A few months back I complained that I didn’t get on with the “marmitey” gameplay (thanks for the excellent adjective, Martin) of the Metal Gear Solid series. I take it back.
You tend not to give games that you dismissed another chance but I stuck MGS3: Subsistence in again the other day. Maybe it was the nagging sense that I was missing something or maybe it was just that I’d bought the bloody thing twice and still hadn’t had my money’s worth, but whatever it was I’m actually enjoying it. Despite the silly story and tendency to drag in the cut scenes (almost twenty minutes at the end of Virtuous Mission!), the proper 3D camera really saves it.
I still maintain that, because of that camera, MGS3 can be classified as a bad game. It worked in the first two because they were (a) angular and (b) complete with radar. MGS3 was neither and might as well have been an FPS for all the time that I had to switch to first person to see a guard ahead of me. Subsistence’s camera is a significant addition that really should have been in there from the start.
Incidentally I’m now watching US copies of MGS and MGS2 on eBay. I’m such a completist whore.
I think the camera is also to blame for my dislike of MGS3, that and constantly having to pause and eat/change camo/repair myself. I loved the first two, and I even bought a US PS2 specifically for the game and nearly two years on I’ve still not finished it.
I even tried using a guide just so that I could say it was finished, it just feels wrong to have such a title sitting on my shelf that I’ve not managed to complete. And being a huge fan of the first two really increases the feeling.
I did read in a few reviews that the camera added in Subsistence, as you said, fixes the game. I’ll probably keep and eye on eBay and see if I can pick it up on the cheap.
I felt the same way about having it there on my shelf having only played a few hours. That was really why I picked up Subsistence cheap because it was just that camera that was ruining it for me.
Honestly, buy Subsistence. It really is a great game when you can get past the glaring anachronisms in the gameplay.