Why we're still playing Metal Gear Solid after nearly 30 years

Metal Gear Solid: The Stealth Saga That Changed Gaming - Why We Play - YouTube

21 years after Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater first appeared (and a brisk two years after it first hit PC), Konami's decided, hey, why not try making that game again? People seemed to like it last time.

It's a humungous and iconic series, but until recently it's been left to gather dust in a Konami closet. It's tremendously influential, yet unique—other games may ape the mechanics or take swings at its bizarre plot beats, but nothing Metal Gears like Metal Gear. I first played Metal Gear Solid 1 on a PS1—my first ever games console—at the age of six in 1999 (six-year-old Josh was deeply concerned with the START treaty). It was completely unlike anything I'd played before.

I last played Metal Gear Solid 1 a couple of years back, in the wake of its Master Collection Vol 1 re-release, and it was still unlike anything else. I mean, you could cut yourself on those vertices and that ending fistfight against Liquid is a real chore, but fundamentally Metal Gear Solid—not just the first game, but all of them—feels as fresh and imaginative in 2025 as it did in 1997, 2001, or 2004.

Also, it's a great excuse to put some facepaint on and pretend to be a spy in a video, which is why we're revisiting MGS in our Why We Play video series, revisiting what made Metal Gear so great as we all wait to head back to Tselinoyarsk. It's what The Boss would have wanted.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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