Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (commonly abbreviated MGS3) is a stealth-based game directed by Hideo Kojima. It was developed and published by Konami for PlayStation 2. It is the sixth game in the Metal Gear series, and was released in North America on November 17, 2004, in Japan on December 16, 2004, and in Europe on March 4, 2005. An extended version of the game, Subsistence is available in Japan and North America and is coming soon to Europe.
The aesthetic elements of the game are partly inspired by spy and action films from the 1960s, such as the Bond films: for example, the game's theme song and opening sequence are inspired by the opening sequences of the Bond films, and play after an introductory action sequence, also a Bond trademark. Other elements such as the femme fatales and chase scenes were common in 1960s action films. Despite this, Snake Eater, like the other games in the series, is a thematically rich game that is based on the ideas of war, patriotism, death, and betrayal - all of which become more apparent as the story moves forward.
The events of MGS3 take place during the Cold War in 1964, in the jungles of the Soviet Union. The player takes the identity of a former U.S. Special Forces (Green Beret) and CIA operative, codenamed "Naked Snake", who is sent to the USSR to rescue a defecting Russian scientist and destroy an advanced nuclear-equipped tank called the "Shagohod". The story unfolds in two parts: the Virtuous Mission and Operation: Snake Eater.
Snake familiarizes himself with the area and the members of the FOX unit, then proceeds to the ruined research facility, OKB-754, to meet Sokolov. As Snake and Sokolov begin to make their way to their extraction point, they are ambushed by KGB operatives and held at gunpoint. The KGB agents are then surrounded and killed by the Ocelot Unit, part of a rogue GRU faction intent on capturing Sokolov for themselves. Snake, using his hand-to-hand CQC techniques, manages to disable all the Ocelot Unit members while Sokolov escapes.
As Snake catches up with Sokolov, they spot Sokolov's nuclear equipped tank, Shagohod, undergoing testing on a nearby mountain. The pair begin to cross a rope bridge to the extraction point when they encounter a woman, Snake's mentor, codenamed The Boss. Snake is surprised by this meeting, as he had been told that The Boss was serving on a Permit class submarine in the Arctic Ocean.
The Boss reveals to Snake that she has decided to defect to the Soviet Union. While this is happening, Sokolov is captured by members of her Cobra unit. The Boss carries with her two miniature rocket propelled nuclear shells known as Davy Crocketts, which, along with Sokolov, she intends to give to Colonel Volgin, her new ally. Volgin is a member of GRU and, like the Ocelot Unit, is also part of the "Brezhnev Faction", an extremist faction in the Soviet Army which seeks to topple the government of Nikita Khrushchev and install Leonid Brezhnev and Alexey Kosygin in his place.
Volgin appears while The Boss is talking with Snake and tells her that Snake must die, since he has seen Volgin's face, and so that their plan to overthrow Khrushchev won't be revealed. Having perfected CQC herself, The Boss throws Snake off the bridge and into the river far below.
Snake, left for dead, drags himself out of the river and performs first aid on himself while waiting for extraction by the FOX unit aircraft.
Volgin, Ocelot and the Cobra Unit make their escape in several Hind-A helicopters, with the Shagohod in tow. From his helicopter, Volgin fires one of the Davy Crocketts, despite Ocelot's protests, unleashing a nuclear explosion which destroys Sokolov's research facility.
Snake's first objective is to meet with ADAM, one of two former NSA code breakers who had defected to the Soviet Union in September 1960. Along the way, The Boss corners Snake and tells him to quit the mission and go home. Snake ignores her warning and the two face off. The Boss disarms him, disassembles his M1911A1 pistol, and disappears. When Snake finally arrives at the designated rendezvous point at Rassvet (where Snake originally found Sokolov in Virtuous Mission), he meets a woman on a motorcycle rather than ADAM. Snake asks her the pass question ("Who are the Patriots?"), but she is unable to answer ("The la-li-lu-le-lo"). Instead, she quickly fends off a group of KGB soldiers who ambush them. She then says that she is EVA, the other defector, and that ADAM wasn't able to come to the meeting. She gives Snake a new pistol, as well as a scientist disguise that will help him infiltrate Volgin's bases.
