Metal Gear

Metal Gear is an overhead military action-adventure stealth video game originally released in 1987 by Konami for the MSX2 computer in Japan and parts of Europe.

Plot
The player's character is Solid Snake, a rookie member of the special forces group FOXHOUND sent on his first mission. He is assisted via radio by his commanding officer Big Boss, who offers information about mission objectives and items; as well as a local Resistance movement composed of leader Schneider, a former architect who provides guides Snake through the layout of the fortress and knows the locations of key items; Diane, a former positive punk vocalist who provides information on the enemy forces from her home; and Jennifer, who infiltrated Outer Heaven's medical staff to find her missing brother and assists Snake as an inside agent. Among the prisoners Snake rescues includes Grey Fox (Gray Fox in the later versions), a FOXHOUND agent who was captured during a previous mission; Dr. Pettrovich (Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar in later releases), a robotic engineer who is working for Outer Heaven against his will; and the doctor's daughter, Elen, who was kidnapped by the enemy to coerced her father into developing Metal Gear.

Why It's An OUTER HEAVEN

 * 1) One of the first stealth games ever made along with the arcade game 005 and pioneered many stealth gameplay mechanics.
 * 2) Decent story that tells of a stealth operative taking down a new Weapon of Mass Destruction.
 * 3) The premise of stopping a bipedal mobile unit capable of launching nukes was a really unique and original premise at the time.
 * 4) Throughout the game you can find items that can help you avoid traps, solve puzzles much easier, or are mandatory to proceed. One of the most iconic is the cardboard box. With it, the player can use the cardboard box to avoid detection from surveillance cameras and guards. Its use is often the only means of avoiding an Alert in certain areas. If Snake equips the box and remains motionless, he will remain unnoticed.
 * 5) You also have a transceiver which allows the player to communicate with Big Boss, or one of the Resistance members operating covertly within the fortress. Each of Snake's allies has extensive knowledge on specific subjects that can be helpful to the player as they can at times give hints as to what to do next. The transceiver is completely room-oriented, as certain transmissions occur only in certain locations.
 * 6) This game sparked Hideo Kojima's career.
 * 7) On each floor of a building are POWs. Information can be obtained by rescuing POWs being held captive within the buildings. After rescuing five POWs, the player is given a promotion, increasing their "Rank", allowing for greater ammo capacity and maximum health. However, if a POW is killed, the player is demoted to the previous rank.
 * 8) Great soundtrack.
 * 9) Good graphics.
 * 10) While it can be unforgiving, if you keep having trouble with a boss, the game will eventually fill your ammo and rations to max.
 * 11) Great puzzles that have you using multitude of items you can find.
 * 12) A clever fourth wall break at the time where Big Boss will tell the player to turn the game off.
 * 13) The mobile version adds several additional features and changes.
 * 14) * New Easy mode - The player can choose to play with the original MSX2 version's difficulty or with an easier difficulty setting.
 * 15) *Boss Survival mode - After clearing the game once (regardless of the difficulty setting), a new game mode is unlocked, in which the player can fight against all of the main game's bosses. The player will be awarded with a title based on their clear time (this is also the case in the main game).
 * 16) *Infinite Bandana - A hidden item that becomes available to the player after clearing the game once on either difficulty setting. Like the bandana featured in Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2, this will conserve the player's ammunition to the present amount while firing.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Many aspects of this game hasn't aged well.
 * 2) * No crawling. No radar. A transceiver that is completely room oriented. A straightforward, simple plot. Relatively realistic bosses that are mostly made up of normal mercenaries.
 * 3) * Unlike the rest of the of the series, health and weapons ammo Cap is tied to your star rank. Meaning you have limited ammunition on your one-star rank and you start with half of your maximum health. The more star rank you have, the more ammo you can carry and your health increases. However, killing prisoners reduces your rank, and can make the game unwinnable.
 * 4) * During the maze section with hidden walls, Snake has to kill guard dogs in order to progress. In later games, with the exception of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, harming and/or killing animals is very frowned upon.
 * 5) * Snake has hardly any personality, the Big Boss is just the bad guy, and Gray Fox has virtually no presence (he disappears from the remainder of the game as soon as he is rescued). This is particularly egregious, considering the sequels made the events of the Outer Heaven mission more epic than what actually occurs in this game.
 * 6) * Fox isn't too useful, even refusing to budge from his prison cell once freed. Later, Snake would claim that Fox was an active participant in the crisis and "showed him the ropes," much like how Snake mentors Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2.
 * 7) * In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Schneider reveals to Snake that Outer Heaven was bombed by NATO, along with everybody else involved in the conflict. This causes many of Snake's allies to defect to Big Boss' side in the sequel, and Big Boss' personal charisma would become an enduring trait of the character.
 * 8) * Big Boss is utterly dismissive at the idea of Snake using a cardboard box to hide, which clashes with Big Boss' cardboard obsession in the later prequels. Then again, he is trying to sabotage Snake's mission, so it's only natural he would discourage any thinking outside the box that might help him.
 * 9) * Given the ending of Episode 46 in The Phantom Pain, some fans have been speculating over the intended nature of Big Boss's true identity in this game. While it is known for certain that the Big Boss that Solid Snake confronts at the end is supposed to be Venom Snake, the one who contacts him over the radio is a different matter.
 * 10) * Big Boss tells Snake to contact Schneider whenever a specific item is required in some of the early locations (such as the first gas-covered room or the first area with an electrified floor). The problem is that Schneider's number is never given by anyone in the game and it's not even listed in the manual. If you play around with the transceiver in a certain area (namely the first screen of the third floor, after exiting the first elevator) you will eventually receive an incoming transmission from Schneider if you set the frequency to a certain number (which is 120.79). Players who don't experiment with the radio as much are unlikely to ever figure out his number without looking it up on a guide.
 * 11) * There is no map, meaning you can easily get lost and the doors don't have numbers on them, meaning you'll have to guess what doors require what keycard.
 * 12) Most of the game's story has been retconned. As of The Phantom Pain, the Big Boss whom Snake fought in this game was in fact a body double. Meaning Solid Snake defeated his phantom, and now the real Big Boss is out for his blood.
 * 13) The NES port was subpar.
 * 14) Some things are cryptic, and sometimes unfair.
 * 15) *Big Boss tells Snake to contact Schneider whenever a specific item is required in some of the early locations (such as the first gas-covered room or the first area with an electrified floor). The problem is that Schneider's number is never given by anyone in the game and it's not even listed in the manual. If you play around with the transceiver in a certain area (namely the first screen of the third floor, after exiting the first elevator) you will eventually receive an incoming transmission from Schneider if you set the frequency to a certain number (which is 120.79). Players who don't experiment with the radio as much are unlikely to ever figure out his number without looking it up on a guide.
 * 16) *Big Boss "forgets" about telling you that there's a gas room. Although given the fact that he's the bad guy, this does kind of make sense.
 * 17) The TX-55 Metal Gear boss battle is a pain in the ass. You have to place 16 C4 bombs into its legs while laser cameras shoot at you and they take a quarter of your life if you get hit. If you happened to remember Dr. Madnar's pattern which he provided after rescuing his daughter Ellen and are able to avoid the lasers, then it shouldn't be a problem, including with the bandana.
 * 18) While it was ported to the NES, the original game didn't see a release on America until it came bundled with Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
 * 19) The game's boxart is practically traced over from a publicity still of Michael Biehn in The Terminator. This wasn't Kojima's idea. It was commissioned by Konami's marketing department without his input.
 * 20) The original European release for the MSX2 has 69 messages removed out of 155, leaving it 86 messages.

