Looking at: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Old Snake

The jungle can hide you, or swallow you whole.

I've already played MG3, and my original thoughts on the game can be found in this article. While playing the game for a second time as part of my ongoing examination of the MGS series, I found my thoughts were mostly the same. It's almost a masterpiece in every way, and it holds up rather well, despite the age. There were some things different, mostly better due to playing it on the PS3 with updated graphics, but the game is still amazing and deserves to be played by any stealth game fan.

Rather than just review the game again, I thought I'd go over things about it I liked, and things about it I didn't like, point by point.

Revolver Ocelot

Ocelot and Snake spar for the first time.

All of the major characters and villains in MGS3 are amazing, probably some of the most interesting and memorable in the series, but Revolver Ocelot, much younger than the other games, is by far my favourite. He steals the scene whenever he's on screen and his presence is amazing. He oozes confidence and style like no one else in the game, and his mix of smarmy and stylish is great. Throw in his fancy revolver tricks and on-going rivalry with Snake throughout the game and he's at the top of his game.

All the other characters

Two of the Cobras, twisted super-soldiers.

MGS3 is so completely over the top, and the characters reflect this perfectly. Be it the insane, bisexual rapist General Volgin, the seductive femme-fatale EVA, the powerhouse legend Boss, or naked Snake, a man that would become a legend of his own. That's not even looking at the Cobra unit, the super soldiers trained by the boss that act as the boss fights. There's a man that controls hornets, a spider-man that fires exploding poison bolts, an ancient sniper that might actually be a tree, a crazed, flame-thrower wielding cosmonaut, and a ghost that controls the dead. Each of these have their own back story akin to the bosses of the first game, and drip personality out of every pore.

The controls

MGS3 introduces a host of new ways to use the environment.

The controls in MGS3 are terrible. I can't really tell who they were designed for, but it wasn't a human, that's for sure. My best guess is that they had to many ideas and the PS2 couldn't accommodate them all, but they tried anyway. Moving and interacting is fine enough, but the much touted CQC hand-to-hand combat system is a complete joke. Unlike MGS2, you can now capture enemies in choke-holds, interrogate them for info, and choose their fate. In theory, anyway. What will actually happen is you'll tap the button to hard, because for some fucking reason it's pressure sensitive, something I didn't even know the PS2 could do, and you'll either fling the guard to the side like a ragdoll, or you'll slit his throat. Either way you'll mess up, not get any info you wanted, and there's a good chance you'll alert his friends too.

God help you if you want to try and use a weapon in CQC. Ideally, you can use a one-handed weapon while using your captive as a shield, but the finger gymnastics you need to preform that are insane, and I only successfully did it once, maybe twice.

Aiming and firing in general are a bit of a hassle. First person aiming returns from MGS2, sans the laser-pointer on every weapons, since it's 1964 this time around. Once again, though, shooting is assigned to a face button, and weapons react differently based, once again, on how hard you hit the button. It's annoying and I never quite got used to it. Sniper weapons proved particularly tough, and if you wanted to aim a rifle while raising your view over an obsticle you had to hold down all four triggers, aim, then tap the square buttons just right to actually fire. It's aggravating and can pull you out of the moment in a second.

The Cut-scenes

The radio dialogues are kept much shorter, and usually more interesting then MGS2.

Cut-scenes in MGS3 are kept to a minimum, sort of, for the series. Make no mistake, there's still a lot of them, and they can get long-winded, but unlike MGS2 there's a much larger focus on the actual gameplay, and the super long cut-scenes are mainly kept to the end, specifically the half-hour end sequence.

There are radio calls again, but if I recall there's less then 20 that are mandatory, and these are usually pretty short explanations of game mechanics, or reminders of your objective. However, there are dozens of optional calls for everything from advice on your current situation, to run-downs of your equipment, and humours asides about your food. I genuinely enjoyed most of these and looked forward to the radio call any time I got a new piece of equipment or food.

The Setting

It's not quite the Vietnam War, and it's not quite James Bond. Instead MGS3 chooses to mix these two styles together in a mix that, probably, shouldn't work as well as it does.

The dense rain forest of Russia provide plenty of sights to see, even if they don't exist because Russia has no rainforests. It's stocked to the brim with animals to hunt, food to find, and Russian soldiers to stalk and take out.

Setting the game in 1964 was a great way to completely de-construct the stealth gameplay from the series and take it in a new direction. Gone is the radar in the corner, replaced with an unreliable motion tracker that can run out of batteries. You also need to utilize proper camouflage to stay hidden in the forest, and getting your camo just right can basically make you invisible.

You'll actually need to rely on classical stealth techniques too, and it's a good thing MGS3 introduced the 3D free camera to the series, because trying to get around without it would suck a tonne. Spot guards, recognize paths, and sneak around like a classic spy.

The Ladder

At around the half way mark of the game you need to climb a really big ladder. It's a completely magical scene.

The Escape

There's a section at the end of the game, right before the finale, where you and a female need to escape a never ending tide of soldiers. The problem is she moves slower then molasses, and can't really do anything useful whatsoever. This section actually goes faster if you knock her out and drag her body all over the map. Make of that what you will, but it stands out as the worst part of the game by a wide margin.

That's all for MGS3. It really is a great game and I enjoyed playing it immensely, even a second time. Next time: SIX FUCKING HOURS OF CUT-SCENES!?

all screenshots taken from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvebBY1DXlU&feature=iv&src_vid=8_jHpQW9QuI&annotation_id=annotation_694572