Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, places players in the shoes of Snake. Now, this may not exactly be the Solid Snake everyone knows and loves seeing as this incarnation of the game takes places in the 1960's while the two previous take place 1999-2001. Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear Series loves to throw in lots of twists and turns to keep the player guessing exactly what’s coming next and thinking about the bigger picture of the game. Snake Eater of course, has its obligatory advances in gaming. The game has the feel of Metal Gear Solid 2:Sons of Liberty , but opens to a new world of opportunities and gameplay. Since you’re in the jungle, you have to use your surroundings to your advantage more than ever for survival. There are various animals that you can hunt and eat, As the name applies, you will be eating snakes and other animals that roam the jungle. (There is probably some underlying meaning of the title that has not yet been revealed).
Now, to the gameplay!!! Many new things have shown up in the game. First, the stamina meter. The stamina meter is the bar that is under the life bar. It determines your energy and performance. The more you do, the more your stamina drains. When your stamina is low, you start to perform poorly. Your hands start to tremble while in first person shooting mode, making your accuracy drop and your shot clumsier. It is important to keep your stamina bar up for maximum performance!! Eat different animals to see which gives you the most stamina. First person mode still holds a solid place in the gameplay. Not much to explain since most of you experienced this in MGS 2. There is also the introduction of the “CQC” system (Close Quarter Combat). Even though Metal Gear is best known for stealth, it always annoyed me how hard it is to take enemies down when you are caught. The CQC system gives you a fighiting chance by utilizing combat maneuvers to give you the upper hand. It will put your opponent in a position where thy can just kiss their ass goodbye.
The hanging system has been tweaked for use in your jungle surroundings. You can hang off of tree branches and even shoot a gun in mid hang. From the looks of the demo version, there are still a crap load f weapons from the tranquilizer gun to the sniper rifle to grenades etc. For the first time, there is a shotgun in Metal Gear Solid!! The thing is so powerful. A close range shot and a guard is instant morgue meat. Speaking of which, the body physics of the game has seemed to change as well. I haven’t quite put my finger on it, but something is different. Find out for yourself.
The camouflage meter is also a brand new edition in the game. Depending on your current environment, you can change your camo fatigues to better suit your current surroundings. the better matched you are with camouflage, the better off you will be when you are hiding in different parts of the jungle.In the corner of the screen, there is an index showing how camouflaged you are by number percentage. Unless you have the proper face paint you can never achieve 100% camouflage.
The gadgets also come in abundance, which means there will be tons more things to do in the game. I haven’t even talked about the story. That will be left to you as the gamer to unravel the story as you play. Check it out. Metal Gear Solid 3 :Snake Eater, out November.
