Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Difference between revisions

[[File:wallpaper_07.jpg|frame|''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0CSxRbEg2Q "I gave my life. Not for honor, but for you..."]'']]

 

 

 

In 1962, Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov, a Soviet scientist who previously defected to the West, is forcibly bought back to the other side of the Iron Curtain in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two years later, American intelligence learns that Sokolov is being forced to create a secret weapon that could turn the Cold War into a blazing hot one, and a plan is formulated to bring Sokolov back to America, as FOX operative codenamed "Naked Snake" is called into action to rescue him from a Soviet weapons lab. The mission does not go smoothly. During the mission, Snake's lifelong mentor and mother figure, The Boss, announces her own defection to the Soviet Union, abducts Sokolov, and brings her own squad, the Cobra Unit, along for the ride. Worse yet, she also brings two miniature nuclear warheads to sweeten the deal, one of which is promptly used by her new boss, Colonel Volgin, to pulverize the research facility and frame America for the whole ordeal, after the plane Snake used to enter was picked up on radar within Soviet air space. With the United States' reputation on the line and the two nations on the verge of [[World War Three]], Snake is sent back to the Soviet Union to help the FOX unit clear its name by taking out Volgin and his secret weapon, as well as The Boss and her Cobra Unit.

In terms of gameplay and its mechanics, the game puts much more emphasis on survival than previous games, requiring the player to hunt and eat to stay alive, and to heal their wounds manually. The static indoor maps of the previous games have been swapped out in favor of sprawling outdoor environment, requiring the player to make use of camouflage to stay hidden from enemy sentries, or distract them with a variety of tools, from tranquilizer darts to pornographic magazines, in tried and true ''[[Metal Gear]]'' fashion.

 

 

''Metal Gear Solid 3'' also received an [[Updated Rerelease]] a year later with ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence'', which featured a new third-person camera system, a brand-new online multiplayer component ([[Too Good to Last|shut down a year after its release, unfortunately]]), as well as [[Embedded Precursor|ports of the first two games]] in the ''Metal Gear'' series, and additional stages to [[So My Kids Can Watch|kid-friendly]] [[Crossover]] minigame starring the monkeys from ''[[Ape Escape]]''. Players who preordered ''Subsistence'' also received a third disc featuring a three-and-a-half-hour-long movie version of the game, strung together from cutscenes, radio conversations, and gameplay footage. This disc is included in the PAL edition of ''Subsistence'' by default, [[Regional Bonus|to compensate for how long the PAL conversion took]].

 

 

A [[Updated Rerelease|HD version]] of ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' was released for the [[Play Station 3]] and [[Xbox 360]] in November 2011 as a component of ''Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection'' and a [[Video Game Remake|remake]] for the [[Nintendo 3DS]] titled ''Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D'' was released on February 21, 2012.

 

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* [[Absolute Cleavage]]: EVA has no shame whatsoever. {{spoiler|The Boss rips open her shirt too, to show off her snake scar. For some reason, she doesn't see fit to button it back up for the ensuing fight.}}

* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: The sewers under Groznyj Grad.

* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: A common complaint leveled at the Shagohod, due to the sheer excitement generated both by Sokolov's championing of the weapon's power and the high-energy chase scene that happens before the player gets to face it head on. It's possible to immobilize it by shooting out the augers (which the player's support team will tell them to do if they happen to call them during the fight), which makes it very easy to simply snipe Volgin.

