Moose plays Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Here we go.

I didn't know what the "I like MGS!" options meant so I looked it up, and it changes some minor stuff. I picked "I'm playing MGS for the first time". Also picked easy again. Probably could do normal without much trouble but I'm only in this for the story anyway. Speaking of which...

The game starts in a plane in 1964. The main character looks like Solid Snake and has Solid Snake's voice, but he's called Jack. The guy in charge sounds like Bill Nighy, and he explains the purpose of the Virtuous Mission. A Russian scientist named Sokolov recently defected to the US, however not long after that the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. In exchange for removing their missiles from Cuba, the Russians demanded the return of Sokolov, so he must be pretty important. Before he defected he was working on a top secret weapon, and he was forced to continue working on it when Russia got him back. I'm betting the weapon is a Metal Gear.

There's supposed to be a field test of the weapon soon, so Sokolov has been moved from the research facility to the Virgin Mountains. The objective of the Virtuous Mission is to get Sokolov back. So Jack parachutes into the mountains.

Holy shit we have normal 3rd person camera controls. This is scary, I don't like change. I'll put the camera settings on normal for now, which switches it back to the classic fixed perspective, although you can still move the camera a bit. Maybe I'll change it back later. There are a number of other differences too. As well as a health bar, there's a stamina bar, which depletes as I do stuff and affects performance if it gets too low. So I need to hunt for food and eat said food to keep my stamina up. Equipment also deteriorates too. The Major said that the silencer on my tranquiliser gun will wear out if I use it too much.

Time to meet the crew. Major Tom is the guy in charge. That's not his real name, it's a code name. Jack's code name for the mission is Naked Snake. The save-girl this time around is Para-Medic. As well as saving the mission data she'll also give me medical advice. Finally there's The Boss, legendary soldier and Snake's mentor. Snake is all bent out of shape because The Boss "abandoned" him 5 years ago and he wanted her to teach him more things. But she said she taught him all she could, and he had to learn to rest on his own. You can't be taught how to think like a soldier, although she had a bloody good go. She went on for quite a while about it. A soldier is a political tool. A soldier doesn't trust anything or believe it anything except the mission. Etc. She's there to give me combat advice.

On that topic, this game uses the rear touchpad for stabbing with the knife, which is incredibly annoying as it means I have to hold the Vita different when it's equipped to avoid attacking when I don't want to.

Anyway, first thing I had to do was climb a tree to get my backpack back, because it came off during the landing. Now the Virtuous Mission can properly begin.

Fiddled around with the options to see what else is new. Rather than having everything available in the equipment menus, I can only have 8 weapons and 8 items in those menus at once. Everything else gets put in the backpack, and I can switch stuff in and out when I want through the Survival menu. Don't know if the backpack has infinite storage, but either way it seems redundant for weapons and items. Just let me carry everything in the equipment menus rather than making me move it over from the backpack first. The backpack also carries food.

I also have a range of camouflage, including different uniforms and facepaints suited to different environments. That little % number in the top right corner makes sense now. It's how camouflaged I am. This all seems quite complicated compared to MGS2, but I'm sure I'll manage.

they added a weight system. everything in your backpack doesn't add to your total carry weight and your total carry weight is a factor on how fast your stamina drains

I can't manage. Got spotted all over the place in the very first area with human enemies. Had to kill pretty much everyone. On the plus side the Caution music is cool.

Did better in the second area, crossing the suspension bridge. Actually had to make use of CQC. In MGS2 I just ran past everyone or shot them in the head, moreso the latter once I had the silencer. But with the silencer having a breaking point and the enemies noticing you a lot easier, and no radar, I'm actually having to be somewhat stealthy. Which is kind of cool but then on the other hand stealth is not really my thing. I know from the times I got spotted that Snake takes almost no damage at all on Easy mode so I could blitz through and knife everyone without any trouble, but that would be dumb. So I'll stick to trying to be stealthy.

