Metal Gear Solid (1998 video game)

***Metal Gear Solid*** is an action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1998. It was directed, produced, and written by Hideo Kojima, and follows the MSX2 video games *Metal Gear* and *Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake*, which Kojima also worked on. It was unveiled at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show and then demonstrated at trade shows including the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo; its Japanese release was originally planned for late 1997, before being delayed to 1998.

Players control Solid Snake, a soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit. Snake must liberate hostages and stop the terrorists from launching a nuclear strike. Cinematic cutscenes were rendered using the in-game engine and graphics, and voice acting is used throughout.

*Metal Gear Solid* sold more than seven million copies worldwide and shipped 12 million demos. It scored an average of 94/100 on the aggregate website Metacritic. It is regarded as one of the greatest and most important video games of all time and helped popularize the stealth genre and in-engine cinematic cutscenes. It was followed by an expanded version for PlayStation and Windows, *Metal Gear Solid: Integral* (1999)*,* and a GameCube remake, *Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes* (2004). It produced numerous sequels, starting with *Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty* (2001), and media adaptations including a radio drama, comics, and novels. In May 2023, Konami announced *Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1*, a compilation of games including an emulated version of the original PlayStation release[*citation needed*] of *Metal Gear Solid*, which was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 24, 2023.

## Release

*Metal Gear Solid* was first released for the PlayStation in Japan on September 3, 1998. The game was available in a standard edition, as well as a limited "Premium Package" edition sold in a large box that also contained a t-shirt, a pair of FOXHOUND-themed dog tags, memory card stickers, an audio CD featuring the soundtracks from the MSX2 *Metal Gear* games (including a few bonus arranged tracks), and a 40-page booklet, *Metal Gear Solid Classified,* featuring production notes, interviews with the developers, and a glossary of terminology in the game.

The North American version was released a month later on October 20. Changes and additions were made to this version, such as a choice of three difficulty settings when starting a new game (with a fourth setting that is unlocked after completing the game once), an alternate tuxedo outfit for Snake (which the character wears on every third playthrough on the same save file), and a "demo theater" mode where the player views every cutscene and radio conversations relevant to the main story. Jeremy Blaustein, who previously worked on the English localization of *Snatcher* for the Sega CD, wrote the English version of the script. One change in the English script was the addition of Western sources and authors to Mei-Ling's pool of motivational quotes; originally the character only cited Chinese proverbs natively, providing an explanation afterward in Japanese, but this proved challenging to adapt during the translation. The games detected by Psycho Mantis when he reads the player's memory card were also changed, due to certain games (such as the *Tokimeki Memorial* series) not being released outside Japan. This resulted in Kojima's cameo (in which he thanks the player for supporting his work via a voiceover) being cut from the Western versions, as save data from two PlayStation games not available outside Japan, *Snatcher* and *Policenauts*, needed to be present on the player's memory card for this Easter egg to appear.

The game was launched in Europe on February 22, 1999, with versions voiced in French, Italian, and German available in addition to English. A Spanish dubbed version was later released on May 1. Like in Japan, a limited edition of the game was released, although the contents of the European limited edition differs from the Japanese counterpart. The European Premium Package comes with the game software itself and its soundtrack album CD, along with a t-shirt, dog tags, memory card stickers, a double sided movie-style poster and a set of postcards.

The Japanese PlayStation version of *Metal Gear Solid* was reissued twice: once under "The Best" series and later under "PS one Books." Likewise, the American and European versions of *Metal Gear Solid* were reissued under the "Greatest Hits" and "Platinum" series respectively. The game is included in the Japanese *Metal Gear Solid: 20th Anniversary Collection* set and in the American *Essential Collection* set. The original *Metal Gear Solid* was released on the PlayStation Store for download on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable on March 21, 2008, in Japan and on June 18, 2009, in North America and on November 19 of the same year in Europe.

*Metal Gear Solid* is one of the twenty PlayStation games included in the PlayStation Classic released in 2018. The game is included in both the Japanese and western models of the unit in their respective versions.

### *Integral*

Released on June 25, 1999, for the PlayStation in Japan, *Metal Gear Solid: Integral* is an expanded edition of the game that features the added content from the American and European versions. It replaces the Japanese voices from the original version with the English dub, offering players a choice between Japanese and English subtitles during cutscenes and CODEC conversations (item descriptions, mission logs, and other text are still in Japanese). Further additional content to the main game include an alternate "sneaking suit" outfit for Meryl (which she wears when Snake is dressed in the tuxedo), a "Very Easy" difficulty setting where the player starts the mission armed with a suppressor-equipped MP5 submachine gun with infinite ammo (substituting the FAMAS rifle in Snake's inventory), an eighth Codec frequency featuring commentary from the development team (unvoiced and in Japanese text only) on every area and boss encounter, hidden music tracks, an alternate game mode where the player controls Snake from a first-person perspective (on Normal difficulty only), an option for alternative patrol routes for enemies, and a downloadable PocketStation minigame. The Torture Event was also made easier, reducing the number of rounds to three per session on all five difficulty settings.