** [[Most Annoying Sound|"I can't move! What have you done? Gah, the treads!"]]

** One thankfully even appears between the twenty minute ending and equally long epilogue.

** On the other hand, it punishes spending too long not playing, since the food in Snake's inventory goes bad over time. Though doing so is an easy way to {{spoiler|get an extremely cheap stamina kill on The Fear and/or The End.}}

** On that subject, Major Zero says that if you want to be a really, REALLY good stealth operative, you'd leave absolutely nothing of yourself behind for enemies to follow. Snake assures him that he does his business where nobody can find it and buries it deeply, but Zero says that's only acceptable as a stopgap measure. "Bag it and bring it with you!" <ref>It should be noted that this is ''exactly'' what snipers and anyone who does SERE is expected to do. Pity the poor sod who catches one of these guys and has to search his pack.</ref>

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: While the non-suppressible weapons have their uses when surrounded or during an alert, the M63 and RPG-7 will most likely only get used when {{spoiler|infinite ammo is granted during the Shagohod chase}} because machine guns that eat through ammo <ref>''and even make Snake scream like a warrior!''</ref> and rocket launchers that nuke small areas [[Understatement|aren't exactly ideal for a stealth mission.]]

* [[Badass Boast]]: Played with. During their second encounter, Snake lectures Ocelot about his poor choice of weaponry, ending it by boldly proclaiming that Ocelot doesn't have what it takes to kill him. It looks like it's just Snake pointing out Ocelot's relative lack of combat skill...until Ocelot realizes that he forgot to load his revolver.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Naked Snake and his mentor The Boss both qualify, big-time. Most of The Boss's subordinates have bizarre, often horrifying superpowers, but her only skills are the ability to shoot a machine pistol one-handed and enough martial arts prowess to dismantle a gun in two quick moves. Volgin, the [[Psycho Electro]], shows his only truly vulnerable moment when he mentions he doubts her loyalty, and backpedals immediately when she turns to face him with an angry glare. And, of course, Naked Snake earns his "Big Boss" title by defeating the Boss and every one of her subordinates despite having no superpowers at all, just good aim and a lot of tenacity.

* [[Bad Boss]]: Colonel Volgin dismisses his own subordinates, and is implied to kill off those he feels have no more use for him (such as the scientists and engineers after the Shagohod was completed), not to mention running over his own men and destroying his own base simply because they were in his way when piloting the Shagohod. Going by statements EVA made about Raikov after disguising as him, not to mention the personnel's reaction to Snake disguised as Raikov and Snake, while disguised as Raikov, beating up the personnel and getting away with it, Raikov also is cut from the same cloth.

* [[Big Bad]]: Colonel Volgin.

* [[Book Ends]]: In the beginning of the game, Snake loses his backpack by it snagging onto the tree. During the last few moments of the game, his backpack is thrown out of the WIG by Ocelot.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: At first, Naked Snake is a dorky if badass soldier. By the end of the game, he's a broken man. [[Tear Jerker|There might have been a few players who felt the same way.]]

** A subtle one would be the gunsight on the player's replacement M1911A1, which is the same as Snake's SOCOM in earlier games.

** It ends the same way as the first game: {{spoiler|Ocelot places a secret phone call where he reveals that he's actually a triple agent for the U.S. government}}.

* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]: Used to [[Lampshade Hanging|parody]] some of the more unrealistic game mechanics. For instance, Snake can find glowcap mushrooms, and call his [[Mission Control]] team to discuss its nutritional properties, when Snake starts to wonder if eating the mushrooms would replenish the batteries on his equipment. His [[Mission Control]] tells him to believe whatever the hell he wants...and as luck would have it, eating glowcaps ''does'' replenish the player's batteries, which Para-Medic assumes is some sort of weird placebo effect.

* [[Clark Kenting]]: EVA's actually pretty good at this. Her face and voice are the same, but her body language, speaking tone, hair style, and, yes, glasses, combine to give the player the impression that the nervous, mousy girl Volgin's captured is an entirely different person from the dazzling, cleavage-exposing showoff [[Action Girl]] helping out Snake. Even some first-time players get totally suckered.

** Snake does this no less than twice. First, he must pose as a scientist to infiltrate a small weapons lab. He puts on a lab coat and glasses. The second time, he must pose as a maintenance worker to infiltrate an even larger fortress. Only now, he also has an eye patch, and the enemy knows his face.

