4/5 ★ – Hootus900's review of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Wanted to get the jump on this before the remake comes out later this year. I felt a lot of hype coming into this one, as it’s often called the best this series has to offer. I’ll admit it was a solid time, but I think I may like 2 more. The first major standout for me was undoubtedly the atmosphere. I’ve always found the soundtrack from the first two games to be forgettable for the most part, as most of the time it’s just subtle music playing while you are sneaking around so it’s not meant to be a standout. When I was first dropped into this game, I realized just how impactful the lack of music was. Being in the middle of unfamiliar territory with only the sounds of nature was very intense, and it made getting spotted that much more terrifying. The jungle environment was a good change of pace from the sterile man made structures of the first couple of games. They did some cool puzzles and situations with it. Some of the mechanics felt a bit underwhelming. I’m sure it was factoring into my gameplay, but the camo system didn’t feel like it impacted much aside from a few moments. Obviously the scientist and disguise moments, but other than that I only felt the effects of having the correct camo equipped during the final escort section. I also felt the heal system was a bit obtuse and kind of had a lot of steps that felt unnecessary. I understand it was put in the game to add to the sense of realism and shows off some of the great programming that went into the game, like food you kill rotting over time. I’m not sure if the difficulty I played on impacted this, but it felt random as to wether certain attacks actually did “critical damage” and the steps to correct that damage just felt like padding compared to just eating a ration and moving on. Again, great technical showcase for 2004 and I’m sure it was cool then, I just wasn’t a fan. I felt like the story here was a lot easier to digest and therefore made for a more enjoyable experience. Sure there’s the usual exposition dumps and long cutscenes, but I found myself following along with some of the bigger lore dumps a lot better than mgs2. I feel like a newcomer to the series can pretty easily pick this up without having played the first two, and I wonder if that’s why it’s a lot of people’s first and favorite entry. To wrap up my thoughts on this version I’d say it’s a solid time but some aspects haven’t aged well. I am cautiously optimistic for the remake, as I don’t know how faithful it’ll be to the original and I also don’t know if they’ll modernize it gameplay wise. I guess I’ll wait and see.