Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

PlayStation 2 (Konami 2004)

The big G-S-G-S-G

General opinion: Game of the year material
Story: Quite good
Graphics: Awesome
Sound: Good, though music could be featured more
Gameplay: Great

Total:

The Review

Waiting long for a sequel to a game you love can often lead to disappointment, even if you try to keep sceptical about the new game... However, Metal Gear Solid 3 was worth the wait. Although the promised changes in setting and gameplay kept me a little worried while I waited, I have no regrets about preordering this game nearly six months before its publication...

As I said, there have been a few changes. This, it turns out, is for the best, as the first two games were quite similar. MGS3 is similar enough to keep old fans happy and fresh enough to keep them interested. The biggest change is in the setting. Not only does the game take place in the 1960s, some forty years or more before its predecessors, but instead of the confined indoor environments of the first two, this game takes place in a vast wilderness. Gameplay has been modified to suit this setting: survival is the new keyword, and apart from trying to stay hidden from the enemy you need to keep up your strength by capturing food. The catchphrase of the series is "Tactical Espionage Action", which suits it well. The basis of the game is still the same: infiltrate enemy lines without being detected. Mindless shooting won't get you anywhere, you must crawl through the grass, wait patiently for openings, and learn to snipe accurately... The tranquilizer gun is a man's best friend.

As for gameplay, anyone who's played Metal Gear Solid 2 should be right at home, despite the very different setting. None of the basic moves have really been altered. However, gameplay has been significantly expanded. As I already said, capturing food constitutes an important part of the game. There are lots and lots of different species to taste. You can carry a certain amount of food with you, but watch out as it will get rotten if not eaten soon! Another addition is a more complex healing system. Wounds will heal much faster if you treat them with stitches, bandages and medicines. You'll even have to dig out bullets for yourself... Both these systems are pretty fun, and don't take much time to get used to.

One of the most significant changes to gameplay is that you no longer have a radar showing each enemy's location and field of vision to rely on. This means you have to proceed very cautiously, looking around all the time. But you get used to it... Replacing the radar is a camouflage system. You have a camo rating that determines how hard or easy you are to detect. It changes according to the camouflage you're wearing, so you have to always make sure you're wearing the best camo for your surroundings. And you really need to watch those enemies, they can spot you pretty easily if you're not cautious...

Well then, story. As you can expect from a Metal Gear Solid title, it's pretty good, an epic, cinematic war story spiced with sci-fi and the supernatural. At the beginning you are dropped into a jungle somewhere in southern Russia, your obective to rescue a scientist forced to work on a new super-tank... There'll be many twists and turns along the way. On the whole, though, the plot was maybe a little more straightforward and simple than in the first games. Twists are more in details than the main plot, and your objectives remain pretty much the same through the game. Still, it is quite entertaining to say the least. The characters, likewise, are good, although again not quite as good as earlier. No matter, it's still a great game.

As before, the main adversaries are a team of freaks with strange powers. Third time around this might seem a little old, but on the other hand, would it really be Metal Gear Solid without them? The freaks are really freaky, and the boss battles quite intense. However, their role in the plot is not very big, and there is much less emotional depth to them than to some of the memorable, tragic characters in the first two games. As said above, the game is set in the 1960s. So obviously the main character can't be Solid Snake (or Raiden, for that matter). Our new hero has the codename Naked Snake. As it happens, he looks and sounds exactly like Solid Snake... (Those who have played the earlier games shouldn't find it hard to speculate who this could be...)

Graphics are impressive to say the least. The wilderness is quite detailed, and the terrains quite varied. There are a couple of large locations were scrolling is slightly twitchy, but not too much to really disturb. Sound is good as well. Music, though, plays a slightly lesser part than in the previous games. Most of the time there is no music, just nature sounds, which of course suits the setting well. Still, sometimes you miss the atmospheric sneaking music you're so used to...

Bottom line: this is a fine addition to a fine series. It's a quality game in all ways, sufficiently similar to its predecessors as well as sufficiently fresh to be a great sequal, although not quite as great as MGS2 in my mind. I'll surely return to it many times... Keep in mind, though, that I dearly loved the first two games. I can't say how someone not aqcuainted with the series would find the game. If you didn't like the others, you probably don't need to bother with this... For Metal Gear Solid fans, though, its a must!

Ben B. Bainton, 27 March 2005