Warning: This article comprises spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4.
It’s been a very long time coming however Metal Gear followers lastly have one thing concrete to stay up for. Although collection creator Hideo Kojima has moved on to different initiatives, his long-beloved stealth motion franchise is making a grand return to the forefront of gaming with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Now that we now have our first have a look at Delta’s gameplay from the new trailer proven on the Xbox Games Showcase, we’re much more excited to get our palms on it. But for now, we would like to have a look again on the unique Metal Gear Solid 3, which can have a good time its twentieth anniversary this 12 months on November seventeenth, 2004.
Specifically, we’re going to speak about how MGS3 tells a extra important prequel narrative than most different franchises can match. What was on the time seen as a course correction from Metal Gear Solid 2’s lack of Solid Snake playtime and maybe even a delaying motion of paying off 2’s narrative threads to the eventual Metal Gear Solid 4, the good thing about hindsight has proven that MGS3 is a crucial installment within the collection’ mythology. Sure, it acquired great reviews on launch, however why does the story not likely work should you simply performed MGS1, 2 and 4 as a trilogy after they occur in chronological order? Let’s check out what makes MGS3 so important.
A New Mission
After two video games set in a “few years sooner or later” sci-fi setting, Kojima went in a wholly new route with Metal Gear Solid 3. The mechanics and techniques he used to create such iconic stealth motion gameplay in MGS1 and a couple of might have been iterated on to even higher success, however 3 made the daring leap of creating new methods to have interaction with the style. From the camo index system the place gamers needed to regulate their disguise to match their environment, needing to hunt for meals within the wild to maintain up stamina, curing critical accidents within the subject, and depriving gamers of lots of the futuristic devices that had been so useful in earlier video games, MGS3 pressured followers to rethink their methods as they explored the Soviet jungle in pursuit of goals.
The mission took gamers by way of quite a lot of unique areas and thrilling sequences, with the Shagohod chase specifically being top-of-the-line motion set items on the PlayStation 2. Yet if the Metal Gear franchise is thought for something gameplay smart moreover stealth, it’s a penchant for artistic boss fights in opposition to weird villains, and MGS3 has top-of-the-line rogue’s galleries within the franchise. The Cobra Unit had been extremely expressive each in visible design and the way they let the methods they fought give gamers an perception into their personalities as an alternative of every one telling an elaborate backstory as they died. The bosses interacted with the brand new gameplay techniques, such having the ability to use camo to cover from The Fury, or difficult gamers giving The Fear meals poisoning utilizing rotten meals to shortly drain his stamina. The crown jewel of the Cobra fights was The End, which used an enormous surroundings and all the sport’s stealth mechanics to create a correct sniper’s duel that for some gamers went on for over an hour.
Kojima’s expertise for merging story and gameplay reaches its peak within the sport’s ultimate encounter: the battle between Snake and The Boss. With solely 10 minutes earlier than the world is bombed to smithereens, all the abilities gamers developed over the course of the journey, particularly with regard to sneaking and CQC, are examined as they attempt to defeat Snake’s outdated mentor. The white flowers and bushes of the world matching The Boss’ outfit, the gradual construct up of the Snake Eater theme music because the timer winds down, and forcing the participant to push the button to ship the ultimate shot throughout what seems to be a cutscene all coalesce to type some of the artistically resonant ultimate battles in sport historical past. The design template Kojima utilized in earlier video games is expanded and refined into its purest type in MGS3, making the sport a becoming prequel not simply in story, but in addition in gameplay.
In Love and (Cold) War
Set in 1964, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is, at first look, a again to fundamentals tackle the Metal Gear collection. Snake is again within the lead function, albeit technically not the identical one as earlier video games, with the protagonist as an alternative being the unique Snake, aka Big Boss, whose DNA was used to create the clones Solid, Liquid and Solidus. The setup is actually basic MGS motion however within the jungle, and with a 007-style spy thriller/romance angle added on high. The sophisticated philosophical ideas and labyrinthine unhealthy man plans from MGS2 are dropped for a extra easy Cold War story about Snake making an attempt to cease a nuclear warfare from breaking out, whereas additionally coping with his relationships together with his apparently traitorous mentor, The Boss, and his budding maybe-maybe-not romance together with his spy companion EVA.
