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croikI beat Metal Gear Solid 3 last night. And so today I was compelled to write about it at length and spam your friends lists. But at least I know how to cut!!
First of all I just have to say that despite whatever complaints I make about the game, MGS3 is still, in my opinion, the best game this year. Graphically, gameplay wise, and all else considered, it beats out anything else released this year (especially Halo 2 XPPPP). So really, this review is not meant to compare MGS3 to other games in general, but previous Metal Gear games, especially this being a prequel and possibly the last in the series.
For the record, I have nothing against the fact that it is a prequel. I know some people weren’t happy about yet again not being able to control Solid Snake himself, but I played MGS2 before any of the other games in the series, so I’ve never had that problem.
I’ve only played through the game once so far. It took me about 20 hours, which I hear is pretty much the norm. And thus, my review.
Graphics
Graphics is pretty much a no-brainer – PS2 doesn’t look much better than this, period. At first glance it’s not that much improved over MGS2, until you realize that what you’re looking at is a jungle done with the same amount of detail as MGS2’s simple gray corridors. There’s not as much to interact with this time around, as far as shooting bottles and magazines, but there are animals everywhere moving smoothly, and there was only once or twice that I noticed any slowdown. The character models were done as well as anyone expected them to be. Some of the characters look great—Snake, Ocelot, and The Boss were excellent, and show a lot of emotion. But then there’s Volgin, who always looked disproportionate to me, and Eva is just…ugly. They haven’t quite mastered long blond hair yet, and somehow make up for it with too much eye makeup – the same problem Sniper Wolf had in TTS. But other than that the motion capture was spot on, the explosions, fire, and water were all really cool, and the cinema sequences dramatic. Just as good as everyone expected and hoped from it.
Sound / Music / Voice Acting
Sound effect wise, you couldn’t ask for better. Every weapon sounds a little different, and is always believable. The animal sounds, of which there are also a lot, were really good, too. Footsteps change depending on the terrain. Shiny star for MGS3.
The music sounded a lot like MGS2 for the most part; dramatic when it needed to be, somewhat unnoticeable otherwise. I noticed there seemed to be a lot less background music for just wandering around than in previous games – most of the time, running through the jungle was nearly silent. Which was a good thing, since you spend most of your time in the jungle trying to detect the enemy. I really liked the main theme, even if it was a bit campy, and have been humming it ever since I first heard it. I thought it was a nice touch to reuse it through the game, and added to the “interactive movie” feel.
Voice acting in Metal Gear (with the exception of TTS, to my disappointment) has always been really good. MGS3 was the same. Everyone’s voice fit them very well, and they did a great job acting, too. There were maybe a few parts, during the many long political speeches and explanations, where it felt like the actor slipped out of character into a more monologue-like approach, but otherwise, everyone was good. I love David Hayter, and I think he really did a good job of expressing this new Snake differently than the Solid Snake we all know.
Gameplay
Gameplay is kind of a mixed bag for me. The basics of MGS gameplay have all been preserved, so you’ll never hear me complain about sneaking and hiding and picking up weapons as you go. What stands out in MGS3 gameplay isn’t what they changed, but what they added. For the most part, I liked the additions of camo, food, and cure. The camo adds creativity, the food a bit of light-hearted humor, and the cure maybe a touch of reality (in as much as you can’t heal a gunshot wound by eating more food, as in previous games). But it didn’t seem to me that any of these played a truly integral part of the gameplay. In one of my earliest encounters I learned not to trust the camouflage (90% hidden and several feet away apparently isn’t enough), and later in the game it doesn’t help much when you’re running around a military base. Most of the time the most effective way to hide was the usual – sneaking into corners, lockers, behind trees, under buildings and vehicles. The only thing camo is really good for is in those boss fights tailored around its use, and preventing you from being spotted by enemies that are offscreen.
