Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Is probably the best game the genre has to offer thus far.
To start off the game is quite straightforward telling you how to use the Close-Quarters-Combat (CQC) in its basic potential, which will help you out once you have mastered it fully. With the LONG definition that The Boss give you about CQC you should be set to go, if you paid attention that is. The first few tasks are relatively simple and are basically pointed out for you in the beginning if you press R1 at the appropriate times in the cut-scenes that follow. The game doesn’t truly start to become difficult until you’re at the point of rescuing Sokolov, where the mass array of guards will prove quite difficult. Non-the-less on any difficulty setting you choose you’ll be able to conquer that after a while of sneaking around through bushes and knocking out the guards as they stroll along.
While the main gist of the story won’t come until the latter parts of the game it is still an impressive and gripping one none-the-less. Although I won’t spoil any part of the story for those who haven’t played it I will say that the thought put into it was incredible and no doubt took some research to make certain was as correct as possible. Having each character have his and her special charisma and attitude towards certain situations was of course a necessity, since humor has to play in and nobody likes a mono-emotionalist to bring down a character, especially when speech is involved. Although the game does not have any flaw in the story the certain times the characters are together in the same room talking seems like each speech was taken at one time and then spliced together, not giving an authentic feel of intensity during hectic moments.
With the story off to a slow but assuring start the game-play and graphics need to be addressed accordingly. While the controls can be quite confusing at the start once you get to know how weapons work and how to properly climb and scoot across narrow ledges the game will be much less frustrating and much more fun. In the beginning the game is sort of set at getting you to learn how to do the previously mentioned commands. Encountering a very rickety bridge and a ledge facing a cliff that leads to certain death are more than just scenery here. Once you try to tackle the bridge if you’re not cautious you will fall, and unannounced you will not know which button to push. If you’re one that doesn’t read the instruction manual you will have problems quick, since there are life and stamina bars that are affected with everything you do. Hanging too long will cause your grip to lessen, as indicated by the blue bar that fills with white, pressing triangle will help you out of the situation. However there are times that that will not be the only way out of such circumstances, if you are too close to a ledge or an object you will not be able to climb up as soon as you would like to, of course the natural thing to do would be to move to the right or left and then proceed out of the danger. Simply put getting yourself off of a dangling position before its too late is rather simple, while you’ve alerted guards its another story, where you will have to wait for them to leave before you can hop back to safety, causing you to panic if you’ve been hanging too long. Hanging and dangling aside the most important aspect of the game is the camouflage and combat systems.
Choosing the right camouflage is the key part of this game, and this game gives you plenty to hide yourself with. You start the game off with a fair number of uniforms and face paint arrays, but finding the hidden ones is the fun part. You can obtain camouflage from every boss you fight in the game as well a few scattered across the various levels, including masks and face-paint. The additional uniforms and/or masks face-paint arrays will help you throughout the game so finding the extras is almost key, but fun all the same.
Although Metal Gear Solid 3 is a primarily stealth based game you do have the option, or given ability, to go nuts and just kill everybody in the game rather than sneak by them. Given this the game has a nice selection of firearms and grenades to choose from to harass and kill your enemies with. Guns, most importantly, are well abundant. Pistols are probably the most key of the guns; you can silence almost all of them giving you a better stealth advantage. And with the fact that your silencer will fade out there are extra silencers to equip in such an event. Not only are silencers for pistols though you can equip them on other guns, most notable is the M16 (assault rifle.) Other guns include mini-machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, revolvers, and the Patriot.
With this game the series was further cemented as a great, maybe even the greatest stealth action game, for the PS2 or any other system. This game is well worth the money you’ll pay for it, but with Subsistence coming out next year (’06) you might just want to wait and experience this game with the extras and multiplayer features added on. If you cannot wait this game is well worth the price and more.