Why you should play: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Hideo Kojima's acclaimed "Metal Gear Solid" series is one of those ageing, legendary sagas that you've either played and adored (everyone has their favourite of course, and everyone seems to hate at least one of them), or you just haven't gotten around to it; you keep telling your rabid, manic MGS-fan friend that you'll borrow the HD collection from them any day now...when you get some time to play, obviously. But you never do, because nobody has time for this kind of thing anymore. That, and Metal Gear Solid fans have an alarming tendency to devolve into raving, dribbling maniacs when asked simple questions like; "What's your favourite Metal Gear Solid game, and why?"

The series calls to mind films like The Godfather or Citizen Kane...everybody knows they are essential classics, but if you asked ten random people who call themselves "movie buffs", chances are the majority of them haven't quite got around to them yet. Video games, like films, have a tendency to fade into legend when enough time has passed - though their grandeur is often acknowledged in passing discussion, many contemporary viewers and players often don't bother with films or games that are deemed "too old" or "too weird". MGS is a series that probably falls into both categories, and odds be damned, it overcomes them both.

It's a phenomenon that drives us "true" nerds up the wall; when we as humans experience something truly incredible - a piece of art that transcends its medium, leaving a lasting emotional, and even spiritual impact on the viewer - when that happens, it's in our nature to want to share it.

We want to grab our friends by the collar, foaming at the mouth as we try to articulate why that something was so incredibly amazing, and why they should go out and experience as soon as possible. As subjective as our personal enjoyment may have been, we feel so strongly about it that we truly believe it will affect others, the same way it affected us.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was the first game that ever gave me that feeling, as well as being the first game in the series that I had actually played - at the age of fifteen, I had played a lot of games, and had briefly read about the Metal Gear Solid series in gaming magazines; the primary source of information for the hobby at the time.

There was a section at the back of one such magazine that I would pore over as a kid; it was a gigantic list of games that the team had reviewed over the years for the venerable PlayStation 2. The pages of this section resembled an old phone book, with the name of each game, it's year of release, and it's number rating (out of 10) stamped next to it. It was the kind of thing that would look like etchings on a stone tablet to todays kids, but I read that fucker end to end...at the dawn of the mainstream internet, it was a reliable way one could find out about good games one may have missed.

Out of the hundreds of games listed, there were few that cracked scores of 8 or above - even with the PS2's stellar library, we often forget there were a lot of misses. Fewer still reached a score of 9...but they stood out proudly. Final Fantasy X. Shadow of the Colossus. Jak and Daxter. Burnout 3. Resident Evil 4. GTA: San Andreas. 

On this enormous list, there were two titles that stuck out to me:

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, released in 2001,

and it's sequel,

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, released in 2004.

These were the only Hideo Kojima games on the list - the only games that his team had developed for the PS2. And they were both given ratings of 10 out of 10.

This was not a rare occurrence - I was surprised to find that these two games (as well as their PS1 predecessor) had been almost universally praised - often receiving perfect scores from reviewers all around the world - this series seemed to be comprised entirely of masterpieces, and I had yet to play a single one. This struck me as odd, as playing games was pretty much all I did. Nobody I knew had ever suggested them, probably because nobody I knew had ever played them. For whatever reason, I - like many others, even to this day - had been isolated from the series.

I decided to rectify that in 2007, by renting the disc for MGS3 - I had learned that it was a prequel, and it seemed like a good place to start. Slotting it into my PS2, I sat back on my couch with my brother, wondering how it could possibly live up to its own legend.

What followed was collective, silent astonishment...as we watched the most stunning opening sequence to a videogame that we had ever seen.

It wasn't just the phenomenal visuals. The fully motion captured characters, the colours, the atmospheric effects, the razor-sharp cinematic direction, the cloth physics that Kojima's team had managed to wrangle out of the already dated hardware of the PS2.

It wasn't just the sound. The fantastic music that somehow set a tone of exotic wildness, suspense, espionage and epic conflict all at the same time. The crisp, clean (albeit cheesy) voice work, the rumbling of the transport plane, the roaring wind, or the subtle crunch of a cigar as Snake stamped on it; catching it in the wind under his boot with impossible timing.

It was everything, together; a perfect realization of insane ambition meeting pure technical skill - combining to create an opening scene that would rival most Hollywood films. And this was just the start - the opening minutes of a journey that has stayed with me for nearly a decade.

If any of this sounds remotely appealing so far, and you haven't played the game, you should. Just stop reading this and find a disc. Take the time to learn and master the clunky controls. Enjoy the story with as little spoiled in advance as possible, as Kojima thrusts you into a thrilling, intense, emotional, absurd, and above all entertaining cold-war espionage adventure that is unlike anything else you've ever played - and that includes the other games in the series. Insane boss battles, an ambitious stealth system, and dozens of ways to use every tool the game provides to creatively overcome the formidable odds stacked against you; from the beginning of the game, to the ending credits.

I can't speak for the experience of playing the game after having completed Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2; from what I've read, it's just as good if not better; the references to the greater Metal Gear Solid lore and previous games only serves to strengthen the foundations of an already exceptional title, and one of the PlayStation 2's greatest games.

I went into this blind. I enjoyed it as a product on it's own - not the torch-bearer for a legendary series, and not the prequel exploring a legendary character within it; I played Metal Gear Solid 3 as a curious kid, looking for a fun way to pass an afternoon.

I got what I signed up for, and a whole lot more. I went into this blind, and if you are someone completely unexposed to the series, I think you should too.

It's a hell of a ride.