Metal Gear Solid

“Metal Gear Solid” asks a lot of you. It asks you to forgive its wonky writing, shallow stealth, and frequent backtracking because the people behind it were better at sculpting the broad strokes of a plot than the whole “making a game” business. I’m willing to do that work—what plot is here is surprisingly evocative for late 90’s fare, and the meta-game mechanics are still leaps and bounds better than most games can hope to achieve today. There’s a lot more here that hasn’t held up well than you might think, but what’s good might have improved with age.

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