While many of you know what this PlayStation number is all about, there are some who are unfamiliar with the title. Konami’s Metal Gear Solid is a third–person action ’thinker’, where brains will get you farther than brawn, and where size is not everything. You play the role of a government agent, Snake, who has been taken out of retirement and is requested to complete a dangerous mission in order to regain control of a captured nuclear missile base. "How many friggin’ times has that one been used before?!" I hear you cry. I understand where you’re coming from if you consider this an unoriginal sounding story, but it’s the twists and turns in between the lines that make this one of the best plot’s to be implemented in a game; traitors are everywhere and all is not what it seems here.

As you’ve probably determined (or already know), the odds in this one are predominantly stacked against you. Hence the reason why you’re being supplied with an impressive weapons arsenal — to help you in your mission. Every kind of weapon that is native to an action title is available. There’s the Socom sidearm; the FA–MAS assault rifle; the good ’ol sniper rifle; the Stinger guided missile launcher and the Nikita missile launcher. Surprisingly, although you are equipped with this devastating weaponry, the extent to which you use the equipment is minimal (or so it should be).

The basis of this game is how well you use stealth. The levels are designed in such an ingenious way that sneaking around is sometimes a must, to avoid being chopped in half by a wall–mounted automatic machine gun. This is a refreshing aspect to see in an action game — not only are you required to be a quick key hitter but a quick thinker. Running into an enemy hangar, filled with guards armed to the teeth, guns blazing, is certainly the formula for a quick death. Instead, you must try and use your gadgets (which range from cigarettes that give off fumes allowing you to see laser trip wires, to the more basic mine detectors) to advance into undetected areas (we’re talking Mission Impossible here). And instead of firing rounds left, right and centre, you’re better off performing choke holds, or if possible, avoiding a confrontation altogether. To further complicate issues, the enemy reacts to sight and sound, so covering footprints in the snow and staying as quite as possible are methods that must be used to prevent you from becoming just another victim of war.

In a third–person action game it’s imperative that there be decent graphics, and Metal Gear Solid appears a dozen times smoother than the PlayStation version! The characters in the game are well detailed and the background images aren’t simple 2D drawings, but are rendered 3D characters providing a more realistic impression. Little details such as cold breath and cigarette smoke are excellent.

However, not everything is perfect in the detail department. The facial expressions are non–existent, and it’s as though Sylvester Stallone’s well known square jaw appearance was stuck on the face of just about everyone in the game, including the women! Another poorly done aspect in the game are the explosions — I must confess that they are nothing short of a joke. In fact, if you look closely enough, you can virtually count the number of pixels every time something blows up! Some of the models in the game have not been smoothed out and do not link from body part to body part in a natural fashion. Instead they are square, and in other incidents cut off very abruptly making the bodies look mutated, as though they’re residents of 22 Chernobyl Drive.

Even though there are some moderate (ahem!) glitches in graphics, the music in the game is very expressive and contributes much to the atmosphere. Instead of constant repetition of hard rock pumping, Carmageddon style action tunes, the game’s music adjusts according to the various situations. When guards spot you, the music’s tempo increases and becomes livelier. Whereas, if you are faced with the death of a comrade the music slows down and changes to a more sorrowful tone. Sound effects in the game are fair. The speech used by the characters sounds fairly genuine, the gunfire effects sound real and vehicle engine noise is true. But remember, I only said its ‘fair’. The explosion sounds that occur when jamming grenades are more at home on the Game Boy than the PC, and the constant repetition of, "What was that noise?" from the guards makes you want to consider suicide.

All together this is a good game. There is no doubt that it has bad points, but do remember that this came out for the PlayStation in 1998, so it isn’t exactly new. Metal Gear Solid is even more appealing with the inclusion of the VR Covert Operation pack, which features 300 covert operations along with some new characters. This addition extends the game’s life span for a good few hours more. Konami deserves credit for attempting to widen its scope and reach out to PC owners as well as console. I loved Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation, and I appreciate the title even more now that the graphics have been given a makeover on the PC. If you have never played Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation, I highly recommend you buy it, it’s just one of those games that you simply HAVE to play. If you have already completed Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation, I still recommend you buy this PC version. There is no harm in attempting to complete a classic game such as this once again, especially when it’s even better looking than it was before.