plans to use Metal Gear to be a world superpower.

To destroy it, Snake rescues Dr. Pettrovich, the designer behind Metal Gear, and his daughter Ellen (Because the doctor won’t talk until his daughter is saved the selfless prick), and the doctor tells him how to destroy Metal Gear with plastic explosives. Jennifer also helps you by giving you a rocket launcher and opening up a door for you (thanks Jennifer)

On the way to destroy it, Snake notices the traps are too precise, and his boss, Big Boss, acts strangely, giving misleading advice (including telling you to go into a room with a pitfall trap) and telling him to abort the mission by, get this, breaking the fourth wall and telling you to reset your MSX. Also, Schneider is ambushed by hostiles and is presumed dead.

Snake beats a couple of bosses, destroy Metal Gear, but the latter activates a self destruct sequence. On his way out, he discovers the person behind all of Outer Heaven is none other than his boss, Big Boss, and it turns out he sent Snake in to give misinformation to the authorities, but underestimated the abilities of Snake. Snake fights Big Boss, wins, escapes thanks to Diane’s boyfriend’s advice, and all is well as Snake escapes from a nuclear explosion in the background... a bit big for a self-destruct.

After the credits roll, it’s hinted that Big Boss is still alive, and he says he will meet Snake again....

The story is pretty barebones for a Metal Gear title, and for an MSX game for that matter, but it works alright today. It has a lot of brevity, which usually isn’t seen in games today with their heavy and complex storytelling, and the twist at the end of this game is pretty famous (although you can totally see it coming). It’s not great, and it’s not a masterpiece of storytelling, but it worked fine then and it’s still fine today.

Characters

Almost completely obsolete. Snake is basically the player as a rogue that barely speaks, Big Boss is cool for his twist and advice but will always be famous for “I forgot to tell you” and no personality, Gray Fox is nowhere near as hyped as they made in the manual, Madnar just tells you what to do, etc.

The resistance team isn’t any better. Schneider just gives you advice, Diane is completely useless and just cares about her boyfriend, and Jennifer is helpful but only talks in quick lines.

Narrative Summary

Good story with a lot of room to breathe. Easy to wrap your head around, although you’ll forget about most of it the closer you get to the finish line. The characters are obsolete and barely there.

Opposition

Enemies

The enemies mainly consist of the common mook with very small variations in color and movement patterns. They shoot better than you, and they come in huge numbers, but they’re extremely nearsighted, as they can only see Snake directly in front of them, so being just to the side of them means they can’t see you at all. They’ll also forget about you real quick if they see you and you go to another screen. The mooks will also repeat movements over and over again, so you’ll quickly figure out their patrol patterns and how to avoid them.

There is the occasional red and blue mook, with the former causing Outer Heaven to go on high alert, which means going to the other screen won’t save you, and the blue mook, which is the same as a regular one except they have better vision and they shoot a lot better (especially around corners).

You don’t really ask for enemy variety in a stealth game, but after backtracking and going through similar environments, it does get old after a while. Especially if you die, in which you have to fight the same mooks all over again.

Bosses

The bosses are probably where the enemy variety went to. We have the Shotmaker, where you have to recover your weapons to defeat him with Missiles as he shoots you with a shotgun, the Machinegun Kid, who has a machine gun but you have weapons too, so he goes down in seconds.

There’s the Hind D, a freaking helicopter you fight, but it never takes off so you can just pump it full of grenades with a grenade launcher as it tries to shoot you but there’s a corner you can hide and shoot it. Then there’s the Tank, which basically involves a long and tedious process of putting mines in the way of the Tank while it tries to shoot you as you’re behind walls.

Then there’s the Bulldozer, which is a timed 10-second boss where you have to pump it full of grenades from a grenade launcher before it runs you over, but this is incredibly difficult because not only can you not miss as that will make you lose time, but also, if it touches you it’s an instant kill, so you’ll be caught off guard as it’s the first time you’ve seen it. Then there’s the Fire Trooper, which is much like the Machinegun Kid except he shoots a massive flamethrower in 150° angles, so you have to stand right behind him and just pump him full of lead... easy.

We then have the Arnolds, or the Bloody Brads, which are really small bosses I would’ve like to see as regular enemies. Just shoot them with a rocket launcher and move on. Then there’s Dirty Duck, which is infamous throughout the Metal Gear community from hiding behind 3 hostages as he shoots you with extremely damaging boomerangs. The problem isn’t the boomerangs, but rather hitting him, as hitting a hostages makes you lose a rank, and get this, losing a rank means it’s impossible to defeat Metal Gear..... That’s bullshit.

