Reviewed: November 28, 2004
Reviewed by: Mike Colgan

Publisher
Konami

Developer
Konami JPN

Released: November 17, 2004
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature

9
9
10
9
9.5

Supported Features:

After a three-year absence, Metal Gear Solid is back, with the best game in the series so far. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, channeling in equal parts James Bond and Rambo, provides a stunning array of gameplay and ties up many of the loose ends left by its predecessors. If you like spy movies, if you like shooting games, if you like gaming at all, you owe it to yourself to go out and buy this game.

Snake parachutes into a Russian forest and quickly locates Sokolov in a dilapidated research lab, but before you can evacuate him, The Boss double-crosses you and defects to the Soviet Union along with Dr. Sokolov and two tactical nukes. In order to clear your name of The Boss’ treason, you must return to Russia to save Sokolov, kill The Boss, and stop a giant walking nuclear tank (sound familiar?) from triggering World War III.

The gameplay should be familiar for anyone who has played the other Metal Gear Solid games. Although you will eventually have a massive arsenal of heavy firepower at your disposal, Snake’s chief modus operandi is stealth. In addition to the tiptoeing, wall-hugging, and guard-strangling which have been staples since the first Metal Gear Solid, Snake must use camouflage to hide himself from the ever-vigilant gaze of armed guards, helicopters, and attack dogs.

The stealth element of Metal Gear Solid is much more challenging than its predecessors. Snake can no longer rely on a detailed radar image of the area to easily determine the best way to sneak. Instead, he must use a wide array of binoculars, motion detectors, and your own wits to successfully get around without alerting the guards. In addition, there are fewer walls behind which to hide; often Snake must resort to camouflage out in the open. Some of the most nerve-wracking moments in MGS3 come when a guard is headed your way and the only way you can hide is to camouflage yourself among some tall grass. A percentage in the upper-right corner indicates the effectiveness of your camo.

The artificial intelligence of the guards is eerily sophisticated. While in earlier games guards would quickly give up their pursuit if you disappeared from plain view, guards in MGS3 have an uncanny knack for slowly zeroing in on your most likely hiding places. With your back against a crate, you will be forced to decide quickly whether to slit the guard’s throat or carefully find another hiding place. Fortunately, Snake has a wide variety of options for dealing with nosy sentinels. Once he has grabbed a guard, Snake can throw the guard to the floor, knocking him unconscious; he can interrogate the poor sap at knife-point; he can use the guard as a human shield; or, if Snake simply doesn’t want to deal with the victim, he can slit the guard’s throat.

Another big feature of MGS3 is its strong survivalist theme. While the previous games have involved mostly indoor and industrial environments, the majority of Snake Eater takes place outdoors. With this setting come innumerable opportunities for Snake to be shot, stabbed, burned, crushed, slashed, shocked, bitten, poisoned, blown up, starved, stung, drowned, and bludgeoned. If Snake sustains serious injuries, he must use first aid to treat his wounds, or else his performance will suffer and his health will deteriorate. If Snake sustains a significant bullet wound, for instance, he must use his knife to dig the bullet out, and then disinfect and bandage the wound.

Snake must also eat to keep his stamina up. Although Snake enters the forest with a couple of ready-to-eat meals, he must rely on food he captures, kills or forages in the wild for sustenance. Also, if you prefer, Snake can capture a snake using his tranq gun and throw it at an unsuspecting guard for fun and profit.

One obvious omission from Metal Gear Solid 3 is training. The VR missions in the original Metal Gear Solid provided an excellent introduction to the game’s style of play and were so fun and challenging on their own that Konami released a stand-alone game of training simulations. The inclusion of some sort of training here would have made learning the game’s flexible-yet-dizzying array of controls easier to master.

Every area of MGS3 is painstakingly rendered down to vines strung between trees and individual blades of grass. In general, this level of detail works out incredibly and makes you feel as if you were really sneaking through the jungle; however, sometimes the backgrounds are so visually stunning that you can miss the guards. If you throw on the infrared goggles, however, you’ll be treated to a wonderfully realistic-looking view of all the objects that give off heat, including fauna and your own footprints.

The biggest problem with the graphics in Metal Gear Solid 3 is the camera system. Moving the right stick will help you view your immediate surroundings, but the removal of the old radar system makes it difficult to tell where walls, doors, or guards may be located. A first-person view is available (and necessary to fight some bosses) but it is awkward to use because you cannot move while in first-person perspective. Also, if you get hit, the view will return to overhead, forcing you to go into first-person again and regain your bearings. A more thoughtful, streamlined camera system would have made maneuvering easier.

Throughout most of the game, the background music is provided by nature itself. Birds flap their wings, snakes slither through the grass, and the wind howls, all providing an immersive feel to the game; with a good sound system, you can close your eyes and feel as if you yourself are sneaking through overgrown jungles, windswept mountains, and dark caverns.

If you are spotted, the game’s alert music kicks in. At first, when soldiers are pursuing you, the music is frenetic, urging you to run and hide or eliminate the threat. Once the soldiers have lost your trail, but are still looking for you, the music slows down, and plucked string sounds give a sense of lingering danger. The music itself is not terribly memorable, but that’s the idea; it mimics a racing heartbeat and adrenaline-induced sense of paranoia, and blends in perfectly, like the ambient natural sounds.

The voice-acting talent in Metal Gear Solid 3 is superb. David Hayter returns as the gruff-voiced Snake, infusing the game with a mix of seriousness and dry humor. Supporting characters also do an excellent job of portraying emotion in the game, without being too melodramatic or cheesy.

Unlike the previous games, MGS3 is not bloated with long, nonsensical techno-babble- and conspiracy theory-based cutscenes, and Snake is not subjected to constant radio communications. The story is a streamlined blend of exciting espionage, romance, and betrayal, which keep the player interested without bogging the game down with philosophical musings or confusion.

The game keeps track of various statistics to assess your proficiency at espionage, like the number of times you trigger an alert, the number of soldiers killed, and the amount of damage incurred. After finishing the game, you can go through again, trying to play as cleanly as possible. Good spy work will earn you a better rating at the end, which will give you more goodies to play with the next time around. There are also various secrets to discover, so that the thorough player has plenty to do after finishing the main plot.

For added entertainment value, Konami has included the mini-game “Snake vs. Monkey,” featuring the sneaky simians from Ape Escape. After a hilarious codec intro featuring a familiar character from the other Metal Gear Solid games, Snake engages in his most crucial mission to date – catching monkeys. Snake must use his stealth and a tranquilizer to hunt escaped monkeys. The mini-game is billed in the manual as a game appropriate for children, but the adults who purchase MGS3 will also find hours of enjoyment catching the wayward chimps.