If Snake Eats snakes, I guess it Makes Him a Cannibal

Survival of the Snakest

When I got home from the mall I couldn't wait to open up my new Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater. This game was on my most anticipated games list, and now it's on my favorites list. Game is great all around, with new weapons, interesting bosses, a new take on survival in the wild, and even having to cut bullets out of your wounds. Far more then I expected to come from MGS3. Not to mention i almost died when I heard about the camo-meter.

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Story
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Back in the 60's Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov, a Soviet scientist who had defected to the West, was to sent back to the Soviet Union. The U.S. government agreed to this stipulation, and returned Sokolov to his native land. Little did they know that Sokolov was to be the designer of a nightmarish weapon. Now, with Sokolov back in their hands, the Soviets are ready to resume its development. If this weapon is completed, it will mark the beginning of a new age of fear.

So the CIA send its top agent, "Snake". Snake is sent on Mission Virtuous. You must rescue Sokolov, and take him safely back to America. But on your way back you are stopped by your old Master. Your old combat partner has defected to the Soviet union, and ends up breaking your arm and throwing you off of a small rope bridge and you plummet to the water below. After this you are given orders to find Sokolov AND destroy the weapon in which he is being forced to build. The Shagohod is a gigantic tank that has nuclear capabilities and maneuvers using large drill type treads and using a large rocket propelled system. Throughout your search for this machine you meet up with an informant, Eva. With out her Snake would get nowhere. Really, Snake's ultimate goal is to fight, and defeat The Boss/The Joy, his old mentor.

The game has some crazy plot twists, and I would gladly have went into alot more detail into the story and plot, but then what would be the point to go get it.:)

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Characters
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I wont go in depth into the many Characters, such as bosses, ocelot, Volgin, or other smaller characters.

Snake
AKA:Naked Snake, Jack

Snake is a top Agent for the CIA. He can be considered a one man army. Also a member of special forces unit "FOX".
Last apprentice of The Boss. Was taught by The Boss one-on-one all about combat, destruction, espionage, pyschology, and so on. He feels she is a part of him. Snake Usually doesn't care much about others. Sanke's is a weapons expert. He knows everything there is to know. He can classify each and every weapon by how it looks and even the sound. Snake also specializes in hand to hand combat, and al lot of this knowledge was passed on from The Boss

Eva
AKA: Tatyana

Eva shows up to meet snake when the other informant, Adam, cannot make it due to Volgins orders. Eva helps Snake throughout the game, she gives him supplies and handy info. Not even Eva's beauty can get snakes attention... yet. Eva is crazy on a motorcycle, and her selected weapon is a mauser semi-auto pistol. Eva appears to have a strong attraction to Snake but snake isn't quite sure she can be trusted. Also a KGB spy and a former NSA codebreaker.

There are more characters including the people you contact with your codec, such as Major Zero, Para-Medic, and also weapon experts. I will not go into the other characters, but i shall tell you there are many i have not yet mentioned.

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Gameplay
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In MGS3 there are many new, creative aspects that have been added to the game. Snake is dropped into the jungle and must survive on his own. He must hunt and find his own food, blend in with his environment, and must take care of his wounds by himself. There are a great range of weapons, including pistols, rifles, grenades, snipers, a rocket launcher, and my favorite the knife. Also the bosses are very elaborate and interesting. Another crazy aspect of this game is the camo capabilities. You must stay in the shadows and stay hidden with the help of camouflage. The controls are not that different from the others, except a little but of angle controls and new button options. The environment is amazingly interactive and the guards are more useful then just stealing there precious items.

Eating
Eat or be Eaten

I wonderful new aspect of the game is eating. You have a stamina gauge, in which decreases while you move through the game. The more you do the more your stamina declines. That is why you must eat. You must watch the grass, trees, or water for little creatures ranging from , snakes, elks, and gators, too frogs, fruit and mushrooms. You need to eat to keep alive. The lower your stamina gets the less health you will recover. Also you aim will be come worse, and your grip will diminish to almost nothing.

Snake has certain likes and dislikes. Some food to Snake tastes like crap, but if eaten over and over, after a while he will begin to become acustom to the taste. Also different foods give different amount of stamina restoration. Generally snakes and large animals give excellent stamina recovery, where plants, fruits and small animals give less.

You can most animals to sleep, and catch them in cages. When the animals are in their cage they will not go bad. The other food stored in the backpack will eventually go bad and make you sick if eaten. When the food has spoiled you may throw it towards an enemy and he will eat it. Evidentaly they will become sick and will give you a great opportunity to sneak up on them and slit there throat.

Camo-System

Snake must remain hidden or he will be discovered by his enemies. The point of his mission is to stay undiscovered. Snake is given many forms of camo. He has to find face paint, and clothing throughout the jungle and enemy bases. You get a camo meter up in the top-right corner. It is measured in percentages, which represents how well the enemy can see you. At 100% you are pretty much invisible, and at 0% your definitely going get caught.

There are many suits you can find throughout MGS3. Each one good for certain areas. If your hiding in tall grass it is best to put on some woodland face pant and some greenish cloths. You must adjust what your wear to yuor surroundings. When hiding in shadows, black suits and black face paint can bring your camo-meter up to at least 85%. When sitting or crawling your visibility will greatly reduce. With the right combination of camouflage and crawling you can easily become 95% invisible.

