Blog Assignment 2 - Metal Gear Solid

The digital game of which I have chosen to write about is Metal Gear Solid, a game for the first playstation. Metal Gear Solid is a game about a soldier of the United States government who is sent to infiltrate an Alaskan base that is occupied by terrorists. The game is labeled as an action adventure game, which means that there is an overall end purpose to the game of stopping the terrorists, and there is action such as fighting and running around. There is also the added element of needing to hide from your enemies to avoid unnecessary fights.

While the game tells you that it is an action adventure type game, according to Wolf, it could have a slew of other genre titles thrown onto it, such as escaping and combat, among many others(Wolf, 2001). However, these genres seem to be way too broad to be realistically used. The maker of the game, Hideo Kojima, when making Metal Gear Solid, seemed to have been trying to break away from consistent views of genres at the time which are still somewhat held today. As an example, there is the commonly held view that if the game is an action game, it will be quite lacking in storyline. Instead, a hugely amazing storyline was integrated into the game to almost make the action aspect of the game come second to it, which was really breaking free of the invisible chains thrown on the genre. The storyline would quite fit into the adventure aspect of the game, where Snake is going on an adventure with different twists, turns, and complications thrown in to make things interesting.

In telling the storyline, Metal Gear Solid makes use of narrative, mostly from the main character Solid Snake. The storyline unfolds in cut-scenes and codec calls where Snake interacts with other characters that are non-playable, what Wolf calls NPCs. The cut-scenes show characters interacting with each other in the environment, most often with enemies or a few beneficiary characters talking to Snake. The codec calls are walkie-talkie settings where characters not within close proximity talk to each other. It is in this unique way, where characters do not always directly face each other that Metal Gear Solid stretches the way in which storyline and narrative unfold.

Overall, Metal Gear Solid really seems to break away from typical genre views. It also throws in the aspect of avoiding battles in order to progress easier which, while it can be done in other games like Super Mario where you just jump over enemies, it is not emphasized so much. Wolf does not seem to have a genre for that, but a good name for it would probably be stealth. However, Metal Gear Solid is a game which blends all of these genres and the narratives within the genres together in order to make a game which, when presented to its audience, make them think about their own lives as well as those of the video game character along with having them enjoy the experience. It is in this way that the game draws the player in and makes them part of the experience of playing the game.

This is an example of one of the codec calls. As you can see, you can still see the faces of the characters, but they are not right next to each other.