Review for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

[Misteektomboy]

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater Review
Average User Rating: 9.3


The thing that's not so immediately obvious about Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the absence of right angles. Right angles have heretofore been a big part of these games, after all. Nearly every bit of architecture in Metal Gears past has fit together in nice, neat perpendicular fashion, which naturally makes things relatively easy for both the game's designers and its players. The designers can say, "Well, this guard walks this way, turns this corner, then turns that corner, " and so on. Meanwhile, the player can think, "Aha, if I hide around this corner, that guard definitely won't see me," and so on. Right angles are one of the key defining elements of the game.
Metal Gear Solid 3 shoots every right angle's head off and then eats them. That's the hidden new dimension to be found in its expansive, borderless, chaotic, realistic sylvan environment. Its angles point every which way, which means that both the computer AI and the player's response thereto suddenly acquire an unprecedented new depth.

I chose to lead off by talking about angles. I could have picked any number of hooks in this game, though, whether it would be the amazing special effects, the intriguing story potential, or the cool bit in the beginning of the preview movie where Solid Snake yanks a salmon out of a river and starts gnawing on its guts. It has been well established that Hideo Kojima can cut together a pretty mean videogame trailer, but it's still impressive to see him keeping up his track record.

The preview for Snake Eater begins with Snake parachuting into an unknown forest, where the sun shines beautifully through tall deciduous trees. While it seemed like a jungle environment earlier on, now it seems like a more northern clime, dryer and with less of the jungle's consuming undergrowth. The appearance of a map of Russia in the promotional pamphlet for the game provides an obvious clue, although Kojima obviously has a taste for putting one over on his fans. No matter, though -- we'll find out exactly where this is in time. For now, what's interesting is what's happening there.

Stealth is of course the raison d'etre of the Metal Gear games, but it's always been stealth of a relatively simple sort. The trick is to simply not walk across someone's line of fire -- it's a digital affair, not ****og, although the involvement of sound in more recent games has helped introduce some slightly more complex shadings. In Snake Eater, though, it looks as if we've come upon a truly "****og" stealth game, where many different factors come together to determine who is seen, who is hidden, who is alive, and who is dead.

Camouflage, for example, is clearly a key factor. Up 'till now, Snake has just worn gray because it was his color. Now, he's kitted out in tiger-striped forest camo and face paint (among at least seven different camouflage models on display, as well as a shirtless outfit with web gear) that lets him genuinely fade into the background. It's a great effect when you see it in action, because it attests to some superior texturing and special effects work on the part of the game's creators. In one sequence, Snake creeps up into the hollow of a moss-covered rock, as rain pours down around him. A guard walks right past, and you can see why he wouldn't see Snake at first glance, until it's too late...

Even more traditional evasion tactics are also getting a facelift thanks to the complexity of the new outdoor environment. Snake can climb trees now, for example, and swing from branch to branch, or carefully walk along the fatter limbs. Even better, he can silently hang from a tree while ranging in on opponents. One scene shows him with a silenced pistol, picking off commandos from a tree branch while he hangs with the other hand. The first-person view shows some fine attention to detail -- with only one hand to hold the gun, and so much stress on the other arm, Snake's hand trembles with tension just ever so slightly.

When things get really ugly, of course, and enemy commandos converge on Snake, it's time to see how the game's firefights have improved. Metal Gear Solid 2, to be honest, was a rather difficult game to like when the shooting started. In large part, that was probably intentional on the designers' part, but when the guns started blazing, the game became more frustrating than compelling at times. It was often more tempting to save time by simply dying and returning to a continue checkpoint than shooting it out, running away, and going through the laborious process of waiting for the alert level to go down.

Snake Eater, of course, offers none of the claustrophobic confines of Shadow Moses or the Big Shell. Instead, it looks like there's plenty of elbow room for a complex shootout. A scene with eight commandos converging on Snake, armed with rifles, shotguns, and grenades, shows off how the AI works to envelop the player, and how the player can fight back with stealth, agility, and carefully-employed firepower. There are more new moves to shoot from cover, building on the simple jumpout shot maneuver, so Snake can get some hard cover and counterattack with grenades or rifle fire against a superior enemy.

In quieter moments, he'll apparently have to get on the business of staying alive as well as just avoiding getting killed. Kojima promises that both Stealth and Survival will be the new game's watchwords, so players will actually have to hunt and kill their own meals, and perhaps even develop a taste for one kind of game or another. The trailer shows fish swimming in rivers and lakes -- one fish even goes flying when an exploding shell lands in the water -- and of course, Snake can dine on multiple varieties of his namesake.

