Despite its flaws Snake Eater remains as gaming's best implementation of stealth gameplay
In relation to the other Metal gear games, which are overly demanding of the attention of rookies, Snake Eater is ridiculously easy to pick up. After all, it is set many years before Kojima expanded the storyline of his videogame masterpiece into bold convoluted web of characters, governments and political factions. Snake Eater's plot is as easy to follow as it gets, hence while the game's gameplay quality will be the core alluring factor to those who are familiar with Snake, those who have never gotten into the series will find, in the story's simplicity, reason to finally step into this universe. On Snake Eater, during the Cold War, a CIA agent is tasked with the mission to explore the jungles of the USRR and track down a kidnapped scientist who, threatened by a rebellious soviet group, is developing a dangerous nuclear weapon that could ruin the cooperation between the American and soviet governments, therefore kicking off the feared worldwide atomic conflict that would spell the world's doom.
Even if down the line the story does get constituted of many different threads of political interest, the game keeps things very simple all the way through. Still, there is no denying that Snake Eater – like the whole franchise – is very heavy on storytelling. In the game, watching cutscenes and actual playing share a nearly equal part of the title's running time, and some of the very well-produced scenes can extend for over forty minutes. Long cinematics have always been one of the franchise's core strengths, and the central diverging point among those who love Metal Gear and those who do not, and here they are looking better than ever due to the brilliant use of 3D effects. Still, this integral part of the series' nature comes into conflict with the main feature of the system housing it: its portability. Those who like to take their handheld experiences in small morsels of time would better stay away from a title such as this, but anyone who is willing to use the 3DS as a home console for the duration of this game will have no problems whatsoever with that issue.
When not watching cutscenes, gamers will most likely be guiding Snake through some stealth scenario, and those are certainly the game's defining moments. Snake has a vast arsenal of moves and tactics at his disposal in order to go through enemy lines without being sighted: he can use a sleeping gun, select the most suiting camouflage according to the terrain he finds himself in, knock on hollow surfaces to attract enemy attention, use special kinds of goggles, and so on. What really makes those segments an absolute thrill, though, is how well-designed they are. As impossible and some of them might seem at first, with a little observation and a lot of calculation the enemies' move patterns start revealing small gaps in coverage that can be taken advantage of, players are then required to act in a few split seconds to either move to another more advanced location without being seen or sneaking behind the enemy to end his life in a very quiet manner. Those sections are very tense, and getting to the next scenario without being noticed is very rewarding.
The stealth nature of Snake's mission is not the only reason why players will try hard not to be seen, though, but they will also want to stay hidden from enemies' view due to how weak the shooting gameplay on Snake Eater is. When sighted, if players choose not to try to find a new place to hide until other soldiers give up on their search for Snake, they can engage in fire weapons combat. Sadly, not only is enemy AI not very well-programmed to handle such situations, but Snake is, at times, too resistant in relation to enemy fire, making it possible for players to get away with murder way too easily once they are seen, running towards the next piece of land without dealing with the enemies. Fortunately, as the game reaches its midway point, soviet soldiers start carrying more powerful guns that indeed give players the right level of punishment for blowing their cover, forcing them to clear the area while keeping their presence unknown.
Being set mostly in a jungle, Snake Eater features a number of survival elements that are very important to its gameplay. The game's central character can acquire a huge amount of injuries, either coming into contact with wild animals or insects, or being beat down by soviet forces. Those injuries need to be treated quickly, otherwise Snake's stamina bar, which when reduced causes the character to perform simple combat action very poorly, will decrease to dangerous levels. Due to how important the stamina bar is, finding food either on soviet storages or in the wild is also key to surviving. However, while finding food can be a good challenge at times, the items for medical care are too plentiful, making the healing factor of the game more a tiny annoyance of having to navigate a little surgery menu and less an actual quest for survival as it should have been.
Aside from clashing with the 3DS' portable nature on its tendency for long cutscenes, Snake Eater has one extra struggle with Nintendo's machine: the controls. Saying Snake Eater does not control well would be extremely unfair, because most of the game's commands can be performed with ease, and the touch screen keeps the game's many menus and maps in handy for players to use in a split second. However, it is worth noting that the lack of a second analog stick forced Konami to map the camera controls to the A, B, X and Y buttons, and while that is more of a hardware limitation problem than a shortcoming that is on the developers' backs, it is still an issue nonetheless. Controlling the camera with those buttons is far from natural, and it takes some good time to get used to it. Fortunately, even if not totally comfortable, it is far from being a gameplay disaster.
In spite of all those minor issues that keep the game from reaching its full potential, Snake Eater is definitely worth a purchase, especially for those who have never had any contact with the franchise. Its gameplay time may not be too long, but the different range of difficulties, and many extras are enough to send players into at least a second playthrough. And while the story loses its magic on a replay, the stealth segments and bosses are all worth revisiting; the first for how they can be taken on in different manners, and the second for how creative and outlandish they are. Snake Eater might not be the game's definitive version, but its revamped visuals – even with the rare drops in frame rate, incredible dialogues and characters, and top-notch stealth gameplay will please everybody willing to watch many cutscenes and overlook its minor stumbles.