"Quite possibly the greatest game of all time."

For the few of you who decided to enter, let alone are actually reading my review, may be thinking “you've got to be kidding, Karma Dragon? There's no way a MGS title is the best game ever.” It is an undeniable fact that the Metal Gear Solid series has always been a love-hate game. People come to love it for the simple, yet brain-stimulating gameplay, amazing storyline, and how bad-ass Snake is. And yet others have come to hate it because of the simple gameplay. They're lost as to what the hell's going on throughout the game's absolute myriad of cutscenes, and find the characters to be an unhealthy mixture of “generic” or “out there”. The bizarre moments, characters, and methods of solving problems alienate some, and yet attract others. The settings of each MGS have been incredibly unique, ranging from a cold, barren armory in the middle of Alaska, to the “Big Shell”, a so-called “anti-pollution center” in the middle of the ocean, from the beautiful wildlife settings that inhabit MGS3, and most recently, a amazingly done rendition of an Arabian-inspired city (and confirmed to be just one of the many locales of MGS4) that would make Indiana Jones proud.

Yet, with the many amazing things that Kojima Productions have come to make of the Metal Gear Solid series, there's still so much to hate. The story is presented in an odd manner, and the gameplay seems outdated compared to more realistic stealth-games such as Splinter Cell. The overall presentation reeks so much of a modern animé-inspiration, it's almost sickening. While these problems seem big, it's the way it's done that make them almost favorable elements. It's as if Mr. Kojima and his team purposely took all these “bad” elements, and managed to make something beautiful out of it all. It's all very flabbergasting, really.

Back in the days of the original MGS, the gameplay was extremely basic. It was very simple: run around corners and hope the bad guys don't find you. Though it's a lot more tactical than the way I put it, that was basically it. You could hug walls, avoid enemy contact by taking advantage of corridors and such, hide in a box, basic stealth mechanics. You had time your way around security cameras, hoping the camera wouldn't suddenly lock on to you as you made your way to the room it was guarding. The ability to lure guards toward your position by knocking on the wall, therefore distracting them while you pass through them using an alternate route, was ingenious. Of course, you occasionally needed to fight back in case you made a wrong move; so of course, you'd find some nice weapons along the course of the game, ranging from handguns to assault rifles. Fighting back was incredibly frustrating, however. Areas seemed to never run out of guards, they'd just keep coming until you left that specific area, and if you were lucky, you'd find a nice desk to hide under, but they'd rarely leave you alone, no matter how well-hidden you were. Bosses of course, were an absolute pain in the ass. Controls were incredibly limited at the time, and there was a severe lack in maneuverability. You couldn't dodge your way out of an incoming basketball, it was so frustrating.

MGS2, thank heavens, improved upon these problems drastically. You were now given the ability to dodge, making incoming rockets and other ballistics much easier to avoid. A first-person view was improved upon by relocating the button's placement for quicker switches. But more importantly, you could now aim your weapon in first person view for more precise aiming, so now you didn't have to worry about missing a shot just because the auto-aim sucked. It felt far more secure than just blindly shooting at your enemies, and headshots were finally possible. You now didn't have estimate where your shots and grenade throws would go just because you couldn't see your target due to the horrible in-game camera. Bosses were no longer as frustrating thanks to this ability, not to mention you could now aim for their heads for massive damage. Silencers were added, and most weapons had a type of their own, so now you could pick off guards without having to worry too much about alerting other guards. Bodies no longer mysteriously disappeared, and the ability to pick up and drag bodies was added for this purpose. The stealth mechanic in general was completely overhauled, and the environment was practically made for this type of work. Simply sneezing alerted the guards to a possible presence, it was so realistic. Of course, not many people took too kindly to newcomer Raiden. Though you played as everyone's favorite Solid Snake (except this time, with a mullet) for about an hour or so, the rest of the game belonged to the eccentric Raiden. His seemingly metrosexual poise and attitude sickened many, yearning from Solid Snake's stern and tough, testosterone-secreting character. Though I myself personally liked Raiden, the fans cries were heard when our hero returned for the prequel, though not as you'd expect.

