5 Best Video Games Like Metal Gear Solid

As far as tactical espionage action goes, there is no video game franchise that does it better than "Metal Gear Solid." Created by Hideo Kojima, the 1998 game served as a sequel and as a 3D update to the '80s titles in the "Metal Gear" timeline. The initial game followed special forces operator Solid Snake as he foiled a terrorist plot connected to his past. Since then, "Metal Gear Solid" has spawned a long-running video game series exploring its world of covert action and political intrigue.

While the Metal Gear Solid franchise has undergone a rise, fall, and rebirth arc, there are loads of similar games to check out. These games similarly play out from a third-person perspective and feature plenty of tautly staged action. In some notable cases, the games we're including here also place a strong emphasis on stealth, just like Snake's preferred modus operandi. These are the five best video games like "Metal Gear Solid," each providing their tactical action experiences.

The year after "Metal Gear Solid," the PlayStation got another third-person tactical espionage game with "Syphon Filter." The game follows special agents Gabe Logan and Lian Xing as they combat a terrorist organization known as Black Baton. This mission spans from the streets of Washington, D.C. to terrorist hideouts overseas, with Gabe and Lian battling a small army. This operation uncovers a double agent within the upper echelons of the American counterterrorism community working with Black Baton.

"Syphon Filter" is more consistently action-oriented than "Metal Gear Solid," but it does contain enough stealth elements and tonal beats to resemble its Konami counterpart. Heightening the association is the sly fact that "Syphon Filter" takes place in the same universe as "Metal Gear Solid" and "Splinter Cell," if only tangentially. Though the series didn't continue on past the PlayStation 2 era, it did expand Sony's slate of console-exclusive action thrillers. For PlayStation Plus subscribers, several of "Syphon Filter" games are available on the service's classic library, ready for a revisit.

While PlayStation owners had "Metal Gear Solid," the Nintendo 64 had "WinBack," a third-person shooter released in 1999. The game's story has a terrorist organization seize control of an orbital laser weapon, prompting the government to dispatch Jean-Luc Cougar to stop them. Cougar infiltrates the hijacked facility, evading its security system and regrouping with his team as he battles the terrorists. The game also features competitive multiplayer, prompting players to go head-to-head in a variety of modes and objectives.

"WinBack" refined third-person shooter gameplay, particularly with its then-innovative cover system, including aiming and firing from cover. These mechanics would be built upon from subsequent titles, including "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty" as third-person action games took greater prominence.

Beyond that influence, the 1999 game is one of the most underrated N64 titles, blending elements from "GoldenEye 007" and "Metal Gear Solid" to make its own unique adventure. Eventually ported to the PlayStation 2 and available to play in the Nintendo Switch's digital N64 library, "WinBack" deserves more love than it got.

"Splinter Cell" has stood as a marquee tactical stealth action franchise ever since the series launched on the Xbox in 2002. The games center on NSA black ops specialist Sam Fisher, who is deployed into hostile territory on a variety of missions. A former Navy SEAL working for a top-secret division known as the Third Echelon, Fisher discovers a far-reaching conspiracy in the European country of Georgia. Fisher follows this plot around the world, scrambling to avert a war from breaking out between the United States and China in the process.

"Splinter Cell" really is one of those franchises worth starting from the beginning with its original installment still holding up over 20 years later. What the best entries in the series remember is that Sam Fisher isn't meant to be drawn into major firefights or let his presence be known. This tactical approach is something that he and Snake share and steadily improves across the Ubisoft property's initial trilogy. And with Ubisoft confirmed to be working on "Splinter Cell" again, hopefully Sam Fisher will be reintroduced to modern audiences soon.

Long before reinvigorating James Bond in video game form with "007 First Light," IO Interactive made its bones by creating the "Hitman" franchise. After starting in 2000, the series was revamped for modern platforms in 2016, with the third installment of this revival released in 2021. The revival trilogy was collected under the title "Hitman: World of Assassination," and the franchise centers around the lethal Agent 47 dismantling a clandestine global organization known as Providence. These missions are largely conducted in sandbox environments, where guns-blazing action is discouraged in favor of a more methodical and cautious approach to assassinating targets.

The amount of freedom that players have at their disposal to carry out assignments in "Hitman" has always been impressive. "World of Assassination" takes that to the next level, with even more varied NPC responses and elaborate environments to approach a contract. Five years after its launch, "Hitman: World of Assassination" continues to get regular updates, including elaborate new missions for 47. When it comes to tactical stealth games, "Hitman: World of Assassination" still sets the standard for modern gaming.

After Konami and Hideo Kojima split in 2015, the fan-favorite video game creator relaunched Kojima Productions as an independent studio rather than retaining its former status as a corporate subsidiary. The studio's first completed game after going independent is 2019's "Death Stranding," an open-world sci-fi game. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic North America, which has been devastated by invisible monsters that violently explode when they consume living tissue. Protagonist Sam Porter Bridges traverses the wilderness delivering vital supplies to isolated cities across the continent, contending with the harsh landscape, monsters, and terrorists.

"Death Stranding" is one of the most unique and ambitious games of its generation in relation to its sheer sweeping scope. To be clear, anyone going in expecting something directly evoking "Metal Gear Solid" is going to be disappointed at the relative lack of tactical action. But Kojima's 2019 title does provide its own action, similar mechanics, and the cinematic storytelling that he employed with Konami. Those similarities become more clear in the game's 2025 sequel, but the entire "Death Stranding" story is best experienced from the beginning.