A game so good, it's a shame it's the last one in the series.
The story takes place 5 years after the climax of Metal Gear Solid 2. Liquid, who now has complete control over Revolver Ocelot, plans to take complete control over the Patriot's SOP in order to cause a nuclear strike around the world. To stop him, Roy Campbell enlists Snake, who has now become Old Snake due to his rapid aging process, to stop Liquid's plan. He also gets the help of Otacon and Sunny, Olga's daughter, who take care of Snake when hes badly injured or give him new technology.
The gameplay remains the same, though many things have been tweaked. Rather then having all of your weapons and items out at once, you are only able to carry a maximum of 5 weapons and 8 items at once. You are able to switch them in the selection menu though. As a staple in the series, you can either be sneaky and defeat the enemies using CQC, or you can run into the battlefield and defeat your enemies with your weapons.
Many other things return in this game such as the Stress bar and the Camouflage percentage. The Vitality bar will decrease over time, making Snake more tired the lower it is. The Camouflage percentage shows how well Snake is hidden and the percent that Snake won't be seen by an enemy. Another new feature in the game is the Opti-Camo Suit, which also works alongside the percentage of you being seen. The suit, which you get in the beginning of the game, changes into the color and texture of any ground or wall your leaning against. You are able to choose whether the suit will activate manually or automatically.
There are two new items exclusive to this game. One of them is the Metal Gear MK2. It is a small Metal Gear robot that Otocan and Sunny invented to keep an eye on Snake with its built in camera. You are able to control it to sneak up on enemies and paralyze them with a build in electric wire. It also can help to see any enemies around the corner. The second item is the Solid Eye. It is an eyepiece that is able to bring up a radar on screen and change into night vision. Both these things run on the same battery source, so after they're drained, you have to wait a few moments before they completely recharged.
In the beginning of the game, you meet a character named Drebin, a weapon's dealer who is able to sell you ammo and weapons in exchange for Drebin points. Drebin points can only be obtained by collecting weapons from the floor or from dead soldiers. He is also able to unlock your weapons. In the game, most of the weapons you'll find will be locked because your nanomachines can't register them. By paying a certain amount of points, you could unlock and use the weapons.
The game is comprised up of 5 chapters. At the beginning of the game and after each chapter has been beaten, you will be required to download another part of the game while waiting. While you wait, you will be treated to watching Snake taking a break with a cigarette while messages pop up telling you about not smoking or not playing the game too much.
The controls are very simple and it's easy to pick them up and play the game. If you played any of the previous games in the series, you will instantly feel at home. To those that won't at first, the tutorial that takes place during the first chapter should really get you into it.
The characters in the game are each given a great personality whether it's Snake's constant problems with his aging to Vamp's dark attitude. The voice acting is superb in the game and it brings you into the story and the music is great and really fits with all of the scenarios.
There may not be as many bosses as there used to be in the series, but they're still challenging and fun to face nonetheless. Some can be defeated by shooting and dodging, while some take a real strategic way to win. the majority of the bosses are part of an organization called The Beauty and the Beast. After defeating each of the members, Drebin tells you each of their horrible pasts and their reason for becoming what they are. It brings you more into the story. Afterwards, you are able to get their weapons that they were using when you fought them.
There are many weapons that Snake could use during the game. They are all based on their real life counterparts and even have the real name. There is no issue of the unbalance of weapons in Metal Gear Online.
Metal Gear Online comes back from Metal Gear Solid 3 even better than before. When you start, you will have to download Metal Gear Online, and then you'll have to make a Konami ID which will become your online ID for the game. After having done all that, you'll finally be able to play. When starting, you could choose a lobby which are all named after characters in the Metal Gear Solid universe. You can play with up to 16 people online. There are many modes online as well as the standard deathmatch. It's really addicting and fun and entire matches can go as long as an hour.
The graphics in the game are some of the best ever. You will rarely ever see any bad texture in the game. The details put into everything like facial animations look great and the cutscenes are very well made. The production value for the game is extremely high, and it looks like it was all payed off for. It really shows the power that the PS3 can handle.
The game packs around 10 hours of gameplay and 15 hours of cutscenes. The game is recommended for any PS3 owner as it's one of the best games out and the best game on the PS3.