Which leads to the complaint everyone has about MGS3: the camera. With the downward camera view you can barely see more than a few feet around Snake at any given time. It’s not a horrible setback, and was like that for most of the other Solid games as well, but without the radar to back me up I felt like I spent most of the time switching between normal and first person mode, trying to determine if there even were enemies in the area I had to be cautious of, let alone how to keep away from them (especially since the motion sensor you have rarely picks up patrolling guards anyway, and the life sensor is loud enough to alert the guards if you’re too close). That, combined with the fact that most of the new gameplay features (as well as your map and backpack) have to be accessed from the survival guide, means for a LOT of pausing the game, especially mid boss fight. The flaw of the cure system is that whenever you get hit, your first reaction is to want to fix it, whether or not it’s really necessary to do so. So the action gets broken up a lot.
So, it’s not perfect. The new additions work well for this installment of the series, so I’m glad they added them, but I could just as easily go back to previous games that didn’t have them.
CQC (Close Quarter Combat), on the other hand, was kind of a disappointment to me, though probably only because I haven’t really mastered it yet. The basic punch combo isn’t any different than it was in earlier games, and it’s just as easy to snipe guys with your pistol from across the screen as it is to run up and slit their throats. And most of the time, I get so nervous about running right up to the guys and setting off the alert status that by the time I get close enough to interrogate someone, I end up hitting the button a little too hard and kill the guy before he can talk. The only time I tried to use a human shield I couldn’t get Snake to point his gun the right way, and someone came up from behind so I lost the guy. So I don’t use the CQC all that much, but it sure is cool in the cinema scenes.
Difficulty
I found MGS3 to be a little easier than its predecessors, though that’s mostly because it’s so hard to get Snake to really lose life. Getting shot or knocked down does barely anything, so as long as you keep your stamina up (which isn’t hard) you’re pretty much golden. I took on a troop of guards and a helicopter at one point and made it through relatively unscathed. The boss fights, though each creative in their own way, were more about lasting longer than your enemy rather than any real danger of getting killed. By the end of the game I was surprised by the number of times I’d actually died: three times falling from some cliff; three times running out of time during a boss fight; and only once was my life ever completely drained by the enemy, in what you might consider the first of the boss fights. Being the careless spy that I am, I would have thought it to be a lot more.
So really, it’s easier to get spotted by the enemy, but it’s also easier to get out of it.
Story
Ahh, story. Metal Gear games have always been known for their stories. I can’t say too much about it without revealing spoilers, but to be completely honest, I can’t speak of it as highly as most of the reviews I’ve seen do. It’s detailed and dramatic, as all MG stories are, and more than most video games will ever have short of an RPG. And, of course, it’s over the top. If I hadn’t played MGS1 and 2 beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have had any complaints, but…I know Kojima can do better. I know he doesn’t have to use labels in place of characterization, doesn’t have to cater to the MGS2 haters, doesn’t have to insert filler characters. In 1 and 2 you really got a feel for each character and enemy in the game, involved almost everyone in the plot or at least tried to evoke an emotional response in the audience. I mean, really, Psycho Mantis! Wolf! Even Fortune and Vamp had more to do outside their individual boss encounters. It’s just not the same with the Cobras.
But then, I’m spoiled >D. It was good. Just not…spectacular.
Replay Value
I’m going to play it again. And then MGS1, 2, and 3 over again. Lay waste to all Kerotan. I wish more of the unlockable items weren’t camouflage, as most of them are purely useless anyway, but it’s a good game and worth playing a few times over.
Final Remarks
Great game. But I hope it’s not the last Metal Gear. I think it’s always poor form to end a series on a prequel (I’m both excited for and dreading DMC3), not only because it invariably makes the older games look bad, but screws with events and ultimately fails to deliver a real sense of finality. I don’t expect Snake to destroy every last possibility towards Metal Gear, but I know there’s got to be a way to end it better than this. So I guess all I can hope for is that Kojima will break his word again and we’ll see another Metal Gear title at E3 sometime in the future.
Or at least another tactical espionage game. No one does it better.
