Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 97: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

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Todays game is Metal Gear Solid 3. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

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Previous Results:
Planescape: Torment - 9.83 (12 votes)
Omori - 9.67 (6 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.6 (21 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.18 (34 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.14 (7 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.1 (14 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.89 (19 votes)
Grim Fandango - 8.88 (13 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.82 (11 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.82 (20 votes)
Xenogears - 8.71 (23 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.67 (31 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (27 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.65 (23 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.56 (27 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.41 (39 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.4 (5 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.38 (28 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.37 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.35 (55 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.28 (37 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 8.17 (18 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.17 (21 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.15 (40 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.04 (14 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.94 (27 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.85 (31 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.81 (25 votes)
Bioshock - 7.64 (23 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.7 (30 votes)
The Sexy Brutale - 7.7 (5 votes)
Celeste - 7.62 (25 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.62 (13 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.47 (29 votes)
The Last Story - 7.47 (6 votes)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - 7.46 (13 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.35 (28 votes)
Tales of Symphonia - 7.34 (27 votes)
Earthbound - 7.33 (19 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.26 (29 votes)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - 7.25 (12 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.24 (28 votes)
Red Dead Redemption - 7.23 (11 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (24 votes)
Mass Effect 3 - 7.16 (21 votes)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 7.1 (30 votes)
To the Moon - 7.07 (7 votes)
Super Paper Mario - 7.05 (22 votes)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 7 (5 votes)
Hollow Knight - 6.98 (21 votes)
INSIDE - 6.93 (15 votes)
Gone Home - 6.91 (17 votes)
Bioshock Infinite - 6.87 (19 votes)
Death Stranding - 6.73 (13 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All - 6.67 (31 votes)
Firewatch - 6.65 (10 votes)
Dark Souls - 6.62 (20 votes)
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - 6.61 (28 votes)
Chrono Cross - 6.56 (17 votes)
Valkyria Chronicles - 6.5 (16 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - 6.5 (13 votes)
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - 6.38 (12 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 6.31 (35 votes)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 6.16 (14 votes)
DOOM (2016) - 6.15 (13 votes)
Star Fox 64 - 5.8 (25 votes)
Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception - 5.8 (24 votes)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 5.72 (9 votes)
Final Fantasy IV - 5.78 (30 votes)
Metroid Prime - 5.67 (24 votes)
Kingdom Hearts - 5.59 (30 votes)
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - 5.26 (28 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 4.83 (12 votes)
Final Fantasy XIII - 4.79 (29 votes)
Final Fantasy X-2 - 4.79 (19 votes)
Fallout 3 - 4.76 (17 votes)
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty - 4.72 (9 votes)
Fallout 4 - 4.43 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy - 4.24 (19 votes)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops - 3.89 (9 votes)
Resident Evil 6 - 3.74 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 3.69 (13 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3.46 (15 votes)
Starcraft II (overall) - 3.4 (5 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates (overall) - 3.32 (11 votes)
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void - 2.83 (6 votes)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - 2.66 (16 votes)
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm - 2.57 (7 votes)
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation - 2.33 (9 votes)
Tales of Zestiria - 2.14 (7 votes)

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name><rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them.

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10/10

The story of Big Boss and The Boss is just so intensely personal and full of emotion. There's nothing quite like it. It's also one of the best endings in any video game.

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7.5

In the running for the best Kojima game and story, with a strong emotional center in the relationship between Snake and The Boss and some good use of the medium for storytelling (particularly the decision to make the player kill The Boss.) Still, it does suffer from his usual over-reliance on exposition, excessive dialog, and spy movie cliches, even this version of Snake still isn't a super compelling character IMO, and I've never had quite the same emotional connection to The Boss' story as some people do. I also thought her squad weren't too charismatic on the whole, even if The End and The Sorrow are fun.

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9.5.

The Boss basically carries this score but there's nothing wrong with that. Her story, character, and relationship with the other characters (mostly Big Boss, but not just him) are all just superb.

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10

Doesn't need much clarification. I think the minor villains are a bit disappointing compared to previous entries, but it's made up for in other ways.

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8

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10

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9/10

Easiest to understand, and despite the bosses being Hideo Kojima-fied, the Boss and Snake do so much to take a war epic/James Bond spy thriller and make it a pretty solid rollercoaster.

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4/10

Marked the decline of the series

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In the sense that it would never be this good again, I guess that's true

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Damn, and I thought I was being contrary by giving the game a 7.5. Respect

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10/10

MGS1 is the thrilling one
MGS2 is the mind-bending one
MGS3 is the emotional one

All all masterpieces of videogame storytelling. The final two hours of MGS3 (everything from the Shagohad battle onward) might be my favorite two hours in any game.

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Also, please bump my Tales of Symphonia score up from 8.5/10 to 9/10. Was thinking about it today, and it's definitely a 9 in my book.

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10/10

One of the very pinnacles of video game storytelling. It's on a whole different level of presentation from even its own series, presenting its events as one part historical Cold War period piece, one part James Bond spy thriller, and one part supernatural horror. The cast is simply immaculate. Naked Snake is one of the best protagonists in gaming, as his character transforms into the villain we know him as later in the timeline, and we get to spend time with all of his different aspects - his quiet somewhat social awkwardness, geekiness when it comes to stuff like firearms, a small romantic side, and of course the intense inner turmoil he feels have to go up against his former mentor and teacher. The CODEC cast is wild and wacky, and the game actually gives you reasons to call them besides gameplay purposes. Cobra Unit is the best villain gang in the series, both embracing the stupidity of arbitrary video game superpowers, but also giving you genuine reasons to care as to just exactly why they became the way they are. Beyond that, The Boss is also one of the best female characters in all of gaming, embracing sexuality, femininity, and motherhood in a way that's honest & realistic, with complex idealistic goals and motivations way outside of the scope of most antagonists you can find elsewhere. One more character that bears a much needed specific mention is Ocelot, seeing his relationship and rivalry grow with Snake over the course of the game is such an incredibly engaging arc.

