By the time you finish this game, you'll be feeling like a World War II soldier... well... in a good way...
The third installment of MGS series might be or might not the most realistic jungle survival game ever there is (it's not like I know any other). Shortly after the release of this game, a Subsistence version of this game was released (just like the Substance of MGS2). It contains funny cut scenes not included in the original game and a tweaked gameplay was introduced. But I would recommend this version for the simple reason, "Difficulty".
You will be taking the role of Naked Snake (not Solid, not Liquid, not Solidus, it's naked... not in a porno kind of way), a first of a kind soldier, a cross breed between an agent and soldier, sneaking and blending in like a spy yet as tough and strong as an commando. Naked Snake is Big Boss in his early days, before he became a leader, before he became a legend and before he was cloned. The setting is in the jungle of Russia. infiltrating with a mission to rescue Sokolov, a rocket scientist. The mission would seem simple but it will escalate to something that will lead you to a dangerous mission to save the world from World War III.
The gameplay is sneaking, fighting the enemy is not restricted but the game itself is forcing you to sneak around the enemy. A guidance counselor told me that this game is boring... yeah it is... if you are a hard core action game fans... namely first person shooter fans. The setting is the jungle so as you can expect that the visibility is hard with the trees and grass and all... a perfect spot for you and the enemy to hide. For you to hide, you must blend in, which means to say... Naked Snake is also a... err.. like a doll that you need to make change uniform in order to blend in if it was grass, clay, mud or concrete etch... there is a meter that tells you if you blend it well ranging from 0 to 100. Life Gauge was also changed from the previous game... there is now a Stamina Gauge under the Life Gauge. You will not gain any health not just by eating a ration, your health will steadily regenerate depending how full your Stamina gauge is and how bad your injuries are (just like in real life). The Stamina Gauge can be filled by eating, eating anything that you can find in the jungle ranging from a wide range of fish to birds. You can store extra food in a backpack but each food except for ration and living animal that you captured in a cage will be rotten at a certain point because the game will recognize when was the last time you played the game through the dating system on your console; from that reference your food can rot. As I was saying, yes, you can have injuries, got shot, have fracture be poisoned, get burned and can even have a stomach ache by eating something bad or rotten. The enemy soldiers can have injuries too, you can shoot their radio, arms or legs, you can even toss them bad food and if their hungry they'll eat it, to top it off you can blow up their supply storage to make them hungry. The tools and weapons here are mixed of old fashion and future fantasy weapons, that will help you infiltrate. The good old cardboard is also back, but this time around it has a label, so enemies can get curious if your cardboard is misplaced.
THE GOOD: Everything is neatly done considering the date it was released
THE BAD: I couldn't think of any, PM me, I'll just have to edit this review if you can think of one.
Another Kojima Masterpiece, too bad I couldn't play the fourth.