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: Colonel Volgin's favorite pastime. He seems rather proud of his skill, though in actuality, he's very, very bad at it; nobody he tortures ''ever'' talks, and he actually manages to interrogate ''himself'' while torturing Snake. Not that this matters to him--it's outright stated by EVA that he literally gets off on the pain of others, and doesn't really care if his victims talk as long as he gets his kicks. After witnessing it firsthand, Ocelot decides that torture isn't as bad as he previously thought; anyone who's played ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' will know his ratio of people tortured versus information extracted is similar to Volgin's.

** Although in Ocelot's case {{spoiler|[[The Plan|it's extremely deliberate.]]}}

** The degree of curb stomping that occurs, however, becomes steadily and noticeably less and less as the game goes on. The first time they fight, Snake only gets a very brief grab on The Boss before she breaks the hold and then his arm before hurling him off the bridge they are on. The last time they fight in a cutscene, Snake holds her off for quite a while and even forces her to a knee before she takes him down.

* [[Cutscene Power to the Max]]: Mostly averted - Any time the player sees Snake performing CQC maneuvers in cutscenes, he's using the exact same moves that are available outside the cutscenes, although the stunts that Snake pulls off are a bit tricky to recreate in gameplay.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The fact that this is the only ''[[Metal Gear]]'' game to actually have a nuclear explosion happen without any of the heroes being capable of stopping it, and in fact happens twice, once with the definite villain, and another time {{spoiler|with a hero who is technically the antagonist and ultimately ends in tragedy}} would make ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' qualify as such.

** [[Lighter and Softer]]: On the other hand, the majority of the game is funnier and more cheerful. YMMV.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The Boss, a powerful female character, has a habit of walking up to men she's angry with and [[You Are Grounded|forcibly dismantling their firearms]].

** Snake's "Cardboard Box" lecture to a thoroughly [[Squick|squicked]] SigInt.

"Man, I don't wanna know what you mean!" }}

* [[Double Agent]]: {{spoiler|EVA, Ocelot, and [[Fake Defector|The Boss]].}}

** To put it another way, after the twist, killing the [[Big Bad]] seems much less meaningful.

* [[Downloadable Content]]: There were a few bonus camo patterns available for those with an online PS2, and they can be found on-disc in ''Subsistence''. Unfortunately, a single camo takes up an entire megabyte off the player's memory card.

* [[Dying Dream]]: {{spoiler|The fight with The Sorrow qualifies as this. Afterwards, Snake wakes up, realizing it was all just a dream.}} [[Or Was It a Dream?|Or was it?]]

* [[Earn Your Title]]: This game shows how Naked Snake earned the moniker that would stay with him for the rest of his life, {{spoiler|by defeating his lifelong mentor, The Boss, and surpassing her in the eyes of his superiors}}.

* [[Gaussian Girl]]: Ocelot sees Snake this way after their initial encounter. Somewhat justified, since he is losing consciousness at the time. Ever since then, Ocelot has become his [[Stalker with a Crush]]. Also, it is played with jokingly in the ''MGS3'' Secret Theater, "He's Still Got It," where The End sees EVA like this.

* [[Gender Is No Object]]: Surprisingly, nobody ever gives The Boss any guff for being a woman, despite this taking place in [[The Sixties]], long before the glass ceiling disappeared for women in the military (and as far as combat-intensive roles go, that ceiling still hasn't really gone away). And she's been doing this at least since the forties. It's possible nobody dares bring it up because ''she's that good.''

* [[Gotta Catch Them All]]: In order to obtain the EZ Gun on any difficulty above very easy, the player has to catch at least one of every 48 plants and animals in a single playthrough. If the player passes one of several points of no return without a certain food, the game needs to be started again, and this includes [[Guide Dang It|catching the undetectable Tsuchinoko]].

* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: Immediately after praising Snake's Russian with both [[Translation Convention|speaking in English]], Sokolov says the name "Shagohod" in Russian. Snake then accepts the rather flowery translation "The Treading Behemoth" as opposed to the more mundane meaning of "Step-Walker."

* [[Is This Thing Still On?]]: In an optional radio conversation with Zero, Zero will excuse himself after learning that Naked Snake saw the other side during his battle with The Sorrow and talks with Para-Medic about Snake's condition. However, he and Para-Medic were standing a bit too close to the mike, or he forgot to turn it off, causing Snake to hear the entire conversation.

* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: {{spoiler|1=When it seems as though Snake and EVA's WIG is going to be shot down by two MiGs, Snake gives this exchange:}}

'''Snake:''' Thanks. }}

* [[It's Raining Men]]: How Snake entered Tselinoyarsk during the Virtuous Mission and, to a slightly lesser extent, Operation Snake Eater (he parachuted out of the drone upon ejecting in the latter mission)

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: The Boss, who in turn turned Naked Snake into another one at the end of the game.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: The explanation of why the Patriot has infinite ammo is a particularly amusing example. Here's a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh0HJCtHUfs video.]

Sigint: "Ah, I get it. Yep, that'll give you infinite ammo." }}

* [[Large Ham]]: Volgin is clearly having entirely too much fun in more or less every scene he's in.

** The Pain spends virtually all of his screen time posturing and posing like a combination between [[Sentai]] hero and a pro wrestler; as expected of a guy whose entire thing is using large swarms of hornets to kill people, subtlety isn't exactly his thing.

** ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' was later given an [[Updated Rerelease]] called ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence'', which, besides making improvements to the main game (most notably adding a much-demanded interactive camera),also included a second disk mainly pertaining to the first version of ''Metal Gear Online''. Of special note though was that the bonus disc also included the first two games in the series.

** ''Subsistence'' itself also came in two versions: the regular, two-disk version, and a ''Limited Edition'' which included a third disk called ''Existence'', containing a three-hour movie of ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' created from the game's own cutscenes and playing footage.

** Volgin uses the phrase "Kuwabara, Kuwabara" several times. It's a Japanese expression equivalent to the English "knock on wood" that is believed to ward off lightning. At the end of the game, {{spoiler|he refuses to say the phrase, instead ''mocking'' the storm, and [[Poetic Justice|is promptly struck by lightning]].}}

** Raikov's name "Raidenovitch" can be read in Japanese as "Raiden No Bitch," meaning "Thunderbolt's Bitch." The impossible-to-translate pun seems basically the only reason for Volgin's barely-used nickname.

* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: A combination of radio conversations with EVA and {{spoiler|The Boss's own admission that she gave birth}} on the battlefield at Normandy reveal that {{spoiler|The Boss is Ocelot's mother}}. While it is never outright said in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', if the player talked to the support team throughout the game, this will be piece together.

* [[A MacGuffin Full of Money]]: The Philosopher's Legacy.

** [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Heartwarmingly]] subverted later on, towards the end of the game.

* [[Manly Tears]]: Big Boss sheds one manly tear in the final shot, and he's perfectly justified in doing it, as is the player.

* [[The Mario]]: Tiger Stripe camo is effective, but not the best, for a good chunk of areas (it's also the best in a few as well).

** And the Snake camo, which the player gets for stamina killing The Boss.

* [[Pacifist Run]]: If the player does this, {{spoiler|the fight with The Sorrow will be ''much'' shorter, although the bosses will still [[Final Death|explode]] when they are defeated non-lethally.}}

** However, if the player kills people indirectly by drowning them or throwing them off cliffs, they won't get a kill penalty.

** Inverted and then hilariously [[Double Subverted]] with Snake. Snake manages to disguise himself exceptionally well as Raikov, to the extent that, in Zero's words, not even his own mother would tell them apart, but Volgin saw through the disguise... after pulling a [[Groin Attack]] on Snake ''twice''. Later on, the player can gain a free hit on Volgin simply by putting on the Raikov mask... [[Epic Fail|which is missing the hat from earlier, and the player doesn't even have to change into the Officer's uniform to fool him,]] ''[[Epic Fail|all while in front of Volgin (presumably).]]''

