Grade: A
As gamers of my generation who grew up on the Metal Gear series will know, its creator Hideo Kojima is a got-dang genius. The attention to detail and love and inventiveness he gave to 1998’s Metal Gear Solid and its sequels was second to none. There were quirks (smoking was good for you); there was devilment (to beat the Mantis fight you had to use the other controller); and there were silly names (Revolver Ocelot, anyone?).
So it’s with great joy that – amid a rash of rereleases and remasters and reboots aimed squarely at nostalgic middle-aged gamers – we see this, a new-generation redo of the third game in the series. It’s the one in which Snake (he’s ‘Naked Snake’ here, he was ‘Solid Snake’ in the first game; his brother is called ‘Liquid Snake’ and his cousin is for all I know called ‘Trouser Snake’) spends his time wriggling through the Russian jungle (I know: the game is eccentric) evading patrols and using his Bowie-knife to turn rats and anacondas into stamina-enhancing snacks. He’s winning the Cold War, or something, but as the Boss tells him early on, politics comes and goes but the mission is all.
The old top-down view is gone (though a legacy mode lets you play the game as it was originally), the graphics have been booted into the 21st century, and the gameplay is as frustrating and compelling as ever. Here’s a game with good bones. Tweak your camouflage, use the environment inventively, reach the next checkpoint alive. ‘If you run around like an idiot, you’re bound to be spotted,’ Snake is warned early on. Words to live by.
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