Called Para-Medic to save. She talked about Godzilla. This is different. Sounds like all the save conversations are going to be about movies in this game. Should be fun. Especially if Naked Snake continues to make dick jokes. "Godzilla is a monster that grows to an enormous size in a nuclear test", "Maybe that's why my pants have been so tight lately".

If you don't want to be spotted literally all the time then use the 3rd person camera.

Also learn to master CQC as quickly as possible and then CQC literally everyone.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

I didn't know what the "I like MGS!" options meant so I looked it up, and it changes some minor stuff.

You didn't get this question at the beginning of MGS2?

Not that I remember.

Speaking of, There's one of those options that changes the intro in the most awesome way. Namely, "I like MGS2!".

What changes is the fact that Jack where's a mask that makes him look like Jack from MGS2 (Raiden). And once you touchdown after the halo jump, You get a nice additional cutscene where Snake "sheds his skin" and does the Solid Snake head shake from the tanker landing, Complete with leaves flowing about the place. It's an awesome twist on the intro, Plus you get to wear the mask from that point on.

The one bad thing is that it only does this once for the entire save. To see it again, You'd have to start a new file under "I like MGS2!".

I ran out of steam with this. But I'll switch to 3rd person camera controls and have another go.

I hope you read my 999 playthrough before you play zero escape.

Here we go again.

Reached the compound where Sokolov was being held. This was where I stalled. But the 3rd person controls do make things much better. I've been slitting throats rather than choking people. I can have the tranq gun equipped and still use the knife for throat cutting which is great, because the gun doesn't have any rear touchpad controls so I don't have to worry about unwanted attacks. Although I've been generally keeping everything unequipped until I need to use it.

Is it worth me explaining the controls a bit better? Well I'm doing it anyway. I'll just explain the Vita specific stuff, which would be all the touch controls. While hanging or pressed against a wall you can swipe the screen left or right to move, which might sound awkward but it actually works very well. Only a very small gesture is required and the directions are absolute. Left is left and right is right no matter what the camera is doing. You can still use the stick if you want though. The equipment menus are exclusively touch controlled. You touch the little box and the menu appears and slide over to what you want. When you take your finger off the screen the menu closes.

I've already mentioned the knife but I'll go over exactly how it works. When the knife is equipped you can still press square for a little slashy combo, but to stab you have to touch the rear pad. The game says to swipe it, but Snake still stabs if you just tap it, which is the annoying bit. When you grab an enemy, you hold a finger on the rear pad to hold the knife to their throat, and swipe to cut their throat. Which thankfull works like it's supposed to.

Back to looking for Sokolov. I just now realised that I do have some radar equipment, but it runs on a battery that drains when I use it. The motion detector seems fairly useless at the moment anyway since it picks up animals too, which confuses things. The AP sensor seems decent, but it's easier to just to listen for footsteps.

Holding a knife to an enemy's throat can get them to talk. There were 4 Russian soldiers in the area and the last one informed that I could crawl under the floor. Which I already knew but it was nice of him to tell me. Then I killed him. Major Tom told me at the start of this area that Sokolov was being held in the north east of the compound, and reaching that point I found myself face to face with a door. At which point I panicked and called the Major for advice, and he carefully explained the intricacies of opening a door. You see, this is no ordinary door. It's a swinging door, which is very different from the type of doors Snake got used to during training.

To open a swingin door I just have to walk into. That will open the door slowly and quietly. If I run into it I'll burst through, alerting everyone nearby. I can also stand in frot of the door and swipe the rear touchpad to open it slightly and peek inside. Useful information from the Major. I think I'll use the radio/codec a lot more in this game than I did in MGS2.

Here I was ready to use my new door opening abilities on that fancy swinging door, when all of a sudden a cutscene opened it for me. Sokolov was inside burning all his documents. He started to talk up the person that I assume will be the main villain, someone named Volgin in charge of something called the GRU. It's a division of the Russian army I think. He's planning to seize power from Kruschev, and also to seize Sokolov and the secret weapon he's been building. The soldiers I've been killing so far were there to stop Volgin from getting Sokolov. But he is on the way to get him right now, so Snake has to get Sokolov out of there fast. Major Tom mentioned that they had lost contact with The Boss, which is always a bit ominous.

