One thing exclusive to the 3DS port of MGS3 is that after Snake loses his eye, the 3D functionality no longer works. That's just cool.

If you didn't know this already, the ecosystem of animals can play into the stealth mechanic as well. I would often capture spiders or snakes to throw at enemies to get them poisoned or distract them. Food as well as there are mushrooms which food poison or knock enemies out. If you try to run through the game in a pure stealth fashion without using guns, food and animals play a much larger role in approaching stealth. I much prefer to play this way. When interrogating enemies you can learn a radio number to call off an alert. You can also destroy food and ammo storage supply sheds to weaken enemies stamina and lower their ammo count in certain areas. And there is a crocodile hat that when positioned correctly will scare off enemies. Also gives a series of funny codec dialogue for every member on your team.

Those floating podiums are called WASP and they were developed in the 1960's. They didn't find a practical use for it so it got discontinued. But it was definitely something that could exist at the time.

The End COULD be a leisurely boss fight that requires the player to utilize stealth and methodical strategy to overcome. Or, if you're like me, you could just run around the forest with a shotgun like Elmer Fudd, shooting an old man to shit.

The fact that this game was made on the PS2 and looks almost as good as any game from the first half of the PS3's cycle is a true testament to KCE.

If you didn't already know, the hovercraft guards are actually based on a real working hovercraft that was first successfully flown in 1955, know as the Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee. Ironically, rather than being jet powered like the ones in MGS3, they were functionally a little more like the Ciphers from MGS2.

I REALLY have to disagree with you about the placement of The Boss's speech on loyalty and comraderie. She may not be aware Jack would end up having to kill her (though I'm not so sure even about that), but she most definitely knew that she was about to betray her country in general and him in particular. It seems to me she's deliberately trying to prepare him emotionally and distance herself by highlighting their relationship as soldier and instructor, rather than son and mother as Jack sees it.

"If I was him, I'd be more angry that my entire life made no sense"

This is astonishing. You talked coherently and intelligently for 40 minutes on one game. You found 40 minutes of stuff to talk about without losing me for one second. Your ability as a writer is some of the greatest I have ever seen.

I really enjoyed this video, but I'm very surprised that you didn't point out the extremely clever and subtle way that The Boss's missing child is proven to be Ocelot. Throughout the game, The Boss's main character trait is the fact that she is a mother or motherly figure. Snake and Ocelot (and later Solid Snake and Liquid who continue their battle) are often referred to as "Sons Of The Boss" and they feud as if they were brothers all throughout the game. They are rivals that respect and want to best each other, not enemies that hate and want to kill one another (the final plane scene where the bullet is shown to be a blank proves this). That theme really fleshes out their relationship and the fact that they share the same motherly figure (whether it be biologically or emotionally) adds a whole new layer to their characters. The Boss is constantly correcting and scolding Ocelot and it becomes more and more clear that she is treating him like a son. The only time the connection could ever be considered obvious is a single sentence during an early radio conversation between Snake and Eva where she describes that a lot of Ocelot's past is unknown and that his mother supposedly had a scar in the shape of a snake and that she was a legendary soldier (the snake scar wouldn't be mentioned until over 10hrs. later during The Boss fight). The more you know.

It's weird how you bother to point out that The Pain doesn't fit the boss naming scheme, because pain is a sensation rather than an emotion, but neglect to mention that 'End' doesn't fit either. At least there are types of pain which are emotional, but extreme old age isn't an emotion at all, dagnabbit! Otherwise, excellent analysis. :-)

I think you were a bit harsh on the Snake Eater theme. The melody is bombastic, yet somber, and the lyrics are sung from the point of view of The Boss, the line "I'd give my life, not for honor, but for you" basically foreshadows the reveal at the end of the game. The theme wasn't used to celebrate the violence in the last boss fight, but to accentuate the connection between Naked Snake and The Boss.

