Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Usually I don't get to play many (or any for that matter) "M" rated games as my parents are strict and won't let me even watch "M" rated games until I'm approximately 38 years of age. I consider myself lucky to be able to play this game, and by lucky I mean really sneaky because my parents have no idea that I have ever played this video game and I don't intend for them to find out either.

Ironically this was the first Metal Gear Solid game I ever played (see above reason) and I made sure it didn't make references to past Metal Gear Solid games, which are actually set in the future. Once I figured out that except for a few characters that appear in Metal Gear Solid (Ocelot for example) there is no real spoilers that would ruin anything awesome for me in the other games.

Right in the beginning of the game, it sets the time era and of course it has to be against some Russians. The time era is during the era of the Cold War (which ironically could be anywhere from 1950 to like 1980 as the USA was very anti-communist, but this isn't a history lesson it's a video game review).

The main character, codenamed Naked Snake (NOT Solid Snake. Different Snake entirely, though possibly closely related. I personally don't know), has to infiltrate through Russia to rescue a captured scientist and destroy the mysteroius super weapon called the "Shagohod".

With help from such people as Major Tom (Later renamed Major Zero, both names were codenames) and The Boss who seems to have a mysterious past with Snake. Snake's mission is to rescue Russian scientist Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov, but we'll call him Sokolov as he is addressed in the game. Snake finds Sokolov and is escorting him when suddenly Snake is surprised to see that The Boss and the Cobra Unit, a famous unit that fought in World War II often said to be one of the main reasons the Allies won in World War II, has defected to help the Russians. Sokolov is taken and Snake is left beaten alone and in need of medical assistance.

Colonel Volgin receives a warhead from The Boss as payment to make sure that The Boss isn't trying to trick the Russians, and Volgin shoots the warhead to a nearby town blowing it to bits. The Americans save Snake, but the Russians detect the American plane and assume the Americans were behind the bombing and causes more tension between the two nations.

Having never played any of the Metal Gear Solid games, though I watched them, I have to say it was an amazing experience. It was a totally new experience for me and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it deeply. The gameplay, the engine, the plot, the look almost everything about the game made me look in awe and realize that I should have sneakily played the other two Metal Gear Solid games way before.

The first time I played it really wasn't the main game, it was the minigame it offered. If you've played and enjoyed Ape Escape, you'll love the minigame. It starts out with a hilarious opening codec scene (that has inside jokes based towards Ape Escape, so you might not find it funny otherwise. Check out Ape Escape) and then to catching the apes that appeared in Ape Escape using a tranquilizer and eventually some other weapons you acquire, which is mostly Thermal Detectors and Sonars.

This game came out for the Playstation 2, so obviously one would expect this game to have not so great graphics. Quite the contrary, being on the PS2 the game delivers quite well. Obviously it can't be put to it's full potential as the PS2 limits it, but it still has nice looking graphics. The settings you find yourself in vary from the jungle, which is usually where you'll find yourself, to ruins and scientific facilities. Obviously it's easier to be stealthy inside a jungle than it is to be in a scientific facility, which is where the MGS1 and MGS2 basics come in. I didn't have that training so it was a bit more difficult for me, but I soon got the hang of it as I followed the obvious pattern that guards walk in but you'll find it a bit easier if you have found yourself playing the other 2 games before this one.

A cool thing I found was the camouflage system. This game is all about stealth and having played the other 2 games briefly I noticed that if you find yourself caught, a lot of the times you can simply knock out the guard, find a locker and hide. While you can do that in this game it doesn't help when there aren't random lockers in the middle of the jungle for you to hide in, so it's best to never be caught. Ever. Once you are spotted and the guard puts the other guards on alert, guards pop out from everywhere searching for you. This requires you to be camouflaged in the terrain, so obviously you need to change your appearance accordingly. That's where the camouflage system comes into play. You eventually acquire new clothes and facepaints to use when in a different terrain to camouflage yourself better (You are able to tell how well camouflaged you are by the percentage on the top right part of the screen. The higher the percentage, the better camouflaged you are).

How does the camouflage system play into infiltrating scientific facilities? Well eventually you get such outfits as scientist clothes and a Raiden mask because one of the Russian officers happens to be a Raiden clone. This way you can trick scientists, officers unless they notice the fact that you're aiming a gun at their face because soon after they alert people to kill you and you'll have to repeat the process of hiding. Luckily scientific facilities DO have lockers to hide in, but the soldiers are smart and they check the lockers for porno magazines (which do appear in the game I might add) but instead find the man they were ordered to kill. Eventually they see the poster of the hot and sexy japanese girl plastered on the locker wall (I saw lots of this. Japan is filled with pervs. This isn't a opinion. This is a known fact) and kill two birds with one stone, unless of course you knock them out AND take the porn.

Another nice thing was the stamina replenishing. In the jungle you'd find wild creatures such as crabs, snakes and frogs. Once you catch these animals (Nicely packaged immediately when you stab them) they are put into your inventory. Later, when you are low on stamina you can eat a certain animal and Snake himself would rate the taste of the animal and depending on how good the animal tasted that's how much stamina you would replenish (The more tasty, the more stamina. Get it?).


The gameplay in this game is really great. Running around the jungle, hiding, sneaking, shooting I loved it all. It played smoothly and I didn't see many problems with the game. One thing I noticed though was the camera. At times it can be choppy and frustrate you. When you aim your gun it goes into first person mode, and then when you are simply running around it's a 3rd person overhead view so switching back and forth between this can be an annoyance because you'll be looking forward when you aim and you'll have your analog stick pointed in the direction you're aiming to run but when it goes back to the 3rd person, the area you wanna go is in the opposite direction of where you were pointing and it's a whole lot of spinning around that could possibly get you spotted sometimes.

Now I make the camera sound more awful than it actually is. Many times the camera was fine and was put in a very nice place that worked well with the area you were in, but many times (especially in the facilities) you'd find yourself many times getting annoyed at the camera. It doesn't help when you're running from a mob of soldiers and suddenly you find yourself spinning around like a bad breakdancer only to get shot several times.

The controls were a bit complicated at times though once you got used to them they became second nature. At first I was confused as to how to do certain things and many times I found myself standing up and being spotted when I wanted to access the menu and eat a delicious snake to replenish some stamina (Possibly one of the reasons it's called Snake Eater, though that'd be lame if that was really why).

Overall I have to give this game a 4.5. Yes I don't give it a perfect score, and I gave reason to. While to some the whole camera issue may be minor to some, I found it annoying at times and was aggrivated that I got shot, wasting several of my medicinal items, because of the camera. Otherwise the game is amazing, a must-buy if you have a PS2 and you're a fan of the series.

4.5 star(s) out of 5

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