Snake Eater is a simply amazing game with stellar production values that any real gamer will love, despite a few flaws.
User Rating: 9.3 | Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater PS2
Metal Gear Solid 3. All the anticipation, hype, and excitement over the third (and arguably most important) installment in the mega-popular series has now been realized on Sony's console. Was it worth the wait? Overall, YES! I encourage you to read on and find out why this game is so great. (This review will be broken down into small chunks for easier navigation.) ---GRAPHICS--- Konami wowed us all with the jaw-droppingly gorgeous MGS2, but Snake Eater easily puts it to shame. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more realistic, immersive jungle environment than the one provided in this game. Also, the character models are all fantastic and superbly animated. Everything in this game has an amazingly polished look, from the Hollywood-calibur FMV to the awesome character designs. This truly pushes the PS2 to its absolute limit. ---SOUND--- Again, this game excels in this category. The "Snake Eater" theme song is suprisingly cool and very fitting for the game's setting. It is easily on-par with any James bond movie theme song. Speaking of music, the music that plays when you're in combat, in evasion mode, and the cutscene music are all spectacular and extremely fitting and have very good "feel" to them. Overall, the audio is actually better than MGS1 and MGS2's, which is definitely saying a lot. ---GAMEPLAY--- This is where the game falters just a little. The basic cat-and-mouse, stealth action gameplay aspects of MGS games past is still here, and it works fairly well. However, the stealth definitely feels a little thin and dated when compared to ultra-realistic games like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Also, some of the new additions, like hunting animals, eating food, and managing stamina aren't fully realized. The premise is that Snake must shoot animals with a M9 Tranq Gun, and eat them to regain stamina, which in turn improves your ability to aim, shoot, run, etc. To quote Adam Sessler of TechTV's "XPlay", this is am good idea on paper that just doesn't fare well in practice". However, the bosses are simply astounding. If you were let down by MGS2's somewhat inane bosses like Fatman and Vamp, MGS3 will redeem the series in a big, big way. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that a certain boss named The End is one of the best gaming experiences you'll ever have, ever. I'll leave it at that. --Conclusion-- There's no doubt in my mind that GameSpot underrated this game horribly. MGS3 excels in nearly ever category, and Hideo Kojima's meticulious attention to detail and sky0high production values show all over this game. If you are an MGS fan, Snake Eater will not only not merely satisfy you, but reinvigorate your love of the series after the dissapointing MGS2. Even if you are not an MGS fan, at least rent this game if you think you have good taste. OVERALL: 9.3 "Superb". 
