Part 1: Metal Gear Part One: Initial Infiltration

Metal Gear Part One: Initial Infiltration


This is the first screen, as soon as the game is booted. All that RAM.


And this is the second. It's also the only developer splash screen you get before:


The title screen. Let's get started, then, shall we?


But first, some intro music.


The game starts with this guy swimming around.


He swims behind some floating crates and somebody calls him on the radio.


Infiltrate the enemy fortress, Outer Heaven, and destroy Metal Gear, the final weapon! First, contact Gray Fox who's vanished and learn about Metal Gear. Call on frequency 12085 from now on. ...Over

Well, if that's Big Boss, then the guy he's calling must be Solid Snake. Let's see what the manual has to say about him:


Excellent.


After finishing with Big Boss's call, Snake climbs up out of the drink. Now that we're on dry land, let's check out our inventory.



As is standard for the earlier Metal Gear games, we have no weapons to begin with, and our only item on hand is our trusty “Cig's”. There are no in-game item descriptions, so let's check the manual:


Cigarettes are a standard Metal Gear item, though unlike other games in the series, they have no effect on health here. In fact, the cigarettes are useless except for one part much later in the game.


Now that I've learned about cigarettes, I head north to begin the sneaking mission, and what better way to get into the sneaking mindset than some music?


This is the main sneaking theme for this game. It plays pretty much any time there's no active alert.


Also, as soon as Snake enters this new room, he gets a call from Big Boss to tell him about how his mission is to be carried out. Even since the first game, Snake's mission command hasn't been much for pre-mission briefings.


A couple screens further in, I find these trucks.


The trucks are surprisingly roomy and they contain items, to boot. The item here is a ration.

Rations are a basic healing item. Unlike the Metal Gear Solid games, they don't restore you automatically if you die with one equipped.


A guard will pop out of the middle truck if you wait long enough, which can be annoying if you're not expecting it.


The middle truck also contains a keycard. This one is Card 1.

Keycards are another series staple introduced in the first game. Equip a card, and you can open doors with that level security. There is no way to tell which cards will open which doors, which can be a pain in the ass.


The last truck contains a pair of binoculars.


Since their function isn't immediately obvious, let's check out the binoculars.






Like it says, the binoculars let you see the screen adjacent to you, but only when you're in an open area. They are generally pretty useless, and I don't use them a lot.


Also, pre-placed useable items respawn in this game, which is nice if you ever have to stock up.


On the way back through this room, I bump into a guard and trigger an alert. There are two types of alert in Metal Gear. The first is denoted by one exclamation mark in a white bubble, like this guard is doing, and ends when you kill the on-screen enemies or just go one screen away. The second type is more severe and I'll show it off later.


Carrying on, I find a small room with a sleepy guard and an item just barely visible on the table in the top-left corner.


I punch the guard to death and steal his item, which turns out to be a gas mask.

The gas mask is pretty self-explanatory. It keeps poison gas out of Snake's lungs. He needs those lungs to smoke cigarettes.


A couple more screens into the building, I come across three more trucks. Outer Heaven sure has a lot of trucks. How do they get them in here, anyway? The trucks are bigger than the doorway, and the hall is blocked up with crates.


The first truck contains our first real weapon of the game, the handgun!

The handgun is pretty basic. Press fire to fire one bullet. The range is awful and it alerts guards unless you have the silencer, so you probably shouldn't use it much before that.


The second truck just has four guards inside it. Snake's gun has no bullets and the guards will chew him up in this tight space, so I just run away.


The third truck has another guard, this time guarding a landmine. I decide it's not worth the trouble, though, and leave the mine behind for the time being.


One screen west is this scene. Two guards with a doorway between them. The only question is, how do I sneak up to it without getting spotted?


A solution quickly presents itself, as the guards get relieved.


Instead of waiting for reinforcements, I just book it through the door.


Behind the door, Snake finds an elevator. Where does it lead and what will Snake find there?