12. Metal Gear Solid 3
There were a few instances in the voting for this issue where things lined up in a way that I found totally acceptable. I’m still annoyed that Bionic Commando didn’t show up anywhere on the list; but on the other hand, Metal Gear Solid 3 showed up pretty close to the top of the list as the most beloved chapter of the Metal Gear series. And that is completely correct.
19 thoughts on “GameSpite Quarterly 2, #12: Metal Gear Solid 3”
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Bionic Commando was on my top 5 list!
MGS 3 really is great once you get past the first hour and a half or so of setup to the real meat and potatoes of the game.
I think the game’s due for another play through soon.
As with the Majora’s Mask article posted just recently, I decided to cheat and read the online article rather than wait to purchase the latest issue — I try to be a purist like that.
Parish wrote a similar article some time ago, but the points still hit at the core of what made MGS3 such a brilliant game, and again I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this write-up. The Gamespite critiques do such a wonderful job at explicating how games are personal to the authors, and for that I really admire the site. So many other writers could learn from you guys, I’m just taking notes personally. :)
MGS3 is the best game in the series. MGS4 has some great moments, and marries narrative with game-play in far more compelling ways (when it’s not in cutscene-mode) but MGS3 is the whole, well rounded package.
Great write-up. MGS3 is one of the greatest games of its generation. Shame about the sequel, though.
I assure you all I could have written about completely different aspects of the game and still gushed all over it. MGS3 is one of the most ambitious games I’ve ever played, with the added benefit of pulling it off most of the time.
Tremendous game. I actually put off playing it until the Subsistence package came out, and I was sucked in for the entirety of the time. I didn’t put it down until I was finished. And the Secret Theater stuff was a laugh riot. :)
I don’t really have a problem with MGS4, though. I enjoyed it as well, although it felt like much more of a throwback to the style of MGS1&2, while simultaneously fixing many of the gripes people had with the controls. Still, most of the issues with MGS3 were fixed with Subsistence (at least the 3D camera), so none of what MGS4 did really struck me as revolutionary for the series.
One thing I did notice, however, is how much I died in MSG3 vs. MGS4. I pretty much blasted my way through MGS4 with only three or four game overs. Not so much for MGS3. The game is tough. Maybe that’s part of its charm.
I find it interesting how MGS3 tends to be everyone’s favorite when it basically completely abandons the core gameplay of the previous 4 games. I’m not disagreeing, and I’m not saying I don’t like the others, but you’d think camo in place of hiding around corners would put off more people than it did.
This game was the only one I found tedious to go back to after beating it. As mentioned, the controls are a little awkward, you are forced to switch between the different views to spot enemies (which is also annoying, specially since everything’s either green or brown), and the bosses don’t require much brain power: it’s like a Megaman boss fight, find the tool or weapon in your arsenal that will totally cripple him and that’s it. Sure, there are more ways to go about it if you feel like getting fancy. But the quickest and more efficient one is usually plowing through.
Shellshock – you answered your own question: “Sure, there are more ways to go about it if you feel like getting fancy. “
“you’d think camo in place of hiding around corners would put off more people than it did”
Why’s that? Using camo to hide within the environment was simply a more advanced and, honestly, realistic application of the previous games’ approach that felt more like sneaking through hostile territory and less like playing hide-and-seek in an empty building.
I’m not one for hyperbole, so I’m not going to say that “after MGS3, MGS4 broke my heart”.
But oh hell, it kinda did. There were so many steps back in that game, from pretty (relative to MGS3) lame bosses, to lack of real imagination in terms of gameplay (after the first two areas which were gold in my book), to (in my opinion) a lack of the expert sense of humor and timing of MGS3. That game was just so whimsical for a hard boiled spy story!
And don’t get me started on the final boss of MGS4. It was neat and all, but it was such a devolution from what MGS3 gave us.
I see that you played Subsistence which I’ve only played Snake Eater (buying two versions of the same game is for suckers). Throughout the entire article I’m waiting for some mention of the awkward camera, but I didn’t see any. Oh well.
So am I alone in thinking The Fury is the best boss fight in the game? When I got my PS3 a week before MGS4, thereby getting a system that could play Subsistence’s second disk properly (doesn’t work on an original-model PS2 for love or money), I pretty much spent that week fighting Fury over and over (which led to problems when MGS4 changed the whole controller layout, but hey).
Yes, SonicPanda. You are the only person who thinks that (in my experience, anyway). Most people prefer The Fear, The End, The Sorrow, or the last boss. I probably need to try The Fury again sometime.
“I find it interesting how MGS3 tends to be everyone’s favorite when it basically completely abandons the core gameplay of the previous 4 games.”
It really didn’t abandon anything, and instead evolved them so that they could exist outside of a military fortress. What’s really the intrinsic difference between hiding in a thicket and hiding under a tank? You’re still hiding. If anything, MGS3 is a return to form. Remember how there were jungles and outdoor stealthing in MG and MG2?
I have to second what Mana said. I found the camera in Snake Eater completely frustrating, and it basically killed a lot of the fun of the game for me.
^^^ Yeah. The main problem is that the terrain is very irregular, and enemies blend in with it a lot more than in previous games. While first-person view helps spot enemies in the distance, it’s just awkward to be switching to it back and forth.
Great article. Makes me want to play the game, which seems amazing for a 5 year old Playstation 2 title.
I still like Gabe at Penny Arcades summary:
“If you want to know what the game is like but you don’t want to buy it, here’s what you do. Go out into your backyard and lay down in the grass for fifteen hours. Every twenty minutes have a friend come out and step on your balls. That will give you a pretty good idea of what MGS 3 is like.”