We then have the TX-55 Metal Gear, which is really easy at this point as long as you remember the order you have to place the plastic explosives (hope you wrote it down from Madnar), as placing too many wrong explosives means you’ll run out and probably die. Finally, there’s Big Boss, but you’re running at this point to escape from the self-destruct and he’s easy as you have a Rocket Launcher and he doesn’t.

The bosses, overall, are standard fare for an MSX or even a NES game, but that doesn’t mean they’re not fun. Other than the extremely easy Arnolds, Hind D, and Machine Gun Kid, most of the bosses are actually fun to fight, prime examples being Big Boss, Shotmaker, and Metal Gear. However, there are absolutely frustrating or tedious bosses in this lineup, specifically Dirty Duck, the Bulldozer, and the Tank, which could’ve made the game a lot better if they weren’t included.

Opposition Summary

The enemy lineup is simple and quite boring, although it shouldn’t actually start getting old until halfway through the game... in which case it’ll fall face first into a pile of crap. The bosses are either fun, tedious, or frustrating, or all of them at the same time.

Difficulty

This game is certainly not easy. Yes, the enemies are nearsighted and can easily be taken advantage of. Yes, most of the bosses have ridiculously easy strategies to take advantage of. But again, this is a Guide Game, as there are many, many cheap moments.

This includes rooms with a rolling pin and a trap, so while you’re running away from the rolling pin you fall into a trap, which happens to be the room with an elevator so you can save. There’s also the tunnel full of traps which is poorly designed to tell you where the traps are, and that means a lot of trial and error and a lot of dying. Both of these areas don’t help as Snake moves like a tank, which means you need to have absolutely precise movement to pass through. You’re more than likely to accidentally step into a trap.

Match that with walls you would never guess to explode, rooms you never could guess you could enter, the frustrating key cards you have to cycle through while enemies such as Arnolds shoot/ram into you, and constant backtracking involving getting lost, this game does not have a good difficulty curve.

That being said, there is the infinite ration/ammo trick, and it’s not exactly unforgiving with its level design for the first half, I’m just telling you there’s going to be a lot of BS.

Overall, I highly recommend playing the game on Easy difficulty, with bosses/enemies doing less damage, bosses being easier to kill, and enemies more likely to drop rations or ammo.

Fun Factor (Tilt/Rant City)

This is not a game I’m going to go back to anytime soon, but that’s not saying it wasn’t enjoyable. I had a lot of fun with the bosses, and I thought the first half of the game had both good pacing, good amount of story for me, and it was fun to avoid the enemies. Nothing beats that feeling of beating Dirty Duck, though, especially without hurting a hostage. TAKE THAT DIRTY DUCK

On the other hand, this game was not great to me. Like I described in Difficulty, this game was somewhat unforgiving to me. The second half of the game wasn’t worth it, and I really wanted to leave the game behind me near the end. Props to the escape scene for being really damn cool, but otherwise, this isn’t a great game for me.

Replayability

I’ve heard the actual MSX game had cheat codes and achievements after completing, but the one in the Legacy Collection has none of that. However, there is a Boss Rush in both versions, and it’d be really fun if it didn’t have those BS bosses included into it, so even though there’s a difficulty setting, it’s still going to be difficult no matter what. Other than that, there’s barely a reason to replay the game, and I don’t see myself going back to this game anytime soon. It’s not a game to replay for nostalgia purposes, especially since there isn’t something there that’s truly substantial.

Closing Summary

The gameplay hasn’t aged well, but you’ll still have fun for the first half of the game. I don’t blame you if you drop it halfway. The visuals haven’t aged well either, although the music is a good yarn. The story is simple and full of brevity, so this game is for someone who just has a lot of time to kill. It’s not an easy game, and it has a plentiful amount of frustrating moments, but there is substance to be found. For Metal Gear fans, I highly suggest playing a bit of this game to get the history, but otherwise, only play if you have a lot of time on your hands or you already own it in the Legacy Collection. It’s not a bad game, but it certainly has its flaws.

Score: 64/100. OK. 

So, what do you think? Too soft? Too harsh? Let me know in the comments.

If there’s anything I missed, or you have something you’d like to say about this review/game, let me know in the comments! I’m not afraid to change the review a bit.

Also, if you’d like, give your own personal take on the game. Do you have this game? Have you played/finished it? Any memories you’d like to share?