My Zen Arcade

Phenomenal game.  Wish I had played one level harder, though.

A few items:

1. The game pays huge tribute to the people who have played the previous ‘chapters’.  While you don’t need to know the story before playing this game, it really will help.  Luckily, you can download the Metal Gear Solid database for free.  Here’s a summary of the history.

Not only does the storyline get more interesting with that information, well, you’ll see in my next points.

2. The game is, in fact, one long treatise on the horrors of war.  It has a great deal to say on the subject (hence the sometimes longwinded cutscenes)

3. The story is also to conclusion of Snake’s life.  Everything from his past is coming together one last time.  This shows up in numerous half-seen flashbacks and such (which, as noted in #1, are more interesting the more you know)

4. I think that, more than anything, this is a story of a man who has dedicated his life to being a soldier, a creature of war, and who is now trying to clean up the nightmares he himself helped create.  It is a story of the price paid for a life with a gun.

5. Snake gets the living tar beaten out of him like no one I’ve ever seen.