Metal Gear. Two words together that give me chills and remind me of one of my favorite game series of all time. The first I played was, technically, a trial version of Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. I enjoyed this immensely, and, when I obtained my Vita, purchased Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater almost immediately. I am reviewing this game before Snake Eater, because it came before Snake Eater.
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| From left to right, Solid Snake, Raiden, Vamp, and Rosemary. Note that, while the others are protaganists, Vamp is one of the antagonists. Also note that this is official art, not game renders. |
Disclaimer - Again, the original game is twelve years old, having been released in 2001, with an updated release a year later. The version I played was the HD version, released in 2012.
The story is great, even if I have heard it described as very, very strange. I would uphold this description. It is often confusing and hard to follow, and the long cinematics may bother some people. There are two parts to the story line - The Tanker, and the Big Shell. The Tanker level takes place two years before the Big Shell Level, and sets up the story. This level you play as Solid Snake, the main protagonist of the franchise. The majority of the game is the Big Shell level, where you play as Raiden, a newly introduced character who is very different from Snake. Their fates intertwine, and there is some really mind bending stuff towards the end.
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| Raiden |
Of course the graphics aren't as great as that is. The actual game is more like this, throughout the game. The man behind Raiden is Solid Snake. The HD makes it a little better than it used to be, but I personally don't mind lower quality graphics. These are plenty good enough for me.
Features - 7
There are some really cool features in Sons of Liberty. I particularly like hiding in boxes, although there are few practical applications for this. You can also do pull-ups to increase your grip strength, something I didn't even realize until after I played the game. There are some other nice stealth tactics as well. Throwing an empty magazine to distract the enemy, or even just knocking on the wall to divert them can be immensely satisfying. There is not a very clear tutorial, and you have to figure everything out on your own.
Gameplay - 8
Actually playing the game is very enjoyable. You have many choices for dealing with enemies, you can put them to sleep, or knock them out and hide them in lockers. You can also kill them, but that's usually not as fun. The sneaking around can be very satisfying, especially with the different techniques and abilities you can use.
Sons of Liberty a decently long game that took me longer to beat than it should have. I'd place play time at about eight to twenty hours, depending on difficulty and skill. There are also the VR missions and Alternative missions which would probably take someone really good about two hours. Some of the sniping parts could be really hard, and of course I wanted to use the pistol, not the sniper rifle.(Pro-tip - It's actually more accurate, if you have no Pentazemin.) And some of the bosses were really difficult and annoying.
Difficulty - 7
I'm switching approachability to this. If there is more than one difficulty I will judge this based on the "normal" one. This will also cover tutorials and initial difficulty, and of course, the difficulty curve.
The normal difficulty is pretty hard, and there is a very minimalistic tutorial. There is a very limited amount of healing supplies, and knowing whether to die and go back to the start of the area, or to use the precious healing items and keep going can be a difficult decision. You never gain more health or such, but do get stronger, or rather more useful and destructive, weapons. The bosses are also pretty difficult, and have some interesting abilities. (Spoiler Ahead. Skip to next part to avoid.) Metal Gear RAY was very hard, Simply because I had to defeat like five. And they hurt. Olga shines a light at you to keep you from being able to shoot effectively. Fatman leaves bombs around the area that you have to diffuse or lose. Fortune just can't be killed, and you simply have to spend a couple minutes not dying.
Soundtrack -6
I really like some of the music in the soundtrack, but a lot of it isn't that great. My favorites are the main theme, "There can be only one Big Boss", "Who am I really?" and "RAY Escapes." These are done especially well, and are excellent as video game music.
Voice Acting- 10
Another new rating, but it should be fairly obvious.
The voice acting in this game is truly great. David Hayter, who voice acts for Solid Snake, does so incredibly well in all the games. Except for the upcoming five. Which is a point of much debate, but I digress. Raiden too, is well voiced, and is excellent at sounding distressed, and confused, but also steady and determined. In fact, the only voices I didn't like were those of the generic Russian soldiers, which were a little cliche.
Rating - M
This game is rated M, and deservedly so. Not only can you kill people in some pretty inventive ways, there are a number of "suggestive" lines, as well as the simulated taking of the made up drug "Pentazemin" to steady your hands, pretty much necessary while sniping. However, there are some seriously interesting plots and subplots through the game, and I recommend it despite this.
Overall - 9
I truly love this game, and recommend to all that can purchase and play it. If you are in it only for the story, the beginner difficulty is ridiculously easy (Which I see as a reasonable reason to play the game). And when it comes together, the ending is quite good. This is probably the most controversial of the Metal Gear games, but what made some hate it made me love it.
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