The Cobra Unit: YOUR MOM A SPOOKY GHOST SOME FUCKING WEIRDO JONTRON AN ANGRY ASTRONAUT BEEEEESSS

“If I were him, I’d be more angry at the fact that my entire life made no sense.” Best line in the review

Comparing Mathew's MGS series to Bunnyhop's Critical Close-up is fair I think. Bunnyhop's is optimistic and focuses on experience while Mathew's is technical and precise. I'd love to see these two join up to talk about Phantom Pain & Ground Zeroes in a 10 hour long video, detailing literally everything.

Probably one the greatest games I've ever played. Certainly one of my favorites.

The cure menu would have made a lot more sense if the game were not paused while executing it. This would have forced the player to hide from enemies before using it, which is what you want to reinforce in a stealth game anyway, and would have made it much more difficult to use during the boss battles.

'''If I was him I'd be more angry about the fact that my life made no sense.'' I'm dying XD

But Matthew, Kojima DOES speak English. He avoids speaking it in public but he understands it and writes it very well. I read somewhere that he's shy about how his English sounds with a Japanese accent, I don't know if that's true. How can you dislike the musical conclusion to MGS3? It's the best moment. It brings everything together.

I think playing the Snake Eater theme over the boss fight at the end is one of the better implementations of music in a boss fight or game I've played. The first few silent minutes craft, as you noted, a very somber fight that indicates she isn't some ultimate evil like most bosses, but a true friend, which makes her death more meaningful. The slow move into the music creates a growing tension, and with the emotion that fills the Snake Eater theme, players are more likely to become filled with such emotion. However, most importantly, the Snake Eater theme finally finds relevance only during/after this battle. Beforehand, the song is simply a cheesy Bond-like tune, that sort of fits the theme, but, as you explained, is otherwise not too fitting or enjoyable. Players are trained to ignore the theme, as it plays every time they boot the game up, so its relevance is mostly forgotten until this fight. With the silence at the beginning, the focus is drawn onto the music as soon as it begins, and players this time pay attention to the song rather than ignoring it, just like Kojima has them do during the ladder sequence. Since the lyrics of Snake Eater are all about The Boss and her relationship with Snake, it's truly an impressive "wow" moment, where players are surprised that the song's true meaning had subverted their attention for so long (similar to Colonel at the end of MGS2). Its inclusion, in my eyes, is very relevant and not at all a mistake or blunder on the developers part.

Did you know those hover bikes were a real thing in the Cold War?

The cure menu should have been one of those gameplay menus that doesnt stop time; so you are forced to try to heal yourself during battle. It would have been really intense

In the area where you can blow up the helicopter, there are several other choices as well. The food storage can be blown up to lower the guards stamina and causes them to vomit in the mountains. The weapons depot can also be blown up to severely limit the guards' ammo supplies.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention The Fear's different tactics when he gets to low stamina. Doing a non lethal run makes him much more interesting/annoying. The Fear begins shooting the animals and fruit from the trees, then quickly running to try and eat them, re-filling his stamina. This can get pretty irritating, but it forces the player to chase The Fear; hence giving the traps purpose. Also, The Fury can be seen in the end cutscene of the Virtuous mission, he's in the back of the helicopter with The rest of the cobra unit. He says nothing and is basically background decoration. I still don't get the point of The Fury; if he has one, but he was shown before his fight.

THAT's a review. How come i been watching IGN without knowing channels like this? This review matches the games quality and respect to the true gamers, or any art and enterteinment admirer. Thank you and keep up the good work.

I have to strongly disagree about the use of the Snake Eater theme during the ending boss fight. While it can seem a bit cheesy, it's incredibly appropriate to play when things get down to the wire in the fight with The Boss. The lyrics are actually her singing to Snake.

Holy shit, after seeing this review i just stoped to think about something, what if you'd review a game thats bad? i mean, like big rigs or something, if you're THAT harsh with MGS, i wonder how you'd be with a shitty game....lol

flying guards are just using models of the Williams X jet, amazingstuff.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Williams_X-Jet_Wasp.jpg that was made in the 70s but since the game say that russians had more tecnology than american they alread had it on the 60s

Fun fact in Metal Gear Solid 3D for the 3DS in the early parts of the game you can switch to first person mode and things will be in 3D as per usual however after Snake loses his eye switching to first person mode the 3D will be turned off.

