Metal Gear Solid by Raymond Benson
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Book Reviews of Metal Gear Solid
Book Review: The sustained interest in a video game does not transfer well to a book
Summary: 3 Stars
By design, the shoot-em-up video game has the hero going through difficult terrain, engaging the enemy emerging from multiple places and always having a good chance to shoot them down. To keep the interest of the players, it must have a lengthy run with enemies that somehow come back from major injury. Furthermore, new weapons often appear or are available when most desperately needed. However, while this makes for an entertaining video game, it does not transfer well to a book.
This book, "The Official Novel of the thrilling Konami video game created by Hideo Kojima", is an adventure of the super soldier Solid Snake. He is called out of retirement and his mission is to infiltrate a fortress where renegade super soldiers have taken control of a super weapon called Metal Gear. The renegades have also taken control of nuclear weapons and have a mass driver that can be used to launch them. Because the mass driver uses no rocket, the launch and trajectory of the warhead cannot be tracked using conventional techniques. It would be the ultimate stealth attack.
The mission is further complicated by the use of biological weapons, turncoat officials and communication devices that allow multiple people to communicate with Solid Snake as he progresses through the fortress. Finally, there is a cyborg ninja who first battles snake and then comes to his aid when he is locked in a duel with Metal Gear.
With all this repetitive action and the presence of powerful weapons when Solid Snake needs them, this book just continues on too long. When he is in trouble, you know that he will be directed to another Stinger missile before it happens. The soldiers opposing Solid Snake are supposed to be enhanced elite forces and yet he deals with them as if they were mere untrained conscripts. The point was reached where the action was just so repetitive that I found it difficult to complete the book.
Book Review: Can this book be good and bad?
Summary: 3 Stars
As a huge fan of the game world and series created around MGS I finally bought this book for a recent plane ride. I've played through the original enough times on the PS2 and Gamecube that I know the story by heart. So I was just expecting some more detail that would have interrupted the flow of the game, but would work in the book. That isn't quite what I got. The Solid Snake in the book does not come off as the same one from the game. While I was looking for maybe more insight into the character that a novel might provide, what I got was a mix of Solid Snake and every generic 80s action star combined. There are logic failures all over and many of the elements from the story in the game have been changed. Not just for dramatic effect, but changed for just no reason I can see. While the book as a whole might be seen as interesting enough for a guilty pleasure read, I can't recommend it to fans of the series. The character developed in the game is done much better than what is done in the book. At no point play through the video game could I have imagined the battle hardened Solid Snake saying 'hunky dory', which he does in the book. Some of the story is verbatim from the game, and some seems elements are drastically changed for no apparent reason. I can see the reason for not wanting to just retell the story from the video game exactly, but this could have been done better. The novelization of Halo is a good example of adding detail without drastically changing the character or the story. But really trying to novelize a video game can't be easy, so I don't fault the author for trying.Book Review: Good novelization, but falls flat in a few places.
Summary: 3 Stars
Raymond Benson has captured the essence of Metal Gear Solid very well and even makes it a touch believable--within reason of course.
This book is a great introduction to any newcomers to the Metal Gear Solid series. Perhaps you're considering picking up Metal Gear Solid 4? Well, this book is a great gateway to the Metal Gear Solid world. The story has it's quirks. You have to suspend your beliefs for a while because the story is unrealistically realistic... if you catch my drift. That said, the story is good and is a great quick read.
For those who are already fans of the series, this book is a double edged sword. It's great to see that Benson faithfully recreated the original Metal Gear Solid into a novel, and he does it well for the most part. The problem is, is that many die hard MGS fans will feel short changed, that the book offers nothing new. And they'd be right.
The book adds a few scenes to the story for more background info, which is fine by me. The problem I have with the book is that boss battles seem incredibly abbreviated and overall inconsequential to the story. Which is a shame because in the actual game, these were some of the best parts. What Benson does do superbly is that he created Solid Snake to be a human. Gone is the idea that he can carry 30 different weapons... Rocket Launchers, Sniper Rifles, etc... and he writes this very effectively.
All in all, it's a good book, but it just feels like he rushed the end and cut out some of the best scenese.
Book Review: Not to Good
Summary: 3 Stars
I have never played a MGS game, so I went into this book knowing nothing about the series after reading the book (which took me under 4 hours) I decide that the plot is the only thing good about this book, the only character that I cared for was Solid Snake who learns that his mission to overthrow the coup at a nuclear disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island is being controlled by unseen forces and not all is that it seems; Its very intriguing to see him try and found out who the unseen forces are and when you found at it comes at a shock. But besides the plot surrounding solid snake this novel falls apart especially with the cheesy humor ,dialog and characters that the author puts in the story. Also there are very unoriginal ideas in the book like soldiers that have cloned genes which makes them super soldiers(I think that's in every video game and scfi movie), a robot ninja, and of course the whole twins with dark secrets and power. Overall I give this book a 3 out of 5 it was a good try but the god awfully characters that plaque Japan games tear apart this book. On that note I would actually recommend buying a used copy the plot with Solid Snake is worth all the dumb junk.Book Review: Hilariously awful
Summary: 3 Stars
This book is horrible. The writing style is bad, the one-liners are jaw dropping horrible, and there are random references to the later games that just don't make sense. Solid Snake is transformed into every bad 80s action hero, Liquid Snake is somehow even more flamboyant and idiotic, and the rest of FOXHOUND are so out of character it's wince worthy. Psychology itself doesn't get away unscathed (PTSD does not work like that!).
I could not put it down. It's so bad it almost circles the drain back to good. There are some points where it verges on brilliant and amazing, and then come lines like "She rather enjoyed scaring the poor man; that was ironic because she was a woman," the invoking of Godwin's Law while talking to Otacon, or the oft quoted Christmas line.
All in all, if you take the Metal Gear Solid series seriously, don't even look in this book's direction. If you like to laugh at bad writing and have some knowledge of the series, you will love this book.