Full Review for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater by Ultima(elite)

Introduction

Metal Gear has been around for a very long time. Every installment of the series gets better and better, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is no exception. Everything about this game will appeal to action fans everywhere. It has everything that a gamer could want: tons of weapons, an excellent story, a supreme soundtrack and lots of spoken dialouge.

Graphics

The graphics in MGS3 were noticebly better than Sons of Liberty. In fact, I think that this game has the most realistically rendered forests on the PS2. Interaction in your environments was also done very well. You could either climb up trees to evade enemies, or duck in the underbrush to find cover. Added to this, tons of realistic wildlife are in these jungles, which Snake must find and eat for food. Character models were also very fine tuned this time around, and looked very real. Konami actually mapped emotions on the character's faces, so it looked and felt like these were actual people, instead of you just playing a video game.

Sound

To me, every Metal Gear Solid game in the series was worth playing because of the sound quality alone. MGS3 is no different. Once again, David Hayter does the voice of Snake, which is an absolute treat for MGS fans. Tons of spoken text accompany every second of gameplay, which is much more realistic then reading written dialouge. Other than the voices, the sounds are top notch. Guns and explosions are perfect, and sound incedibally realistic for it's time period. However, the best thing about the sound quality in this game (and any other Metal Gear Solid game for that matter) is the original soundtrack. It is probably the best soundtrack that I have ever heard used in a game. I already bought the game's soundtrack, and I recommend that any of you who like game music should go pick it up immediately. It is simply outstanding.

Gameplay

Controls in MGS3 handle perfectly. Like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Konami added the ability to go into first person view mode to further enhance the realism and gameplay. You will have no trouble with the controls in MGS3 at all. My only complaint was the new fighting system, labeled Close Quarters Combat, or, CQC. This is the ability for you to defeat your opponent up close and do multiple things, like interrogation. For the first half of the game, I didn't know how to activate "CQC mode" to do all of these things, and when I did, I never really used it that much. However, buy the game and read the MGS3 game manual that comes with the game and it will teach you how to do this. Oh yes, and for a final side note to MGS fans, Konami fixed the annoying grenade aiming system problem for MGS3 and actually made it possible to use grenades.

Lastability

This game will have you playing it over and over again, just because it is so fun. However, tons of unlockables and rewards await you, along with dozens of secrets and weapons to find during gameplay. Once again, the ability to collect Dog Tags has been put in to add to the longevity of the game. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is truly one of a kind, and will have you coming back for more every time you play it.

Overall

In my opinion, this game is by far the greatest Metal Gear game in the series. Metal Gear fans will love every second of this game; sneaking has never been so extreme. To me, this game beats out everything in the genre, including one of the king of spy thrillers, Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. Anyone who is a fan of sneaking/action games would want to pick this one up as soon as possible.

Final Score: 96%