As Snake and Sokolov were heading out they got surrounded by more soldiers, but then there was a huge surprise. Ocelot turned up. Major Ocelot to be exact, commander of the Ocelot Unit. He shot all the soldiers in typical Ocelot fashion, although he's using some tiny pistol at the moment rather than a revolver. He thought Snake was The Boss at first, but once he realised he was mistaken he called out his GRU troop.

Snake turned into a super badass and knocked Ocelot down and took out the whole lot of GRU soldiers and then schooled Ocelot on shooting technique. Literally. As in explained what he did wrong and how he could improve, including suggesting he use a revolver. Then he knocked him out. Sokolov ran off during all this so now I have to go find him.

After the cutscene I was still in the compound with the unconscious Ocelot and his dead/knocked out men. I tried stabbing Ocelot to see if anything cool happened when you killed him, but he just wouldn't die no matter how times I stabbed him in the head. I consider that lazy for an MGS game.

Backtracked a bit to find Sokolov and caught a glimpse of that secret weapon of his on the mountains in the distance, so presumably the field test went fine. It's a prototype Metal Gear, but it's not complete. Only Phase 1 is complete, but the weapon won't be finished until Phase 2 is complete.

Shit just got real.

Walking back across the bridge with Sokolov, The Boss appeared. Then a swarm of hornets appeared and surrounded Snake and Sokolov. Then someone appeared upside down in the air behind Sokoloc, grabbed him, and took him up to the helicopter that was now above the bridge. In the helicopter was also the man controlling the hornets, and some old guy who can makes his eyes bulge out. Then it started raining and Boss said it was raining blood, and asked if "he" was crying. Then there was some kind of ghost wandering around her, but it vanished. Then Volgin showed up complete with fuckin lightning powers and electrode knuckle-dusters or whatever the fuck those were.

I think it's safe to say this is the band of requisite freaky villains, apparently known as the Cobras.

Boss informed Snake that she was defecting to Soviet Russia, and that Sokolov was a gift to her new comrades. Volgin asked if Snake was coming with them, but Boss said no. Snake is still a child. He hasn't "found an emotion to carry into battle". Volgin was going to kill Snake but Boss said to let her handle it, because Snake was her disciple. She dismantled his gun without even taking it off him and broke his arm before he knew what has happening, and then threw him off the bridge. Snake grabbed her bandanna as he was falling and took it with him. I just realised he hasn't been wearing one.

The Boss is bloody great. There's something really distinctive about her facial animation and expressions that grabs my attention whenever she's on the screen. She's also a living legend, "the mother" of America's special forces, and the key to America's victory in WW2. No idea why she's defecting.

Snake survived the fall into the river. Boss must have let him live on purpose. After washing up on the river bank the Major called and Para-Medic talked me through repairing wounds. It's not as simpe as just eating a ration this time, oh on. There's a special Cure option in the Survival menu. You need to highlight each injury and apply the right treatments. For cuts you need styptic to stop the bleeding, disinfectant to stop infections, sutures to seal the wound, and then you need to bandage it. Broken bones just need a splint and bandages. These are all surgical treatments. There's also medical treatments but I haven't got anything wrong with me that requires those yet.

As Volgin's helicopter fleet flew overhead with the captured Shagohod (the name of the weapon), Boss seemed to know Snake was down there. I guess she could have simply seen him but I got the impression there was a bit more to it than that. Snake and Boss's connection is maybe not as straightforward as it initially appeared.

Meanwhile something incredibly ludicrous happened. I mean incredibly ludicrous. As well as giving them Sokolov, The Boss also brought another gift for Volgin. When he picked it up on the bridge he mentioned it was a "recoiless nuclear warhead". Wasn't sure what that meant at the time, but know I now. He opened the box to reveal a big red nuclear bomb, like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, which he then attached to a relatively large, but notably hand-held launching device, and he nuked the research facility from the helicopter.

