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Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence Mini Review
Jon Wilcox
06/10/2006
Snake's Cold War escapades are re-released with a host of new features including online multiplayer modes...
Released in early 2005, Metal Gear Solid 3 took gamers back to the height of the Cold War as the origins of Big Boss were explored first-hand, and the background to The Patriots (La-li-lu-le-lo) was revealed. A year and a half later, and months after it arrived in Japan and North America, the extended "Subsistence" version of Kojima-san's grand opus makes its debut in Europe.
Obviously we're not going to go over old ground here, after all we reviewed Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater at the time of its release; instead TVG is going to take a look at what Subsistence can offer gamers. Is it worth spending more money on the title just for the sake of a couple of bonus features; isn't everybody just waiting for Metal Gear Solid 4 by now?
Very little of Subsistence affects the actual Snake Eater game that was released in Europe in Spring 2005, aside from the addition of a 3rd-person camera that lays the foundation for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The change does make a shift in style, feeling less like a Metal Gear Solid title, much in the same way that Capcom's Resident Evil 4 marked a change for survival/horrors. Far from setting the revolutionary standards you'd expect from Kojima Productions, the camera is reminiscent of countless other third-person titles around and fails to match the dynamism and intensity that you'd hope for - perhaps we'll just have to wait for Guns of the Patriots before Kojima-san reveals his true hand. Lack of creativity aside, it does eradicate the difficulties Snake faced in Snake Eater without a radar, providing a clear view of the environment and any enemies in the near to mid-distance. It's something that we all take for granted in most other third-person titles, but the debut of the camera option is something that may divide fans of the series; love it or loathe it, however, the 3rd person view is the future forward for the series so at the very least, it's appearance in Subsistence can be considered preparatory...
Subsistence is something of a triple-disc bonanza for gamers, even more so when you consider that the actual Snake Eater game only takes up one of the three discs - so what's on the other two DVDs???
First up is the inclusion of online multiplayer gametypes, which besides featuring the usual suspects of Deathmatch and Capture the Flag clones, throws in something very original to online multiplayer: strict third person movement coupled with first person shooting. In other words, you can't run and gun at the same time. It's certainly a dynamic that takes some getting used to, especially when aiming at an enemy in close quarters to your own avatar, but the fact is that it at least attempts something different. From our experiences of playing Metal Gear Online, gameplay does still boil down to fast paced shooting, rather than the slower and methodically paced events of the single-player game - though this is more than likely down to the sorts of players that we found ourselves encountering on certain stormy autumnal nights...
One gametype that does stand out from the others is the Sneaking Mission, which sees a lone gamer play as Snake and attempt to steal a piece of microfilm, whilst the many others attempt to stop him. Much closer to the tension-fuelled gameplay of the single-player compared with the other options, the Sneaking missions inject a certain feeling of haste for those hunting Snake - far more than the likes of the game's Deathmatches, which feel a little underwhelming.
During the online modes, players will also be able to change the Sound Set of the game to earlier versions of the Metal Gear saga, from the earliest 8-bit titles through to Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2. It's a small but welcome detail, especially when the series has some of the most memorable scores and sound effects in recent years.
Additionally, Subsistence features ports of the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which were released on the defunct MSX2 console in Japan back in the depths of the 1980s 8-bit era. Laying the foundations for Metal Gear Solid mythology with Snake's encounters with Big Boss and Outer Heaven, the two titles (especially Solid Snake) display quite an impressive level of complexity considering their place in gaming history. Do they feel old and tired? To be honest, they do feel clunky, but none of that matters considering their age and what they stand for, nearly twenty years after they were originally developed - the birth of the stealth genre. Evidence of the series' heritage are found throughout the games however, including the scrolling inventories, and the dreaded narrative tool so loved by Kojima-san, the Codec Communicator...
Fans of the series will of course go nuts for the inclusion of the two retro Metal Gears, especially at a time when retro gaming is being pushed to the front line by all three hardware manufacturers - though like much of the substance in Subsistence, it's all aimed at the Metal Gear Solid hardcore.
Likewise is the somewhat lengthy (in the Peter Jackson school of feature-length) 'movie' that tells the story of Snake Eater through the game's cut-scenes and recorded gameplay footage. Lasting an epic three and a half hours long, and ironically called Persistence, it's a testament to Hideo Kojima's desires to create a movie, and may well be the closest that we get to a Metal Gear Solid feature film (unless Uwe Boll gets his way). Whilst an intriguing addition to the release, and something that was only added to the limited edition versions of Subsistence in North America, it's very doubtful that you'll be able to watch all of it in one sitting - though thankfully Kojima's studio has added a handy scene selector to it. The title also includes the Metal Gear Solid 4 announcement trailer from Tokyo Game Show 2005, which revealed "Old Snake" for the first title, as well as the new look bio-mechanical looking Metal Gears - it's a little bit out of date for European gamers now, but it's an extra sliver of MGS goodness...
If you're a Metal Gear fan you don't need us to tell you to get Subsistence, but the likelihood is that you've already got it on pre-order. Subsistence brings further substance to the Metal Gear Solid 3 experience thanks to its multiplayer mode, and the MSX versions of both Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, though much of the rest of the bonus features are nothing more than icing on a very rich and more-ish cake.
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