The first time I played the game, I did it sans Thermals. Not sure why, it wasn't a conscious decision. It made it fucking fun. Especially The End, even made The Fear interesting.

Some more boss battle tips and tricks: The Fear: Use fake death pill and revive once he's finished checking you and turns his back to you. Sneak up and crouch right behind him and equip the torch, his body will go up in flames and his health will almost completely run out without him even reacting. The Boss: WP grenades are the most effective against her, CQC her to the ground and drop one next to her. After a few seconds you can throw in another one and it will continue to do damage. You can use max 3 grenades against her in each window of attack.

I mean, you were using the thermal goggles for The Fear. The thermal goggles are absolutely broken in MGS3.

What? How can people think the graveyard-scene was any good or emotional in any way? You don't even have to press x to respect the boss! Ok seriousy, I love this game! And at the end at least one tear escapes my eyes everytime :'( And to the point that "we" as the player have to pull the trigger: That is not correct, I watched my friend playing the game for his first time and at the end he just watched the Boss suffering on the ground, while he ate fries...(I still can' believe that he did it). And after a while Snake kills her without his input.

This game maybe the most epic of the series

"Giving players more challenges to overcome is better than asking them to do the same thing ones again" Im pretty sure the phantom pain and you are not going to get along.

I've watched each of your metal gear solid reviews like 3 times now. I wish you uploaded for frequently but I can understand since you probably have a life outside of these things and they obviously require a lot of editing and such. Keep up the great work.

You going to do The Phantom Pain?

You complain about little hover crafts that were actually being worked on during that time, but you don't complain about a giant robot that's capable of launching nukes and is almost beyond today's technology....... SEEMS LEGIT TO ME.

Your reviews are fantastic! Thanks for doing these MGS reviews I love them.

What do you mean? The guards in the hovercrafts are there because there is a fucking river beneath them, it would be counterproductive to subject guards roaming around a river which hinders movement.

a cool easter egg at 18:02 is in the background you can see the main orbital frame jehuty from the zone of the enders games

I think the whole thematic spilling of beans with The Boss right as the virtuous mission begins is to establish her as a mentor character not only to Snake in the past but to the player in the present, so you know she's _important_ when she shows up in the bridge

This series of reviews is incredibly well crafted and presented. You're a master, i hope you're making money using this talent!

A great review. So much depth and well explained opinions. No media outlet would be capable of such a review. Well done !

36:27 For this comparison, thank you for not being lazy and saying "Solid Snake is emotionless. Naked Snake is full of feeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllssssssssss" like that other guy who is making long videos deconstructing these games (I think his name is SuperBunneyHop.) It really ticks me off how so many people misunderstand Solid Snake, and act like Naked Snake is the most complex, emotional character ever (sadly, even Kojima is forgetting important parts about Solid Snake's character. In a recent interview, he said "You have to keep in mind that Solid Snake isn't a real human. Big Boss is a real human with true emotions.") I love Big Boss (especially in Peace Walker), but I love Solid Snake too.

"Pain is a sensation not a emotion". You are half correct/wrong, Pain maybe a sensation but what about the Pain of Loss? That is an emotion Technically? Besides the Codename's actually refer to the Emotion they carry into battle not to mention they are 'a metaphor for the arbitrariness of enemy lines in war'. Also his codename stands for the unbearable torment he felt while on the battlefield.

The reason "metal gear" is meant to connect infantry and artillery is done in the sense of a gear connecting pieces of machinery. It seems pretty forced in English especially since the metaphor isn't even carried out in the rest of his speech, and I have no idea if the metaphor was even there in the original Japanese.

Right before the fight against the Boss she says, "Let's make this the best 10 minutes of our lives, Jack." Which (to me anyway) gave off the impression that they were having a fun battle before her inevitable death. So I feel when they start playing the music at the end it can be fitting if you look at it from the right mindset.

