Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a remake of the original 2004 PlayStation 2 game from Konami and is now available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. You can find the link to the official game website HERE.
Story
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater throws you into 1964 during the Cold War. At first, it seems Naked Snake is sent on a basic mission: to extract the scientist that the Soviet Union is using for dastardly deeds. However, these missions never go quite right, do they? Naked Snake is thrown into a situation that seems way out of his depth, and has limited time to fix the deadly mistakes of those who were once close to him. If his mission fails, it will lead to a war that will end the world as we know it. The introduction, while intense and heart-pounding, suddenly evolves into one of the best musical introductions I’ve ever seen. It was very James Bond-esque.
Metal Gear Solid 3 sets the pace well story-wise, introducing many characters integral to the plot while also throwing many twists and turns, like those you’d expect from a Konami and Hideo Kojima game. The cutscenes were fairly long but detailed and explained the plot perfectly in an easy-to-understand way. The characters have a lot of depth to them, with new things to learn about each character as you progress, and as someone who has only dabbled in the MGS series, I didn’t feel confused learning about the characters along the way. I haven’t played the original, though over the years I’ve heard it described as a classic. After considering the opinions of people who have played both, it seems that the remake was faithfully recreated in a great way. It makes me want to go and experience all the games.
Gameplay
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater throws you into the jungle with a useful tutorial during the intro that both teaches you to play the game while also progressing the plot. I imagine that for a game released in 2004, it was all quite unique in the way it was built up. I don’t know of many survival games from back then, but the depth of the mechanics in this game is quite incredible. You’re introduced to such mechanics as camouflage, survival, cure, and many more, all adding to the gameplay.
You’ll have to be prepared for these missions and bring a full kit with you. This is where things like camouflage come in play. If you’re going full stealth, you’ll want the best camo, and while crawling through the jungle with a tuxedo won’t be successful, in leaf camo it was. As you come across different environments, you’ll collect different camos that suit it to stay hidden from the enemy. Food is something you’ll need for stamina. Running around the jungle is hungry work, so you’ll have to hunt animals and search for food to keep Naked Snake at his best. You’re on your own in this mission with no help; you have to survive using whatever you can. This includes medical help; if you have a bullet wound or you’ve been poisoned, you’ll have to deal with it on a checklist to prevent Naked Snake from dying. It sounds quite overwhelming, but it isn’t; it just adds to the game’s charm. Being a stealth game at heart, you’ll have to keep your wits about you at all times. I honestly did not expect such deep gameplay systems. Metal Gear Solid is always a series that I never fully invested in. I played some of 4 and 5 many years ago, but never truly sat down with it properly.
Going into Metal Gear Solid, it feels like stealth is the better option; however, you are given many choices in how to tackle a mission. If you prefer a bit more action, you will find items along the way like guns, gadgets and lots of different things to tailor the game to your liking. MGS 3 gives you a lot of freedom of choice, and I like that. I tried to stealth, but sometimes you’ll end up in a gunfight if you’re a bit clumsy like I am. Naked Snake can take down enemies in many different ways, such as CQC, sleeper darts, guns and more. I feel all the various options give a lot of replayability. There are different modes to play in, whether you want the full classic experience of the PS2 era or the modern one, which makes things a little easier to play by simplifying controls and adding a few extras. I obviously chose the modern experience, and I didn’t find the game very difficult at all. I just got lost a few times. Remaking or remastering games can be a hit or miss sometimes, and I think Metal Gear Solid 3, from what I see, converted all its systems very well and made it feel new and modern again, so much so, I would like to go and experience the original, which is on my collectable game shelf.
Graphics and Sound
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater looks incredible. I played mine on Steam, using an Nvidia GeForce 3080ti, and I didn’t run into too many issues, but sadly, optimisation is a little hit and miss. I didn’t find myself having any extreme slowdowns, but it did maintain a pretty good 60fps with DLSS on quality, but I could see little slowdowns here and there. Nothing too game-breaking. It is quite amazing to see comparisons from the past version and the modern version as they truly have made it look incredible with all the little details in the world. I loved exploring every part of it; nothing feels lazy in MGS 3. If anything, the environments felt alive with all the animals, people, structures, and the atmospheric sound to go with it was the icing on the cake. I found some of the cutscenes to be a little over the top, but I think that’s the point of the series. I swear, Ocelot spun his guns for around 5 minutes in a cutscene before a battle; it was quite bizarre, but this personality adds to the game. The voice acting is also perfect, and comparing versions on YouTube, it really is side by side just as good.
Verdict:
Overall, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is a fantastic remake. From seeing old footage and people’s memories of it, it stays loyal. If this is your first proper Metal Gear Solid game, it is a good entry point. It has me wanting to check out the previous and future games in more detail. Two gameplay modes being offered so that you can play in modern or classic is also a win, for those die-hard fans, they can play the game they remember, but with a fresh coat of paint. While the game still does have optimisation issues, I had a good time.
You can find the game on Steam HERE, Xbox HERE and PlayStation HERE.
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