Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD

Originally released back in November 2004 for the Playstation 2, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has been highly prasied as the greatest Metal Gear game in the series and one of the greatest PS2 games of all time. When this HD Collection was announced last year, I instantly became hyped about the game after wanting to play it for years but never owning a PS2.
So how does a HD port of a 7 year old game fair in todays high standards? Read on to find out...

Metal Gear Solid 3, serves as a prequel to the Metal Gear series, and follows Fox Operative 'Naked Snake' as he is sent on a one man stealth mission to destroy a experimental nuclear weapon while also tasked with rescuing the weapons technician being focred to make it. Set in the cold war era, players are stripped of some of the items they are used to from previous games and are instead forced to take advantage of camouflage, enemy weapons and the enviroment to ensure survival.

With roughly 80% of the game taking place in the outdoor jungle enviroment, camouflage plays a huge part in the game. Most areas you come across are littered with Guards on patrol and as stealth is the smartest option of making it through alive, you will have to constantly adapt to the current enviroment. In the top right corner of your screen, there is always a camouflage index showing your current visibility with a percentage meter. Everything from the speed your moving, whether you're standing or lying down and if it's raining play a role in how easily spotted you are. Luckily you can pause the game at any point and change your face and clothing camouflage to the best style for your current situation with the simple % increase total at the side of each item.

The Boss battles in this game are some of my all time favourites. I don't want to spoil too much for new players, but these battles mostly focus on defeating a group known as the 'Cobra Unit', and range from an Electricity controlling General, an astronaut who uses a jetpack and flamethrower, and my personal favourite 'The End'. 'The End' is a veteran sniper who is determined to make you his final kill. The battle is a one on one sniper fight in a large area of the jungle, where you must look out for footprints in the dirt, look out for signs of moving bushes, and use all your gadgets to outsmart him. It's a very tense and difficult fight, and you really do need to have your wits about you to survive it as it takes alot of time and patience to actually beat him.

Throughout the game, you'll find that there's new camouflage to collect, hidden Kerotans (Green Frog Statues), animals to collect, plants to find etc, which will add more replayability to the game as some are hard to find, and are easily missable from just one playthrough. Luckily as the game is such fun to play, you don't really mind the fact you missed any, as some of these are stackable with other playthroughs.

There's also a medical side to the game, as say you are hurt by a trap, shot by an enemy or simply fall out of a tree, you actually sustain injuries, that unless fixed will result in you losing health and stamina throughout the course of the game. If you have a fractured bone you will have to put it in a splint and bandage it up, or if you're shot you have to dig out the bullet, disinfect and stitch the wound. This can feel like a bit of a gimmick at times, but for me it really added to my immersion in the game, and made me alot more careful in fear of running out of medical supplies.

Graphically, I found MGS3 very impressive. I never played the PS2 version, but I'm pretty certain it can't have looked as nice as this does. Character models are very well done, with every character having their own distinct features. Edges on the characters are very smooth which makes those long distant headshots alot easier to pull off than in previous last generation games. The jungle scenery looks very impressive, with foilage, running rivers, plants, animals and insects all scurrying around making it feel like a living enviroment. The only parts that weren't so impressive were during the indoor sections and cutscenes. Carpets, walls and pictures were very pixelated and blurry, but as it's a 7 year old game it wasn't a major gripe, especially as you still get the same quality in some of todays games.


Achievement wise the game isn't too bad. With a total of 500 points, most of these come from regular story progression and most should be picked up on the first playthrough. The rest are from killing enemies in certain ways, collecting all camouflage, Food, Kerotans etc. I think with the use of a good guide it is possible to get them all in one playthrough.

Overall the HD coating has worked really well in this game, and for the most part makes it seem on par with other recently released games. The story, though quiet confusing at times, turns out to be quiet a rollercoaster of emotions as the story develops. Personally I think the Metal Gear series has one of the best interwined stories of most game series, it can just be very confusing as to what's going on sometimes. After completing the game for the first time, I instantly wanted to play it again on a higher difficulty to give myself more of a challenge, and see if I could find the rest of the collectibles I missed the first time. I think if this was released on it's own, in this HD format for £30, I wouldn't be disappointed that I paid that kind of money, as it's still a classic game, with tons of replayability. The fact you get 5 games for that price just leaves you with no excuse at all to buy this if you're new to the series or a previous fan.

I'd give Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD a much deserved 9 out of 10.

Great review mate, our three part MGS HD collection review will probably one of the most in depth looks at the collection around

Good work mate.

Sounds like a must buy

Great review, I gave up on MGS after no 2, but reading this makes me wish I hadn't. I'll have to put this on my to buy list!!

Good stuff mate! A nice piece of work!

Reading it back now it seems very short. Especially after your epic 'Never Dead' review. But it's so hard to write lots about such a story driven game without spoiling things for people who haven't played. I'll add more if I think of it, but am working on MGS2 atm

You've got your work cut out just playing through those buggers in time.

Nice review mate.

nice work mate have never been a solid fan but good review all the same