Plot. The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island, has been seized by a rebellious group known as FOXHOUND, led by Liquid Snake. They demand the United States government to turn in the body of the 20th Century's greatest soldier, Big Boss. The Next-Generation Special Forces (known as the Genome Army), soldiers with advanced gene therapy, would use the DNA of Big Boss to cure them of their genetic disease. But the government would never let this happen. Enter Solid Snake, who is recruited by his former commanding officer, Colonel Roy Campbell who summoned him out of retirement. Snake's mission is to infiltrate the base, and stop the terrorists from launching a nuclear strike if the government does not give into their demands. He encounters many allies such as Meryl Silverburgh, and Otacon.
Concept. Your mission is to roam through the Shadow Moses Island facility, learn more about the terrorists and the weapon they plan to use, Metal Gear REX. You battle six different bosses such as: Revolver Ocelot, a gun toting former Spetsnaz, Vulcan Raven, the gatling gun wielding behemoth, Sniper Wolf, the beautiful and deadly sharpshooter, Psycho Mantis, with his powerful psychic abilities, Gray Fox, the cyborg ninja, and finally the leader of them all, Liquid Snake. You can receive support from the Codec, and in the base, you can receive support from Otacon, Meryl, and Gray Fox. There is also an impact on the storyline that whether you can decide the fate of one of your allies.
Music. Metal Gear Solid's musical score was composed by in-house musicians at Konami, including Kazuki Muraoka, who composed the music for Metal Gear. Rika Muranaka provided a song theme titled "The Best is Yet To Come" for the end credits sequence. The music defines the game's exciting, awesome, and most intense moments. Cinematic and orchestral music are played during cutscenes. In later games, Harry Gregson Williams, known for his composing of movies such as: The Rock, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Bad Boys and Chronicles of Narnia, would take the job for composing the cinematic music of the game.
Voice Acting. Metal Gear Solid is one of many first 3D games to provide a voice acting cast. However, most of the cast members used pseudonyms since they did not know that the project was supported by the Screen Actors Guild. David Hayter and Doug Stone were the only ones who kept their names. David Hayter is very well remembered for the voice of Solid Snake.
Design. Metal Gear Solid distanced itself from sprite rendering, since the game industry entered a new generation of graphics using 3D elements. The game was fully rendered in 3D, while the cutscenes of the game presented flashbacks from the old games with 8-bit graphics. Codec conversations in the game resembled drawings of manga and comic books, which I could say it was like an early motion-comic thing.
Rantings. Now what bothers me of this game is that you could not aim in first person mode, but in the later games it was fixed, and so it was in the Gamecube remake of the game, "Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes". Only weapons that you could aim in FPS mode are the Stinger Missile Launcher, and the PSG1 Sniper Rifle. Also, my most hated boss battle has to be against Metal Gear REX, which was actually nerve-wrecking and tough. Also some of the long cutscenes got me desperate and wanting to play, because I actually wanted to play the game, instead of being bored. But I learned something, it's better to watch a scene and learn about it than skipping, because it won't make sense if you're not watching and learning.
Good Aspects. The game was very well made, and I believed that I was watching a movie when playing this game. The voice acting was excellent, and not so watered down like in the original Resident Evil at that time. The gameplay, though complicated in some moments, it was still enjoyable. Metal Gear Solid remains a cult classic among fans of the saga.
Overall. Metal Gear Solid is a great title for the PS One, you can download it for free with PlayStation Plus on the PlayStation Network. This game gets a 10 out of 10