The best MGS, period.

I actually think the exposition from The Boss in the beginning about temporality of allies is genius on a second playthrough. You say that it feels conveniently placed because it is. It is her prepping you for the inevitable betrayal that happens thirty minutes later. She cares for you but has a mission she must follow through on.

Brilliant review, i've been replaying through the series as you've been releasing them and I couldn't enjoy them more. Keep up the ~solid~ work man.

Quality review as always. Keep up the good work!

2004? That's over 10 years... damn I feel old now xD edit: And the Hoovercraft guards make sense, cause as far as i know similar hoovercrafts were prototypes for the us army during the korean war and got scratched because the invention of helicopters :)

Something not mentioned in this review, MGS3 has the funniest codec conversations of the entire series. Paramedic's exasperated tone at Snake's repeated "can I eat it? " questions on every animal in the game always makes me chuckle.

this is my second go of watching all your videos, You are really really good, you add such an intellectual approach and It is very refreshing to see. You are also not biased at all it is so good to see. I am hoping that next year after you thoroughly play MGS 5 you make another one of these videos.

I was anticipating this review big time and it was spot on as expected. Once again a very in depth analysis, quite well spoken as always. I also love the subtle humor in these as well. Keep it up man!

Playing the Snake Eater theme during the Boss fight was beautiful and fantastic

"And had the option of taking them out nonlethally" He says as he shoots him in the face. This is what makes your review so entertaining.

Once again, I'm impressed. Very impressed. It's so uncommon to find a good reviewer of ANYTHING now that when one stumbles along, it just makes me appreciate them all the more. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Matthew, i truly love your reviews. Don't stop. I not only get nostalgic, I get schooled in my level of observation.

You forgot to mention that The Fury fight becomes harder as the fight goes on because the amount of shadows decreases because of the persisting fire. The boss fight is dynamic just because the longer the fight goes on the brighter the area becomes.

17:50 he calls the missing link a "metal gear" because a gear is a piece that usually connects to other gears in a machine. So the metal gear is acting as a gear between infantry and artillery because it's an amalgamation of both.

Thanks for making the plot breakdown so clear and well explained. I've been trying to get intro the MGS series for along time and MGS3 always looked like the best it had to offer.

I love how re-watchable your videos are to try and catch all of the jokes you make the whole way through.

thanks for your reviews, great opinions, and iformations that i didnt even realize when playing mgs

My favorite entry in the series, easily. It has just enough gameplay refinement without going overboard like MGS4, and the focus on Big Boss's mission allowed the team the freedom to drop the baggage of MGS2's ending.

Best game ever! You got my sub. Nice channel. Your reviews are deep, I like that.

Just wondered yesterday when you were going to upload MGS3 review and here we are! Love this series of critiques on Metal Gear.Well observed and consise.Looking forward to MGS4!

I disagree with the idea that Solid and Naked are more similar than different. There is thematic overlap but characteristically they seem far different. There seems to be much less confidence in Naked and the fact he's relatively green shows. While Solid would casually flirt with every female cast member, the interactions between Eva and Snake one on one are painfully cringe inducing and on repeated playthroughs I have to skip them. His appreciation/obsession for guns also lends a similar factor that Maryl had in MGS1 in the excitement and allure of being a soldier like a rookie, while Solid could give less of a shit and wants to distance himself from the lifestyle. And stacked on top of all the injuries he receives and the betrayal from the Boss, Naked is almost written to be overly sympathized with just as to justify his later actions in the series. Meanwhile any misfortune that happens to Solid only strengthens him as a protagonist and a warrior, that by the time he is portrayed as a God-like badass stacked up against Raiden in MGS2 its not even remotely unbelievable. Basically it feels like the player is intended most to feel bad for Naked and his mission, while the player should revel more in being able to control Solid in his missions.

You could say that MGS3 is the most ideal Metal Gear game, a perfect balance between story, narration, cut scenes, gameplay, dialogue/codecs and likeable characters. But it's still not my favourite in the series, that's reserved for MGS2 and always will be.

