I have not beaten the game yet (I'm at the final "Boss"), but I love this game so much that I decided to review the game. Snake Eater is the third game in the Metal Gear Solid series. It should be noted that it is also the last, also the last that Hideo Kojima, the creator, will be heavily involved in its development.
Visuals[/size]
They raised the bar even further. The graphics in this game looks like something that should not even be possible with the PlayStation 2. Even better, the framerate is pretty smooth and consistent the whole way through, unlike the demo if you have played it. The character models are slightly improved from MGS 2. They seem to be better with facial expressions. The environment is the biggest improvement that you will see from MGS 2. Details such as swaying grass, ruffling of clothing from strong winds, water ripples, etc. Wait till you fight The Fury, the fire effects and lighting are spectacular. There is one problem though, the camera angle for the most part still uses an overhead camera angle view. It would have work if the game still uses the soliton radar system (the game takes place in the 60s so it is not invented yet), but since it does not. A third person view like Splinter Cell would have fare better. Thankfully, the right analog stick can be manuevered to see more of your surroundings without going into first person view, but it has limited range. Aside from that, the graphics are one of the best that you will ever see on the PlayStation 2.
9.5/10[/size]
![[http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/screen0/914828_20041202_screen001.jpg]](http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/screen0/914828_20041202_screen001.jpg "http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/screen0/914828_20041202_screen001.jpg")
![[http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/565/565015/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041110073314106.jpg]](http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/565/565015/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041110073314106.jpg "http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/565/565015/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041110073314106.jpg")
![[http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/566/566279/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041116033038012.jpg]](http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/566/566279/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041116033038012.jpg "http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/566/566279/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041116033038012.jpg")
![[http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/566/566279/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041116033040918.jpg]](http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/566/566279/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041116033040918.jpg "http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/566/566279/metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-20041116033040918.jpg")
![[http://img147.exs.cx/img147/2092/gesture56oa8gh.gif]](http://img147.exs.cx/img147/2092/gesture56oa8gh.gif "http://img147.exs.cx/img147/2092/gesture56oa8gh.gif")
Ocelot's infamous hand gesture.
Sound[/size]
The voice acting is still as good as you would expect from a Metal Gear Solid game. David Hayter returns as the voice of Snake. The only voice actor who is off a times in my opinion is Ocelot's voice actor. Fortunately, he seems to get better as the game progressive.
Overall, the music is the best of the series. The music portrays the emotion in many of the scenes brilliantly. It is less techno-like and more orchestral compared to MGS 2. However, you will not hear it that often because the game relies more on ambience such as bird chirping and sirens when you are respectively sneaking around a forest or an enemy's base. Everything is presented in Dolby Pro Logic II, although I would have prefer it if they have kept Dolby Digital 5.1 for some of the cutscenes like in MGS 2.
9.5/10[/size]
Gameplay[/size]
Without the soliton radar, the game feels quite different from a regular Metal Gear Solid game. Nevertheless, the game still stay true to the series root with its emphasize on stealth. Although as with the past game, you can still go Rambo, but it will be very hard. One thing I like about the MGS series is that stealth is an option as opposed to Splinter Cell. Snake Eater evolves the stealth genre with its new survival theme.
New to the series is the inclusion camoflauge. Basically you go into a menu and equip Snake with an outfit and a face paint to make him blend better with his environment. He will be harder to spot by the enemy if his camoflauge is good.
Another new addition to the series is CQC. CQC stands for Close Quarter Combat. When Snake has a knife equipped or a one handed weapon, he can grab an enemy and put a knife to their throat. From there, he can throw him, interrogate him (enemy position, hidden radio frequencies, and tips), choke him, or slit his throat.
In addition to a life gauge, you now have a stamina gauge. As you play the game, Snake's stamina gauge decreases. Stamina affects your aimming and life gauge healing speed. A low stamina will cause your aim to be shaky and your life gauge to recover very slowly. To recover stamina, you will have to hunt for food. Snake can eat just about every animal in the game except for dogs. He can eat snakes, rabbits, crocodiles, rats, etc. Like a real warrior, Snake will eat it raw. You will sometimes find the tradition military ration to eat as well.
Healing in Snake Eater is one of the most realistic and involved in any video game I played. In the game, Snake will get his bones broken, get shot, get large cuts, get burned, suffer from stomach aches, and poisoned. Each condition requires Snake to do a certain number of things done to recover. Let's use a bullet wound as an example, you need to use a knife to lodge out the bullet, use disinfectant, use syptic, and a bandage. For a broken bone, you need to use a splint and bandage. If Snake is poisoned, he needs to use an antidote.
