“One must die, and one must live. No victory, no defeat. The survivor will carry on the fight. It is our destiny... The one who survives will inherit the title of Boss. And the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle.”

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Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004), without a doubt, is my favorite game of all time and what I believe to be the greatest game ever made. I’ve debated it with myself back and forth, but I genuinely believe Snake Eater is the pinnacle of video games in every sense. Metal Gear Solid 2 took the social commentary of the first game and applied it to the present as a cautionary tale about the dangers of control and optimism of individuality; Metal Gear Solid 3 does roughly the same thing, but flips it on its head: this time, we follow the origin story of Big Boss. We see Naked Snake, real name Jack (notably the same name Raiden rejects at the end of 2) fall deeper and deeper into the control of the oppressive forces and figures around him until he has to get literally and figuratively rid of The Pain, The Fear, The Sorrow, The End, then finally kill The Joy until he is the perfect American solder, the Big Boss. Metal Gear Solid 3’s theme, as described by Kojima, is SCENE; perspective changes depending on the scene one is in, it’s like The Boss said: Snake may serve the President now, but what happens when the President changes? When his policy changes? This ties back to the theme of the game, its bitter and cynical tearing down of patriotism and nationalism. Metal Gear Solid and its sequel viewed their main characters with a sense of hope and reverence that is completely devoid by the end of Metal Gear Solid 3; whereas David and Raiden get to have their happy endings with their loved ones, Jack is forced to become Big Boss against his will, he has no choice in the matter. By the end of the game, Naked Snake has no ability to choose his path for himself, for he has already been sent down it. The first two Metal Gear Solid games show a story of characters breaking free from their chains whereas the third shows what happens when the chains stay on, when a soldier is successfully used as a pawn—the chains eventually break themselves. I also believe it’s no coincidence that Metal Gear Solid 3’s main conflict starts with a nuclear missile being fired—something that Kojima has spent 2 games building up to be a world-ending threat. It was from this missile that every single event in the series thereafter happens the way it does. On this subject, the closing timeline of Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of the most bone-chilling gut punches in gaming to me: the slow but steady realization that every single radio member you just grew attached to is somebody within the established universe: Sigint is the DARPA chief, Para-Medic is the doctor who experimented on Grey Fox, goofy Bond-fan Major Zero becomes the leader of The Patriots. It’s utilizing the universe to its fullest at display. To me, everything about Big Boss’s story was wrapped up in this game. I didn’t need Peace Walker or V to explain how Big Boss got to where he was (Having only played Peace Walker once, I felt it woobified Big Boss, in fact), because the final scene of Metal Gear Solid 3 tells the whole story without saying a word.

As far as characters are concerned, Metal Gear Solid 3 is rich with them. The radio crew feels entirely realized, having a perfectly balanced number of characters who all feel unique and worth talking to. Kojima’s love of cinema shines through when you save the game and hear Para-Medic gush about the films of the time, Major Zero is a departure from Campbell’s stoic personality towards someone more aloof and passionate, Sigint is always a joy when it comes to discussing the equipment of the game and serves as a great comedic relief, and The Boss and EVA both leave memorable marks on the radio dialogue during their short stints there. Josh Keaton plays a fantastic young Ocelot, entirely selling the role of a gay Russian spy who crosses anyone he meets until he meets Big Boss. The distinctly queer undertones in Ocelot’s view of Big Boss arise mostly here and stay for the rest of the series; you don’t need the textual confirmation (that we did eventually get in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain) to understand the undertones in his behavior towards Jack. On the topic of Ocelot, it would be a disservice not to mention Tornado Yoshida, the mocap actor who did Ocelot’s flamboyant revolver spins. The cutscene animation is unsurprisingly at its peak in Metal Gear Solid 3, it feels like the culmination of all the experience gathered throughout the development of the first 3 games. Snake Eater has some of the best cinematic framing and some of the most memorable cutscenes because of the intense emphasis on emotion—the scene at the end where Ocelot tries poking Snake’s eye but accidentally pokes the eye he shot out, so Snake gives him a smirk is one of the most memorable cutscenes in the whole franchise to me because of the visual storytelling at play.

Metal Gear Solid 3, more specifically the “Subsistence” rerelease, is the first in the series to have a third-person camera, and it fits the franchise like a glove. After 2 Solid games with a fixed camera, the over-the-shoulder camera is a breath of fresh air that feels like a natural next step for the franchise. The forest level design is perfect for utilizing the PS2’s power while simultaneously giving Snake Eater a unique feel. Everything about this game feels so meticulously crafted: you can feed guards your poisoned food, wear Communist face paint to stop KGB soldiers from shooting you, quickscope The End before his boss battle, etc. Even the game’s basic mechanics still feel revolutionary to me; eating always feels perfectly balanced and never a hassle, and camouflage is beautifully dynamic and adds so many layers of strategy to the gameplay. Metal Gear Solid 3 revitalizes and reinvents the series without abandoning any of what makes it special. In fact, the series mainstays are generally at their best in this entry; out of FOXHOUND, Dead Cell, and the Cobra Unit, the Cobra Unit is easily my favorite. Every boss fight feels unique while still testing your knowledge of the games systems and as characters they all stand out. Fittingly, The Boss was the hardest Final Boss in the series to me. She felt like a true test of unadulterated skill versus how Liquid just feels like a normal enemy who hits really hard and Solidus is made artificially hard by the little amount of time the player has to get used to the sword controls—the Boss lives up to her name, feeling fair but hard. Truly coming across as the best of her kind. Beating The Boss felt like a moment of the teacher finally being surpassed by the student. I feel I have far too long neglected to mention the soundtracks of these games—all of which are fantastic, but I feel Metal Gear Solid 3 has one of the strongest soundtracks in the series. The game goes for a completely different vibe than its two Solid predecessors, but the jungle vibe works very well in its favor. The alert theme in particular sticks out in this game as a track that grew on me as time went on. And what would a review of this game be without bringing up not just the best Metal Gear track, but one of the best video game tracks of all time. I really don't even need to say it. Just imagine the first time you heard it: Naked Snake had just been betrayed by his mentor, thrown off the bridge and left to die with only her bandana as a memento of who she once was to him. The fallout blast from the nuclear missile Volgin shot hits... you're asked to save your game. Then suddenly, 4 drum beats followed by the triumphant sound of horns.... "What a thrill...". Cynthia Harrell's booming vocals sell Snake Eater's Bond-esque vibe so well as you realize that, after all that, you just played a prologue. Now it's time for the real game. Snake Eater plays two more times: once as you climb the ladder after defeating The End and enter the final act, and once as you take down The Boss once and for all. These instances all feel so impactful within the context of the story in different ways.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is a modern Greek tragedy—a tragedy of a student forced to kill his master, his mother; deceived by everyone around him into thinking she had turned against him, a story of a man who has to live with the “noble” title that serves as a constant reminder of the fact that the most important person in his life will go down in history as a war criminal and a traitor, tossed away by the country she served and believed in until the very end. And the ultimate irony is that in attempting to rebel against the mistreatment of The Boss, Big Boss became everything she hates.

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“But I think she wanted you of all people to know the truth. She wanted to live on in your memory, not as a solider, but as a woman. But she was forbidden to tell you herself. And that's why she told me. Snake, history will ever know what she did. No one will ever learn the truth. Her story... her debriefing, will endure only in your heart. Everything she did, she did for her country. She sacrificed her life and honor for her native land. She was a real hero. She was a true patriot.”