by Temujin

Most people who play this game will have played either MGS2, MGS or both. So, I shall begin by outlining similarities and differences between the prior games and this one.

Differences
There is only one character in MGS or MGS2 that is in MGS3. All the others are different. No Solid Snake, Liquid Snake or Otacon.

The setting. As you're probably aware, it's almost entirely in the jungle, although there are brief periods in buildings and on a mountain. Camouflage is a BIG factor.

No soliton radar. I must admit, rather lame player that I am, I was wondering how this would affect the game, and was a little worried it'd make it worse. It didn't. It makes it better, in my opinion. By using other items (binoculars, active sonar and motion sensor) you can find out where guards and other things are in a less easy way.

Food. Yes, you now have to eat things to keep your stamina up. (Higher stamina means your health bar regenerates faster. 0 stamina means you fall asleep, apparently.) Some food regenerates more stamina than others, and some can be rotten or poisoned. You can capture animals and throw them at the guards (snakes and scorpions can make this fun). You can capture smallish animals alive (but only 3) and have a pretty big capacity for dead animals and plants.

Curing. You can now get injured in various ways. Cuts, gunshot wounds and broken bones are now a part of life and curable by using bandages, disinfectant etc. However, run out of the medicine you need and you won't be a happy snakey.

Camouflage. As mentioned previously, this is a big part of the game. Higher camo indexes mean that you can be a few feet away from the nasty old Russian and he won't know you're there. Whether you're moving, or standing, crouching or crawling also has a big affect on your camo index. You can pick up new camo, both uniforms and facepaint, later on in the game.

CQC/Close Quarters Combat. I'll detail this in the gameplay section.

Similarities
Well, it's not quite a codec, but the radio's almost identical, just that the picture doesn't move, it's a still photo. You can still have daft conversations in the right circumstance.

Boss fights. Quite a few actually, I thought. They aren't too difficult mostly, and some take an old theme (Sniper Wolf's contest with Snake seems a long time ago now...) and rejuvenate it, in the sniping case by playing it over three areas.

David Hayter voices Snake for this game too, which is cool. Also, Harry Gregson Williams does the music too, although the main theme is heard less often than in MGS2.

There is reference to the Patriots, but I won't spoil whatever may be revealed, (or not) by detailing it.

The tranquilizer gun makes a reappearance. Same as before, headshot means goodnight, chest shot means the guard's gonna come looking for you.

Not exactly the same, but Snake has a cigar rather than a cigarette this time.

Now for a quick review of each aspect of the game.

Gameplay: 9/10
This rocks. Grabbing a guy by the neck is for wimps, it is like, so last year. Now, you grab him. Maybe you slit his throat. Maybe you interrogate him. Maybe you throw him to the ground and hold him up. Maybe you starve him of oxygen so he falls unconscious, or you even kill him. Maybe while your knife is at his throat you shoot his comrades. This is the meaning of CQC. You can also climb trees and hunt things as diverse as fish, crocodiles, magpies and mushrooms. The Tactical Reload feature remains, and is very useful in certain parts of the game. Lockers also can be used, although in a more limited capacity than MGS2.

Story: 7.5/10
I was....less impressed than I thought I would be with this. It's their own fault. MGS had an unsurpassable plot, so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised it's not been bettered. However, at the end you'll get a nice little series of revelations that make it a lot better, but I won't spoil them.

Graphics and voices: 10/10
A secondary consideration to almost everyone, but I'll mention it anyway. The graphics are excellent throughout, and there's a very impressive attention to detail. As for voices, they're pretty damn good too. Snake is as cool as ever, and the cast generally have decent voices. However, it'd be nice if they at least put on a Russian accent for the Russians. There's also a Briton in it which is nice.

Longevity and replayability: 8/10
Longer than either MGS or MGS2 by a distance. The environment differs somewhat, and the game entertains throughout. You get some goodies for completing it, but perhaps not what you expect. Upon completion, you can only play again on the same difficulty level, which I found mildly irritating. However, there's no exact dog tags equivalent, so it's not that big a deal. You also still get the codename at the end. I was a panther, incidentally, playing on easy (hehe, I suck at action games, hence playing it easy first time round).

Overall: 9/10

This might sound lower than most would give it (for example, gamefaqs have about 30 reviews and only one gives the lowest rating of 7/10.) However, I think 10/10 is an overused rating. In numerous radio communications the phrase "I see" is used so often it'll start driving you mad (well, it did me anyway). The Russians sound as American as you can imagine as well. However, for those few flaws, there's a plethora of praise. The graphics are near perfect. The gameplay is vastly improved, and considering it was excellent to start with, that's bloody impressive. The storyline was good but not great as you go through it, but the ending makes up for a lot of it. If you remember Zanzibar or Outer Heaven, or have heard of them, it might make even more sense. There's a lot of good humour in it, but also some rather heavy scenes which had me glued to the screen.

I know some don't like the camo system and jungle setting, but the vast majority do, so I'd recommend buying this if you like the previous games or action games generally.