Review
Release Date: 11.17.2004
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Konami Computer Entertainment Japan Co., Ltd.Publisher:
Konami of America, Inc.Reviewed by
Ashton Liu on 11.23.2004
| Review Rating: 10/10 | User Rating: 8.76/10 |
Ah, yes, November. The time of year when all the systems call upon the finest game developers with sky high production values and duke it out with their killer apps for the year. It just so happens that every 'killer app' status game this year is a sequel in a game series. The Xbox has
Halo 2, the PC has
Half Life 2, the Gamecube has
Metroid Prime: Echoes, and the PlayStation 2 has
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. And let me just say, with the obvious quality of
Metal Gear Solid 3, it's going to be hard for any other game to overtake it in terms of sheer quality.
Metal Gear Solid 3 takes place in the 1960s. The player takes the role of Naked Snake (stop that snickering!) as he attempts to infiltrate a Russian base in order to rescue a brilliant weapons scientist named Sokolov. In the first hour of the game, Sokolov reveals that he is working on a deadly weapon, called Shagohod, that will allow Russia to launch nuclear missiles to anywhere in the U.S. Add to this one of the major allies of Snake defecting to the enemy's side, injuring Snake severely during the process, and things don't look too good for our hero. Unfortunately, Snake has no time to rest as he is sent into Russian lands once again immediately after his wounds start to heal. His mission - to prevent the completion of the Shagohod, rescue Sokolov, and kill the traitor. For those wondering if the story will take ridiculous twists and turns (a la
Metal Gear Solid 2), fear not, the story is thought out and put together quite well.
Those anticipating
Metal Gear Solid 3 have no doubt heard of the radical changes series director Hideo Kojima has made to the standard formula of the
MGS games. First, and possibly most important, the radar included in previous
Metal Gear Solid games has been ousted in favor of a camo index. The camo index allows players to see how well camouflaged they are in their surroundings. This makes for a slower paced game; instead of waiting for guards to turn their backs on the radar, the player must instead crawl and sneak in an incredibly slow pace in order to avoid detection. Full on battles against enemies will only mean eventual, frustrating deaths. This goes for boss battles too; instead of the shoot-a-thons against major enemies in previous games, in
MGS3 you are able to hide from boss enemies and shoot them from afar, since direct combat works to the player's disadvantage. The result is a series of boss battles that take more skill and precision to win, instead of randomly shooting and hoping you get his life bar down to zero before he does the opposite. While there aren't as many boss battles in the game compared to previous
Metal Gear Solid games, each boss battle takes a while to complete - the battles range from moderately difficult to disturbingly bizarre. If the player wants to continue, s/he must stick with each boss until the end, no matter how dead Snake seems.
In regards to items,
Snake Eater puts its subtitle in a literal sense as you progress through the game. Below Snake's life bar is a stamina bar, which is used to measure his body's condition. While Snake will regenerate life normally if he stays idle for a while, his stamina bar will constantly decrease as time goes on. A low stamina bar will result in his stomach growling (which alerts guards to his presence), his hands trembling (less accuracy during firefights), and other negative effects. To correct this, players must hunt for local flora and fauna for Snake to eat in order to keep his stamina up. No wildlife is out of bounds - snakes, birds, mushrooms, fruits, bats, spiders, scorpions, and rats are only a few of the animals Snake can down in order to give himself that extra boost. Of course, each animal will heal a different amount of stamina according to how much Snake likes it (he'll obviously prefer lamb meat to spider meat), but some may have negative effects on Snake, so the player must make sure that mushroom s/he picked isn't poisonous before having Snake gulp it down. One negative aspect about this system is that there is no way for Snake to instantly recover his life; he must regenerate it naturally, so it drags on the game a bit, but not too much. Snake can also become seriously injured during a battle. In this instance, the injury will start to sap Snake's life after an amount of time has passed. This is where the cure system comes in. Snake is able to cure himself by taking medicine or performing surgery on himself. Tasks for this system include injecting himself with an anti-toxin to counteract poison, picking out a bullet/crossbow bolt/dart with a knife, and tending to cut or infected wounds with disinfectant or bandages.
The graphics in
Snake Eater are simply amazing. I'd go so far as to say they are possibly the best graphics I have ever seen on the PS2. From the breath-taking sky diving scene in the beginning to the awe-inspiring finale, the graphical level of this game is astounding. Konami didn't pull any punches with
Snake Eater.
The music in the game is standard
MGS fare. Epic sounding, but nothing too special. If you've played
Metal Gear Solid 2, then you'll know what to expect aurally with this game. The same goes for the voice acting. The series has always been known to have excellent voice acting, and
Snake Eater is no different. From the rugged Snake to the sultry EVA, each character in the game is acted with amazing ability only found in
Metal Gear Solid games.
For those players who seek extras, this game has it in spades. There are at least two minigames (one of which is incredibly well hidden, any player who finds it will likely stumble onto it by accident), multiple camos and face paints to find (and download), Easter Eggs that give extra items, and even a mask of a familiar character if you make your choices right. While not an extra, the game also features some chuckles if the player decides to make some choices that may affect the timeline in previous
Metal Gear Solid games, as well as some funny conversations about the future.
Snake Eater takes pretty much all the mistakes Konami made in the previous
Metal Gear Solid games, and corrects them. In doing so, it also introduces a number of negative qualities to this new entry in the series. However, any complaints about the game pale in comparison to the praise one can give it, since pretty much all of the potential pitfalls of the game are incredibly minor. If you own a PlayStation 2, there's no reason not to own this game. In fact, I don't know why you're still reading. Go get it, right now.