* [[Peaceful in Death]]: {{spoiler|The Boss. She even orders Snake to pull the trigger.}}

* [[Red Scare]]: Both played straight (initially) and inverted in this game. Naked Snake and Zero were almost executed (the former while hospitalized) because the government felt that they were involved in The Boss's defection, and an optional radio conversion revealed that during the week between the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater, several less stalward key Government members were placed under house arrest due to The Boss's defection, fearing that they'd follow her example. Likewise, over on the Red end, Volgin attempts to justify his actions by claiming that spies are everywhere, and that his job is to root them out and then kill them. Of course, the former was actually all just an act due to their intention of getting the Philosophers' Legacy that went sour.

* [[Regional Bonus]]: The European version of the game featured a boss battle mode, demo theatre, some extra facepaint patterns based on international flags, two new ''Snake vs. Monkey'' levels, and the "[[Harder Than Hard|European Extreme]]" difficulty setting. The default European version of ''Subsistence'' was the three-disc pre-order version of the North American release.

* [[Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: Spoofed in one of the Secret Theater segments.

* [[Rule of Funny]]: Some videos in the Secret Theatre collection included on ''Subsistence'', a major example being "How not to handle C3", pretty have much this as the reason some things work. For instance, no matter how hard the C3 slams into another C3, it won't detonate prematurely as C3 is mechanically and chemically stable.

* [[Say My Name]]: The Cobras shout their names before dying in a massive explosion, except for {{spoiler|The Sorrow, who's already dead, and The Boss, who is killed with a gunshot to the head. She does do it in one of the Secret Theatre films, except she uses her previous codename, The Joy.}}

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: The team dialogue for the scientist camo. Guess what usually happens next:

'''Major Zero:''' "If they did, they'd have to be a fool. ''*snicker*''' No, more than a fool—a complete dumbass. Don't you think so, Snake?" }}

** Admit it, you took your knife to Ocelot after he was knocked out in the cutscene.

** If the player doesn't pull the trigger after a while, {{spoiler|it will happen automatically.}}

* [[Shout-Out]]: Many, in optional radio conversions. Obvious cases are Snake berating overly complicated survival knives (''[[Rambo]]''), Zero's love of ''James Bond'' movies and Para-Medic's B-movie obsession.

** Want to know what the trophy/achievement for CQC-interrogating a soldier is called in ''Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection''? "[[24|Tell Me Where the Bomb is!]]"

** In the intro codec for "Snake vs Monkey," Snake asks the colonel if Sam or Gabe can go on the mission instead of him, referring to ''[[Splinter Cell]]'' and ''[[Syphon Filter]]'', respectively.

* [[Start of Darkness]]: This game is one for Big Boss.

* [[Stat Grinding]]: A subtle example, Snake's health slighty increases after he recovers from big injuries.

* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: Snake has this when it comes to mud. Normally justified in that by the time his head goes under, he'll likely be too far from solid ground to pull himself out, but it also means Indian gavials can instantly kill the player by knocking them on their ass in the wrong place.

* [[Sympathetic Murder Backstory]]: The game is the story of Big Boss's [[Start of Darkness]], where {{spoiler|he's manipulated into killing his mentor and mother figure, as part of her and the Philosopher's [[Zero-Approval Gambit]].}}

* [[Taking the Bullet]]: {{spoiler|Naked Snake, when he was being tortured by Volgin, ends up counting the bullet chambers as Ocelot decides to play his version of [[Russian Roulette]] with Tatyana when deducing that the latter's the spy, and flings himself at Ocelot to deflect the bullet away from Tatyana. It worked, but in the process, he received muzzle burn near his right eye, costing him the use of his right eye.}}

** The ''HD Collection'' has an trophy/acheivement for killing Ocelot (thus killing the man behind almost everything in the series) called "Problem Solved, Series Over".