There are more options when using guns. For some guns such as an AK47, a Colt Single Action Army, XM16E1, etc you can choose to aim the gun from the side or over the shoulder. Also for some guns, you can select different modes of fire such as semi-auto, automatic, or single shot. There are a more variety guns such as a shotgun this time around. You can attach and detach a suppressor at will. Suppressors have a finite amount of uses before they are rendered useless, but you can always find more in the game. One last note is that items such as Motion Detectors, Thermal Googles, Nightvision Googles, etc have battery. When they are in use, the battery is drained, but the battery will steadily recharged when it is not in use.
The story is much better then the convulted and ludicrous one you saw in MGS 2. Yes, we still have double crosses and the such, but it is nowhere as absurd as MGS 2's triple crosses. The game's plot serves as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series. The entire game takes place in 1964. Snake is sent into the Soviet Union by the CIA to rescue a Soviet scientist named Sokolov. Backing Snake up is a support team of four people. A British major, a movie loving para-medic, Snake's mentor and legendary soldier named The Boss, and Sigint the African-American weapons technology expert. Of course everything does not proceed as plan and soon Snake has to commence another rescue operation entitled: Snake Eater. The first operation is known as Virtuous Mission.
I will say no more since part of the fun of playing the MGS series is the plot. The plot is what kept me playing, I wanted to find out what happened next. You will see the return of old characters like Ocelot (his gun tricks are awesome). The new characters are very endearing and The Boss is one of the best new character to the series. One thing that I thought was cool about the story was the intergration our actual history such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Space Race, etc. She is so tough that even Volgin, a huge Russian capable of generating electrcity, is afraid of her. Another thing I should mention is that I am glad that Snake is not pulling not any stupid over the top moves like in the series cannon, The Twin Snakes (a remake of the original on the GameCube, but I consider Metal Gear Solid to be the real version). The only flaw in the story is that the dialoge is a bit weird at times ("Meow", yes someone really does say this) and that the Cobra members could have used more character development like in the previous two MGS games. It is never explained how the members of the Cobra unit possess super natural powers. All of them aside from the Sorrow also seem to be nothing more then psychos. Are you telling me that these guys actually fought for our country in World War II? Of course that does not mean they are not great bosses to fight.
Snake Eater's boss fights are perhaps the best in the series. All of the encounters are very unique with usually more then one way of beating them. Wait until you fight The End. The fight alone can take over one hour for some people (it took me about 45-50 minutes to beat him). The Sorrow is also a unique boss fight.....if you can call it a boss fight. Like in MGS 2, you can either kill the bosses using lethal weapons or kill them using non-lethal weapons such as the MK22, which fires tranqulizers.
10/10[/size]
Replay[/size]
You will want to play through this game again upon completing it. There are alot of Easter Eggs and unlockables (stealth, infinity face paint, EZ gun, etc) in the game. You also want to collect all the camos incase you missed any like I did. Perhaps you want to try using another method to defeat a boss, handle a situation different, or beat the game with zero alerts and zero kills. Maybe you want to go and try to capture every animal or hunt for these frogs that unlocked something special. Thankfully there are no tedious dog tag collecting this time around. There is a Snake Vs. Apes mini game where you try to capture these apes from Ape Escape.
9/10[/size]
Overall[/size]
10/10[/size]
If you are a fan of the series, get it now! Actually if you even have the slightest interest in action gaming, get it!
Last note, playing this game makes me realize how much of a badass Snake is. He deserves to win The Real Man Award.
It's a pretty funny read that looks like something Maddox wrote. Here's a sample below.
Visuals[/size]
They raised the bar even further. The graphics in this game looks like something that should not even be possible with the PlayStation 2. Even better, the framerate is pretty smooth and consistent the whole way through, unlike the demo if you have played it. The character models are slightly improved from MGS 2. They seem to be better with facial expressions. The environment is the biggest improvement that you will see from MGS 2. Details such as swaying grass, ruffling of clothing from strong winds, water ripples, etc. Wait till you fight The Fury, the fire effects and lighting are spectacular. There is one problem though, the camera angle for the most part still uses an overhead camera angle view. It would have work if the game still uses the soliton radar system (the game takes place in the 60s so it is not invented yet), but since it does not. A third person view like Splinter Cell would have fare better. Thankfully, the right analog stick can be manuevered to see more of your surroundings without going into first person view, but it has limited range. Aside from that, the graphics are one of the best that you will ever see on the PlayStation 2.
9.5/10[/size]
Ocelot's infamous hand gesture.
Sound[/size]
The voice acting is still as good as you would expect from a Metal Gear Solid game. David Hayter returns as the voice of Snake. The only voice actor who is off a times in my opinion is Ocelot's voice actor. Fortunately, he seems to get better as the game progressive.
