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Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released 20 years ago

VulcanRaven

Member


It was released on November 17, 2004 in the US and a bit later elsewhere. Europe got it in March so I had to wait longer. I remember being so excited that it was going to be a prequel and we get to play as young Big Boss. MGS2 and 3 still have the best trailers:



Making-of footage:


I hope Konami releases something Delta related today.
 
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Big Baller

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Sad Metal Gear Solid GIF
 
Absolutelly great game... but you can start to see the cracks on the minute-by-minute gameplay. I mean, what gameplay do you have between The Fear and The end, for example?!
 

bender

What time is it?
My hype for MGS2 was to the moon and it left me a little cold. To be fair, nothing could live up to the expectation I had built in my head. After almost skipping it all together, I went into MGS3 with almost no excitement and free of expectations. It's one of my favorite games of all time and it's the game from the series that I revisit most often.
 

VulcanRaven

Member
Absolutelly great game... but you can start to see the cracks on the minute-by-minute gameplay. I mean, what gameplay do you have between The Fear and The end, for example?!
The forest area just before The End is one of my favorite parts of the game. MGS3 is often very linear but it opens there a bit.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Was shocking to play at 30fps after the blissful smoothness of MGS2. The old school camera of the initial release didn't fit the detail and verticality of the environments and gameplay within them either. I found the sensitivity based controls quite clunky and useless, the camo could be smoother too.
 
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Gonzito

Gold Member
I was obsessed with this game when I was a teenager, what an incredible masterpiece. Cant wait for the remake
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I was kind of underwhelmed when I first boot it up. Coming from Sons of Liberty, Snake Eater felt less responsive, had lower framerate and lower IQ. It was ofcourse much more detailed in return. But I felt the camera had run its course, Splinter Cell was already a thing and SE was much more dense than SoL Its when I bought Subistence that I could really appreciate this game.

I think objectively speaking, this might be the best MGS game even. It has a jungle backdrop, it takes place during the Cold War era, it has the best storyline. Big Boss was more bad ass than Solid Snake.

And the attention to detail is insane considering this is PS2. Foliage reacts, rain removes footprints. The End fight is a good example of all this detail culminating in this fight. You can use the flora and fauna to stop him, rain will remove his tracks which you need to adjust to. And, you can even kill him prematurely.

MGS4 was an incredible downgrade compared to this one.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
What a thrill
With darkness and silence through the night
What a thrill
I'm searching and I'll melt into you
What a fear in my heart
But you're so supreme!

I give my life, not for honor, but for you (Snake Eater)
In my time, there'll be no one else
Crime, it's the way I fly to you (Snake Eater)
I'm still in a dream, Snake Eater
 

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
What a thrill
With darkness and silence through the night
What a thrill
I'm searching and I'll melt into you
What a fear in my heart
But you're so supreme!

I give my life, not for honor, but for you (Snake Eater)
In my time, there'll be no one else
Crime, it's the way I fly to you (Snake Eater)
I'm still in a dream, Snake Eater
tenor.gif
 

kunonabi

Member
Still my second favorite MGS after The Phantom Pain. I liked the first MGS but didn't love it and never cared for mgs2 much. Didn't play 3 until subsistence but I fell in love with it instantly.
 
For a while after release, MGS3 was up in the running for greatest game (in the gaming community’s eyes). MGS and in particular Snake Eater raised the bar for cinematic games, and as a true technical masterpiece on the PS2.


Among unique things about it was the alternate way of completing the boss battle against The End. That kind of stuff is what makes me love Kojima’s games.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Best MGS in the series, by a long shot. No stupid twist ala Raiden. Pure 60's Soviet fiction with Snake at his peak. Best boss in the series. The least non-sense Kojima story.
 
First game I imported, I think I got it the day on the 18th.

Contributed to putting me on the wrong track regarding my college studies... stayed up at night playing, then would sleep instead of going to class.
 

RaduN

Member
Best game ever made probably.

Character development at its finest, unmatched cinematography, absolutely outstanding gameplay, bosses, humour, ost, mood, charm, level of creativity. Unforgettable.
 
The best metal gear ever.

  • Story that strikes the perfect balance between being easy to understand, but still complex and layered enough to make you think. I love how they tied the character naming scheme into the book of genesis at the end. I love the meta narrative of MGS2 but Snake Eater really makes things approachable for the common person.
  • Wide-linear gameplay that has the benefit of tight/focused level design with the more experimental sandbox nature of TPP. Lots of hidden mechanics and interactions.
  • Extremely memorable boss-fights...maybe the best of the series.
  • Maybe the best looking/sounding game on the platform.
It's the best possible mix of elements from the other games IMO.
 

VulcanRaven

Member
I was kind of underwhelmed when I first boot it up. Coming from Sons of Liberty, Snake Eater felt less responsive, had lower framerate and lower IQ. It was ofcourse much more detailed in return. But I felt the camera had run its course, Splinter Cell was already a thing and SE was much more dense than SoL Its when I bought Subistence that I could really appreciate this game.
The lower framerate didn't bother me at the time but it did go even lower than 30. Also I was so used to the old style camera so I was fine with it. I do use the 3D camera nowdays but it does make it a bit too easy. The End was harder before. I agree about the image quality. MGS2 looked so clean compared to 3.

This gameplay needs to be posted:
 
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PaintTinJr

Member
Another great remix


After watching this video I had a chat with Copilot :) which confirmed this was Capital Studios in LA using an analogue or hybrid desk probably from SSL, yet MGS2 was mastered at Sony Music at Sony's New York US HQ on the far superior OXF-R3, which sort of makes sense for the 60's vinyl nature of the game, but it then turns out Kojima did MGS4, MGS5 and Death Stranding all at Capital Studios too, which seems very odd for MGS4 at least, as I thought he was an audiophile despite that crap iPod in Snake's possession in MGS4.

The audio choice and quality has always been good in the last few Kojima games, but this game/track has always seemed like the crescendo of the power ballad is less than expected or raspy when adjusted to what I expect it to be when gaming. Still sounds great, but with Kojima being the perfectionist really shocked about MGS3 and 4 at least. Can't say too much sounds imperfect with MGS5 or Death stranding, so can only assume Capital caught up or used Sonnox plugins.
 
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