Some gamers may still be puzzling through the game's story, despite the futility of the effort. There is of course, little to say on the subject. The promotional pamphlet drops hints of Russia as a setting, with both a Russian map and the Soviet hammer and sickle as a repeating motif. It also looks like this may be set in the past, as some have speculated -- the pamphlet also includes a timeline of the years 1960 through 1964. That would make Snake pretty old, of course -- around retirement age in Metal Gear Solid 2, assuming he were around 20 in the early '60s -- but he's a pretty tough old guy. And we can also assume that the Metal Gear mecha is involved somehow, since the pamphlet also includes a papercraft model of a "classified mech" designed for the new game.

No matter what there is to say about the game's new narrative, it's clear that Kojima remains a gifted director. The trailer's action is photographed beautifully, taking full advantage of sophisticated new lighting effects. Whether it's the soft light coming through the trees or the harsh glare of a starshell shining over a firefight, it always works, and the choice of camera angles captures it perfectly.

Kojima also retains a refined sense of humor, the same one that gave us the hilarious sneezing sequences from the original MGS2 trailer. Two sequences in the new movie gain brilliant laughs.

In one, Snake comes upon an anonymous new character, a man starting up a motorcycle with a sidecar (and a very nicely modeled one at that). Obviously, his intention is to jack himself a ride, to which the victim responds "What, another grand theft auto?" "No!" replies Snake, after a puzzled look at his pistol, "it's a sneaking mission!" Nonplussed, the rider replies "This is no vice city! We're in a jungle! Go eat snakes!" Despite the gun trained on him, he rides away.

Hm. It just occurred to us that it doesn't read as the least bit funny. Perhaps you have to see it for yourself -- the fact that it's spoken in Japanese, with subtitles, probably helps.

The other gag reads just fine, though. On a deserted riverside dock, Snake sneaks up behind a guard and grabs him, holding a knife to his throat. "What's the release date?!" he demands. The desperate guard replies, "I don't know!" Undeterred, Snake switches from a choke hold to a hammerlock and bends the guard down backwards, holding the knife between his eyes. Finally, the desperate guard chokes out "...2004!" before fainting with fear. Snake, of course, is as disappointed as we.

Time marches on, of course, and a game this promising is more than worth waiting for. These impressions only scratch the surface of the new trailer -- its amazing special effects, its multitude of new gameplay elements, its killer soundtrack (again coming courtesy of Harry Gregson-Williams), and so many other fine qualities. Metal Gear Solid 2 may have left a bad taste in some gamers' mouths, but we have a feeling a quick meal of Snake should wash that out with ease.

Reviewed by Misteektomboy :cool:

[Peppage]

Is this game even out yet?

[Anubis]

Not in america...O_o

Only MGS Twin Snake is out here...

[Laguna Loire]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Not in america...O_o

Only MGS Twin Snake is out here...

Same here. Snake Eater's not out in the UK either. Twin Snakes is out though.

[Peppage]

well it isn't out any where yet, it was just a demo at E3 that some kids stole.

[[N]eto]

I doubt you wrote all that, haha...

[Laguna Loire]

*Cough* Copy and Paste *Cough* :D

[Killirbob.Exe]

aaaa psha i was the first to post a review.... i think i deleted it ... oops ... o well yay GOO TWIN SNAKES

Ohhh yeah and snake eater to Woot

[The Genie]

If you did wrote it yourself, don't forget to post it @ thegenie.net :D

[Good Ol' Redneck]

i thought it was write it genie? er are u a redneck!? ah! ah! ah! na jes messin w yee genie! twin snakes is just a remake of the playstation 1 version but hell its got better graphics :D

[Laguna Loire]

Originally Posted by The Rabid Wolverine

i thought it was write it genie? er are u a redneck!? ah! ah! ah! na jes messin w yee genie! twin snakes is just a remake of the playstation 1 version but hell its got better graphics :D

Yeah. It's basically MGS1 with all the features of MGS2 on the Gamecube.

MGS1 AND 2 RULE ALL! Lol. :D

[Killirbob.Exe]

copy and paste are my best friends but for a guy that never played the game he sure writes a good review lol .... it should be significantly diff then MGS1 and 2 but we shall see

[Vipershark]

copy and paste is right.

[Good Ol' Redneck]

Originally Posted by Killirbob.Exe

it should be significantly diff then MGS1 and 2 but we shall see

its totaly dif than mgs1 and 2....it deals in the jungle :D

[Vipershark]

Yeah. You don't use boxes or that kind of stuff. You gotta use camoflauge and facepaints to hide yourself. It's waaaay different.