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Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)
This game unexpectedly throws us back in time, to an era when the main character from previous games wasn't even born, sometime in the 60s. Technically, the graphics haven't changed much, but the gameplay has been enriched with a whole host of new features:
1) The ability (and necessity) to use camouflage has been added. If previous games were mainly about stealth in enclosed spaces, here stealth is the opposite, in the open air in the jungle.
2) You can eat. The idea was to add survival elements, but personally, I didn't find it to be a major problem. You can eat snakes, hence the game's title.
3) Now you can't just eat a healing item and be done with the wound – you need to go into a special menu and treat it. Different wounds are treated differently – a broken bone, a burn, a gunshot wound, and more exotic ones – a snake bite, leeches attached, extracting hidden items from your own body.
Overall, I found the gameplay to be less engaging than the previous two games. First, you have to crawl on your belly for miles through the jungle, and second, the game constantly tries to drop to 40, or even 30 fps, and although the human eye can't distinguish more than 24 frames, I could clearly see the difference. Third, the ratio of cutscenes to gameplay has reached the point that we're used to seeing in Western games – 5 minutes of cutscenes for every 30 minutes of gameplay. It's an amazing irony, considering that while Western games were becoming more cinematic, Eastern games were moving away from that.
Of course, there are some cool moments. When you crawl into particularly tall grass to sneak past a guard, and then a poisonous snake bites you that was hiding in the grass, just as snakes should – that really conveys the atmosphere of a saboteur in the jungle.
In terms of plot, I also found the game to be weaker. The plot is quite predictable, with this being the traitor and that being the villain, with no unexpected twists like in the previous installments. The only thing that's pleasing is seeing one of the antagonists from previous games as a young man.
Overall, throughout the game, I kept wondering why this particular installment is considered one of the best, why everyone rated it 10/10. In the end, I decided that it's because of the cutscenes – they really took a big step forward in quality. However, in 2015, they still look… well, you know how they look. "Just another game that was great for its time," I thought.
I'll make a small digression. In works of art, there's a technique where the entire work is a slow-paced action, and in the last five minutes, something happens that is supposed to evoke catharsis in the consumer. I didn't expect to see this technique in action. I didn't expect it to work so well.
It's in the very last cutscene that all the plot twists are revealed, and it turns out that the story is, as always, far from simple. But it's not so much about the twists as it is about the emotional impact they're supposed to have – and they do.
I've often seen this screenshot without any comments. Now I understand that words are meaningless here.
In general, this is the first game in the series where the ending didn't disappoint me at all. There are no unanswered questions, at least not for the ones that SHOULD be answered, and it's also emotionally resonant. It's also the first game in the series where I really started to feel the message "witness the horrors of war," not just see its presence, but actually feel it in my heart. After the credits, as always, there's an intriguing conversation. To give you an idea of the level of intrigue, I'll just say that the word "triplecrossing" appeared in it. No further comment is needed.
In general, in just a few minutes of the ending, the game transformed from mediocre to a true 10/10. I have to admit, I was starting to doubt it, but now I'm convinced again:
KOJIMA GENIUS
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This game unexpectedly throws us back in time, to an era when the main character from previous games wasn't even born, sometime in the 60s. Technically, the graphics haven't changed much, but the gameplay has been enriched with a whole host of new features:
1) The ability (and necessity) to use camouflage has been added. If previous games were mainly about stealth in enclosed spaces, here stealth is the opposite, in the open air in the jungle.
2) You can eat. The idea was to add survival elements, but personally, I didn't find it to be a major problem. You can eat snakes, hence the game's title.
3) Now you can't just eat a healing item and be done with the wound – you need to go into a special menu and treat it. Different wounds are treated differently – a broken bone, a burn, a gunshot wound, and more exotic ones – a snake bite, leeches attached, extracting hidden items from your own body.
Overall, I found the gameplay to be less engaging than the previous two games. First, you have to crawl on your belly for miles through the jungle, and second, the game constantly tries to drop to 40, or even 30 fps, and although the human eye can't distinguish more than 24 frames, I could clearly see the difference. Third, the ratio of cutscenes to gameplay has reached the point that we're used to seeing in Western games – 5 minutes of cutscenes for every 30 minutes of gameplay. It's an amazing irony, considering that while Western games were becoming more cinematic, Eastern games were moving away from that.
Of course, there are some cool moments. When you crawl into particularly tall grass to sneak past a guard, and then a poisonous snake bites you that was hiding in the grass, just as snakes should – that really conveys the atmosphere of a saboteur in the jungle.
In terms of plot, I also found the game to be weaker. The plot is quite predictable, with this being the traitor and that being the villain, with no unexpected twists like in the previous installments. The only thing that's pleasing is seeing one of the antagonists from previous games as a young man.
Overall, throughout the game, I kept wondering why this particular installment is considered one of the best, why everyone rated it 10/10. In the end, I decided that it's because of the cutscenes – they really took a big step forward in quality. However, in 2015, they still look… well, you know how they look. "Just another game that was great for its time," I thought.
I'll make a small digression. In works of art, there's a technique where the entire work is a slow-paced action, and in the last five minutes, something happens that is supposed to evoke catharsis in the consumer. I didn't expect to see this technique in action. I didn't expect it to work so well.
It's in the very last cutscene that all the plot twists are revealed, and it turns out that the story is, as always, far from simple. But it's not so much about the twists as it is about the emotional impact they're supposed to have – and they do.
I've often seen this screenshot without any comments. Now I understand that words are meaningless here.
In general, this is the first game in the series where the ending didn't disappoint me at all. There are no unanswered questions, at least not for the ones that SHOULD be answered, and it's also emotionally resonant. It's also the first game in the series where I really started to feel the message "witness the horrors of war," not just see its presence, but actually feel it in my heart. After the credits, as always, there's an intriguing conversation. To give you an idea of the level of intrigue, I'll just say that the word "triplecrossing" appeared in it. No further comment is needed.
In general, in just a few minutes of the ending, the game transformed from mediocre to a true 10/10. I have to admit, I was starting to doubt it, but now I'm convinced again:
KOJIMA GENIUS
O
D
Z
I
M
A
G
E
N
I
U
S
Where do we go?
Where do we end up when we save the world?
Where do we end up when we save the world?