** Zero's statements about James Bond are something of a paradox themselves; while ''[[Dr. No]]'' and ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' had been released by the date the game takes place, the only gadget Bond had ever had at that point was the briefcase in the second movie. Though given he's such a Bond fan he might be referring to gadgets from the novels.

*** Bond in the novel rarely used gadgets though, and they tended to be no more extreme than what was saw in ''From Russia With Love.''

* [[Tempting Fate]]:

* [[Theme Music Withholding]]: The classic theme is heard only in the final moments of the end credits.

* [[Theme Naming]]: The Cobra Unit each use emotions as their codenames. A radio conversion with Singit reveals that they name themselves after what they feel in battle. Some are easy to figure out ([[Unstoppable Rage|The Fury]], [[Technical Pacifist|The Sorrow]], and [[Blood Knight|The Joy]]), while others are a little trippy ("The End" is supposedly because of the oblivion of sleep, but "The End" is a pretty good name for a sniper in general, considering how lethal they are to enemy soldiers). The Fear promises to scare the player, but his antics reveal that his combat style is pretty cowardly itself, hiding and poisoning them (going with his "spider" theme). The Pain can obviously cause a lot of pain with his bees, and once he pulls off the mask, the player will see that he's in quite a lot of it himself.

* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: The Tsuchinoko. A one-of-a-kind incredibly rare and hard-to-find mythical snake that you can eat to restore full stamina... which nobody ever does, because keeping it in your inventory until the end of the game unlocks the Infinity Facepaint, and your [[Mission Control]] will ''hate'' your guts if you eat it.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: There's an easy trick to beating The Fear with a stamina kill; he'll pick up any food left lying around the arena when his stamina runs low as a priority rather than killing one of the critters himself. This means discarding spoiled food will result in him eating it, damaging his stamina even ''more'', and making him the easiest Cobra to defeat by far. Also, The Fear tested his weapons on rabbits, which also now have an immunity to his Cobalt Blue Tarantula venom. The same rabbits are also conveniently in the same area as where The Fear is fought.

** Also, The End keeps falling asleep in the middle of the battle, which makes beating him considerably easier. Although it is because he's old, it can be questioned why a man of his age goes to the battlefield in the first place.

** The Fury gets special mention for using a flamethrower in an underground tunnel filled with water pipes that can be shot at to put out the flames.

** Ocelot does this as well, challenging Snake a number of times and coming away even more impressed every time. The final fight is a variation of Russian Roulette (one bullet, two guns, and they shoot at each other). No matter the outcome, Ocelot just laughs and jumps out of the plane, confident that he'll see Snake again. In fact, in most of the scene's variations, it is revealed that the bullet Ocelot has been carrying on a chain around his neck with the express purpose of defeating Big Boss is a blank.

* [[You Bastard]]: Thought it was funny to shoot a man in the balls or slit a bunch of throats? Now face their specters in the river of the dead! There's also a few times in the game when a radio conversation mentions whether or not the player has gone on a killing spree.

** Surprisingly averted in regards to Ocelot and his unit at the end of the Virtuous Mission. Considering how they technically failed to capture Sokolov (since The Boss and her Cobra Unit is literally the only reason they even captured him in the first place), you'd think Volgin would have his unit executed. Instead, he is seen talking with Ocelot celebrating the overall success over their capture of the Shagohod and Sokolov without even a hint at wanting to punish Ocelot for the blunder.

* [[You Kill It, You Bought It]]: {{spoiler|Naked Snake gains the title of "Boss" (or rather, Big Boss), after killing The Boss (though this ''probably'' isn't the standard procedure for the promotion).}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Sixties]]

[[Category:Stealth Based Game]]

[[Category:Hideo Kojima]]

[[Category:Metal Gear]]