MGS3: Subsistence is beter than the original Snake Eater, but needs more improvements for today's standards.
When I first played Snake Eater in a demo, I realized very quickly that the camera angle does not work for a stealth game when compared to other games in the industry and the standards of today. For this very reason I did not purchase Snake Eater. Many fanboys where arguing with me over my judgment of the camera angle and how it does not work for a stealth game, especially in the jungle setting.
I am a gamer and no fanboy to any game or platform. It was so nice to hear about Subsistence and how even Hideo agreed with me and many others that could see past the fanboy tactics and be honest with themselves about the camera angle.
So here is subsistence. A very well made game that truly brings the MGS series to the beginning. The game has so many good points and so many things done well. I will not cover them because many other reviews have done so already. Instead, I will point out what still needs to be tweaked and hopefully changed by the time MGS4 comes out.
If you want to know all the good things, read other reviews. The game is worthy of a purchase this time around.
Tweak #1:
What I feel is still not working correctly is the camera angle when your lying on the grass areas. I want to crawl in third person and move through the grass while focused on my surroundings. This can setup for my next move. Instead I find that the camera forces you to switch to a first person crawl camera when you’re in high grassy areas. This takes away from the full control of the camera and the view of your surroundings.
When I am spotted, I will run and dive roll into prone position is some grass, to only find myself staring at blades of grass and loosing the view of the enemy behind me. This proves to be frustrating to say the least.
Tweak #2:
The other tweak the series needs is the aiming in 3rd person mode. I would rather see a Resident Evil 4, over the shoulder shooting mode than to run around shooting at everything but my target. The game still forces you to switch to first person mode to aim and shoot with any accuracy. This again is something that proves to be annoying during the game play experience. I like the first person aiming camera, but I would also like the ability to shoot on the run with accuracy.
Tweak #3:
The next tweak is the cammo system. Nothing is more annoying than to change clothes in a battlefield every 20 feet. MGS was always about realism and this is one area that just needs to be dropped. No soldier is going to walk into battle with enough clothes to open a clothing store. A soldier will not change clothes in the battle field every 20 feet to cammo himself with the environment. This is very badly done.