I had completely missed the heyday of Metal Gear Solid when I was a kid. Sure, I remember the ads in gaming magazines declaring that it was ‘the greatest Playstation game ever made’, but it looked too grown up and bleak for me. I was from a military family – so looking at screenshots just reminded me of all the time I’d spent hanging around the Richmond Air Force base, waiting for my dad to finish work after my weekly art class.

After my encounter with Resident Evil, I got caught up in the idea of playing all the ‘mature’ games I had missed out on when I didn’t have a current console. I forget how I stumbled upon it exactly but on one of my classic Wikipedia journeys, I ended up on the entry for Metal Gear Solid and completely lost my shit over the fact that you could disguise yourself in a cardboard box. Suddenly the dreary Alaskan base and army of short-sighted guards sparked my interest. I watched a few cut scenes on Youtube (though they were from the Twin Snakes remake for Gamecube…whoops) and at some point found myself watching a longplay of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, but it was a video from the last quarter of the game in Tikhogornyj. I was overwhelmed by the colours, the freedom of movement and most of all – the hunting and gathering of food and supplies. Continue reading