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Content review for this game:
Pertaining to content listed in the upper left corner of this site.
Blood & Gore: There is a moderate amount of blood in this game, mostly in the form of splattering/puffs when your character or enemies are shot, hit or stabbed. Also, blood lingers in puddles and stains the characters' clothes. However, it can be turned off at the title screen, under options, which will disable it for gameplay and cutscenes, but some static blood on floors and walls will remain.
Specific scenes of blood & gore:
- One scene depicts a group of soldiers being attacked by a swarm of hornets, showing one soldier's heavily swollen and disfigured face, as he drops dead. Later on, you find the villain who controls the hornets; he, too, is heavily disfigured from the years of taming them. After you defeat him, he explodes (for future reference, all of the early bosses self-destruct after you defeat them).
- Volgin (one of the main villains) has a heavily scared face. It looks like the scar marks are from some sort of burn damage. They probably result from him trying to perfect his electric powers in the past.
- A later boss is a derranged freak of a man in a space suit, who uses a superpowered flamethrower. After you defeat him, he bursts into flames, showing a somewhat detailed view of his suit and face decomposing under the fire.
- Volgin is shown violently hitting a metal barrel, but something or someone must be in it because the barrel starts leaking blood. He then knocks the barrel into the air revealing a dead and bloody body. You soon find out that this was a failed attempt at interrogation.
- Another scene shows Snake (the main character) come across a supposed ghost, while walking down a river. You find out that he is a so-called spirit-medium soldier. He is a genuine freak, levitating around and shedding a tear of blood from his eye. He takes it upon himself to teach the main character a lesson by leading him through the river, while showing the main character all of the enemies the main character supposedly killed. You see several ghostly figures representing dead enemies walk towards you from up river. Some have disfigured looks like broken necks, slit throats and so on. You also hear them screaming things they said before they died. Also if the spirit-medium soldier hits you with his powers, you will see a brief, slightly disturbing image of his distorted and pathetic face flash on screen.
- After you defeat Volgin (one of the last bosses), he coughs up quite a bit of blood on the floor. When you defeat him for the second time, he is bloody with his old scars broken open. He then perishes by, well, let just say it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.
- Snake and Eva (the main female character) crash in a motorcycle. She lands on a log's sharp branch, piercing her all the way through the abdomen. There is blood visibly trickling down her mouth and soaked into her clothes at the site of the wound. She then proceeds to painfully pull herself off the branch with appropriate sound effects.
- The Boss (main female villain and the last boss) in the game pulls open the top of her jumpsuit to reveal a scar running from the top of her chest to the bottom of her navel. After you defeat her, the scar slithers out of her body like a snake, and, in fact, ends up being one.
Intense violence: this game is pretty much as violent as it can get, without crossing the line of a somewhat mild horror genre. Also it has some very bizarre almost mythological story elements, as in most characters have supernatual-like powers, ranging from controlling hornets with the mind to being a human lightning rod. Add all this and a load of complicated politics and theology, and you have Metal Gear Solid.
(Example of MGS weirdness: One of the bosses is just plain odd. He is supposedly over 100 years old, has his eyes bulging out of his head, and is technically dead most of the time so that he can save life energy to fight his enemies. After you defeat him, his dentures dramatically fly out of his mouth. Just weird.)
Snake (the main character) can kill with an assortment of weapons, the most brutal being a knife, which if used will have your character stab or cut the enemy's throat. However, other than bosses, you don't have to kill in the game. You can use a non-lethal dart gun or sneak up on enemies and choke or knock them out until they go unconscious. Also, one of the main gameplay mechanics is survival, which entails healing yourself by going into a pseudo-medical operation menu, and also killing animals such as snakes, rabbits, rats, birds and so on. There is no blood when you kill an animal, just a decomposition effect, and then a box of food representing the animal appears.
Specific scenes of intense violence:
- Ocelot (one of the main villains) shoots and kills a half dozen rival soldiers (all with appropriate blood effects). When he gets to the last man lying half dead on the ground, he finishes him off by shooting him in the head.
- The Boss breaks the main character's arms, where you see the arm contort and hear the crunch. You later see him reset the arm with an appropriately agonizing scream.
