After playing the considered greatest game of MSG series, I have to say: It's sometimes hard to take it seriously...

User Rating: 8 | Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater PS2
By Dreamagus | Review Date:
MGS3 is a very good game. To start, the mechanics have been improved over the 2nd game, with the camera control now much more friendly than before, and the camo system also tactically better than the previous linear sneaking action (even if it sometimes shows the necessity of employing an rather stupid AI for some enemies - what's typicall for stealth-action games but never satisfying). It offers a decent variety of weapons and some amazingly crafted secrets. The boss battles are varied and unique, some of them deep and untopped even by the most modern games wich are praised for this feature (special mention for The Boss/The Joy and The End - a boss you can kill before even entering the boss fight or by simply doing nothing inside the game, but outside it - another nice example of 4th-Wall-Manipulation mechanic the series presents, just like the Psycho Mantis battle of the first MSG). There are varied sequences of gameplay that makes good use of the mechanics and never let the game become boring or unworthy of the player's time.

Aside from that, there's the story. Oh, the highly praised story of Metal Gear Solid...well, it's not that great. Of course, the plot twists are lessened and have added importance, unlike the Sons Of Liberty's sucession of nonsense that sums up into a great mess towards the end of the game. But that doesn't save some moments from being just...well, let's just say that the game takes a lot of "poetical license" in certain aspects. The Cobra Unit, for example, have completely out-of-place powers that are never well-explained within the game, and the seemingly major motiff of the game's narrative (the defection of The Boss to the Soviet Union) is most used for misplaced emotional impact than for actual narrative progession of quality. But that's common into the MGS series, and shouldn't be a surprise for someone familiar with them. That's what keep me from being an actual fan of MGS in general: the games never estabilishes itselves between the real and the surreal, becomimng somewhat messy in terms of storytelling. Sometimes it strikes as an higly planned plot of deception and conspiration, and sometimes it shows itself as just and peculliar japanese overstylized narrative that takes itself too seriously to make any overall sense. That's funny, because if it was not for this latter element, this games surely wouldn't be as influent as they are.

Well, all in all, the game's worth playing, specially if you've played anterior chapters of the series (self-references are funny and really striking in terms of gaming experience). For me it's far from being one of the greatest games of all time, but I can understand why some people think so. And that's a good outflow to make at last: my definitive opinion of Metal Gear Solid series.

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