The Metal Gear Solid series, while awesome in many respects, has suffered one fundamental flaw since the release of MGS2: the plot just does not make sense. I know, I know - I have probably offended a whole bunch of sensitive MGS fanboys who, as I write this, are loading up their SOCOM pistols and Googling my name. But even in the face of this nerd-rage, I stand by my statement. The MGS grandmaster, Hideo Kojima, may be genius when it comes to creating stealth espionage games, but when it comes to writing a coherent storyline, he seriously needs an editor.

This was particularly true for MGS4. That game featured so many ridiculous international conspiracy theories that I doubt even seasoned UN diplomats could keep up with what the hell was going on. But MGS games were not always like this. I distinctly remember that the original MGS, released in 1998, was revolutionary - both in terms of gameplay, but also in its intriguing storyline.

I recently decided to re-boot MGS to see if the game was indeed the masterpiece I so fondly recall. And the good news for fans is that Solid Snake's original outing remains an absolute classic.
Like most MGS games, the player controls Snake as he attempts to sneak around a military compound and choke the life out of unsuspecting bad guys. In this particular case, Snake is on a mission in Alaska to stop terrorists from launching a nuclear warhead. There, that plot is pretty easy to follow, isn't it?

As usual, this story is conveyed through amazing, film-like cut scenes. Indeed, MGS is probably best described as half game, half movie, with the cut scenes interrupting gameplay frequently. And while the original MGS is now 13 years old, and these cinematics are populated with Playstation-era characters who have no eyes or mouths, the set-pieces they create are truly compelling.

Indeed, some of the most memorable moments in the game are the scenes that explore the personalities of the villains. Who could forget Psycho Mantis, in all his S&M gimp glory, messing around with your Playstation controller? Or Sniper Wolf, the seductive female assassin, who, as a way of luring Snake out into the open, shoots one of his companion's in each limb, and then leaves them for dead in the middle of a snowy plateau. Now that's a heart-wrenching story. Good work Kojima.



But while the plot is strong, the gameplay does have some infuriating moments. At the top of my gripe list is the fixed overhead camera. This does not present too many problems while Snake is in stealth mode, as it's easy enough to utilise this top-down view to avoid enemies. But it's when you are forced to fight bad guys that the flaws of the system become frustratingly apparent. Often you cannot see who is shooting at you, or which direction to fire your own gun. Complicating matters, your "auto-aim", if you could even call it that, seems to automatically lock on to anything that is not a baddie.

This can lead to some particularly intense fits of gamer rage. My worse moment was during a battle in a stair well. My objective was to climb 10 stories, while fighting back hordes of soldiers, but Snake's "auto-aim" could not grapple with the vertical slope of the staircase. The result was a constant barrage of Game Over screens with people screaming "SNAAAAAKE" at me. By the end of my tenth attempt I was yelling the same thing, except with far more profanities.

Despite these annoyances, however, MGS remains a standout release of the Playstation era, and still deserves your attention. The plot, dialogue and voice-acting are outstanding - and provide more than enough incentive to plod through the game despite some niggling camera-angle issues. It's also refreshing to play an MGS title that you can actually understand without holding a degree in thermo-nuclear physics.

If you want to get your Metal Gear Solid espionage on, you have two options: the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is to fork out $15.95 and buy the game on the Playstation Network. The hard way is seek out an original copy of the Playstation or PC versions. Good luck and God speed, soldier.