GamePro gave it an average score of 4.8 out of 5 calling it "this season's top offering game and one game no self-respecting gamer should be without". However they criticized the frame rate, saying it "occasionally stalls the eye-catching graphics" and "Especially annoying are instances where you zoom in with binoculars or the rifle scope", and also the interruptions of "advice from your team", in the early parts of the game, calling it an "annoyance
GameSpot also criticized this, saying "It needlessly interrupts the game". They also criticized how easy it is for the player to avoid being seen, the game's short length, and called it "more of a work of art than ... an actual game"
Further criticism came from the website Adrenaline Vault, which said it had "some serious...flaws" which "made it a complete disappointment"
It received an Excellence Award for Interactive Art at the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival.
NGamer said "It's like playing a big budget action blockbuster, only better"
Gaming website IGN said it came "closer to perfection than any other game in PlayStation's action genre" and called it "Beautiful, engrossing, and innovative...in every conceivable category"
Entertainment Weekly said it "broke new ground with...movie-style production...and stealth-driven gameplay, which encouraged...hiding in boxes and crawling across floors"
GameTrailers said it "invented the stealth game" and called it "captivating, inventive and gritty"
The game is often considered one of the best games for the PlayStation, and has featured in best video games lists by GameFAQs, Game Rankings, Japanese magazine Famitsu,Entertainment Weekly, Game Informer, GamePro, Electronic Gaming Monthly and GameTrailers.
In 2002 IGN's editors ranked it as the best PlayStation game ever. Writer for the site David Smith said that just the demo for the game had "more gameplay [in it] than in most finished titles". They also gave it the "Best Ending" and "Best Villain" awards. In 2005, in placing it 19th on their list of "Top 100 Games", they said that it was "a game that truly felt like a movie", that the fights were "unique and innovative", and that it was "the founder of the stealth genre"
Guinness World Records awarded Metal Gear Solid with a record for the "Most Innovative Use of a Video Game Controller" for the boss fight with Psycho Mantis in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008 edition.
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