Reception
The game was a critical and commercial success, sparking a one of gaming's biggest franchises and inventing the stealth genre.

The MSX2 version of Metal Gear was ranked on MSX Magazine 's top 20 best selling MSX games in Japan for five months, debuting at no. 4 on the October 1987 issue and peaking at no. 3 the following month. The NES version was a major international success, selling 1 million units in the United States. It was the second top-selling game in the United States during October 1988, just below Super Mario Bros. 2, and remained in the top ten through early 1989.

The Games Machine gave a positive review of the MSX version, giving the game a 79% score. They stated that the "initial impression of disdain at this non too-impressively animated macho man may rapidly change on delving deeper." They praised the graphics and the size of the game area, underlining the fact that it ensured "the action and suspense never wanes". They also wrote that the game was rapidly addictive, and that "the urge to get further into the game is quite strong". They concluded positively on the quality of the game, saying that if "this standard of Konami software is maintained then maybe more people will think hard about joining the other 200,000 MSX owners". They noted that there was no information regarding the game's Japanese author at the time, but stated that "whoever they may be they certainly seem to know their business."

Famitsu rated the Famicom version 24 out of 40 in 1988, and 3 out of 5 stars in 1989. Game Players reviewed the NES and Commodore versions, stating Metal Gear "out-Rambos" Rambo and is a "fearsomely challenging" game that "takes place in an elaborate maze-like setting and has plenty of room for strategy as well as stamina." They listed it among the top 100 best games of all time in 1989. Computer Gaming World also reviewed the NES version, praising its "strong concept" but stating it was "something less than a total success". They called the graphics "acceptable" and praised how it requires the "player to acquire newer, deadlier technology through the course of a game" but criticized the control system and the player's great vulnerability when unarmed at the start of the game. They nonetheless stated that Metal Gear "shows great promise for future Ultra Games entries" as it "attempts to move beyond the standard run/jump/shoot format" of most NES games, concluding the game to be "a potential super-hit that, unfortunately, is sabotaged by its own weaknesses".

The NES version of Metal Gear was ranked the 104th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power 's Top 200 Games list. GamesRadar ranked it the sixth-best NES game ever made, and the staff felt that it popularized its genre. In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly named the NES version the 35th best console video game of all time, citing "how you have to think like a spy to win, which means you don't always have to fight." Game Informer placed the game 53rd on their top 100 video games of all time praising the game’s stealth aspects and dramatic plot.