Metal Gear Solid 3: Origins
Metal Gear Solid 2 was a solid game, but controversial to say the very least. A new and unexpected lead character (who many saw as inferior to Snake) combined with an increasingly bizarre and metafictional final act, as well as a notably similar setup to the previous game, did a lot to sour people on Metal Gear and Kojima?s creative abilities. Arguably Kojima didn?t even know where he was going with this, introducing a vast (presumably) retroactive conspiracy into the series mythos and implying every game to this point might have been a simulation (or a video game *rimshot*).
If MGS2 had been the final game of the series, as it almost seemed to be hinting at, a lot of people no doubt would have been very disappointed in how it ended. However, luckily this was not to be the case. MGS2 was successful enough to warrant yet another sequel (the 4th canon one thus far) and this time, Kojima decided to look backwards, both from chronological and developmental standpoint.
MGS3: Snake Eater (or more appropriately, ?SNNNAAAKKKEEE EEEEAAATTTTEEERRR?) takes numerous cues from the last MSX game, Metal Gear 2, reintroducing open environments into the series, drawing notably from some of the forgotten bosses of that game (and their signature move of exploding upon death) and making it worth it actually crawl again, as well as simultaneously toning back and enhancing the silliness in the series. It feels fresh again, while keeping the combat gameplay advances made over the past 15 years since MG2.
More overtly, the game draws one of its greatest strengths from the story of MG2, where Snake and the player began to realize that a lot of the black and white of Metal Gear was much greyer then previously believed. Former allies become enemies, Enemies gain realistic and interesting motivations and backstories. Big Boss is revealed to have a softer side (rescuing refugees and war orphans, even if it is to make them part of his army) and goes on at length about why he does what he does and why people willingly join and look up to him. And then Snake burns him to death, marking the end of the man if not the legend, paving the way for the games to follow.
As a side note, apparently, it?s been argued that the region Snake Eater takes place in 1964(no, I?m not gonna try to spell it) is the same region that Zanzibar Land would arise in 1999 in MG2. As far as I know, there?s no real evidence to support this but if it were somehow true then it ends a nice set of bookends to Big Bosses story, meaning that he began and ended his career in the same place 35 years apart.
MGS3 goes back nearly 50 years, to the height of the cold war in 1964. Jack/John AKA Naked Snake is dropped deep into the Soviet Union to rescue a Soviet weapons scientist named Sokolov who had been extracted to the West and then given back to halt the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He?s part of a special new CIA unit called FOX, designed for lone infiltration operations deep in hostile territory, on it?s (and his) first real mission.
The so called ?Virtuous Mission? goes deeply FUBAR almost immediately after Snake achieves his first goal, of meeting Sokolov. It turns out his mentor and mother figure, The Boss, had decided to defect to the Soviet Union at that very moment and bring a couple of Nuclear Mortars with her. Snake, unprepared for this (in more ways than one) quickly loses Sokolov to the Boss and her squad before being humiliated, having his arm broken and tossed off a bridge.
The remainder of the game revolvers around Operation Snake Eater, where Snake tries to fix this particular mess by rescuing Sokolov, assassinating The Boss and destroying this games version of Metal Gear, known as Shagohod (which, yet again, threatens the balance of power during a very hot time of the cold war). In addition to The Boss, the games predecessor to Big Boss as the
?world?s most legendary soldier?, are her Cobra Unit, who are the original quirky mini-boss squad that all of these games are required by law to have. A multinational team during WW2(and apparently contributed quite a bit to winning the war), they are strangely not named after different snakes, but the ?emotions? they carry into battle. The Boss is known as The Joy (presumably of duty, rather then of battle), along with the Pain (who?s COVERED IN BEES!), The Fear (who is a wierdass Predator/Spiderman mashup), The Fury(who apparently returned from orbit in his Spacesuit and loves fire) and The End(a seriously old Sniper who is not named after an actual emotion). As a callback to MG2, they don?t actually play much of a role beyond their individual boss battles, other then occasionally showing up in cutscenes beforehand so you can get a peak at them. None of their weird powers are explained either, since they can?t use the Nanomachine excuse.