Disclaimer - No, I have not actually played Halo 2. XPPPPP
First of all I just have to say that despite whatever complaints I make about the game, MGS3 is still, in my opinion, the best game this year. Graphically, gameplay wise, and all else considered, it beats out anything else released this year (especially Halo 2 XPPPP). So really, this review is not meant to compare MGS3 to other games in general, but previous Metal Gear games, especially this being a prequel and possibly the last in the series.
For the record, I have nothing against the fact that it is a prequel. I know some people weren’t happy about yet again not being able to control Solid Snake himself, but I played MGS2 before any of the other games in the series, so I’ve never had that problem.
I’ve only played through the game once so far. It took me about 20 hours, which I hear is pretty much the norm. And thus, my review.
Graphics
Graphics is pretty much a no-brainer – PS2 doesn’t look much better than this, period. At first glance it’s not that much improved over MGS2, until you realize that what you’re looking at is a jungle done with the same amount of detail as MGS2’s simple gray corridors. There’s not as much to interact with this time around, as far as shooting bottles and magazines, but there are animals everywhere moving smoothly, and there was only once or twice that I noticed any slowdown. The character models were done as well as anyone expected them to be. Some of the characters look great—Snake, Ocelot, and The Boss were excellent, and show a lot of emotion. But then there’s Volgin, who always looked disproportionate to me, and Eva is just…ugly. They haven’t quite mastered long blond hair yet, and somehow make up for it with too much eye makeup – the same problem Sniper Wolf had in TTS. But other than that the motion capture was spot on, the explosions, fire, and water were all really cool, and the cinema sequences dramatic. Just as good as everyone expected and hoped from it.
Sound / Music / Voice Acting
Sound effect wise, you couldn’t ask for better. Every weapon sounds a little different, and is always believable. The animal sounds, of which there are also a lot, were really good, too. Footsteps change depending on the terrain. Shiny star for MGS3.
The music sounded a lot like MGS2 for the most part; dramatic when it needed to be, somewhat unnoticeable otherwise. I noticed there seemed to be a lot less background music for just wandering around than in previous games – most of the time, running through the jungle was nearly silent. Which was a good thing, since you spend most of your time in the jungle trying to detect the enemy. I really liked the main theme, even if it was a bit campy, and have been humming it ever since I first heard it. I thought it was a nice touch to reuse it through the game, and added to the “interactive movie” feel.
Voice acting in Metal Gear (with the exception of TTS, to my disappointment) has always been really good. MGS3 was the same. Everyone’s voice fit them very well, and they did a great job acting, too. There were maybe a few parts, during the many long political speeches and explanations, where it felt like the actor slipped out of character into a more monologue-like approach, but otherwise, everyone was good. I love David Hayter, and I think he really did a good job of expressing this new Snake differently than the Solid Snake we all know.
Gameplay
Gameplay is kind of a mixed bag for me. The basics of MGS gameplay have all been preserved, so you’ll never hear me complain about sneaking and hiding and picking up weapons as you go. What stands out in MGS3 gameplay isn’t what they changed, but what they added. For the most part, I liked the additions of camo, food, and cure. The camo adds creativity, the food a bit of light-hearted humor, and the cure maybe a touch of reality (in as much as you can’t heal a gunshot wound by eating more food, as in previous games). But it didn’t seem to me that any of these played a truly integral part of the gameplay. In one of my earliest encounters I learned not to trust the camouflage (90% hidden and several feet away apparently isn’t enough), and later in the game it doesn’t help much when you’re running around a military base. Most of the time the most effective way to hide was the usual – sneaking into corners, lockers, behind trees, under buildings and vehicles. The only thing camo is really good for is in those boss fights tailored around its use, and preventing you from being spotted by enemies that are offscreen.
