Collection essentials #490: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2)

Metal Gear Solid 2 was a huge game with a heck of a story, but one thing it clearly did not deliver was a finale that left a ton of closure. Anyone who finished the game could tell that there was more Metal Gear to come. But, interestingly, instead of making a sequel, the next Metal Gear Solid would instead be a prequel set decades earlier. This time you play as an agent named Naked Snake, who later in the timeline came to be known as “Big Boss”. The main character of Metal Gear Solid, Solid Snake, was a genetic clone from Big Boss’s DNA, so in this game Naked Snake looks and sounds pretty much identical to the Solid Snake we’re familiar with. The game takes place during a fictional alternate reality during the Cold War, as Naked Snake starts out by undertaking a stealth mission in the U.S.S.R.

Right off the bat, many gameplay differences in this game are apparent. The setting of the game is very different, as this game primarily takes place in the great outdoors, with Naked Snake traversing dangerous forests with natural and unnatural dangers alike. There is now a stamina gauge in addition to the health meter, and Naked Snake must eat wild plants and animals in order to refill it. There’s a camouflage system, as various outfits and face paints can be used to blend in with each environment to avoid detection. Getting hurt is now more complicated than simply losing health, as Naked Snake must treat specific injuries and ailments in specific ways. For example, swimming through a pond may invite leeches to attach themselves to his body, and the player must go to the menu and find a way to get rid of them. A variety of close-quarters-combat (CQC) moves were introduced, so many more moves are possible when dealing with enemy soldiers up close. 

What you see in the photo is not the original release of the game. The first release was “Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater” in 2004, and then the updated “Subsistence” release came a year later in Japan with its international releases hitting in 2006. A major change to the core game is that the player can now freely control the camera. There’s a variety of bonus content too, including a new online multiplayer game. But perhaps the most notable inclusion are updated ports of “Metal Gear” and “Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake” based on their original MSX versions. (Metal Gear Solid was the third game in the series and basically reset the numbering, just to confuse people.)  Previously, Americans only had the far inferior NES version of Metal Gear 1 at their disposable, and no official release of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in any form.

Metal Gear Solid 3 launched to great critical acclaim. While it’s hard to quantify public opinion, I’ve been under the impression that it is perhaps the most lauded game in the whole series, though I honestly can’t give an objective piece of evidence to truly back that up. 

2004 was the year that I got into Metal Gear, playing Twin Snakes not long after it came out and then Sons of Liberty right after. So I was all aboard the hype train for the new Metal Gear Solid 3! It was sure to be one of the best games ever! So I grabbed it right when it came out. I started playing the game, and something strange happened…I found myself not having fun. I found I disliked virtually every new thing added to the game. The camouflage system didn’t seem to change much or add anything new, the new stamina and survival systems were really just an unwelcome nuisance, I didn’t like the camera, and worst of all was the lack of radar. In previous Metal Gear games the radar was a huge gameplay factor, letting the player see a real-time map of where enemy guards were along with their field of vision. This game removed it, presumably because the ‘60s weren’t technologically advanced enough to feature it. But boy, it really changed the gameplay experience in a way that I didn’t appreciate. I found myself returning the game before long, badly disappointed. It immediately landed near the top of my list of most overrated games of all time.

When Subsistence came out, it at least fixed one of the complaints I had with the game, that being the camera. I was also enticed by the inclusion of Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2 ported from the MSX, which I definitely wanted to play. So I did pick up Subsistence. It did sit on my shelf for several years before I really played any of it, but I eventually did. 

Playing through Metal Gear 1 and 2 was cool. The jump from the first game to the second was very significant, as practically everything was improved or expanded upon for the second game. I had to use walkthroughs to get through them as they can be quite obtuse and difficult to figure out. They show their age for sure, but as a series fan they were certainly enjoyable and worth my time.

I did play all the way through MGS3 this time, unlike when I first bought it. The gameplay did still bother me in a lot of ways and I never fell in love with it in the same way I did for other games in the series. But I did come to appreciate it on a certain level. There are plenty of creative elements at various points in the game. The story is good as you’d expect and adds a lot to the series, and the ending in particular stood out to me as extremely well done, making me happy that I pushed myself to finish the game. 

If I’m being honest, it’s still a bit of a headscratcher to me that so many people think this is the best Metal Gear game. To me it just feels so much worse to play than its predecessor. But as a series fan I do have to admit that it does some things right and was worth playing, and I also really like the inclusion of the two old-school games on this compilation. For that, despite my gripes with it, MGS3 Subsistence finds it spot in my collection as another essential.