But you're still hungry.

I just finished the original Metal Gear included in the second disk of MGS3: Subsistence. Thoughts (contains spoilers)

The storyline can be found on Wikipedia or the Metal Gear wiki – basically, there were rumors of a weapon of mass destruction being built in a mercenary base called Outer Heaven, and you (Solid Snake) are sent to investigate after another agent, Gray Fox, goes missing during the investigation. The manual explains the backstory, the basic layout of the base (three buildings, etc.) and how to find Gray Fox, and the different items and weapons you can acquire. The in-game storytelling mostly comes from radio messages and prisoner rescues. I'm still not exactly sure how you find the radio frequencies of non-Big Boss characters, but whatever. In particular, you see Big Boss giving you worse and worse advice as the game goes on, while the other resistance leaders tell you correct info, which is supposed to foreshadow his villainy.

Gameplay-wise, there's no way I could have gotten through this without a walkthrough and save states. You only checkpoint at elevators, so if I wasn't using an emulator I would definitely have had to restart at those so many times. The game is hardest at the beginning because you don't have enough ammo and rations, and your gun isn't silenced, so you lose a lot from being detected. Once I got the second (?) promotion it was smooth sailing. Because pickups respawn if you exit the room, you spend a nonzero amount of time just going back and forth to refill your ammo/rations. The walkthrough is mostly necessary to tell you what card opens what door. The game does a good job of making sure you don't have to backtrack too much if you go the wrong way – after one screen you'll hit a door you can't open and you'll go back. (Also sometimes I didn't notice doors on the sides of the screen, totally my fault.)

The stealth and combat is pretty fun, but can get tedious. The guards are extremely dumb, to the point that you can stand right next to them as they walk past you and they won't notice you, and once you get the silencer and cardboard box it's way easier to avoid detection. Thankfully, the music that plays when they're on alert doesn't get annoying. I would never try a pure stealth playthrough though. It's fairly annoying that the guards respawn also when you leave: you spend a while sneaking past them, then you have to return to that screen and do it all over again, so some backtracking parts take forever. Also, combat is kind of awkward because you can only hit enemy torsos and you can only shoot in the direction you just moved in. I never really figured it out. The boss fights, on the other hand, are extremely short. Most bosses require a specific weapon; the resistance members will tell you what to use over the radio. You only have to hit them a few times: hilariously, Big Boss goes down after only 4 hits. They felt very anticlimactic. I allowed myself to use rations, so I didn't have trouble with them besides the bull tank.

Overall, I had a lot of fun! I'd recommend it with a walkthrough. Obviously it doesn't feel “new” because it was one of the first stealth games, but I can see how it was so popular when it came out.