MGS3 took a drastic turn and took players out of the futuristic, steel-coated settings in favor of the great outdoors of the former Soviet Union. The clock is set back to 1964, at the height of the Cold War, where Solid Snake, or rather, his father, then Naked Snake, is sent to infiltrate a Soviet territory where a mysterious new weapon of mass destruction is believed to be in development. The game itself improved upon MGS2's already amazing gameplay mechanics, though not as drastically as MGS2 had upon MGS. The ability to shoot while hanging from pole-like structures, though a nice feature, is not necessarily useful, nor does it find much use through the course of the game. The stamina bar under the health is a neat addition, giving you a sense of the need to survive. Flora and fauna were added just for this purpose. If you need to eat, hunt down something. Larger animals attack you if you're too close, and smaller animals are far harder to catch. For the guilty conscience, fruits and snacks (yes, snacks) are available. Just to be more realistic, anything that isn't prepackaged or rationed eventually perishes, making them unsafe to eat if you hold certain foods for too long. Boss fights are far more involving, each having an incredibly unique strategy for defeat. From the basic shootout with young Ocelot, to the epic sniper battle with The End (that could potentially go on for hours). Every boss battle is done beautifully, and each one has a different method of defeat, and numerous ways to actually pull it off. You can tell the Soviets don't want you there, and you'll find yourself having to overtake turrets, shoot down choppers, and deactivate electric fences. The ability to blow up small armories and store houses is an amazing feature, as it leads to a lack of supplies for the guards in the area, leading to hunger and fatigue (and easier knock-outs) and the inability to properly defend themselves when you come barging in places Rambo-style. However, of all the neat features found in the game, nothing takes the cake like the addition of camouflage and facepaint. This game (almost) completely ditches those kinky full-body suits for some bad-ass, old-school camo. That's where the percentage at the top-right of the screen comes in. Depending on your environment, or just the immediate vicinity, the suitability of the current camouflage you're wearing affects the percentage based on how much it blends in with the environment. The higher the percentage, the less likely a guard is going to notice you lying in the ground when he walks right past you; it's possible to become almost invisible by just lying completely still. But trust me; you don't want to be wearing camouflage meant for snow-ops when you're hiding behind a tree. Of course, animals aren't affected by this, and that snake's gonna bite you if it deems it necessary.

MGS3 takes a nice break from the overcomplicated mess that was MGS2's story in favor of a more simpler, easy-to-follow one. Of course, though MGS2 did have an overcomplicated story, it was far more engaging than MGS3's or the original's. MGS2 really required you think about what was going on. You can't just listen and automatically know what's happening, you really have to pay attention and analyze. The problem is, every single MGS throws the story at you in broken, huge, and disorganized chunks of cutscenes. Unlike most games that are made to tell stories, it doesn't present it in a slow, easy-to-digest manner. There are such huge breaks between storytelling and actual gameplay, you almost forget what you just learned unless you've been training your brain for minutes a day. Another problem is how absolutely long the cutscenes are. They can range from anywhere between five to ten minutes each. The final scenes of MGS2 leading up to the final boss, believe it or not, are together, almost exactly half an hour long. That's an episode of The Simpsons, plus commercial breaks for you nimrods. I could've spent that time typing about a third of this massive review. MGS2, on my first playthrough, altogether, after adding up all the cutscenes, gameplay, and codec sequences, is approximately twenty-five hours. On my second playthrough, after skipping the cutscenes and codec sequences, is about ten hours. Though a slight increase in skill and somewhat better knowledge of strategies and the environment are contributing factors, that is still an unacceptable difference.