After another brief encounter with Ocelot, and then The Pain, Snake heads to Graniny Gorki, a research laboratory under Volgin's control. According to EVA, Sokolov is being held there while he completes the Shagohod. Once inside the facility Snake finds the head of the OKB-812 Granin Design Bureau, Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, driven to drink by jealousy of Sokolov's fame and access to research funds. In their conversation, Granin reveals that Sokolov is not being held there, but gives Snake a key that opens a door which leads to the mountains, where he will be able to access a hidden tunnel into Volgin's fortress, Groznyj Grad, and rescue Sokolov.
Snake makes his way into the Tselinoyarsk mountain range where he meets EVA in a hut overlooking Groznyj Grad. From here Snake witnesses Volgin kill Granin, suspecting him to be a spy. EVA further helps Snake sneak into Groznyj Grad.
Snake sneaks into Groznyj Grad and succeeds in contacting Sokolov. While meeting, they are caught by Volgin. Both are taken prisoner and tortured, costing Sokolov his life and Snake his right eye. During a break in the torture, Snake escapes Groznyj Grad through its sewer system. Snake meets up with EVA, who returns the weapons and equipment Snake lost when he was captured. He then prepares to return to Groznyj Grad, to destroy the Shagohod and stop Volgin's take-over plot.
Snake once again infiltrates the fortress and succeeds in planting enough C3 explosive to bring the complex holding the Shagohod to the ground. However, the explosion fails to destroy the Shagohod and Snake and EVA are forced to flee on a motorcycle. Volgin chases them in the Shagohod, which proves to be his undoing. Using an RPG-7, Snake disables the Shagohod and, when Volgin emerges from the tank, he is struck by lightning and killed. Snake and EVA prepare to make their escape to Alaska, but Snake is confronted by The Boss. She reveals that her defection was an elaborate set-up designed to get The Philosophers' Legacy, the wealth of the most powerful families from the United States, the Soviet Union and China, from Volgin and return it to the United States. She tells Snake that he must complete his mission; he must kill her and take the Legacy back with him. She and Snake will thus have one final battle; whoever wins will inherit the title of "Boss". They duel and Snake ultimately prevails. He returns to the United States with EVA on a ground effect plane (a stolen VVA-14). EVA leaves in the middle of the night, but not before revealing that The Boss knew that she had to die for America to prove its innocence, meaning she died for her country. Snake is then granted the Distinguished Service Cross and the title of "Big Boss" by President Johnson. Snake then visits the anonymous grave of The Boss, a patriot who will forever be reviled by the country she gave her life to protect.
Volgin's father was one of the persons assigned to manage the Legacy, and had devised a plan ensuring full Soviet control. To prevent anyone from tracing it, the funds were divided and laundered through banks all over the world, including Switzerland, Australia, and Hong Kong.
In Groznyj Grad, Colonel Volgin shows Snake a case of microfilm, and tells him, "This is the Philosophers' Legacy." The microfilm actually contains a financial record of all transactions Volgin's father made when the Legacy funds were divided-up. Operation: Snake Eater, while initially focused on the Shagohod, is actually about this fund. At the end, it is revealed that only half of the money has made it back to the United States (Ocelot reports that the other half could be with the KGB). Eventually, the American Philosophers recover the entire Legacy, leading to their official separation from the Philosophers and the forming of the Patriots (as discussed in Sons of Liberty). In the process of eliminating Colonel Volgin (and later The Boss), Snake acquires the Philosopher's Legacy, only to have it stolen by EVA while the two slept together. The following morning EVA leaves a recorded message revealing her true identity; she is an agent of the Chinese branch of the Philosophers. EVA returns to China believing she has the Legacy for her faction. However it is revealed that the Legacy was actually in the hands of Ocelot, aka ADAM, who is in fact a double agent working for the American branch of the Philosophers (and through them, the CIA). The United States has, in fact, managed to acquire the Legacy after all.