The other notable villain is Col. Volgin, a Soviet Megalomaniac who is more than happy to hurt and kill anyone around him (including his own men) because he?s really just an awful person. He also sets off the plot by blowing up one of his own military labs with a American nuke(a mortar affectionally known as a Davy Crockett), because he knowns the Americans (specifically The Boss) would be blamed. His complete sadism complemented by his ability to channel electricity.
Rounding out the cast are EVA and Major Ocelot. EVA is an intelligence agent who ends up playing the role of Bond Girl, both helping and trying to seduce him throughout the game, while also posing as a mousy Soviet Officer named Tatyana, who Volgin has unfortunately taken a really creepy liking to. Ocelot, OTOH, is a much younger version of the backstabbing magnificent bastard well known from the earlier games in the series, who here is shown as kind of a punk with a weird obsession with both Russian Roulette (using 3 revolvers because apparently a single revolver isn?t overcomplicated enough) and Snake (who is has a weird love/hate relationship with). Amusingly enough, he discovers his love for both torture and revolvers because of Snake, but for some reason still gets away with dressing like a cowboy despite being a GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence) officer. Despite initial indications of loyalty, it should be no surprise to anyone by this point that Ocelot is a spy (apparently working for 3 or 4 parties at the same time in this game).
The gameplay is greatly expanded and has so many new nuances and surprises it?s nearly impossible to talk about everything here. The emphasis on Snake being out there on his own is now reflected much better in the mechanics. Snake has a Stamina bar in addition to health, which wears down depending on what snake does and how much equipment he carries at the ready. Instead of food healing him (as in every other game up to this point), food is now used to recover stamina instead. Life, instead, is mostly recovered automatically as snake rests.
There is an exception, where certain injuries result in permanent effects if not treated. Broken bones, burns, cuts, gunshot wounds, eating poisonous food, animal venom are all included and all have to be treated through a fairly realistic, if simplified, manner. It makes the game a little more interesting, but since it often just means going into a menu (mostly during boss battles) it can sometimes be more irritating then interesting (looking at you, THE FEAR).
Food is found all over the game, mostly in the form of plants and animals that can be killed or captured. The primary difference being that dead animals will eventually go bad and become rotten and unhealthy to eat, while live animal remains fresh essentially forever. There?s also packaged food that never goes bad either. How much stamina is recovered is based entirely off how much snake actually likes this food (amusingly, he enjoys pretty much every snake he eats, apparently because they needed some way to wring another meaning out of the title). This also leads to an amusing running joke where one of Snakes support staff, Paramedic, and Snake can have conversations about the various life he finds around the game world. Snake?s eternal question ?How does it taste??, leading Paramedic to occasionally question his sanity (and leads to amusing scene in the extras regarding a horse).
An interesting addendum to this is that saving actually has a story role and is considered to be Snake? taking a nap? which recovers Stamina but can lead to bad things happening (reloading from a save during a boss battle isn?t always a good idea with this in mind). Spend enough time away from the console and food will rot while you were gone (and this can be annoying if you can?t play for a couple days in a row).
The other new gameplay element added is the camo system. Now that Snake is now able to traverse a wide variety of environments (instead of say, an oil rig or a military base), the option is now available to change his camo (at the spur of the moment) to be blend in to the surroundings. Certain face makeup and camo works better in the forest then in the mountains then in a building with an indicator showing how well snake blends in at any particular time (anyone who played the original Thief games will remember the light gem and this serves much the same purpose). It also means that using tall grass, trees and staying low can prevent the guards from ever spotting you (and it works on bosses). It actually feels like this is the first time Metal Gear has actually used camo correctly and made it worth crawling around (I never really figured out if the sneaking suit actually helped in the first two MGS games or not).
The unarmed combat system is now expanded to include something called Close Quarter Combat or CQC, a more robust version of armed that allows a bunch of interesting moves, but unfortunately, I didn?t really learn how to use it until near the end of the game.
Other things of note are the little details. You can mess around with the guards and the world much more then before, including using explosives to blow up their supplies (making them more vulnerable to follow up attacks), taking out a helicopter that?s parked early on so you don?t have to deal with it later on (it?s not a boss but it can make your life more difficult) and at one point, can even snipe a boss to death before his battle (during a narrow time window).