The VR training mode is now stored on a separate third disc, known as the "VR Disc", and has been expanded into 300 missions. These new set of missions are divided into four main categories: Sneaking, Weapons, Advanced, and Special. The first three categories feature standard training exercises that test the player's sneaking, shooting, and combat skills, while the fourth category contains less conventional tests involving murder mysteries, giant genome soldiers, and flying saucers. One particular set of missions has the player controlling the Cyborg Ninja, unlocked by either completing a minigame on the PocketStation and uploading the data to the VR Disc or by achieving the Fox rank on the main game. Completing all 300 missions will unlock a concept artwork of Metal Gear RAY, a mech that would later appear in *Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty*. Additional content includes preview trailers of *Metal Gear Solid* from trade events and a photoshoot mode where the player can take photographs of fully expressive polygonal models of Mei Ling and Dr. Naomi after completing the main game. *Famitsu* magazine rated *Metal Gear Solid: Integral* a 34 out of 40.

The VR Disc from *Integral* was released by itself during the same year in other regions as *Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions* in North America on September 23 and as *Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions* in the PAL region on October 29. While the content of both, *VR Missions* and *Special Missions*, are virtually identical to the VR Disc, the unlocking requirements for the Ninja missions and the photoshoot mode were changed accordingly, so that save data from the main game was no longer required. The *Special Missions* version also adds an additional requirement in which the user must also own a copy of the original *Metal Gear Solid* in PAL format in order to start the game - after booting *Special Missions* on the console, the player will be asked to switch the disc with the first disc from *Metal Gear Solid* to load data before asking the player to switch back to the *Special Missions* disc to proceed through the rest of the game.

### Windows version

The Windows version of *Metal Gear Solid* was released in North America on September 22, 2000, in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2000, and in other European and Asian territories (excluding Japan) in late 2000. This version was published by Microsoft Game Studios and developed by Digital Dialect. It supports the use of a keyboard or a USB game controller with at least six buttons (with the manual recommending the Sidewinder Game Pad Pro). It also supports Direct3D-capable video cards, allowing for a high resolution of up to 1024x768. The Windows version is labeled *Metal Gear Solid* on the packaging, but the actual game uses the *Metal Gear Solid: Integral* logo, although it has some differences as well from the PlayStation version of *Integral* and lacks some of its content. The most significant change was reducing the number of discs from three to two, which was done by giving each disc two separate executable files, one for the main game (mgsi.exe) and the other for the VR training portion (mgsvr.exe), thus eliminating the need for a stand-alone third disc.

One notable omission was the removal of the cutscene before the Psycho Mantis battle in which he reads the player's memory card and activates the vibration function of the player's controller if a DualShock is being used, as this scene involved the use of PlayStation-specific peripherals. The method for defeating Mantis was also changed from using the second controller to simply using the keyboard (regardless of whether the player was using a game controller or not up to that point). Other omissions include the removal of the eighth Codec frequency (140.07), which featured written commentaries by the developers, Meryl's alternate sneaking suit outfit, and the mission logs when loading a save file. However, the Windows version adds the option to toggle moving and shooting in first-person view mode at any time regardless of difficulty setting, and players can now save their progress at any point without contacting Mei-Ling through the use of quicksaves. On the VR training portion, all 300 missions, as well as the photoshoot mode, are available from the start, although the opening video and the three unlockable preview trailers from the PlayStation version have been removed.

Scoring 83 on Metacritic's aggregate, the game was criticized for "graphic glitches," the aged nature of the port, and being virtually identical to the PlayStation version.

### Remake

A remake, *Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes*, was developed by Silicon Knights under the supervision of KCE Japan and released for the GameCube in North America, Japan, and Europe in March 2004. Although *Twin Snakes* was primarily developed at Silicon Knights, its cutscenes were developed in-house at Konami and directed by Japanese film director Ryuhei Kitamura, reflecting his dynamic signature style, utilizing bullet time photography and choreographed gunplay extensively. While the storyline and settings of the game were unchanged (although a select few lines of dialog were re-written more closely resembling the original Japanese version), a variety of gameplay features from *Sons of Liberty* were added such as the first-person aiming and hanging from bars on walls. Another change in the English voice acting was the reduction of Mei Ling's, Naomi's and Nastasha's accents, as well as the recasting of Gray Fox from Greg Eagles, who still reprises the role of the DARPA chief, to Rob Paulsen. The graphics were also updated to match those of *Metal Gear Solid 2*.

### Emulated version

An Emulated version of the original PlayStation release was released as part of *Vol.1* of the *Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection* in October 2023.