Overall, the music is the best of the series. The music portrays the emotion in many of the scenes brilliantly. It is less techno-like and more orchestral compared to MGS 2. However, you will not hear it that often because the game relies more on ambience such as bird chirping and sirens when you are respectively sneaking around a forest or an enemy's base. Everything is presented in Dolby Pro Logic II, although I would have prefer it if they have kept Dolby Digital 5.1 for some of the cutscenes like in MGS 2.
9.5/10[/size]
Gameplay[/size]
Without the soliton radar, the game feels quite different from a regular Metal Gear Solid game. Nevertheless, the game still stay true to the series root with its emphasize on stealth. Although as with the past game, you can still go Rambo, but it will be very hard. One thing I like about the MGS series is that stealth is an option as opposed to Splinter Cell. Snake Eater evolves the stealth genre with its new survival theme.
New to the series is the inclusion camoflauge. Basically you go into a menu and equip Snake with an outfit and a face paint to make him blend better with his environment. He will be harder to spot by the enemy if his camoflauge is good.
Another new addition to the series is CQC. CQC stands for Close Quarter Combat. When Snake has a knife equipped or a one handed weapon, he can grab an enemy and put a knife to their throat. From there, he can throw him, interrogate him (enemy position, hidden radio frequencies, and tips), choke him, or slit his throat.
In addition to a life gauge, you now have a stamina gauge. As you play the game, Snake's stamina gauge decreases. Stamina affects your aimming and life gauge healing speed. A low stamina will cause your aim to be shaky and your life gauge to recover very slowly. To recover stamina, you will have to hunt for food. Snake can eat just about every animal in the game except for dogs. He can eat snakes, rabbits, crocodiles, rats, etc. Like a real warrior, Snake will eat it raw. You will sometimes find the tradition military ration to eat as well.
Healing in Snake Eater is one of the most realistic and involved in any video game I played. In the game, Snake will get his bones broken, get shot, get large cuts, get burned, suffer from stomach aches, and poisoned. Each condition requires Snake to do a certain number of things done to recover. Let's use a bullet wound as an example, you need to use a knife to lodge out the bullet, use disinfectant, use syptic, and a bandage. For a broken bone, you need to use a splint and bandage. If Snake is poisoned, he needs to use an antidote.
There are more options when using guns. For some guns such as an AK47, a Colt Single Action Army, XM16E1, etc you can choose to aim the gun from the side or over the shoulder. Also for some guns, you can select different modes of fire such as semi-auto, automatic, or single shot. There are a more variety guns such as a shotgun this time around. You can attach and detach a suppressor at will. Suppressors have a finite amount of uses before they are rendered useless, but you can always find more in the game. One last note is that items such as Motion Detectors, Thermal Googles, Nightvision Googles, etc have battery. When they are in use, the battery is drained, but the battery will steadily recharged when it is not in use.
The story is much better then the convulted and ludicrous one you saw in MGS 2. Yes, we still have double crosses and the such, but it is nowhere as absurd as MGS 2's triple crosses. The game's plot serves as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series. The entire game takes place in 1964. Snake is sent into the Soviet Union by the CIA to rescue a Soviet scientist named Sokolov. Backing Snake up is a support team of four people. A British major, a movie loving para-medic, Snake's mentor and legendary soldier named The Boss, and Sigint the African-American weapons technology expert. Of course everything does not proceed as plan and soon Snake has to commence another rescue operation entitled: Snake Eater. The first operation is known as Virtuous Mission.
I will say no more since part of the fun of playing the MGS series is the plot. The plot is what kept me playing, I wanted to find out what happened next. You will see the return of old characters like Ocelot (his gun tricks are awesome). The new characters are very endearing and The Boss is one of the best new character to the series. One thing that I thought was cool about the story was the intergration our actual history such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, Space Race, etc. She is so tough that even Volgin, a huge Russian capable of generating electrcity, is afraid of her. Another thing I should mention is that I am glad that Snake is not pulling not any stupid over the top moves like in the series cannon, The Twin Snakes (a remake of the original on the GameCube, but I consider Metal Gear Solid to be the real version). The only flaw in the story is that the dialoge is a bit weird at times ("Meow", yes someone really does say this) and that the Cobra members could have used more character development like in the previous two MGS games. It is never explained how the members of the Cobra unit possess super natural powers. All of them aside from the Sorrow also seem to be nothing more then psychos. Are you telling me that these guys actually fought for our country in World War II? Of course that does not mean they are not great bosses to fight.
Snake Eater's boss fights are perhaps the best in the series. All of the encounters are very unique with usually more then one way of beating them. Wait until you fight The End. The fight alone can take over one hour for some people (it took me about 45-50 minutes to beat him). The Sorrow is also a unique boss fight.....if you can call it a boss fight. Like in MGS 2, you can either kill the bosses using lethal weapons or kill them using non-lethal weapons such as the MK22, which fires tranqulizers.
