Guys. I have a bit of a disclaimer to make.
I do feel kind of disappointed with this game. Don't get me wrong, Metal Gear Solid is not bad or even overrated - it deserves all the praise it gets and is looking to be an easy 10/10 game and one of my favorite games of all time. I think the problem is that ever since I got into hardcore gaming over the Winter 2007 holidays, Metal Gear Solid has been quite possibly the game I've wanted to play most for the longest amount of time. As awkward as this is going to sound, MGS is probably the game I have the most "baggage" with going into it for the first time, as across January 2008 to June 2012, it has quite possibly been the one game I was most interested in for the longest amount of time. I managed to knock off the vast majority of Nintendo games I was interested in, my desire to get into the Final Fantasy series kinda died off about three-quarters of a year ago (oh sure, it's rising again NOW, but still), and there were several current-gen games I used to be interested in solely due to their critical acclaim (yes, I used to be that stupid) which I deemed were "not my kind of game" (e.g. multiplayer shooters, WRPGs). So...
...okay, long story short, Metal Gear Solid hasn't lived up to four and a half years of expectation. But honestly, I have a feeling that no game would. I also find that the game may not be as good as a good number of my favorite Nintendo games (e.g. Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, Super Metroid, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, heck I probably prefer Ico and Shadow of the Colossus).
But Metal Gear Solid is not an overrated game at all, and it's still shaping up to be one of my favorite games of all time. It's just that it simply couldn't live up to 4.5 years of me expecting that it would be better than the vast majority of my favorite games. But again, I have a feeling that no game possibly could manage that.