Snubsistence?

Ten months. Ten long, agonising, thumb-twiddling months. That's how long we in the UK have had to wait since Japanese gamers first got their hands on the re-released version of Metal Gear solid 3 - and over six months since those jammy Americans were first able to play the game. As is usual with releases in Hideo Kojima's stealth series, us Brits are late to the party, and have a little bit of a right to feel snubbed. But has it been worth the wait?

No. Yes. Maybe. It all depends on a few defining factors, really: If you've played Snake Eater to exhaustion; if you can afford to pay full whack what is, ostensibly, a re-edited special edition; and most importantly, if you're one of the few PS2 owners to have the option of taking their console online.

If the answers to the above questions are Yes, No and No, then you may want to stop reading now, unless you really love your Metal Gear games. If, on the other hand, your answers are No, Yes and Yes, then welcome - you're all set for one of the best experiences Sony's six year-old console has to offer. However, if you're a bit like us, then you'd have completed Snake Eater's story mode, put it aside, and waited for Subsistence before playing it through again - and you'll also be intrigued about the idea of playing a Metal Gear game online. That means you're in the Maybe column, and it's our job to elaborate on exactly why you should be putting any doubts well and truly behind you.

A new view

Comparing the singleplayer experiences of Snake Eater and Subsistence, there's no doubt as to which comes the more highly recommended. Last year's edition of MGS3 may still be a brilliant game in its own right, but Subsistence's new Splinter Cell style camera makes returning to the overhead viewpoint feel like a backwards step in every regard.

Indeed, a press of the right analogue stick allows you to do just that - switching to the old overhead perspective, and really highlighting its inadequacies. Even in the first jungle area, patrolling enemies will proffer the same old problems when viewed from above. They'll skulk to the side of the screen and leave your view, forcing you to move into first-person, poke your head above the grass and risk being seen, just to track their movements - a limiting and irritating system that feels sort of like playing an analogue game with digital controls.

Not so with Subsistence. In fact, you'd be amazed at just how intuitive the other, free-floating camera feels. With a mere ten minutes of practice you'll be steering Snake between trees, finding cover in long grass, panning the camera to stalk enemies from afar, and lining up your stealth kills with a precision of movement and timing you never thought previously possible in a Metal Gear title. It effectively turns the series' entire gameplay on its head, but has been so well done that the evolution never feels anything other than entirely natural.

Other than that, the core Snake Eater experience remains the same standard setting action adventure as before - areas exude life, bosses imbue dread, and the story is never less than gripping, but the basic stealth gameplay itself feels all the more rewarding for the new perspective. This truly is the complete version of the game that Konami and Kojima always envisaged - and arguably the most well-rounded outing in the series so far, to boot.

Online Geeeaaar!

If you've yet to play any form of MGS3, though, then that may have all gone over your head - in which case, our Snake Eater Review will detail exactly what makes the game so great. There are, however, a few select additions that really set Subsistence apart from its forebear, and it's these we'll focus on here.

Most important, of course, is the online mode. Supporting up to eight players, it marks the first time the Metal Gear series has had a multiplayer component of any sort, and proves a remarkably well-done online debut for what's always been a traditionally solo style of gameplay.

Again, the camera is the star - opening up Metal Gear's previously rigid approach to sneaking to become a fast-paced, instantly playable stealth-actioner that simply wouldn't have worked from a purely top-down perspective. The three main online modes help this too - be it in Sneaking mode, Capture games or Rescue missions, there's plenty to keep third-person stealth buffs and fans of more traditional online shooters occupied.

Sneaking seems to be the most popular mode online, probably because it plays the most like a traditional Metal Gear Solid game. One player takes on the role of Snake and aims to outwit seven other players to reach a goal - which sounds fun enough in theory, but proves immeasurably brilliant the first time you use the old cardboard box trick to sneak past actual living, breathing opponents.

