Part 6: Metal Gear Part Six: Up on the Rooftop
Metal Gear Part Six: Up on the Rooftop
Sending Snake up to the roof, the first thing that happens is Big Boss calls.
He still says his little “forgot to tell you” line before this, but let's face it: we all know that Big Boss is senile and FOX-HOUND doesn't train its agents.
Calling Schneider, he reminds us about the bomb blast suit (which we already have) being in the basement.
Running forward just gets Snake pushed back against the door.
Equipping the bomb blast suit, though, Snake can just ignore these insane winds.
And then you can dump the suit back into your inventory forever, because it's only good for that one spot in the whole game.
Running around on the roof, Snake finds another POW. Apparently, Solid Snake cannot just climb a damn fence and has to parachute all over the place to get past one.
(The soldier also makes Snake class 3, but I seem to recall being class 3 in the last update, so it looks like I missed a POW in my latest run.)
The first part of the roof is pretty standard and boring. This bridge moves back and forth in sections, and if you fall off...
...Snake falls down and dies.
If you follow Schneider's directions and get (and equip) the parachute, though...
...Snake parachutes down from the roof and ends up back here, a couple screens from where the game started. That won't do, so let's keep looking for a better jumping-off point.
Down across the shaky bridge, though, we meet...
These motherfuckers, the rocket troops. Rocket troops are a pain in the ass, because they have a large field of vision, cover means nothing to them, and they trigger a level two alert.
Also, they see through Snake's shenanigans with the cardboard box, so I don't think there's any way to get past this screen without getting spotted.
Booking it way across the roof to the southwest corner (and stopping to wreck an electric floor along the way), Snake finds a Mine Detector.
Metal Gear MSX Manual posted:
Mine detector: Identifies the mine locations.
Mine detector shows you where mines are, pretty simple. Since you can't just crawl over them to grab them in this game, it's pretty handy.
Way over on the southeast side of the roof, we meet our third boss of the game, the Hind-D.
Metal Gear MSX Manual posted:
Hind D: The large attack helicopter mounted with a 20 mm electric cannon (can fire 4000 rounds per minute).
The Hind-D stays in one place (I think because the MSX can't scroll screens, so they couldn't animate it flying about) and shoots its machine gun at you. It's the most dangerous boss so far because it's pretty hard to avoid the first round of fire when you enter the screen.
Hind-D video right here!
The first Hind-D in the series is also the first boss where R/C Missiles aren't the order of the day.
Standing in front of these crates means that the Hind-D is in grenade range, but can't hit Snake.
The grenade launcher works a little differently than other weapons, because it fires grenades in an arc (so they can go over crates &c.), onto a spot marked with a little crosshair. It's kind of neat, but the weapon's utility is limited.
Anyway, once you dump about 20 grenades into the chopper, it explodes without ceremony and you're free to progress.
Two screens away, we find a ledge overlooking an abyss, and that's it for the rooftop. Maybe soon we'll find Dr. Pettrovich and learn how to destroy Metal Gear.