NOTE: The actual location of the Legacy has been the source of debate among MGS fans. While the ending plays out looking as if EVA has stolen it, the very next morning Snake removes it from his pocket and tosses it on the table. In fact, EVA never took anything from Snake. She thought she already had the true Legacy as she stood over him, visible when she opens her hands. However, we never see her search Snake's pockets, and it is assumed that The Boss was the one who handed her a fake microfilm. The one Snake has while he listens to EVA's message is the true Legacy, and it is in fact he who completes The Boss' mission and returns it, not Ocelot. Ocelot never claims to have ever had the Legacy, or ever seen to be in possession of it. He merely states to the CIA director that the Legacy is back with the US, nothing more. Many think that The Boss was in the best position to give EVA a copy of the fake Legacy, considering that it was originally The Boss' mission to infiltrate Volgin's ranks and steal it. This would also explain Ocelot's ending statement, "The film we handed the Chinese was a fake," which would then be understood to mean that the CIA charged The Boss with giving a fake Legacy to EVA in order to throw her off while the real Legacy was taken by the US.
The emphasis on weapons is higher than in previous installments of the Metal Gear series. In the game, the player has access to a shotgun, pistols, various automatic rifles, and grenades. This way, the player character can choose whether to focus on evading enemies or a full-frontal assault.
The game is set in the jungles of Cold War Russia, so the environment is a big part of the game. The player can climb trees, hide under grass and swim in rivers and ponds. The player must also live off the land by hunting animals and eating edible vegetation, to increase health stamina, which is drained during gameplay.
The game opens with a comical radio conversation between Snake and Colonel Campbell in which the two make references to other characters from the Metal Gear and Ape Escape games, as well other stealth-based games, most notably Splinter Cell and Syphon Filter series.
To play Guy Savage, the game must be saved in the cell, after Naked Snake has endured the brutal torture session. When that save file is loaded, the game will go straight into the Guy Savage mini-game. The mode will only last for a set amount of time; when it ends, the screen fades to black, then fades from black to a shot of Snake waking up from the nightmare.
There are two ways of ending this: one is to just play the game and after a certain duration it will automatically end; the other is to die. The game will automatically end either way.
If the player was to call Paramedic, they would start talking about Dracula, where Snake would accuse Paramedic of giving him his nightmares. Snake talks about his nightmare to the other characters as well, explaining his nightmares to them.
The main game's end credits are what list the mini-game as "Guy Savage" with Shuyo Murata as the director; it is suspected that the mini-game is a teaser of an in-production game of the same name. Although Konami trademarked the name during MGS3's production, they have yet to comment on it, or confirm a title of that name.
Originally the idea for this mini-game was for it to be a horizontal shooter, and you had to beat the game (the shooter) in order to continue. Eventually the idea was changed to what we have now, Guy Savage.
In June 2006, X-Play placed the game sixth on its list of Greatest Playstation 2 Games of All Time.
In a break from tradition, one of the ending themes of the game is not an in-house production, but Starsailor's "Way To Fall". Hideo Kojima later revealed in his blog that he originally wanted to use Space Oddity and Ashes to Ashes (by David Bowie) for the ending themes because of the space race theme of the game. But that theme was eventually almost scrapped from the game. One of his colleagues then advised him to listen to Stellastar, but Kojima heard "Starsailor". He liked the song "Way To Fall" and chose it as an ending theme.
Note: The typeface "METAL GEAR SOLID 3" is written in is Helvetica Ultra Compressed.
Like the first two Metal Gear Solid titles, two versions of the game were released in Japan: the standard version and the "Premium Package." The Premium Package came with the actual game (along with a reversible cover art on the DVD case), a 400-page text booklet (titled R), a visual booklet (titled L), a DVD video and a 1/144 scale model of the Shagohod.
For the European release, Konami added several new features such as additional face paints based on various European countries' flags (as well as the United States and Japan), a new difficulty setting (European Extreme), a Demo Theater (allowing the player to customize Snake's appearance in previously-viewed cut scenes), a Duel Mode (where the player replays boss battles from the main game) and additional Snake vs. Monkey stages. Many of the downloadable camo patterns from the Japanese version were added to the European website. The camo patterns from The First Bite preview CD (DPM camo and Green face paint) can be unlocked in the European version by clearing Duel Mode instead.
The Platinum reissue of MGS3, released in Germany on March 23, 2006, includes Metal Gear Saga Vol. 1, a bonus documentary DVD.
Released in Japan on December 22, 2005 and North America on March 14, 2006, Subsistence is an expanded version of MGS3. It includes the original game, all of the features exclusive to MGS3
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