And that's the end of the Virtuous Mission, and the intro the game. Much like the tanker mission in MGS2.

you actually can kill ocelot and it results in a game over with the colonel from the other two yelling you caused a time paradox. at least in the orinal you can. never tried in the hd collection, but i don't know why they'd take it out

Don't you have an actual gun at that point? I swear I killed him and it said time paradox. Is the knife in MGS 3 a knife or a stun knife maybe i'm getting confused with peacewalker. Maybe thats why it didn't work.

Also it is in the HD collection:

You actually get a trophy called "Problem Solved, Series Over" for killing Ocelot.

I imagine you had difficulty killing him Moose because you are playing on Easy.

Come to think of it I did have a shotgun. Oh well.

The Snake Eater song is great.

So now we enter Operation Snake Eater. It's only one week later, but Snake seems to have recovered from his injuries. After the nuclear explosion at the test facility, and the detection of the Major's plane over Russian airspace, Russia naturally assumes that the US are responsible. President Johnson told President Kruschev that it was all The Boss's doing , but Kruschev is under extreme pressure. He's losing control and the military are insistent on retaliation. If things aren't resolved quickly, he'll be overthrown and World War III will break out. So he offers President Johnson an alternative. Prove that the US is innocent by taking down The Boss themselves, and also killing Volgin while they're at it.

Of course, Snake is the only one who can pull this off, so he's sent right back into Russia. The team for Operation Snake Eater is Snake, Major Zero (Major Tom, but he changed his code name), Para-Medic, and Mr. Sigint, who's an expert on weapons technology. I also have to meet up with a KGB contact called Adam. Adam and Eva defected to Russia a few years ago but are still working with the US. We're in the same place as before and Adam is waiting in the same building that Sokolov was being kept in a week earlier. The password to make sure it's really Adam is "Who are the Patriots?" and "la li lu le lo".

Wandering through the jungle I heard a horse up ahead, which was strange. Then the Boss ambushed Snake and kicked his arse once again, telling him to go home. It started raining and that ghost was there again. He wasn't in the cutscene but in some of the scenes you can press R to see the scenes through Snake's eyes, and he could see the ghost. Snake is still struggling with accepting the Boss as an enemy. Until he accepts that, until he forgets everything but the mission, he'll never be able to beat her. Major Zero and the Boss both said so. She also took Snake's gun and blew up the drone he landed in, so more enemies are on the way.

There's 3 different paths leading off from the spot I'm in, including the one came in by. I decided to head away from where the soldiers came from first. Ended up back where I landed at the start of the Virtuous Mission. A stupid goat kicked me so I stabbed and ate him. Take that goat.

Well, you sure showed that goat what's what.

He started it.

I'M STIIIIIILL IN A DREEEEAAAAAM
GOAT EEEAAATEEER!!!!!!

GOAT BATTLE!!~~

Got back to the place where Sokolov was being held, but Adam wasn't there. Instead, Eva turned up. Snake was ambushed by soldiers yet again. That's twice in this exact same location. It's an unlucky place. But Eva shot them all. This is Eva by the way:

Spoiler:

That's another of those moments where you can press R to see what Snake is looking at during a cutscene. He's such a gentlemen. Although to be honest Eva didn't have unzip her overalls down to her waist.

Eva looks a bit like a woman that was on the helicopter with Vulgin when he blew up the research center. It was said at the time she was Sokolov's girlfriend, but maybe that was her cover? Eva did assume that Snake was there to rescue Sokolov. Perhaps Vulgin is now using her to get to Snake. Or perhaps they're different characters that just look a bit similar. Either way she's probably up to something.

Eva gave Snake a new gun and he all but jizzed all over himself in excitement. After taking a nap (he was nearly killed just a week ago, he's still not in top shape) he woke to a view of Eva's ass as she was getting dressed. She had offered to keep watch while he slept, but I don't know why she would need to take her clothes off for that. Then the Ocelot Unit showed up again.