Which leads to the complaint everyone has about MGS3: the camera. With the downward camera view you can barely see more than a few feet around Snake at any given time. It’s not a horrible setback, and was like that for most of the other Solid games as well, but without the radar to back me up I felt like I spent most of the time switching between normal and first person mode, trying to determine if there even were enemies in the area I had to be cautious of, let alone how to keep away from them (especially since the motion sensor you have rarely picks up patrolling guards anyway, and the life sensor is loud enough to alert the guards if you’re too close). That, combined with the fact that most of the new gameplay features (as well as your map and backpack) have to be accessed from the survival guide, means for a LOT of pausing the game, especially mid boss fight. The flaw of the cure system is that whenever you get hit, your first reaction is to want to fix it, whether or not it’s really necessary to do so. So the action gets broken up a lot.
So, it’s not perfect. The new additions work well for this installment of the series, so I’m glad they added them, but I could just as easily go back to previous games that didn’t have them.
CQC (Close Quarter Combat), on the other hand, was kind of a disappointment to me, though probably only because I haven’t really mastered it yet. The basic punch combo isn’t any different than it was in earlier games, and it’s just as easy to snipe guys with your pistol from across the screen as it is to run up and slit their throats. And most of the time, I get so nervous about running right up to the guys and setting off the alert status that by the time I get close enough to interrogate someone, I end up hitting the button a little too hard and kill the guy before he can talk. The only time I tried to use a human shield I couldn’t get Snake to point his gun the right way, and someone came up from behind so I lost the guy. So I don’t use the CQC all that much, but it sure is cool in the cinema scenes.
Difficulty
I found MGS3 to be a little easier than its predecessors, though that’s mostly because it’s so hard to get Snake to really lose life. Getting shot or knocked down does barely anything, so as long as you keep your stamina up (which isn’t hard) you’re pretty much golden. I took on a troop of guards and a helicopter at one point and made it through relatively unscathed. The boss fights, though each creative in their own way, were more about lasting longer than your enemy rather than any real danger of getting killed. By the end of the game I was surprised by the number of times I’d actually died: three times falling from some cliff; three times running out of time during a boss fight; and only once was my life ever completely drained by the enemy, in what you might consider the first of the boss fights. Being the careless spy that I am, I would have thought it to be a lot more.
So really, it’s easier to get spotted by the enemy, but it’s also easier to get out of it.
Story
Ahh, story. Metal Gear games have always been known for their stories. I can’t say too much about it without revealing spoilers, but to be completely honest, I can’t speak of it as highly as most of the reviews I’ve seen do. It’s detailed and dramatic, as all MG stories are, and more than most video games will ever have short of an RPG. And, of course, it’s over the top. If I hadn’t played MGS1 and 2 beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have had any complaints, but…I know Kojima can do better. I know he doesn’t have to use labels in place of characterization, doesn’t have to cater to the MGS2 haters, doesn’t have to insert filler characters. In 1 and 2 you really got a feel for each character and enemy in the game, involved almost everyone in the plot or at least tried to evoke an emotional response in the audience. I mean, really, Psycho Mantis! Wolf! Even Fortune and Vamp had more to do outside their individual boss encounters. It’s just not the same with the Cobras.
But then, I’m spoiled >D. It was good. Just not…spectacular.
Replay Value
I’m going to play it again. And then MGS1, 2, and 3 over again. Lay waste to all Kerotan. I wish more of the unlockable items weren’t camouflage, as most of them are purely useless anyway, but it’s a good game and worth playing a few times over.
Final Remarks
Great game. But I hope it’s not the last Metal Gear. I think it’s always poor form to end a series on a prequel (I’m both excited for and dreading DMC3), not only because it invariably makes the older games look bad, but screws with events and ultimately fails to deliver a real sense of finality. I don’t expect Snake to destroy every last possibility towards Metal Gear, but I know there’s got to be a way to end it better than this. So I guess all I can hope for is that Kojima will break his word again and we’ll see another Metal Gear title at E3 sometime in the future.
Or at least another tactical espionage game. No one does it better.
Disclaimer - No, I have not actually played Halo 2. XPPPPP