There are even disguises like scientist and dressing as a general. With these disguises on you may stroll through certain areas with ease. When you dressed as a Colonel and you have a mask on no one will question you even if you punch guards in the face. Also you can get silly getups. Weird cloths like poop pattern, a suit with faces, and a banana suit. Which in some cases may help but very rarely.

BackPack/Quick Menu

When L2 is pressed it shows a list of eight items, and when R2 is pushed a list of eight weapons drops down. You may only hold 16 items total in this quick menu, but may carry many more in your back pack. Things like food, weapons, and other items may be stored in the backpack. In the backpack menu you may customize your Quick Menu and what items you take into combat. You cannot use items in the backpack until they have been equipped to the quick Menu.

Weapons
There are a couple knew weapons in this game. The greatest one is the knife. You can interrogate enemies and make them spill useful information. If they down give you what you want, slitting there throat seems to be the way to go. You can also just run up to someone take a few slices and run away. In my opinion the knife was a genius idea.

The rifles include Ak-47, M4 type gun, A heavy machine gun, and a rapid fire SMG. Each weapon has its pros and cons. For example The heavy machine gun has exactly 1001 bullets. That's alot of blood spilling. The Sniper rifle has been perfected in Sanke Eater. It's very fun to take out opponents and others don't know what the heck is happening.

CQC
CQC stands for Close Quarter Combat. Snake and The Boss both developed this together. It is used in the jungle, bushes, and indoors when you cannot use a gun. It is also used when terrorists with hostages are in a facility or an airplane. The technique has been developed for when you have to fight multiple enemies that are very close to you, or when you don't know from where you will be attacked. It is a total combat technique used when you are close to enemies

Cure

Getting shot by enemies, catching on fire and falling of cliffs do eventually leave a mark. When you become injured you must fix the problem. A broken leg will not fix its self. While you are injured you may continualy loose stamina.

You must use the Cure Viewer to find out the position and details of your wound. Based on the information displayed, perform "medical treatment" and "surgical treatment" to improve your condition.

There are two types of treatment... medical and surgical. Perform them based on what kind of condition you are suffering from. Medical treatment is for internal problems with the use of serums, medicine, etc. Surgical treatment is for healing external wounds with instruments and medicine.

You can do things like burn of leeches with cigars, cut out bullets, sow up deep wounds and even put a bone back in place. If you eat spoiled food you have to take certain medicine. This aspect adds to the realism a great deal.

Bosses
There are several bosses throughout the game. Most of them have names that match there emotions mostly experienced in combat. Different bosses had different abilities, each one was unique. These characters are part of the elite Cobra Unit.

The Pain
A big man over 2 meters (6'7''), who controls a swarm of hornets. His body is covered in hornet stings so he should know the meaning of pain.He carries venomous bees called bullet bees in his body. He releases them from his mouth.

The Fear
This man creates fear in the heart of his opponents. He wields a crossbow and a blowgun. He is the master of booby traps, and is double jointed in both elbows, which alows him to crawl around and climb trees. He also has the abilitiy to become invisible.

The Fury
When on his way back from a space mission, his ship literally burned up apon rentry. His body is covered in sever burns. He now wears a Soviet spacesuit and uses a flamethrower as his weapon. The Fury Releases his rage by crisping anything that is within his reach.

The End
The End has to be my favorite boss. It's you against a 100 year old sniper, who is known as the father of modern sniping. His body is coated in moss. He uses photosynthesis in order to endure the long waits he is know for. You must take him on sniper to sniper, with a battle ground the size of a jungle. His anesthetic dart can cause you to just blank out. This battle may go on for ever, depend on who moves first.

The Sorrow
Not much is known about The Sorrow he died 2 years earlier. But he does make several appearances in the game. The Sorrow has the ability of a medium. He can talk to the dead and obtain battle information from them.

The Boss
Legendary heroine who brought victory to the Allies in WWII by leading the Cobra Unit. Spent all of the 50s with Snake and taught him all that she could. With Snake, she created CQC. She was a colleague of Major Zero in the SAS.

There are others besides the cobra unit, and are worth mentioning like , Ocelot, Volgin, and the Shagohod.

Mini Game

The only mini game is the Monkey vs. Snake game. You must stun monkeys from ape escape, and capture them. You must collect all them and try to beat the best time. There are several stages and this mini-game is suitable for all ages.

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Audio
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Metal gear Solid 2 had stereo 5.1 cut scenes, where Mgs3 doesn't have 5.1. But this isn't such a great loss due to only 2 scenes were made in 5.1 in number 2. MGS3 was completely done in Dolby Pro Logic II. Overall the sounds and music were great. It was awsome "kindly asking guards" for info then cutting there throats half way through telling me how mean I was. Great theme song, with a 007 feel to it.

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Video
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Snake never looked better. Some may say that Snake Eater wasn't that great graphically. This game has a great sense of realism evoked with the great surroundings. Also, the game runs at a fairly consistent framerate and I have not yet found a bug in the graphics.

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Overall
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Metal Gear Solid 3:Snake Eater May only have around 17 hours of game play, but has a great replay value. With 5 difficulties ranging from Very Easy to Extreme you can test your skills in each. MGS3 is quite different in comparison to the others. New camo-system, cure, backpack, weapons and crazy storyline just about makes this game perfect. Lots of fun. Can have lots of fun just torturing foes and fighting off swarms of enemies. First time a MGS game has gone to the jungle. Has a very interesting setting in the 60's in Soviet Union. Great game, I recommend at least a rental.

Crim