Continuing our roll of Metal Gear games, Snake Eater! This game I only played many many years after its release, around 2012 or 13 I believe with the release of the HD collection on 360/PS3.. So I don't have QUITE the strong attachment to it that I do for MGS1 and MGS2 especially. However I do remember REALLY loving the game the last few times I played it, I even platinumed it! So this run was a bit disappointing I will not lie..
I played the game on Hard difficulty, keeping with my Twin Snakes and Sons of Liberty playthroughs. And while those were definitely TOUGH, I felt the hard mode in Snake Eater was a REAL son of a bitch in many places and honestly hampered my enjoyment of the game. It feels much more like a Stealth game than the other two, which is surprising that I did not respond better to that as I love the stealth genre? However I have two major issues with the game - 1. The camo system and 2. the lack of any enemy tracking system. MGS3 does a lot to be more Systems driven in its gameplay than the first two Metal Gear games are and in a lot of ways that is superb and well appreciated, but in these two instances it was the cause of a lot of frustration for me. The camo system makes the stealth system have some semblance of SENSE to it (why couldn't those genetically enhanced guards see more than 10 feet in front of their face in MGS1?) and that is great - but why do I have to dig through 3 menu screens to put on a proper camo to fit my location? MGS4 fixes this but I do think a simple menu selection system would've helped greatly here. It was just SO damn frustrating to be crawling around and because I went from one type of ground to another (often very similar colors...) the guards got suspicious and spotted me leading to a whole rigamarole of trying to get the guards to kill me so I could retstart because I do NOT want to wait 4 entire fuckin' minutes for the alert phase to end and I can get back to moving about NO MATTER HOW DAMN GOOD THE MUSIC IS OKAY
Secondly, the lack of enemy tracking. No soliton radar? Great, it was OP as shit anyway and kinda holding back the gameplay anyway, and doesn't really make sense/work with the camo system. However the replacement system is... a heartbeat monitor that beeps more when you get closer to enemies? But it has no directional function and enemies can see you from a huge distance away, making it more or less worthless. There are NVG/Heat sensors as well but honestly it always felt very clunky trying to make sure I wasn't seen as I was creeping about.. In the hard mode there definitely needs to be more feedback in who is where and what they know - that's critical to a stealth game I feel. Or I just need to play on Normal from now on unless I'm willing to play it more often haha...
So anyway onto the good - the music is top-fuckin-notch. The other Metal Gear games are no slouches in that department, but this game really sets the bar. I could listen to the alert/caution music all day, and am in fact listening to it right now. It plays so well with the tension of the scene that I never got tired of hearing it, and that's good since I got a bajillion alerts! The story is told very well - it is a much more straightforward event than MGS2 and that feels deliberate - I feel like MGS 3 is Kojima basically telling everyone "I could've made the perfect MGS1 sequel the entire time, I just didn't WANT TO that was the point". The stakes are very clear - Your former mentor has betrayed you to a crazy splinter faction of the soviet union, you need to take her and her team of badasses down so you can stop the new Metal Gear Shagohod from destroying world peace as a nuclear armed tank. And this one actually even makes sense as a nuclear tank! You meet a young Ocelot and another young spy named Eva who help you out on your quest, and there's the usual amount of double/triple/quadruple crossing going on for an MGS story, with just enough poignancy to make the ending tremendously bittersweet and impactful. You see where Big Boss is heading - a driven man who only wants to make a safe "Haven" for soldiers, no longer to be used and thrown away by their governments when convenient. Outer Heaven!!
Solid but nail-biting difficulty, frustrating menu systems for stealth and healing, compelling story that's actually well edited.. A fantastic game that may ultimately just be the best MGS overall - but honestly just not my favorite? Or I just was overconfident on this one haha...
I played the game on Hard difficulty, keeping with my Twin Snakes and Sons of Liberty playthroughs. And while those were definitely TOUGH, I felt the hard mode in Snake Eater was a REAL son of a bitch in many places and honestly hampered my enjoyment of the game. It feels much more like a Stealth game than the other two, which is surprising that I did not respond better to that as I love the stealth genre? However I have two major issues with the game - 1. The camo system and 2. the lack of any enemy tracking system. MGS3 does a lot to be more Systems driven in its gameplay than the first two Metal Gear games are and in a lot of ways that is superb and well appreciated, but in these two instances it was the cause of a lot of frustration for me. The camo system makes the stealth system have some semblance of SENSE to it (why couldn't those genetically enhanced guards see more than 10 feet in front of their face in MGS1?) and that is great - but why do I have to dig through 3 menu screens to put on a proper camo to fit my location? MGS4 fixes this but I do think a simple menu selection system would've helped greatly here. It was just SO damn frustrating to be crawling around and because I went from one type of ground to another (often very similar colors...) the guards got suspicious and spotted me leading to a whole rigamarole of trying to get the guards to kill me so I could retstart because I do NOT want to wait 4 entire fuckin' minutes for the alert phase to end and I can get back to moving about NO MATTER HOW DAMN GOOD THE MUSIC IS OKAY
Secondly, the lack of enemy tracking. No soliton radar? Great, it was OP as shit anyway and kinda holding back the gameplay anyway, and doesn't really make sense/work with the camo system. However the replacement system is... a heartbeat monitor that beeps more when you get closer to enemies? But it has no directional function and enemies can see you from a huge distance away, making it more or less worthless. There are NVG/Heat sensors as well but honestly it always felt very clunky trying to make sure I wasn't seen as I was creeping about.. In the hard mode there definitely needs to be more feedback in who is where and what they know - that's critical to a stealth game I feel. Or I just need to play on Normal from now on unless I'm willing to play it more often haha...
So anyway onto the good - the music is top-fuckin-notch. The other Metal Gear games are no slouches in that department, but this game really sets the bar. I could listen to the alert/caution music all day, and am in fact listening to it right now. It plays so well with the tension of the scene that I never got tired of hearing it, and that's good since I got a bajillion alerts! The story is told very well - it is a much more straightforward event than MGS2 and that feels deliberate - I feel like MGS 3 is Kojima basically telling everyone "I could've made the perfect MGS1 sequel the entire time, I just didn't WANT TO that was the point". The stakes are very clear - Your former mentor has betrayed you to a crazy splinter faction of the soviet union, you need to take her and her team of badasses down so you can stop the new Metal Gear Shagohod from destroying world peace as a nuclear armed tank. And this one actually even makes sense as a nuclear tank! You meet a young Ocelot and another young spy named Eva who help you out on your quest, and there's the usual amount of double/triple/quadruple crossing going on for an MGS story, with just enough poignancy to make the ending tremendously bittersweet and impactful. You see where Big Boss is heading - a driven man who only wants to make a safe "Haven" for soldiers, no longer to be used and thrown away by their governments when convenient. Outer Heaven!!
Solid but nail-biting difficulty, frustrating menu systems for stealth and healing, compelling story that's actually well edited.. A fantastic game that may ultimately just be the best MGS overall - but honestly just not my favorite? Or I just was overconfident on this one haha...