4/5 ★ – forlornronin's review of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

+/-The gameplay was very much improved from MGS2 in a way that felt great. however, I could notice a lot more pinpointable flawed game design decisions (ie specific examples) that I will elaborate on later +/-Music felt less memorable than MGS2 (outside of the obvious) but was still good. +I ADORE the camo index +The food system was loads of fun, too +The UI looked super classic while still retaining a "Metal Gear" feel. I loved it +The Cobra unit outclasses Dead Cell by far, and possibly even the original FOXHOUND rebels of MGS1 to a degree +Finally having freecam is an incredible feeling. I am so so happy that MGS2 was the last game to be plagued by silent hill meme cameras. I can just look where I want to look and see where I want to see. So liberating +The story was excellent. Big Boss as a character is a lot more complex than we've seen Solid Snake so far in the series, and I love his characterizations. He's super fascinating +Story had a seemingly equal amount of twists as MGS2, but revealed them in a way that made it much easier to 'keep track of' -Gunplay was still pretty dreadful. I understand that it's a stealth game, and there IS a conversation to be had about games of this era using unpleasant control to disincentivize certain methods of approach (Silent Hill) but these are a lot more necessary and still feel bad. As with MGS2 and Twin Snakes, they are awful to use in first-person. and, as with MGS1, 2, and Twin Snakes, they are borderline unusable in third-person --Specific design decisions I think sucked: -The sorrows' "boss battle" is the fucking worst MGS has ever seen out of the games I played. and I do mean truly, truly terrible. This conflicts me to say, because I actually adored the setup, and atmosphere, and found his character probably the most intriguing of the entire Cobra unit. But the solution is unfortunately kind of ridiculous and definitely doesn’t feel like something every player has an equal chance of figuring out. When most of the game incentivizises handling situations from several angles, a boss fight that has exactly one solution (using a random item at the end) is also really disappointing. -Giving the player freecam for the entire game and then revoking that for the final boss of all places is super, super lame. Given its my #1 grievance (outside of control issues) for MGS1 and MGS2, imagine my unbridled anger when I ONCE AGAIN am unable to see directly in front of me in a Metal Gear game. -No crouch walking STILL is agonizing -I found the way some boss enemies are "invincible" for some phases of their animations incredibly inconsistent. Volgin and The Boss come to mind specifically. I was often struggling to figure out what causes them to be not invincible, and to figure out when they were and when they weren't as the key to beating them, which is frustrating as a player -LITERALLY an escort mission in the last two hours of the game. And yes, she does indeed walk faster than the player walks and slower than the player runs. La creatividad… +++cried at the ending Run time: 12h23m This is a great game. I would have liked it more with just the smallest changes to a few specific areas, and a last little once-over on the controls. However, these problems didn't keep me from enjoying most of the game. I got real frustrated a few times, but I'm more than glad I stuck it through. 8/10