Snake is in for another richly cinematic, occasionally convoluted, and ultimately satisfying adventure in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the latest installment in Konami designer Hideo Kojima's long-running stealth action series. Much like its predecessors, Metal Gear Solid 3 begs to be talked about, if nothing else. After all, during the course of the game, you'll experience a story dense with detail and intrigue, one that's often presented using some of the most dramatically staged video game cutscenes to date. You'll also spend about half your time with the game just watching (or listening to) the story unfold, and for every sequence that's extremely exciting and thought-provoking, there's a part that seems needlessly drawn out. Meanwhile, the gameplay itself--despite an all-new setting in a Soviet jungle during the 1960s--really hasn't changed much since the last installment, and it's aged noticeably during these past few years. Consequently, the mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 3 can be just as confounding as the storyline--but also just as rewarding, especially once you reach some of the game's memorable, dramatic confrontations. In short, this is a great game that embodies both the impressive style and the one-of-a-kind spirit of its predecessors.

Join Snake in another bewildering, memorable adventure.

There's much that needs to be said about Metal Gear Solid 3's story, mostly because it's such a huge part of the game. Of course, there's much about the story that ought to be experienced firsthand. So suffice it to say that the plot here is very much in the same vein as that of the previous two Metal Gear Solids. It's better than the second, in that it ties up its loose ends and ultimately delivers a strong sense of closure. Yet it'll still keep you guessing and second-guessing till the bitter end. Unfortunately, the story gets off to an almost painfully slow start--you'll have to put up with a lot of wordy, sometimes tedious exposition in the first couple of hours, and these hours are almost literally devoid of gameplay. Another possible impediment is the game's highly self-aware and self-deprecating sense of humor, which should appeal to the series' hardcore fans but nevertheless takes you out of the moment, oftentimes on purpose. Playful anachronisms are plentiful, and there are more than a few jokes at the expense of Metal Gear Solid 2's effete protagonist, Raiden. Some of this humor is rather lofty and clever, while some of it falls flat, as if lost in translation from the Japanese. So it's fortunate that the game seems to simply abandon the goofy aspect of its personality somewhere around the halfway point.

Make no mistake: This is a serious story, filled with some shocking scenes of graphic violence, and a helping of strong language and sexual references for good measure. You've never seen any game pull off some of the stunts that this one does. Fairly early on, the high stakes of Snake's mission are plainly exposed. You're introduced to the game's central villain, a sadomasochistic Russian colonel named Volgin, and you also catch a glimpse of the Cobras, a gaggle of bizarre military commandos whom you'll face one by one in some of the game's biggest showdowns. These characters make pretty good foes, but with maybe a couple of exceptions, they're just straightforward comic book bad guys. It's Metal Gear Solid 3's other key characters (and the events they manage to stir up) that are especially interesting.

Shown here, the woman known as the Boss turns out to be one of the story's most fascinating characters.

Much of the story revolves around Snake's complex relationship with a woman known only as the Boss, who apparently trained him to become the elite operative and deadly fighter that he is. The Boss turns out to be a great character, and in many ways Metal Gear Solid 3 is her story as much as it is Snake's, so it's fortunate that she's as endearing as he is. Another major player in the story is Ocelot, whom Metal Gear Solid fans will remember as the eccentric Russian gunslinger with a penchant for torturing his victims. Of course, he's depicted here in his formative years--he's presented as an extremely talented marksman who's still impressionable, despite an arrogant streak. The rivalry that develops between Ocelot and Snake is pretty remarkable: They seem to be at each other's throats less like mortal enemies and more like bitter siblings. Another character, Eva, fills the token "Bond girl" role in the story. Her sultry appearance leaves little to the imagination, but of course there's more to her than meets the eye.

In addition to these key characters, Snake will frequently communicate via radio with an off-site support staff. The most notable voice on the radio belongs to Major Zero, Snake's commanding officer, who sounds perfectly official, thanks partly to his British accent. The radio conversations you'll be listening to are functionally identical to the codec conversations from previous Metal Gear Solid games, in that they're sometimes too numerous and not nearly as interesting as the game's also-numerous cinematic cutscenes. Nevertheless, they help flesh out and tie together important elements of the story, and they thankfully drop off in frequency as you press further into the game.