RIDLEY'S TOTALLY RELIABLE ASSESSMENTS OF EACH OF THE ORIGINAL GAMES, PART 2:
MGS3: In most long-running series, no matter what the medium, the third installment is where the apathy begins to set in, where we're used to the tricks and treats that they throw at us since we've seen them so many times before (this is especially interesting for the Metal Gear series in general, as MGS1 is the third game to be released and it is, for all intents and purposes, a polygonal remake of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, although no one outside of importers with way too much disposable income could tell you this until the first two games were finally made available in 2006). To put it mildly, the third installment of anything would have to do something amazing to truly impress, especially when you have to follow up such a massive and divisive project like MGS2.
So what did Kojima and his team do? They changed everything we knew about the series.
Moving away from the familiar, comfortable trappings of X Industrial Facility Overrun With Guards to the asymmetrical, unpredictable and expansive setting of a jungle while removing the Soliton radar, that oh so useful visual aid in judging how close you were to danger in favor of a camouflage mechanic was bold. More than bold, really; it was completely insane. Deciding to not continue the many dangling plot threads MGS2 left unanswered (and even after a seven year wait, KojiPro still couldn't wrap them up properly!) in lieu of a prequel that features only two returning characters (both of them antagonists, at that), was even more crazy. And adding a survival element, which has you watching out for your stamina as well as your bodily health on top of all this? What the hell was going on? Somehow, Kojima managed to make a game that felt more experimental than MGS2; just when we thought we couldn't have the rug pulled from underneath us again, they found a way.
Extolling the virtues of the game means having to lament the downfalls, some more profound than others. The radical shift in how the game plays was something that needed to happen and is pulled off magnificently, and yet the camera was identical to how its always been, hindering this incredible leap forward at every turn. The camouflage system is a more realistic take on stealth rather than the rudimentary "don't be in the light" approach of its competitor, Splinter Cell, but its clumsy menu-driven implementation hurts its effectiveness. This same issue also hampers the survival aspects, despite them being used in some incredibly clever ways. The controls themselves also feel incredibly clunky for what the game asks of you, whether it be the overly sensitive manner of holding up a guard or the finger pretzel that is aiming down the sights of an automatic weapon, and yet the CQC system managed to breathe new life into the hand-to-hand combat. Crazy as it may sound, the only aspect positive aspect of the game that isn't weighed down by outdated implementation is the story, which presents a far more grounded and less preachy experience than MGS2 offered, despite featuring a character that has mastery over bees and another that can photosynthesize.
And yet, my thoughts after when I beat the game first time didn't turn to the frustration I encountered. I thought about how much of a thrill it was to turn an early ambush to my favor with nothing more than the appropriate camouflage and an empty gun. I thought about how I managed to defeat a boss at his own game by throwing rotten food at him. I thought back to how the game divides both halves, resulting in one of the all-time greatest and bizarre non sequiturs that the game makes you play through. I thought about spending nearly two hours fighting a boss because he hides a lot better than you do, forcing you to use all of the tools at your disposal in order to find him. I thought about escaping confinement with a fork. I thought about the game making me feel very sorry about killing all the guys I did. I thought about wondering how far I could go with the world's most effective handkerchief (answer: very far indeed). I thought what the game did when I decided to see how it would handle me killing one of the characters long before his expiration date. I thought about what the game just made me do in order to complete it. My thoughts crystallized, I had decided I had played one of the greatest games ever made, and one that would go down in history as being truly incomparable.
In contrast to the previous re-release, Subsistence didn't really add a ton of new gameplay to it, but it did fix the biggest problem the game had. The user-controlled camera changed everything, and it managed to make the entire experience feel fresh once more. Also added were the very first two games in the series, fully translated and available for the first time to English speaking audiences. Also added was Metal Gear Online, a fun (while it lasted) multiplayer take on the gameplay introduced in MGS3 that was surprisingly robust for its time. On top of that, a proper cinema viewer was implemented in addition to a showcase of the hilarious Secret Theater clips that KojiPro had been releasing prior to the game's release. It may not have added hours and hours of gameplay to the core game, but it was nevertheless a fantastic upgrade.
What the HD version can add: Due to the ambition of the game relative to the PS2 hardware, the gameplay itself was sadly capped at 30 fps, a massive downgrade from MGS2 in that department (traces of it still existed in the game, as the menus ran at 60 fps). Also, with widescreen gaming becoming more and more prevalent at the time of the original game's release, the 4:3 aspect ratio was starting to feel suffocating in light of the gameplay changes. Thankfully for us, KojiPro and the folks at Bluepoint Games felt the same way, as gamers new and old will finally be able to experience the game at 60 fps and in widescreen. I cannot wait to give this game a spin once again.