The boss fights are generally well done, with some of the most impressive in the series so far. Some aren?t great, such as The Pain who is hard to take seriously and not particularly difficult either while The Fury is just incredibly frustrating. The Fear can be cheesed fairly easily once you know the trick. Volgin and Ocelot are fine bosses but nothing exceptional.
Shagohod, built to be a metal gear-ish WMD that will tip the cold war in favor of the soviets, comes across as rather ridiculous when finally seen in action. The extended boss fight even more so, including a lengthy chase through the endgame fortress before a showdown.
Of particular note is the fight with The End, which is everything a Sniper Duel in a video game should aspire to be. Fought over three large maps between Snake and the Centennial Sniper (with moss or something inside of him), half the battle is knowing the maps and the other is knowing how to find him. It?s less difficult then time consuming because he often knows where you are before you see him, but there are ways to outsmart him. I originally thought he was cheating because of how he would disappear once shot and could sit in areas where you couldn?t get to them, but later I realized the map is interconnected enough to allow you to reach those same sniper perches and there are ways to track him when he moves. It?s also possible to let old age kill him if you are just really tired of fighting him (which I really don?t recommend, as the fight is its own reward). My only disappointment was killing him with tranq darts but being able to get his rifle (which is a special weapon you can only get from him).
The other is The Boss, who you fight in a field of white flowers under a 10 minute time limit (at the end of which the area is bombed to hell). I think I died to the timer running out far more often then I died to her, trying to figure out how to do enough damage to her quickly enough. Eventually I ended up using flowers to hide myself and snipe her whenever I got a clear shot, but despite that it was the right kind of challenge for a final boss and made it feel worth it. Presumably you?re really supposed to beat her with CQC but I could never really figure out how to counter her effectively.
Everything about the game feels like a loving homage to James Bond films, especially the ear worm theme song that plays once the real game has begun. The aesthetic is 1960?s with some near future(mostly) touches. The beginning and endgame sequences especially highlight this and it works wonderfully. Even more amusing as James Bond films actually exist in universe where on Codec call involves your CO, Major Zero, going on a rant about how much he loves them (prompted by Snake saying he films them unrealistic).
The game also has a hell of a lot more humor in it then the preceding Solid games, even without the ?Secret Theater? outtakes (which are often hilarious). The support crew is generally likable and interesting, and all of them seem to acknowledge the camp despite the seriousness of the situation.
Even the pacing feels a lot better then the other MGS games thus far, with far fewer interrupting CODEC calls and cutscenes, letting the action play out. The ones that are forced are entertaining enough to be worth sitting through.
My biggest gripe is that Metal Gear still sucks at escort missions. Notably the one where EVA is injured and needs to be escorted across a few maps with enemies in pursuit. Since she?s injured, she moves slowly and runs low on stamina quickly, despite being very, very capable before that. Not only that, it?s really, really easy to leave her behind accidentally (as I did) and realize she?s still behind harassed by enemies offscreen. Her limitations aren?t terribly apparent considering this is the first time in the whole game you are escorting someone in such a way. It?s quite irritating, since it?s just before the end of the game and just after a really well-done action sequence. OTOH, it?s still less obnoxious then escorting Emma in MGS2. By a lot.
One of the places this game really shines for me is on the overall story level, as MGS3 begins the start of darkness for the man who would one day become Big Boss, which the game incorporates nicely into its themes. Very early into the game, The Boss has a long talk with Snake about what is more important to him: His conscience or the mission? If the mission requires him to do something he considers terrible, would he do it? The fruits of this conversation come to bear during the confrontation with the boss, where she easily bests him in combat. Not necessarily because Snake doesn?t know how to fight her. It?s made clear she trained him for the better part of a decade and they know each other quite well (the implications they were lovers a platonic way brought up at least one). It?s clear that Snake cannot separate his feeling for his mentor/mother/lover(?) from the orders he was given, which nearly leads to complete disaster. She even says that he?s too ?innocent? at that point in time, that he?s not willing to do what is needed.
This theme, ?Conscience or Mission?? is played out over and over again, not only through dialogue but through gameplay. Soldiers are human, allies and enemies change over time.