Likewise, Rescue mode, which tasks you with obliterating the enemy party and grabbing their GO-KA (a cute little duck item), and the Capture gametype, which is basically CTF with frogs instead of flags, adapt old MGS items and tricks to the multiplayer environment with intelligence and style. CQC (Close Quarters Combat) lets you grapple and throw your opponents, the impressive armory allows you to play the way you wish, plus wall-hugging, first-person aiming, corner shooting and camouflaging yourself in foliage are all prevelant aspects of the online experience. It really is one of the PS2's best online games, and for the machine's (admittedly small) online gaming fraternity, easily worth the price of admission.

A class act

The other additions for Subsistence are the same as mentioned in our Preview. The old MSX Metal Gears will perhaps be for hardcore MGS fans only, but they're a nonetheless fantastic novelty, and show just how much vision Kojima had for the series even in its early days - while Bonus Theatre, Boss Attack and Snake vs Monkey all add to the longevity; the latter two again benefiting from the new camera. The movie version of the game, meanwhile, is just another nice little Kojima touch. He's even seen fit to include a note on this in the game's manual, getting across that MGS3 is a game, and he wants people to play it as such, but also wants gamers with less free time on their hands to still be able to experience the story in it's entirety. As a director, storyteller and game creator, the guy's an all-around class act.

As is Subsistence - apart, perhaps, for the cost. At full price, it really will depend on those first three variables. If you loved MGS3, can't wait to play it online and can afford the outlay, then it's a no-brainer. Likewise if you've yet to play MGS3 and the price really doesn't bother you, for this really is the best, most complete MGS package we've ever seen. On the other hand, with Snake Eater lining bargain bins across the country, and the majority of PS2 owners preferring purely offline pursuits, much of what makes Subsistence such a quality offering may go amiss. On an artistic and technical level, however, this latest Metal Gear is another fine addition to the series, and when considered apart from its older sibling, is by far one of the best games you'll ever play on PS2. Looks like the wait was worth it, after all.

GAME's Verdict

• One of PS2's best action adventures made even better by a new camera
• Stunningly playable online mode
• Additional games, modes and movie make it a brilliant overall package

• Same old MGS flaws: Exposition-heavy, with a stop/start nature
• The camera is great, but the controls still feel last-gen
• A Special Edition release with the price tag of an original game

Review by: Mark 'Sneaky' Scott
Version Tested: PS2
Review Published: 17.10.06

Essential update or half-baked rehash? Mark scopes in...

You wait.

Concealed by dense underbrush, your battle-bruised body hugs the dirt. Your breathing hangs heavy; pulse pounding as the soft sound of footfalls crunch ominously closer through the dew-soaked jungle.

The wind whistles between the trees. You inch slowly backwards, wary of a gust exposing your position forlorn in the rustic foliage. Lying prone, you're almost invisible to the naked eye - fitting, you reflect, for a man who doesn't officially exist. "If you're caught, we'll deny all knowledge of American involvement", your handler had said.

Alone.

The area around you is itself alive. A reptile slithers along your eye line but you stifle the natural urge to react. Years of training have chiselled an unwavering resolve, and a physique capable of the most forceful brutality - which at this very minute you ready to bear on the unsuspecting soldier that just came into view. His back turned, this is undoubtedly the best time to strike.

You move, with murderous intent.

The distance between you decreases. Standing hunched over, skulking towards your quarry, you quicken your pace as he begins to move away. His speed outdoes yours, and the knowledge that moving freely could give you away hangs heavy on your mind, weighing down your actions.

The moment of truth. With every step he pulls away, closer, maybe, to his comrades - a clear and present danger to your entire sneaking mission. As he moves out of view, the snap decision is made in your mind - you run, stretching your legs and eating up the distance, erasing all time between the soviet's final breaths and certain doom. He finally comes back into view - so close to turning around, you surmise, yet so far from safety.

You strike.

