Yay, it’s done.

Well it’s had it’s ups and downs - but overall it was an absolute top class game. Warning mild spoilers follow

It did start to grind a little at the end. The Sorrow was spooky and different but frustratingly obscure to defeat. The Volgin / Shagohod fight was a proving to be a bitch, then it just clicked and I did it with barely a scratch. I also found the fight against ‘The Boss’ fight a bit disappointing - the setting and overall cinematic were gorgeous, but the actual fight was a bit ‘flat’. Unusual for a MGS game - I actually followed the plot, for once Kojima didn’t go too bonkers with triple bluffs and twisting conspiracies within conspiracies, it actually made sense!

I won’t go into a lot of detail on opinions, it’s a 3.5 year old game after all, so it’s all been said before. But I will say one thing, after all my initial impressions and bile - I was wrong. This is a text book example of when persevering with a game can be worth it. I also urge anyone thinking about playing this game, to pick up the Subsistence version - if only for the improved camera, I can’t imagine how painful & frustrating it would be with the original top-down camera

Here’s looking forward to number 4. But I’m going to take a break and play a few things in-between before starting that. I think a double dose of Snake might be overkill.

No this isn’t some new extra sepcial limited edition version of MGS 3, just my final attempt to play & get into this game.

I’ve attempted to play this game twice before (once with the normal version, and once with the Subsistence special edition) and both times hated it; absolutely despised it. And was rather ranty and vocal about it on my blog. So for some totally mental reason I decided to try a final time - this time playing on Very Easy and determined to make some progress. Well finally it’s clicked, I’ve got past the really annoying ruined factory section at the beginning and started to get drawn into the game. It was obvious that Very Easy mode did what it said on the tin and was very, very easy - far too easy. So I started again (yeah the into was getting pretty dull by this point) but on Normal difficulty.

All my initial reservations are still there, the controls are really archaic, the gameplay is at times clumsy and the initial starting mission has a vertical difficulty curve for what should be a gentle intro to the game.

But I’m loving the mad as a hatstand plot, the attention to detail and minutia such as all the animals you can hunt, kill & eat or using a cigar to remove leeches. It’s certainly a game that brings out the OCD in the player. But it’s not without humour (despite what I said before) If I’m totally honest I kinda want to get this out of the way so I can play Metal Gear Solid 4 but for now it’s got me hooked. Goes to show - don’t judge a game by it’s terrible first section and hour of play.

I used to enjoy the Metal Gear series, I’ve played through both MGS 1 & 2, and although they have their ups and downs - they were OK. I got MGS3 very late, as a cheapy last year - and hated every second of it. Despite this I figured I wasn’t giving the game a fair chance, and from reading the masses love the game gets over on RLLMUK I decided to buy the game again - this time getting the Subsistence edition for it’s improved camera.

It’s shit. It’s one of the most joyless, tedious, self-important, so called ‘games’ I’ve ever endured. Creeping around at a snails pace, endlessly replaying the same section over & over so you can memorise the guard positions and movements. Any mistake is punished either with death, or by being forced to hide like a coward for 6 or 7 minutes all the time praying the guards won’t find you. You are denied any chance to explore or experiment as the whole thing damn near impenetrable. It’s as if the developers have done everything they can to make you hate the game - and they succeed.

This isn’t fun, it’s punishment. There is more of a “game” in Microsoft Excel. What makes it worse is it’s a game I’ve stupidly bought twice.