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Metal Gear Solid 3: | ||||||||||||
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he Metal Gear Solid series is to stealth games as the Final Fantasy series is to role-playing—Japanese melodrama filtered through a Westernized lens. The third game in legendary designer Hideo Kojima's cinematic trilogy of trilogies is like a love letter to Ian Fleming and Harry Turtledove, working as a prequel that drops players into a fantasticated 1960s geopolitical landscape and the international intrigue of an alternate-history Cold War.
In October 1962, a Soviet submarine officer narrowly averted global catastrophe by blocking an order to fire nuclear torpedoes at the height of tensions in the Cuban missile crisis; on Oct. 28, the Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuban territory. Metal Gear Solid 3 contends that a secret condition facilitated Soviet capitulation, namely that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev cut a deal with JFK for the return of a Soviet scientist who had defected to the West. The scientist—Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov—was formerly the lead designer of a top-secret weapon of apocalyptic proportions.
Enter Jack, aka "Naked Snake," a CIA superagent whose training in black-ops military, among other talents, makes him one of the most valued operatives in the United States' espionage arsenal. In MGS3, a youthful Snake is dispatched via the covert FOX unit to the Soviet fortress of Groznyj Grad to rescue Sokolov and return him to American soil before Sokolov can be forced to resume his deadly project. As the mysteries surrounding Sokolov deepen and the plot twists explode, Snake is forced to question his professional and personal loyalties.
MGS3 controls much as its previous incarnations, allowing players to manipulate Snake through 3-D jungle environments and decrepit facility interiors from either a 3/4 isometric overhead view or a first-person perspective that arrests Snake's motion and allows for full 360-degree panning. New to the game are the camouflage and medical systems, which encourage players to use different types of clothing to optimize stealth capabilities in different locales and manipulate medical tools to suture deep cuts, treat burns and bandage wounds. There's also a hunting option that allows Snake to kill and eat indigenous jungle critters, converting them into rations that help him replenish lost stamina. Weapons, medical supplies, food and more are stored in a new backpack system that lets Snake carry more items at a time, but with a restricted number that can be actively used.
The spy-cam that didn't love me
MGS3 manages to take what should have been one of the best games of the year and turns it into an experience akin to driving a Ferrari while wearing a neck brace. For a game that looks so good, has such a brisk and complex story and is filled with more cool tech than an episode of Inspector Gadget, someone really blew the camera system.
The story unfolds through cinematic sequences and extended radio conversations, which are engaging and relatively humorous. Gameplay is sandwiched between these cutscenes and focuses on limited goals, such as penetrating the perimeter of an enemy stronghold, making contact with another agent or dueling with "boss" characters that have hammy names like "The Fury" and "The Sorrow." Despite the shift backward in time, the game is brimming with fascinating technology, all of it capable of being used to solve puzzles in different ways. The new CQC (close-quarters combat) system remedies Snake's previously abysmal hand-to-hand lethality, and Snake is finally able to withstand enough punishment to encourage occasional one-on-one melees instead of picking off enemies with distance weapons.
The artistry behind the 3-D environments is so stunning that to compare MGS3 to other major titles released in 2004 is a disservice—MGS3 is simply in a category all its own. From moss-coated trunks to light scattering through jungle canopies, this is a looker, and hardly any of it's just for show. Consider, for instance, that when taking fire in tall grass it's actually possible to track the direction of the enemy because the bullets cause individual blades of grass to move.
Sadly, all this glory is teased at arm's reach by a camera system that forces unnatural perspectives on the player to artificially heighten difficulty. Snake's radar system from previous games is no more, replaced by optional battery-powered sonar and motion detectors that help a little but not enough. Players are thus forced to switch constantly between first- and third-person modes just to scan the area a few dozen feet in any direction, which is as much fun as piloting an airplane with a few side windows and a periscope.
Put bluntly, MGS3 is like putting a Picasso under poor lighting. On the other hand, it's still a Picasso, and with a little practice and a lot of patience, there's more to love than dislike about Hideo Kojima's flawed masterpiece.
If you're willing to die endlessly at the mercy of a bullheaded camera, there's a diamond of a game and more than 25 hours of deep storytelling waiting here. —Matt
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