Stax Kazama
November 24th, 2004, 08:52
So I've just finished Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and felt the need to write something up on it as it was an awesome, awesome game.
The setting.
Its a bit of a change, rather than taking place in the future like the other Metal Gear games, this one takes place in the past. It occurs in 1964, during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The whole game takes place in Russia and you're either in the jungle, some sort of compund/building, or the mountains for most of the game.
The gameplay.
The gameplay has changed quite a bit, but its mainly the same. They've added on some new aspects, and taken away others. This game introduces camoflage into the game. You start out with a few and can pick up more along the way. Depending on what terrain you are in at the time, your camoflage can hide you from enemies (how well you blend in is measured with a percentage that appears in the top right corner of the screen). You can also download diffrent camoflages from the website.
Survival Mode is another nifty little thing they added in. This is one of my favorate new extras. Along with a life bar you also have a stamina bar. In this game you need to eat. You can hunt and capture animals, and different plants to eat during the game. How well they taste is proportianate to how much stamina they restore. Some plants can also be used for medical items. If you get injured in this game a red bar will appear on your lifebar. You need to go into the survival menu and heal the specific wounds. For example, if you have a deep cut, you need to disinfect it, stop the bleeding, stitch yourself up and bandage it. If you are hit with a dart or bullet you need to dig it out with your knife. ^_^
The AI of the enemies has been increased quite a bit. Any noise will set them off, and its VERY hard to sneak up on them. Hiding under bed and boxes doesn't always work, if something seems suspicious they'll lift up the box, or get down and ,look under the bed. It make it alot tougher. The fact that you are in the jungle leaves very little places to hide (if you're spotted, you're basically screwed. It takes FOREVER to get back to normal mode from an Alert countdown. If you are spotted it goes into ALERT mode, the EVASION, and the CAUTION. All three count down from 99, which gets a bit tedious if you are spotted often.
No more radar. Yup, the radar with the vision of an enemy is gone. Basically, you have to use the nalog sticks, sneaking against walls, and first person view to figure where there are enemies. It makes it more of a pain, but its also more realistic this way. (This is the 60's mind you, they didn't have all these high tech gadgets..hell in this game game you use C3 instead of C4).
The Characters.
Snake (Naked Snake): Its not the same Snake we're used to, but he's still a badass. I won't give away his real identity (even though its obvious and no big secret) in case people don't know.
Major Zero: Basically the same role as the Colenel in MGS. Radio support.
Par-Medic: A medical expert. Radio Support.
Sigint: Weapons expert. Radio Support.
Volgin:A GRU colonel. Evil Bastard XD.
Ocelot: Yup, its the same one from MGS, before he got the name "Revolver" though. He's really young in this. He's an arrogant ass and I love him in this game XD.
The BOSS: Snake's mentor. Probably the best soldier EVER. Leader of the Cobra Unit (also know as "the Joy").
EVA: A spy that supports Snake throughout his mission.
The Cobra Unit:
The Pain: Controls Hornets
The End: Over 100 years old. Master sniper.
The Fear: Crazy spider-esque guy.
The Fury" A Kosmonaut with a big ass flamethrower that uses rocket fuel.
The Sorrow: Dead, was a freind of the Boss.
As far as boss fights go, most of them were somewhat lacking. The Cobra Unit can't even hold a candle to FOXHOUND from MGS1. WHile they all had thier own powers and quarks, they had no real depth or backstory to them. The only fight out of the Cobras that I enjoyed was with The End (sniper battle = the shit).
While it has a few flaws, its an awesome game and def. worth getting. If you 're a fan of the other MGS games, you'll love this (and you'll probably enjoy all of the little extras thrown in that refer to the other games).
And if you miss Solid Snake you can always play "Snake vs. Monkey" which is a ridiculous (and somewhat addicting) mini game where you must capture stupid looking cartoon monkeys. XD
Watch through the credits when you beat it also, because like the other games before it, it has the ol' "top secret phone call twist ending"..well, it was predicatble in this one as far as the person's identity, but it was cool nontheles..