I've been waiting for this. Thank you.

once again, a very objective, meticulous review. The way that you deliver the review in terms of vocal performance in particular has vastly improved.

Hey Matthew, I thought that this might interest you. The flowers at the end of MGS3 are called Star of Bethlehem and they are believed to poses a smell that heals sad memories, funny enough you can also found this flower in the Hunters dream in Bloodborne

I feel that the cure menu and the survival system overall adds weight to the damage taken and the situation/mission as a whole. It outright shows you and highlights the impact of serious damage that snake takes, and offers better encouragement for the player to make fewer such mistakes than a generic life bar would. The stamina / food system helps highlight how Snake is really in this for the long haul. So I disagree with the sentiment that these were bad decisions. Do they interrupt the gameplay? yeah. Should the cure menu be more interesting? I say maybe, because if it interrupted gameplay before, just imagine having to do mini QTEs each time you got injured (best case would be to separate healing into quick action and full action, quick action operating as it already is in MGS3; but only granting variable partial reduction of its part in the red bar, full action being with a QTE and granting full heal while leaving you vulnerable).

Amazing! Can't wait for your MGS4 review!

Thanks for the upload,i love your videos

This game still looks great.

I fucking LOVE The End. I have a save state on my emulator set on the beginning of the fight so I could replay it any time I want. I so look forward playing this part on my 3ds. I love this boss so, so much, I really would like to see a game that takes and expands upon this concept.

Matt, when you suddenly use dry humor in your reviews, it is some of the funniest stuff I've heard in a while.

I love the extra tidbits of info Matthewmatosis reveals about the games. I'm a huge fan of the series and I never knew about the thing with The End dying of old age. Kojima is really someone to admire with the random little touches he and his team add to their games.

Since Matthew is a very pedantical reviewer, i have a bad feeling about watching him review my favorite Metal Gear, if not my favorite Game of all time. But since i like his videos, I will do so anyway.

i've watched this review six pr seven times, and i only just noticed you left that arrow in snake's chest for, like, the whole game! cool!

Outstanding reviews.. keep 'em up!

I'm lovin' these MGS reviews because they are very well detailed and you provide us with a lot of smart views and opinions. You have really given each review a lot of though, but you definitely know what you are talking about (I had to subscribe and so I did). I'm a massive MGS fan and I've played through every game that has been released on console within the series and I can't wait for MGS5. Keep up the great work.

"If I was him, i'd be more angry about the fact that my entire life made no sense". Had me in stitches!

Usually your reviews are very thorough and this one isn't much of an exception, but I'm very surprised you didn't mention how bad the puzzle during The Sorrow battle is. It isn't conveyed to the player in any way shape or form, even assuming a player had used the fake death pill, they probably wouldn't know to use the revival pill during the battle. It isn't conveyed to you remotely during the fight and being able to use it on the game over screen isn't something many players would attempt to do. I had to look up the solution after trying for 4 hours on my first playthrough. And players who reach the skeleton and hit continue are rewarded with doing the whole fucking thing over again. What it should have been was reaching the skeleton and hitting continue wakes you up, and using the revival pill skips past the fight in case you're on a playthrough where you've killed many guards for fun. Another thing you missed was how poor the AI is compared to MGS2 and how broken the first person leaning mechanic is. In MGS2 guards could see you if you used the L2/R2 lean to look around a corner in first person, in MGS3 they don't. This makes it ridiculously easy to get headshots by either laying down and leaning up, or being behind an object and leaning left or right. This trick pretty much breaks the whole game apart once you learn it and makes what was already a much easier game than its predecessor seem practically braindead. As for the AI itself, they seem to work together much less aside from the Ocelot unit, they're much worse at checking during evasion and caution phases, they move much slower and much more predictably than the MGS2 guards, and this makes the problem with headshots in MGS3 even worse. I honestly don't find the stealth in MGS3 enjoyable because it's so easily broken, even doing a self-imposed challenge it wouldn't be difficult. The different camera added in Subsistence only serves to make the game easier yet. I have to wonder if this was maybe an intentional decision to put the player in Big Boss's shoes as one of the best soldiers ever, or if the team were just way in over their heads with the new stealth system.