The gameplay and story work hand in hand here. Again, and again, you are reminded that the soldiers who oppose you aren?t evil and are rarely if ever depicted as being such. Instead, they?re shown as mooks doing their jobs, and a few cases, shown sympathetically (helping each other flee from a burning building, rather then try to stop Snake like in most other video games). Taking them down non-lethally is often easier, is less likely to raise an alarm if discovered and unconscious bodies normally yield ammunition and supplies, while dead ones don?t.
Even bosses play into this, where defeating bosses by draining their stamina will often lead to you getting something nice from them. One of the final boss ?fights? takes it a step further. The final member of the Cobra Unit, known as The Sorrow, doesn?t actually fight you directly. Instead, the entire area is implied to be part of the afterlife or something similar, walking down a dark, dreary river in the rain. The Sorrow, who was only previously very briefly noticed, tells you to face your sins and in this case, the sins are the people you?ve killed (even the bosses). In one of the nicest pieces of gameplay and story integration done in a video game, every single kill from the point the game started will meet you as you walk up the river, even referencing how they died (including possible cases of 2nd hand cannibalism, weirdly enough) and try to hurt you in turn. If you?ve been playing mostly non-lethal or even completely pacifistic, this encounter can end up being very anti-climactic. OTOH, if you?ve been fairly bloodthirsty so far, Snake will have to face a horde of the dead, giving you a stark reminder of just how many people you killed.
The mid and endgame start tying these themes into it?s lore roots with a much deeper. After the reveal of the Illuminati..er, Patriots in MGS2, it soon comes to light that the entire affair was a result of the continued machinations of their predecessor group, the Philosophers(who were prominent in Russia, China and the US). Apparently during WW2, the Philosophers pooled an enormous sum of resources and money to develop advanced tech and build the Cobra Unit to the defeat the Third Reich. However, with the war over, the US, USSR and China were enemies again and the fuckton of money they amassed ended up getting fought over. Volgin ended up with it (or at least, the means to recover it), so the Boss was sent in to get close to him and get it back. Unfortunately, she also ended up taking the fall when the entire thing almost spirals into WW3 and Snake was sent in to clean up the mess (without knowing why he was doing it).
This is where the real purpose of the The Boss and her company of heroes comes into play. Despite fighting together as comrades during the war, the cold war puts them on opposite sides once more. In particular, the Boss is forced to kill her comrade in arms/lover The Sorrow because she was ordered to and because politics and the philosophers demanded it. The rest of them end up on the wrong side of the history books and international politics, declared traitors (or at least the western ones did) because conscience and the mission become two different things, and because soldiers who fought valiantly are thrown to the wolves over money and the whims of politics.
In the finale, Snake finds out of this out that he had been used to kill perhaps the most patriotic soldier of all (sacrificing her life for a country that ordered her to commit treason), which he could only do because the hell he?d been put through allowed him to put the mission above her personal feelings. His victory, inheriting the title of Big Boss (a soldier even greater then his mentor) leaves him feeling broken and empty and it?s beautifully shown how well it sets the scene for Big Boss to go rogue, starting down the dark road that leads to Outer Heaven.
The parallels are now in place. Naked Snake is betrayed by his mother figure The Boss(apparently) and Major Zero (and the rest of the Philosophers) and is no longer ?innocent?, but unlike The Boss, he can no longer put country and mission over conscience as she did. He begins his own quest to remake the world and fight back against the Philosophers/Patriots. Solid Snake, in 30 years? time, would be betrayed by Big Boss, who had presumably reached the Apex of his power and begun every bit the legendary soldier The Boss was, and would be forced to kill his father figure (and actual clone father). Solid Snake would lose his innocence (and later betrayed by his country at Shadow Moses), become broken in his own way begin his own quest to deal with the same problem after going off the grid (if not sinking to the same lows).
MGS3 is a weird, amazing combination. A weird sort of Dark Comedy, Tragedy punctuating Camp. It?s an origin story that doesn?t fall into most of the usual traps surrounding origin stories (you already know certain characters are going to live, rendering some of the drama pointless) and a start of darkness that could have been handled far worse (Star Wars Prequels, anyone?) We get a firm foundation to that whole Patriot weirdness, some moving themes and iconic characters. The gameplay is more refined then ever, the pacing hits all the right beats and there?s very little I can say against it. I only hope MSG4 is somewhat decent in comparison to the masterpiece this turned out to be.
Next up: MSG4: The Movie: The Game
