Metal Gear Solid is an EXCELLENT game. It is presented with such well-balanced cinematic quality that the overall experience is much greater than the sum of its graphics and sound components. The faces of the characters are not well defined, but this appears to be done as a style of design. Rather than attempting to look extremely realistic, Konami has achieved a moody, believable atmosphere in which the drama can fully unfold. The graphics are great, using some really nice visual effects. No matter if your journey takes you across snow, down dark corridors, or through air ducts, the display is realistic, making it very easy to get "absorbed" into the world of Metal Gear Solid. The music is phenomenal from the first intro screen right on through, and the sound effects are very well handled. The game has just the right mix of graphics and sound to allow it to look and sound good, without upstaging the gameplay.

I missed Metal Gear the first time around. I heard about it some, of course... but I never got the chance to actually play the game. So, when I heard the hype about Metal Gear Solid, I was enthused at the thought of seeing a new game, but had no specific expectations. The game far exceeds the hype. The gameplay is unbelievable. The unique concept of playing through a game without killing everything in sight is a great concept. In fact, it proves to be an even greater challenge. Metal Gear Solid allows many different actions, from crouching to crawling, to using binoculors and even knocking on the wall to lure guards away from your chosen course. Everything is well-integrated, providing the most enjoyable gameplay I've seen for quite some time.

Metal Gear Solid has three levels of difficulty, and includes a "Virtual Reality" training mode which helps you acclamate yourself to the moves, and teaches the basic techniques used in the game. There is also a support team backing you up, always accessible by using a built in "codec" (essentially a scrambled two-way radio). This allows you to seek advice on mission objectives, weapons usage, environmental and tactical strategies, as well as saving your game data. This feature is a novel way to access information that would be in a manual, and helps to maintain the atmosphere of the game.

The game works very well. Metal Gear Solid uses the dual shock feature in a variety of ways, each of which is expertly executed. If you don't already have a dual shock compatible controller, this game is reason enough to get one. Even the FMVs use the dual shock feature (the first time you see the helicopter scene... well, you'll see). Every aspect of the game seems to be nicely integrated, providing an easy to play (yet, not easy to win) game with a high level of complexity. The only part to get used to is that Metal Gear Solid uses the circle button as the action button, while a generally accepted standard in PSX games is to use the X button as the action button. Once you learn the controls, however, everything meshes together in a graceful way. Metal Gear Solid exhibits a level of attention to details which all other developers should strive to achieve... on any gaming platform.