What some possible took as a creative retreat from Kojima into much less controversial territory has as an alternative revealed itself over time to be a aware addition of key emotional context to what had grow to be a sprawling multi-decade saga. Trying to attach all the varied threads of MGS lore and the political machinations of dozens of characters and factions is usually a dizzying prospect, however MGS3 cuts by way of the chaff and reminds the viewers that these are tales not nearly nations and lofty concepts however about characters, ones who MGS3’s script mines for a stunning quantity of depth. At the middle of all of it is Snake, a person and soldier nonetheless holding onto the final of his beliefs, solely to lose all of it as he “succeeds” within the mission that may break each him and his hope in his nation.
His battles with The Boss, who’s revealed to not be a traitor however as an alternative a patriot permitting her popularity to be destroyed so as to protect world peace, shatter Snake’s religion in the whole lot he’d ever been led to consider in. Meanwhile, his romance with EVA turning out to be a ruse to pilfer him of the Philosopher’s Legacy ruins his skill to place belief in anybody moreover his fellow troopers. These two relationships crumbling not solely provides a solution as to why he ultimately turns into Big Boss, the villain of the unique two Metal Gear video games on the MSX2, but in addition establishes that the recurring theme of troopers being betrayed by their governments and wanting to construct nations of their very own that had been one of many central operating motifs of the collection, has a basis that goes past the battle followers had been already accustomed to. Even earlier than Solid Snake was born, this was only a reality of this world, and cementing that world is what makes MGS3 so essential to its speedy successor.
A Solid Circle
Besides telling its personal story, MGS3 additionally provides vital definition to the world of Metal Gear that helps solidify (hah) the plot threads that MGS4 would conclude. Sure, in timeline order, MGS4 is technically a sequel to MGS2. But when trying on the precise meat of plot and world-building, MGS3 is the sport that the majority informs MGS4. We’re speaking about greater than primary stuff like studying concerning the Shagohod, which was the genesis from which Metal Gear know-how would later develop, or introducing the character of Big Boss to collection followers who by no means performed the unique two MSX video games (which, let’s be trustworthy, is most of them). MGS4 solely works as an ending to the saga due to the way it builds off of MGS3’s themes and characters.
The concept that the conflicts between troopers and their governments that led Big Boss and different Metal Gear villains into wanting to determine some model of Outer Heaven are cyclical throughout historical past solely sells if we’ve truly seen that battle, effectively, throughout historical past. The reveal that EVA is the one who gave beginning to Solid and Liquid and really did love Big Boss regardless of her betrayal would come out of nowhere with out us changing into invested in her in MGS3. And with out attending to know them after they had been younger and charismatic, the twist that the Patriots, the final word villains of all the Metal Gear saga, had been in truth the mission assist workforce who helped the unique Snake (and by extension, the participant) within the Sixties wouldn’t register as such a tragic gut-punch.
Sure, there are worthwhile prequels that fill in lore gaps or recontextualize features of plot or character: Rogue One, Andor, Better Call Saul, House of the Dragon, and Furiosa to call a current few. But what makes MGS3 stand out from the pack is that in most different circumstances, later tales within the timeline work completely effectively on their very own with out the prequel materials. Metal Gear tales set after MGS3, equivalent to MGS4, MGS5 or Peace Walker, don’t actually perform dramatically with out understanding the story from MGS3. Nothing that occurs in MGS3 is a “bonus”; it’s the beating coronary heart of a saga Kojima had been telling throughout quite a few video games since 1987. It is the connective tissue that brings the unique MSX video games, the early Solid collection, and the ultimate entries collectively right into a single complete. That it’s additionally a superb title by itself phrases, filled with a number of the collection’ most fun motion set items and strongest character work, solely additional cements its standing as the best prequel ever made.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can comply with his fixations on Twitter.