MGS3, sadly, does not improve much on this matter. Though gameplay time is overall longer, the cutscenes and their lengths are still numerous in number. The sheer length of the story-related codec sequences is absolutely massive, and the amount of dialogue is next-generation worthy. However, as long and tedious as the cutscenes and codec sequences are, there's just something about them; I don't know, they're just…incredibly engaging. The main factor is that these characters are amazingly believable. Each has their own unique personality, and most have very interesting backgrounds. The voice actors have incredible talent, and voice—no, play their characters with almost no flaw. You can almost sense the emotions they emit as they speak…it's just so beautiful. Though it is presented oddly, the story itself is amazing, I'm almost bursting trying to keep back the spoilers. Some of the moments in this game are so unbelievably…believable, I sometimes swear this game is based off actual events. It's beautiful the way the events of the game are manipulated to provoke your emotions. Even if you don't cry, you'll at the very least, feel horrible. Unfortunately, not all the characters are all that interesting. Unlike MGS2, where nearly every character has an interesting, usually depressing background, this game pales in comparison. There's almost nothing to show why The Cobras and their partners do what they do. No history, no apparent family, no past lives, nothing. While your friends back at the…shall I say “HQ” are certainly interesting characters, they lack much background, usually only with slight references to their lives when using the codec for casual purposes.

However, the scenes couldn't have been done so well without such nice graphics, right? Thankfully, Snake Eater doesn't fail you there. The graphics are absolutely amazing; especially considering it's was made for arguably the weakest of the Sixth Generation consoles. I'm not lying when I say “it looks better than Resident Evil 4 (awesome game, by the way).” What really stands out, are how…ahead of it's time the graphics are. Some of the effects are amazingly well done, and without the need for…yech…bloom. The lighting is incredibly realistic, and the shadowing is almost comparable to that of GRAW. You can see the shadow of each individual leaf blocking the sun as your maneuver your way around the jungle. The water effects are amazing. You can see the reflections of everything in the water, and it's actually quite clear (unlike most games where water is completely blue), depending on how shallow it is. When you go underwater, unlike most games where your view becomes dark and very…blue, everything becomes blurry, slightly tinted, and hard to see, but you can still make-out basic shapes, just like being underwater in real life. Facial expressions are what really impressed me, however. You can tell, right off the bat, what a character's feeling. You can see both the disappointment and sadness in a certain someone's eyes as she throws a certain someone of a bridge with a fearful look on his face. Needless to say, this game looks incredible.

This game is just as incredible when it comes to sound, and matches the mood perfectly. As I already mentioned, the voice acting is incredible, so I won't delve into that. But what of the rest? Beautiful. Grass crunches under your feet, dirt spreads as you walk through it. Birds chirp as you make your way through the forest, the wind howls as you climb the mountain, your footsteps and gunshots echo as you find your way out of tunnels, it's just very well done. Stereo and surround sound are taken advantage of nicely here. I could actually tell where a chopper was coming from thanks to my speakers. As it passed, the sound of the chopper slowly shifted from the right to left speakers, sounding incredibly realistic as I made my way behind some crates, hoping to evade it. All the fauna sound as they should, and behave realistically, too. Remember how guns sounded in the first two iterations of MGS? They no longer sound like something out of Galaga, and sound like they should sound. However, though there is a reason as to why, it bothered me that the Russians lack their cool accents from the first two games, instead having American accents. It's a bit difficult to put in words, but since Snake speaks fluent Russian, it supposed to emulate how familiar American English sounds to English speakers as to how Russian speakers are used to their own accent.

What really astounded me, is how much longetivity this game really has. As a game that manages to be incredibly technical under the guise of simple gameplay, it's no surprise that this game has such amazing replay value. You could play upwards of a year, and still be able to play it casually without the words “this is boring” crossing your mind (well, technically, it might stray your mind without harm, but whatever…). I've had reports of people completing this game upwards of a hundred times, which is really quite an amazing feat.

So, my final recommendation? Hard to say. I would absolutely love to tell you to get off your seat and pick up a copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 (and preferably Subsistence), but, being a love-hate game, I recommend you rent this (though, it's fairly old). Either way, it's a game completely worthy of the original $50 it cost to buy it, and these days, it's fairly cheap. Even if you don't end up liking it, it's still worthy of a rental.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/07