Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 104)

Trigger Happy
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the opponent, while severe blows to a limb will disable
him. The spectacle of two wonderfully animated virtual
fighters in beautiful oriental robes shuffling about a
cherry-tree garden on their knees because leg injuries
mean that they can no longer stand is hugely amusing.
The wittiest use of the “health” paradigm yet seen is
in Metal Gear Solid (1998), an exploration game that
initiated its own sub-genre, the “sneak-’em-up.” The
player has access to rafts of guns and bombs, but if she
simply runs about firing, the guards will call for
reinforcements and quickly go in for a kill. The
gameplay necessarily becomes stealthy: guards and
security cameras must be avoided wherever possible. In
the game, the player controls a soldier, Solid Snake,
who can be made to smoke a cigarette. The game
provides the mandatory tobacco health warning, and
while Snake is puffing away, his health meter slowly
goes down. If you smoke for long enough, health
reaches a minimal sliver on the bar, but it is impossible
in the game to commit suicide by cigarette.
This raises an important point. The programmers of
Metal Gear Solid have unfortunately not provided the
option of smoking several cigarettes at once, or eating a
whole pack, which would almost certainly kill you. It