But all does not go as planned. As the screen scrolls upwards you find the fault in your intentions - your prey is not alone; an entire squad of soldiers stand ready for your ill-advised assault. The alarm soundbite chimes and they swarm around you, your own aggression turned inwards as a chase begins for your very survival. Sadly, it's a battle you are destined to lose - hopelessly outnumbered; Naked Snake eventually succumbs to a barrage of unrelenting enemy fire.

You stand up from the sofa and throw the pad down in frustration, knowing you should have checked ahead. An internal struggle presents itself as you mull over those final moments. Recognising your own desperation to eliminate the patrolling threat, you offset it against the time taken to enter first person mode. It wouldn't have worked, either way. And you know it.

Sadly the Snake Eater stealth experience was tempered by such moments. Epic and engaging as it undoubtedly was, the clunky camera of past Metal Gear games simply did not suit its organic jungle setting as it had more industrial backgrounds. As it is, the game remains the modern masterpiece our Review said it was, but Metal Gear Solid 3's few shortcomings left the longing for a new perspective burning all the brighter.

And that's where Subsistence comes in. As Substance was to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the latest Metal Gear release is a revamp of the stunning Snake Eater, with a host of sneaky new special touches.

Highest on the list of additions is that much-wanted new camera system. For the first time, Snake gets a taste of life in Sam Fisher's shoes and gets a Splinter Cell style free-floating camera on the right analogue stick. With the view positioned by default behind the main character, never again will you be caught out by what you can't see waiting just yards in front of you - which can only be a good thing, alleviating the frustration felt by the many wanting Metal Gear to modernise in the face of stiff stealth genre competition.

Other added content helps flesh out the package, and will appeal greatly to hardcore Metal Gear fans and Snake Eater survivors alike. Included in Subsistence are extra levels for Snake Vs Monkey, a series of parody theatre scenes using the game's engine - which even contain some brand new recorded dialogue, included just for the sheer fun of it - and emulated versions of the first Metal Gear games, formerly released only in Japan on the ancient MSX gaming system. Spacer

The first two are clearly intended to serve fans of Snake Eater, who warrant a significant number of extras in order to pay for what is essentially the same game in a souped-up state. The MSX Metal Gear's are intended as more; a bridge between the series' history and its latest outing; an attempt to bookend the narrative as Konami's foremost action franchise moves towards the next generation.

The icing on the substantial Subsistence cake, however, will be the online option. A long lusted-for first in the series, broadband-enabled PS2 owners will find themselves at last able to get online and experience that classic Metal Gear action with up to seven others, in the game's impressive quota of multiplayer modes.

So far, we know the basic outline; that gametypes are split between five labels: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture, Defend and Sneaking. And while the first two speak for themselves, the other three require explanation.

Sneaking, it seems, will offer the purest transition of Metal Gear ideology to a multiplayer arena. One player controls Snake, fully tooled up to the eyeballs with guns, ammo and even a Stealth Camo suit. His objective is to make it to a designated part of a map, while the other gamers, each controlling a member of a squad of soldiers, attempt to track down and murder the Big-Boss-to-be. If he is found and felled, his killer will become the enigmatic anti-hero and then try and undertake the same task with more success.

Capture and Defend offer variants on team-based objective games, yet both have those familiar Hideo Kojima Metal Gear touches. The former, for instance, has the objective of a frog, not a flag, while the latter is helped by strategic use of iconic MGS items like Adult Magazines - which, when thrown near an opponent, will leave their character incapacitated, transfixed at the over-18s literature like a giggling hormonal school-goer.

Subsistence, then, is an incredibly promising package - more so even than Substance before it. Gamers fresh to the Metal Gear Solid series will find very little not to appeal here, and even owners of the original release should take heed that a vastly improved version is mere months away. Perhaps the most complete Metal Gear Solid there has ever been, Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence is an action game the way they should be done, and gives a good hint at the way future games in the series will be played.

Roll on PS3, we say. With revamps this good, we can only foam at the mouth anticipating the sequel and its inevitable re-release - whatever its subtitle may be.

MGS4: Subway Sandwich, anyone?

Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 19.01.06