Matt; I'm just rewatching these for the like; dozenth time; and fuck; just wanna say: Absolutely awesome work that you delivered with this series.

Great video, I hope you get the sort of job you're looking for because you do a great job of conveying what works and what doesn't work in games.

Still the best MGS ever! One of my all time top favourite games!

The lift aircrafts were based off of the Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee from the 50's.

Great work as always.

More cool MGS3 tricks and Easter eggs *Blowing up food stores with TNT will result in guards being hungry and they’ll eat rotten food if you throw it to them *Blowing up armouries with TNT will result in guards running out of ammo in Alert phases. *Using the croc mask in water will fool guards into thinking it’s an actual crocodile and not Snake *In the area where you fight The Boss at the end there are 3 Snakes slithering about which you can capture, they’re called Solid, Liquid and Solidus. *Capture snakes alive and equip them to throw at guards to make them run off. If the Snake is poisonous it can kill the guard *If you do kill The End early at the warehouse, the area where his boss battle would have taken place is instead patrolled by the Ocelot unit. *If you save the game and turn off the console whilst Snake is imprisoned in Grozny Grad the next time you load the game there is a hack and slash-mini game you can play called Snake’s Nightmare. *If you use R1 to look in first person during the torture scene The Sorrow will appear holding up the radio frequency you need to escape from the cell *If you use R1 to look into first person view during the final cutscene whilst the president is congratulating Snake you can see Ocelot outside the window giving you his pistol hand gesture *You can shoot Ocelot’s horse during his boss battle early in the game *There is a bug in the game where if you have a Calorie Mate and call Eva during The Sorrow boss battle she will talk about how much she likes them. The reason this is a bug is because when you call your radio team during The Sorrow’s battle, they’re only supposed to respond with “Snake?” and the phases they use whenever Snake dies. *You can shoot the ropes that support the wooden bridge early in the game. This will make the bridge perilous to walk across and enemies and Snake can fall off it *Call Sigint whilst hiding in a cardboard box for a hilarious radio conversation *Call Eva after falling into the cave after the Ocelot fight to hear information and rumours about his early life and rumoured parentage *Drag knocked out enemy bodies into electrified fences to see them get electrocuted (will count as a lethal kill) *Different camo types have different powers. The Sorrow’s spirit camo will make your footsteps silent. The End’s camo will regenerate your health and stamina quicker in sunlight. The Fury’s ammo makes you impervious to fire, etc *If you select “I like MGS2” at the start of the game then Snake will be wearing the Raiden mask during opening cutscene. To tease players into thinking they’ll be playing as Raiden again *You can capture or kill The Ends parrot during his boss fight. If you kill it (or eat it) The End will shout and curse your name. If you capture it and then let it go it will fly back to The End and give away your position

"... I think it's worth saying that these little touches are one of the main reasons the Metal Gear Solid series is special to a lot of people." And one of the main reasons that The Phantom Pain is so incredibly disappointing.

Funny fact: there aren't neither jungles nor alligators in Russia.

I love what you said about the story's of MGS2 and 3 trying to do different things. I love both games immensely. My mind is constantly changing on which of the two is my favourite.

subscribed, best game reviewer ive seen yet, very impressed

"It's in your face, it's exciting, and it's over in a couple of minutes." Wow we got a review of mgs3 and Matthew's sexual performance in one video!

This is my favorite game of all time, but there is one thing that always confuses me. And, that is ocelots actions. He is supposed to be inadvertently helping snake, but every situation with snake he tries to kill him. I can at least buy him wanting to put on a cover in some situations, but why did he put and transmitter in snake, and try to shoot him on the motorcycle? It makes no sense.

I never get tired of this video. It's so good

I'm surprised you didn't talk about Volgin basically telling his entire plan to Snake when he was being interogated