Metal Gear Solid

Wait for the patrol

The overhead view and radar encourage you to pause and read a room. A guard’s route offers a temporary opening; an alarm turns that small puzzle into an untidy escape. Long conversations sometimes suspend the movement altogether, but the contrast gives the infiltration its character. Boss encounters then change the terms, asking you to notice something about the environment or the controls that ordinary patrols let you ignore.

Listen to the early radio instructions and practise moving without immediately seeking a fight. Check the documentation supplied with a reissue: some encounters assume access to information or controller functions that were presented differently on original hardware.

Directing an infiltration

Konami’s 1998 PlayStation game brought its earlier infiltration series into real-time polygonal scenes. Camera cuts, voice acting and the radio give the operation a conspicuously authored rhythm. Its interest in the player’s equipment and habits also reaches outside the fictional military base without requiring a larger map.