Like Substance, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence brings back a revolutionary game with many new extras in store.
Let's start out with the game itself, Snake Eater. Snake Eater is based in the early 1960's. You as Snake, are sent into Russia to rescue a kidnapped scientist from giving away the plans for a new nuclear weapon, the Shagouhod. When you do rescue the scientist , your old mentor ; The Boss; defects and joins the enemy to help the nuclear strike commence. She joins up again with her elite team; The Cobras. She steals the scientist back and throws you off a bridge to leave for dead. The leader of the enemy side is Volgin; a mad man who wants Mother Russia to take over the world.Without anymore spoilers,Snake Eater continues to have a great story just like its predessors. But Snake Eater ultimitly has the best story that the series has to offer. With some of the best directed cut-scenes and some of the best acting in a video game, Snake Eater makes you happy to watch the 30 minute cut-scenes. With also some of the best boss battles in both the series and video-game history, you want to continue to play this game time and time again when you finish it. Snake Eater has the best to offer to the series.
The Gameplay - Snake Eater has the same controls as Son's of Liiberty but they feel alot more natural in Snake Eater.The main thing about Subsistense is the brand-new 3rd Person camera view. I never complained about the original camera angle but this camera view works very, very well for the game. There are also brand new additions to the gameplay such as CQC, the new camoflauge interface, and the need to eat. CQC meaning Close Quarters Combat is a great new addition, you can now go up to an enemy , grab him by the throat, and interrogate of just kill him by slitting his neck open or breaking his neck. The camoflauge works very well with the game because of the new jumgles. You can choose between dozens of camo combinations in the game, wether it being the desert or the urban alleys. You have a brand new stamina bar that keeps you moving in the deadly jungle. When the stamina bar goes down, just push START and select some food from the food menu. Snake will even be a critict to the food you feed him. The gameplay in Snake Eater is very, very well done with it's new pressure-sensitive and new features.
The Graphics - If you thought Sons of Liberty look good, you will drool over this game. Snake Eater has a similar graphics engine to Sons of Liberty, but there is so much more detail to this installment. Each character looks different from The Patriots to The Cobras. The guns look incredibly detailed and the knife is equally great looking. Explosions and fires are my favorite in this game, they just look incredible on a current generation game. The lighting effects in the game also look wonderful. The graphics look amazing altogether ; wind that effects the trees that makes leaves fall to the sun light that reflects off the water. The grphics are just amazingly fantastic.
The Sound - The Metal Gear Solid series has always been known for it's great voice-overs and sound effects, Snake Eater definetly doesn't fail in living up to great sound. Each weapon has an individual sound and even that sound breaks off into wether you put a suppresor ( silencer) or wether you don't put one on the gun. The voice-overs are absolutely superb in every way possible because the actors and actresses bring tons of personality and drama into their characters. The animals even make sound ,from the snakes to the goats to the spiders that you can just barely hear moving. The music is also done by the same composer of Sons of Liberty. Music is amazing in every way from when everything is calm to when all of the enemies in the area come after you. The new sound brings a whole new retrospect to the series just like the new survival gameplay did.
Value - This is were Subsistence makes its mark. Subsistence goes even further than Substance when it comes to extras. Let's start with the biggest, Online Play. MGO (Metal Gear Online) is a very well and in-depth multiplayer experience with two multiiplayer games and up to eight players. Next up is Metal Gear, the game that started the series. Note that this game was never released in the states. Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge is also included. Both offer the MGS feeling but definetly not the gameplay. There is also a new thing called Duel Mode where you can fight each boss again. Also, Snake VS. Monkey is back with even more levels amd goodies in store for the player. In the Limited Edition of Subsistense, there is an extra disc called Demo Theatre were you can watch the whole game in movie form spanning 3 and 1/2 hours. The extras are very well done through-out and make the value great.
Overall, the re-issue of Snake Eater dubbed Subsistense is a very well done game with great extras and some remarkably great replay value with the new online mode. Every PS2 owner should own this excellent game.