10/10[/size]
Replay[/size]
You will want to play through this game again upon completing it. There are alot of Easter Eggs and unlockables (stealth, infinity face paint, EZ gun, etc) in the game. You also want to collect all the camos incase you missed any like I did. Perhaps you want to try using another method to defeat a boss, handle a situation different, or beat the game with zero alerts and zero kills. Maybe you want to go and try to capture every animal or hunt for these frogs that unlocked something special. Thankfully there are no tedious dog tag collecting this time around. There is a Snake Vs. Apes mini game where you try to capture these apes from Ape Escape.
9/10[/size]
Overall[/size]
10/10[/size]
If you are a fan of the series, get it now! Actually if you even have the slightest interest in action gaming, get it!
Last note, playing this game makes me realize how much of a badass Snake is. He deserves to win The Real Man Award.
It's a pretty funny read that looks like something Maddox wrote. Here's a sample below.
Quote:
Originally posted by Kairie
I mean, seriously, this guy is bad-***.
He stabs cobras and crocodiles in the face and eats them.
I know I'd be like "Omg! A Cobra/Crocodile!" and run, but Snake?
Noooo.
Snake, grunting/whispering: A cobra.....
*Stabs cobra in the face and eats it*
Para-Medic: Eew...
I mean, sure, go ahead, be disgusted, woman, but Snake is a real man. He doesn't care about crocodiles, rats and cobras, he's a soldiah, and he'll survive, so he'll eat those animals.
Snake: I'm gonna eat your children.
Hamtaro: Oh noes!
Plus, he makes a half-assed parachute landing into a bad-*** entrance!
First, he was in the plane, and this wuss of a soldiah said: "Hey, turn off your cigarette, man! And put the mask on, you scare me ****less, I'm gonna piss my pants because I'm so nervous.
And Snake was like...
"You talking to me?"
But he's so bad ***, so he just didn't say anything.
So, they finally got him to drop the tobaco.
And when everyone else drops the damn thing, it just drops...
But when Snake drops it... it suddenly becomes bad-***!
And when someone takes off a mask, they just take the damn thing off.
But when Snake takes it off... fwoom... instant bad-assness.
I mean, sure he gets his *** handed down to him by his female mentor, but does he ***** and whine about being beaten up by a woman?
No, he was like... "Major..."
Major: Suck it up and take it like a man, Snake.
And he did.
And that Virtous Sokolov rescue mission?
He was like...
"I know I'm doing them a favor by not killing them, but they're walking all over the place, I just had to kick their asses."
So I made a Snake Smiley. ||:-L
See? He has a bandanna and is smoking.
Yeah, I know it's lame, but if it's Snake, it's instantly bad-***.
I mean, seriously, this guy is bad-***.
He stabs cobras and crocodiles in the face and eats them.
I know I'd be like "Omg! A Cobra/Crocodile!" and run, but Snake?
Noooo.
Snake, grunting/whispering: A cobra.....
*Stabs cobra in the face and eats it*
Para-Medic: Eew...
I mean, sure, go ahead, be disgusted, woman, but Snake is a real man. He doesn't care about crocodiles, rats and cobras, he's a soldiah, and he'll survive, so he'll eat those animals.
Snake: I'm gonna eat your children.
Hamtaro: Oh noes!
Plus, he makes a half-assed parachute landing into a bad-*** entrance!
First, he was in the plane, and this wuss of a soldiah said: "Hey, turn off your cigarette, man! And put the mask on, you scare me ****less, I'm gonna piss my pants because I'm so nervous.
And Snake was like...
"You talking to me?"
But he's so bad ***, so he just didn't say anything.
So, they finally got him to drop the tobaco.
And when everyone else drops the damn thing, it just drops...
But when Snake drops it... it suddenly becomes bad-***!
And when someone takes off a mask, they just take the damn thing off.
But when Snake takes it off... fwoom... instant bad-assness.
I mean, sure he gets his *** handed down to him by his female mentor, but does he ***** and whine about being beaten up by a woman?
No, he was like... "Major..."
Major: Suck it up and take it like a man, Snake.
And he did.
And that Virtous Sokolov rescue mission?
He was like...
"I know I'm doing them a favor by not killing them, but they're walking all over the place, I just had to kick their asses."
So I made a Snake Smiley. ||:-L
See? He has a bandanna and is smoking.
Yeah, I know it's lame, but if it's Snake, it's instantly bad-***.
I loved the second one because it took place entirely in one contained area unlike the first, and unlike the third seems so far. I don't like the openness, I don't know why. I guess it's because you can pretty easily predict where a guard would be, patrolling a hallway, topping a staircase etc, whereas in the jungle they could be any old place.
Comfort for the lonely
