Metal Gear...In HD? Part 2



Time to go back to the U.S.S.R.

 Metal Gear Solid 3 is a very special game to me for many reasons, mainly because it was the 1st Metal Gear game I owned and beat. Since I was a bit to young to play more than just a demo of MGS 1 and 2 as a kid, I was SUPER excited when I got Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence and decided to wrap my entire life around it for about the next year. This was because I have not played many games like MGS3 before content wise as well as such a memorable experience. MGS3 gets so many things right I couldn't help but, think an HD remastering would be the perfect addition to one of my favorite games of all times.

If I had to pick my main reason I love this game, it would have to be the crazy, amazing, and multi layered story. As a fan of history, james bond movies, and crazy characters this game had it all for my young mind to handle and I soaked it all up like a sponge. I so enthralled by snake's story as he had to take down his mentor The Boss and the path to fighting her is a long one. Filled with fighting a young Ocelot, the boss's former team the cobra's, and stopping the Shagglehod a.k.a. not a metal gear.

As crazy as the story is, the nice thing about it is that it is the earliest point in the series. This means it is very kind to newcomers to the series like I was. At the same if you are a die hard fan like I am now, there are many nods towards future games and shows off characters who will show up later. The big boss story is a great story not just in the MGS franchise, but as a stand alone story as well. This makes it a great addition to the HD collection. Some people were curious why the first game MGS is not included, but even though in my opinion it should have been included it doesn't ruin anything. Especially since I own many of the versions for it already, such as the PS1 and Gamecube remake. It is also on the PS store for $9.99, but still if it had just added trophies to it I know me and many others would buy/play it all over again...*cough cough MGS4 cough cough*

Before Big Boss there was The Boss

Now the gameplay of MGS3 is a mix of making things easier and at the same time introducing a much deeper system to playing.The sort of "special edition" for MGS3 called Subsistence introduced the free camera option putting the camera behind Snake and it lets you switch back to the original fixed camera angle at anytime if you want to feel how different the game originally was. It's pretty amazing how different the game becomes when the camera moves, since it really lets you get more out of the environment and all the great details that Kojima Productions put into the game.

Naked Snake- Note the lack of headband

Now where MGS3 made things a bit more complicated which I think was an improvement, while others may think it was overly complicated and not necessary was the addition of camouflage, curing yourself, and stamina. Camo added an interesting depth to the game making stealth even more key to surviving the jungle. You need to select the right kind of face and body camo as well and if you don't have a certain kind you can get more by finding them or defeating bosses in a certain way. The cure system also made you the player have to manually heal any of snakes major wound, by using the correct medical tools. If you don't heal yourself you will not have full health until you fix yourself up. Lastly is the stamina meter, this was introduced in MGS2 as a way to knock out bosses and not kill them. The way it works in this game is now Snake and all of his enemies can now run out of stamina. The only way you/ your enemies can regain stamina which is the only way to regain health is by eating any type of food you can find. You also don't just find food you also may have to hunt down your own food just to survive.

Just throwing a MGS3DS screen out there... opinions?

Along with an amazing story MGS3 has even more content to offer. While it does not contain any VR missions, the secret theater, Snake vs. Monkey mode, and Metal Gear Online are not in it like the original Subsistence had except the VR missions. Still the HD edition does have the two best bonus features added to it and that is a translated MSX version of the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. These versions have never been available to fans outside of emulators until subsistence came along. These are two extremely difficult and fun games that will show the origins of Solid Snake and more of Big bosses story.

This was another example of how to do an HD collection, making a great game look even better all in one package with 3 games in all. The trophies in this game also bring as many new experiences as it does laughs at the ridiculous names of them. I could go on all day talking about how much I have enjoyed going through these games again after so long. I will be going through Peace Walker on and off since I want to go through it co-op as much as I can, since I played solo on the psp version. If you have any questions about my experience with the games in the HD collection that I might not have covered just leave them in the comments below.

Here is some great art most people haven't seen

I will be taking an HD collection break for a bit since I have a tournament coming up soon in April and want to practice so expect more post that will be shorter, but giving updates to how it is going.