By Sam Coles:
After the somewhat disappointing outcome with Metal
Gear Solid V I’ve been going back and playing the older MGS games so I’m
starting with Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater which is my favourite in the
series. So does it still hold up well after eleven years? In short yes.
Metal Gear Solid 3 takes place in year 1964 during
the height of the Cold War; you play as Naked Snake a new soldier who
eventually becomes the legendary soldier Big Boss and you witness the origin of
how he obtain that title. It’s a great story with fantastic characters with
twists and turns and over the top antics, my favourite cutscenes are the ones
when a young Ocelot shows up and him and Snake get into a scrap every time. The
story is entertaining it will make you laugh and it will make you cry which
will keep you hooked from beginning to end.
The gameplay is like any other Metal Gear Solid game
where you sneak around and infiltrate to free prisoners or gain intelligence on
the latest Metal Gear. However it takes a different and realistic approach
because instead of starting in the base you’re dropped in the middle of nowhere
and you must find your way there.
Survival is the key word in this game because you have
to manage your stamina by eating food and how you gain food is by hunting the
flora and fauna which will gain back some of you stamina. How much stamina you
gain back depends on what you eat so a snake might give you lots and a mushroom
will give you very little, but don’t live your food because it will go rotten.
You have to camouflage yourself as you’re in the middle of the jungle, you have
a small indicator in the top right corner which will display a percentage and the
higher the number the more you blend in with the environment, I like this
because it makes you analyse the area and plan what strategies you can use to
slip by undetected.
The graphics have actually aged very well in terms
of the environments, but the graphics on the character models can look a bit polygonal
which I can’t fault it too much as the game is eleven years old and that’s was
what they could do at the time. Also the lip syncing with the dialogue is
terrible in this game and I’m sure someone will say that’s what they could do,
but that’s not the case look at Silent Hill 2 that has spot on lip syncing most
of the time and that came out in 2001. The environments are good and varied
from the starting jungles, massive military bases to the side of a mountain.
Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater is an entertaining
romp which still holds up eleven years later with its fantastic stealth gameplay
and entertaining narrative so pick this game up it’s easy to find on PS2 or you
can get it in the HD collection on Xbox 360 and PS3 so there are many ways to
experience this game.
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