- Snake is caught by Volgin. Volgin then proceeds to beat the main character to a bloody pulp; smashing his head onto the wall, kicking his ribs in, and headbutting him several times, resulting in the main character spurting tons of blood from his face, and making appropriate gurgling noises. His face is also visibly damaged, with several open cuts and bruises.
- Right after, Snake wakes up in what appears to be a torture room, with dried blood stained all over the walls and floor. He apparently has a plastic bag tied over his head because at first you can't see, but only hear as the main character screams agonizingly. You also hear kicks and crunching sounds as your character is hit repeatedly. The camera then switches to a third person view, where you see that Snake does indeed have plastic bag over his head, making it hard for him to breath. Volgin then splashes a bucket of water on Snake and proceeds to electrocute him with his powers. Then Ocelot starts to shoot in the vicinity of the main character, accidentally shooting out his right eye, with blood spurting from the wound. This is easily the worst scene in the game.
Language: There are over 6 uses of h**l, 9 uses of d**n, 1 use of b***h, ba***rd and SOB. When Snake eats something he will sometimes say, "that's d**n good!" One boss frequently says, "Son of a b***h!" when you damage him. Another one of the bosses will say, "D**n!" and "Burn in h**l" when you damage him. In the same battle Eva will taunt the villain by saying, "Come and get me dumb a**!"
Sexual Themes: There are several posters of bikini/lingerie clad women scattered throughout the game; some are obvious and others are somewhat hidden. You can also use girly magazines to distract guards, by setting them on the floor.
- Eva characters wears a revealing bikini under her jumpsuit. Throughout the game she flirts heavily with Snake. She is also implemented with breast physics, so her chest does noticably bounce. In a few cutscenes you have the option to look at Eva in first-person mode, which focuses on her chest, and in a couple instances, has an angle of her slipping her jumpsuit back on, with the bikini and breast physics in full view.
- In an early scene Ocelot has Eva at knife point. She is wearing a somewhat baggy jumpsuit and helmet, so when he touches her chest he realizes she's a girl, though it's not for erotic reasons.
- Volgin (villain with the ability to control electricity), is a twisted, derranged pervert. Throughout the game, it is suggested that he uses one of the main female characters as a sex slave.
- In one scene Eva starts to kiss Snake, and then zips down her jumpsuit, revealing her skimpy bikini top, but he rejects her advances and the scene ends there.
- In a later scene Eva starts flirting with Snake again, and this time she is only clothed in her bikini. She starts to crawl on all fours towards him (with very noticeable breast physics in play) tries kissing him, and again he rejects her advances.
- In a later part of the game, Eva is heavily injured. Earlier I briefly mentioned the cure menu. You have to patch up Eva with this menu. The menu shows the character and what injuries they have on screen. It also has an x-ray view of the body that shows the skeleton and a transparent view of the overall body shape. Well, since she is female you do see the outline of her breasts nipples and buttocks, and there are breast physics so she does bounce. But again, it is mostly a view of the skeleton, so it isn't too erotic or appealing. In fact, I think is is intended to be more medical than sexual.
- One of the last scenes in the game shows Eva and Snake making out and straddling each other on the floor. It is suggested they sleep together though it doesn't show anything.
- One thing that could be considered crude humor, is a scene where Ocelot plays Russian Roulette with a scientist. making the scientist eventually wet himself with fear.
Use of tobacco: The ESRB fails to mention this in every rating for the MGS series, and I don't know why, as this is one of the main traits of the main character. At the beginning of the game Snake is seen smoking a cigar. Cigarettes are also selectable from the inventory, but they are seen as a negative, and if selected, they start to slowly suck your health away.
Closing comment: This series is classic and one of the best in gaming history. With amazing graphics (for PS2), dynamic gameplay, and one of the best stories in gaming. The only negative is that some people could find the story to be a bit long winded and/or bizzare (hey it's a taste), and you still get the classic MGS static camera, which means you have almost no control over it. Content-wise, as seen in the review, this game is full of intense violence, blood, gore, and sexual themes. This is definitely a game made for adults, and as such, I recommend this game for ages 17+.
- Available on: PS2
- More information: wikipedia
- Cover scans: mobygames - covergalaxy
- FAQ's/cheats: gamefaqs
- Press reviews: ign - gamespot - gamespy - 1UP - gametrailers
