What I love about the Metal Gear Solid games is their progressive
innovation with each new entry. Every time new mechanics are introduced that
hone the gameplay, increase the immersion, and provide a stellar entertainment
experience. It’s never a huge jump that changes things dramatically. You can’t
suddenly drive cars or fly helicopters. It’s always about the little touches.
In Metal Gear Solid the guards were there to be avoided and, at times,
fought. You could bang on a wall to distract them one way, and then sneak past them on the other side. In MGS2 we were thrilled to discover that you could now interact with
their dead or tranquilised bodies. You could hide them, stuff them into
lockers, or throw them over the side of a ship. Not only that but you could
sneak up behind unsuspecting guards, draw your gun and hold them at gunpoint.
Aim at certain delicate parts of their anatomy and they’d wiggle their hips and
shake out ammo to appease you. You could even shoot out the radio on their
jacket so that they couldn’t contact HQ.
Once again in MGS3 it’s the little touches and advances that make the game so great. This
time around you can sneak up and put a knife to your enemies’ throats,
prompting them to not only give up ammo but vital information too. Interrogate
them successfully and they’ll reveal the location of nearby weapons, pinpoint
the location of other guards on your map, and they’ll even tell you which radio
frequencies to call for health top ups and alert cancellation. From there you can use them as a human shield, choke them out, or slit their throats, it's up to you.
People always wonder when Jack Bauer gets the time to eat during one of his day long missions to save the world, and it's nice to see that this sort of thinking has been incorporated here. As Snake you're dropped into the jungle with no supplies, which means that you need to procure equipment onsite, including food. You're required to eat the local flora and fauna to keep your
stamina and health up. If you don’t eat enough your stomach starts to grumble madly,
loudly enough to be heard by suspicious guards and give away your position.
You don't have to just stop at eating those little critters either, you
can capture poisonous animals and then throw them at the guards who’ll get
bitten and die. If you fancy messing with the guards some more you can blow up their food storage huts and then nearby guards will be wandering around moaning about their aching bellies. Throw some rotten food at them, watch them gobble it up, and enjoy the messy consequences. All these touches and more combine with the established sneaky gameplay to make a
rich and diverse experience.
This was the least convoluted, most streamlined entry in the series so
far. There was minimal backtracking to previously completed areas. There was a
huge decrease in the amount of time spent in the codec conversations, the
weakest part of the Metal Gear Solid series. Who really wants to sit there
watching two static heads have a conversation that is subtitled below them? And
sometimes for 15 minutes at a time?!
Thankfully they were kept to a minimum here. MGS3 had the purest,
uncluttered story, with minimal pointless jibber-jabber.
Of course, Hideo Kojima ultimately couldn’t help himself. It all got a
bit flowery before the very end fight with ‘The Boss’, and she crapped on for
about fifteen minutes about her life story. Then there were double crosses and
even triple crosses all being thrown around in the last ten minutes, but by
then it didn’t matter. The entire experience preceding that had been so
enjoyable that I didn’t care. Even the crazy lyrics of the game’s Bond-esque theme song that make up the title for this post couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm
for this one.
This is one of the best games I have ever played.
And now, without further ado, let’s get to the real story. What codename
did I get upon completion? When replaying MGS and MGS2 recently I kind of
rushed through them, receiving the codenames of Hyena and Elephant respectivey.
Having completed them both before, and wanting to get them out of the way so I
could get to this one, I threw caution to the wind. In this playthrough I was
much more invested in a properly stealthy approach. I took my time and used
every advantage I could. And I feel that I did pretty damn good. Behold, here
is my ranking of.....
Panther! Not too shabby, I’m very happy with that!
So part of me wants to dive straight into Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of
the Patriots, whereas another part thinks I should try to finish a previously
started game first. I haven’t decided, I’ll have to have a think about it. Not
for long though, I've still got a long way to go.
15 down, 35 to go.