I can only sum up the ending of this game in two words: "Holy Shit."
The setting.
Its a bit of a change, rather than taking place in the future like the other Metal Gear games, this one takes place in the past. It occurs in 1964, during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The whole game takes place in Russia and you're either in the jungle, some sort of compund/building, or the mountains for most of the game.
The gameplay.
The gameplay has changed quite a bit, but its mainly the same. They've added on some new aspects, and taken away others. This game introduces camoflage into the game. You start out with a few and can pick up more along the way. Depending on what terrain you are in at the time, your camoflage can hide you from enemies (how well you blend in is measured with a percentage that appears in the top right corner of the screen). You can also download diffrent camoflages from the website.
Survival Mode is another nifty little thing they added in. This is one of my favorate new extras. Along with a life bar you also have a stamina bar. In this game you need to eat. You can hunt and capture animals, and different plants to eat during the game. How well they taste is proportianate to how much stamina they restore. Some plants can also be used for medical items. If you get injured in this game a red bar will appear on your lifebar. You need to go into the survival menu and heal the specific wounds. For example, if you have a deep cut, you need to disinfect it, stop the bleeding, stitch yourself up and bandage it. If you are hit with a dart or bullet you need to dig it out with your knife. ^_^
The AI of the enemies has been increased quite a bit. Any noise will set them off, and its VERY hard to sneak up on them. Hiding under bed and boxes doesn't always work, if something seems suspicious they'll lift up the box, or get down and ,look under the bed. It make it alot tougher. The fact that you are in the jungle leaves very little places to hide (if you're spotted, you're basically screwed. It takes FOREVER to get back to normal mode from an Alert countdown. If you are spotted it goes into ALERT mode, the EVASION, and the CAUTION. All three count down from 99, which gets a bit tedious if you are spotted often.
No more radar. Yup, the radar with the vision of an enemy is gone. Basically, you have to use the nalog sticks, sneaking against walls, and first person view to figure where there are enemies. It makes it more of a pain, but its also more realistic this way. (This is the 60's mind you, they didn't have all these high tech gadgets..hell in this game game you use C3 instead of C4).
The Characters.
Snake (Naked Snake): Its not the same Snake we're used to, but he's still a badass. I won't give away his real identity (even though its obvious and no big secret) in case people don't know.
Major Zero: Basically the same role as the Colenel in MGS. Radio support.
Par-Medic: A medical expert. Radio Support.
Sigint: Weapons expert. Radio Support.
Volgin:A GRU colonel. Evil Bastard XD.
Ocelot: Yup, its the same one from MGS, before he got the name "Revolver" though. He's really young in this. He's an arrogant ass and I love him in this game XD.
The BOSS: Snake's mentor. Probably the best soldier EVER. Leader of the Cobra Unit (also know as "the Joy").
EVA: A spy that supports Snake throughout his mission.
The Cobra Unit:
The Pain: Controls Hornets
The End: Over 100 years old. Master sniper.
The Fear: Crazy spider-esque guy.
The Fury" A Kosmonaut with a big ass flamethrower that uses rocket fuel.
The Sorrow: Dead, was a freind of the Boss.
As far as boss fights go, most of them were somewhat lacking. The Cobra Unit can't even hold a candle to FOXHOUND from MGS1. WHile they all had thier own powers and quarks, they had no real depth or backstory to them. The only fight out of the Cobras that I enjoyed was with The End (sniper battle = the shit).
While it has a few flaws, its an awesome game and def. worth getting. If you 're a fan of the other MGS games, you'll love this (and you'll probably enjoy all of the little extras thrown in that refer to the other games).
And if you miss Solid Snake you can always play "Snake vs. Monkey" which is a ridiculous (and somewhat addicting) mini game where you must capture stupid looking cartoon monkeys. XD
Watch through the credits when you beat it also, because like the other games before it, it has the ol' "top secret phone call twist ending"..well, it was predicatble in this one as far as the person's identity, but it was cool nontheles..
I can only sum up the ending of this game in two words: "Holy Shit."