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Gameboy Color - Metal Gear Solid Review |
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A side story in the Metal Gear universe, you play Solid Snake on a quest to stop a newly constructed Metal Gear unit in an African country. The game has you controlling Solid Snake as he has to infiltrate a fortress. With an intriguing plot line and enemies everywhere, this is probably the best action stealth game on the gameboy colour. Gameplay: 10/10 Solid Snake has the ability to crawl using the start button and punch using the A button. He can also lean against the wall and hit it, producing a sound to attract the guards' attention. Aside from normal movement, Solid Snake also has a variety of equipment and weapons ranging from a bazooka to infrared goggles. Equipment is automatically used while weapons are used with the B button. Of course, as the game's focus is on stealth, there is a stealth timer. If you are spotted the timer will turn red and start counting down indicating the time before the red alert goes to yellow alert. During red alert guards will continually run in to try and find you. In yellow alert the guards will patrol the area, while after yellow alert, things will finally quieten down and return back to normal. You will have to be careful when choosing your weapons and equipment. Weapons that are powerful such as the grenades will cause the alarms to go off and cause guards to start running in. To switch between the various equipment and weapons all you have to do is push the select button summoning the menu. Pressing left and right will toggle through your weapons while up and down will toggle through your items. Start will initiate your codec or radio where you can chat with your support team and where missions and advice will automatically be delivered at appropriate points. A very easy to use system, perhaps the only annoyance is that you can not equip or use more than one item or weapon at a time. There a variety of enemies ranging from your basic guard to cameras and automated turrets. Each can be dealt with in a variety of ways. Cameras can usually be avoided or scrambled while guards can be shot or knocked out with a few punches. There are of course bosses in game, each with their own area and attacks. All of these elements create a very tense atmosphere worthy of an action stealth game. Graphics: 3/5 Graphics are acceptable but not the high point of the game. As it's a fortress, you will usually be running around indoors or in the immediate surroundings. There are a number of interesting cut-scenes but that is about it for the artwork. Game design: 5/5 Your mission objectives are delivered quite clearly through the codec via dialogue so you will never ever worry about not knowing what to do. Most of the areas are fairly well-designed but some of the areas are annoying. For example, in the factory area, making a mistake means you have to return to the start of the factory, but the game is well designed and well paced so creeping around is usually more exciting than frustrating. Finally, you can also link the game with other gameboys and play multiplayer games. Longevity: 5/5 Aside from the main game, the game is packed with extras such as a time attack mode and a VR practice mode which is basically puzzle levels where you have to complete the goal within a certain time. There is also the ability to replay the game again as someone else who is actually in a virtual reality simulator using the missions as a form of training. In this case, there are different harder goals for each mission, for example having to finish the mission in a certain amount of steps or time. All in all there is plenty to do in the game once you have finished it. For: Immersive action-stealth game, great plot, Excellent replay value Against: Mediocre graphics, Lack of music variety |
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Name: Metal Gear Solid Genre: Action Produced by: Konami Year: 2000 Platform: Gameboy Colour Runs on: Visualboy Advance Scoring Summary: Gameplay: 10/10 Graphics: 3/5 Sound and Music: 2/5 Game design: 5/5 Longevity: 5/5 Total: 25/30 Rating: 80% Silver Award -Reviewed By Barnabas |