In the first Metal Gear Solid title, players assume the role of Solid Snake, a super-soldier pulled from retirement to stop a potential nuclear crisis on the fictional Alaskan island Shadow Moses and destroy the latest iteration of a bipedal nuclear weapon known as “Metal Gear.” At the Shadow Moses facility, Snake encounters a wide array of enemies ranging from genetically altered soldiers an elite special forces unit known as FOXHOUND that's comprised of outcasts who border on the supernatural and Snake’s clone twin brother, Liquid.

Instead of encouraging taking enemies head-on, players were incentivized to avoid any and all conflict, practically creating the stealth genre as we know it and influencing tons of other new IPs-including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Syphon Filter-that would follow come the turn of the millennium. Released in 1998 for the original PlayStation, Metal Gear Solid eradicated almost every stereotype regarding games at the time. A big part of the transition that sent video games from niche fun into artistic expression was Metal Gear Solid.

Big shell metal gear