MGS3 benefits greatly from being somewhat distant from the rest of the series. Don't get me wrong; it's just an arms-length away, but after the paranoid super-conspiracy and grandiose agenda of MGS2, MGS3 feels defiantly quaint and intimate in its setting and story. There's still mentions of concepts like the Philosophers' Legacy, but it feels natural interspersed with the delicacy of cold war politics. Speaking of that, what is effectively the game's cold open, the Virtuous Mission, brilliantly sets you up for a false start, while perfectly establishing the game's rules, major players, and stakes. Where MGS2 was divisive in its disparate chapters on purpose, MGS3 instead uses it in a more straight-forward matter, re-contextualizing Snake's character instead of switching to another completely. While the thematic reasoning may be stronger in MGS2, here it makes for a more satisfying continuation. Continuing with the cold war theming, a big part of this game is deception. Snake is deceived at almost every step by almost every other character, and there's always a sense that you can't even trust your own allies on the other side of the radio. EVA and Ocelot both play up the spy angles especially, but it's The Boss' ultimate deception that really drives this theme home. It's used to convey a sense of powerlessness, Snake is the typical one man army Green Beret badass sent to the save day for the United States, but it's not all it's cracked up to be: despite all his technical skill, Snake becomes bloodied, bruised, and disfigured, confronted with the violent actions he has wrought by The Sorrow, and eventually, even his interior emotions become as wrecked and ugly as what his outward appearance has become. At the end of the day, there's still glory and celebration, Snake is welcomed back as any war hero would be, but the victory is hollow, and Snake irrevocably changed for the worst, forever.

One final theme I'd like to touch on briefly is time. This is a big part of The Boss' ideals, and not only is it an interesting message, knowing just how Naked Snake/Big Boss' arc ends gives it a whole new meaning than the face value. There are always new heroes, new villains, new ideas to rebel against or join with, and it all ends up the same in the end.

MGS3 is the perfect combination of goofy Metal Gearness mixed with some of the deepest characters gaming has ever given us. It's a story capable of providing fantastic action thrills, but also tearing down the very ideas that makes up those action thrills. It's an emotional roller coaster and one of those rare games where you feel changed by finishing it.

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Nothing outside of The Boss works for me. Eva, Volgin, Young Ocelot, and The Cobras are all bad. The jungle setting's gameplay inherently messes with the pacing of the narrative. Very little of note happens in the middle 80% of the game. The CODEC crew is uninteresting, and Big Boss' theoretically emotional journey isn't explored as much as it could have been. The plot itself also lacks any interesting developments outside of the virtuous mission - it's extremely straightforward, which isn't really what I want in a Metal Gear game, especially one with a sub-par cast.

The Boss is one of the best characters in the series, but she can't carry an entire game.

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Also, in a meta sense, MGS3's strong reception hurt the series going forward. Kojima really got into the idea of making more Big Boss games, so afterwards, we got:

MGS4 - Rushes to finish the Solid Snake storyline so Kojima can be done with it. Narrative is wonky as a result.
Peace Walker - Uninteresting Big Boss filler that not even MGS3 megafans particularly loved.
MGS5 - Continuation of the 'main' Big Boss storyline, which it turns out was more interesting on paper than in practice.

The series was never the same after MGS3, and it's Big Boss's fault.

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9.5

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8

Not sure how anyone can rate any MGS game above this with a straight face (after Jeremy Blaustein stopped working on the series, I mean)

6.5/10
My least fav story of the first 3 games

4

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Leonhart4 posted...

In the sense that it would never be this good again, I guess that's true

incorrect

revengeance had not yet been released

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LeonhartFour posted...

The story of Big Boss and The Boss is just so intensely personal and full of emotion.

I can't think of a relationship in games quite like the one between Big Boss and The Boss. It's fantastic, and she remains maybe the best ever game character

10

It lacks 2's complexity and prescience but makes up for it with a better cast and stronger emotional core. The main 5 are dynamite and all interact with each other in different, interesting ways. Still absolutely brilliant.

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9.5

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10/10

What a thrill.
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Tried really hard to think of reasons why this shouldn't be a 10/10. Couldn't really think of any. So yeah... 10/10

Perfectly incorporates a number of really interesting influences into the Metal Gear formula. Excellent characters and genuinely surprising developments. While its philosophy is not as prescient as MGS2's, the messaging surrounding loyalty is really thoughtful.

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10

One of the greatest stories ever told

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KamikazePotato posted...

The CODEC crew is uninteresting

The most blasphemous of takes

KamikazePotato posted...

MGS4 - Rushes to finish the Solid Snake storyline so Kojima can be done with it. Narrative is wonky as a result.

I don't think this is MGS3's fault, actually. This is the fault of Kojima feeling like he had to answer every question the fanbase had from the first three games, and so he did, often contradicting stuff he laid the foundation for in previous games by saying it was just nanomachines.

That being said, Old Snake is still an amazing version of the character, so I don't feel like Kojima did him an injustice aside from his final line in the series being a bad joke about Sunny's eggs.

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8.4/10. The last 4 hours are 10/10, but the rest of the game is not so great.

KamikazePotato posted...

The series was never the same after MGS3, and it's Big Boss's fault.

imagine not thinking Revengeance is the best Metal Gear game
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Mac Arrowny posted...

imagine not thinking Revengeance is the best Metal Gear game

it's not difficult to imagine

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I said I'd only give two games a 10 in this series, but I'm reneging on it.

10/10

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10

Although I rate it as a game below MGS1 and 4, I cannot fault the story in the slightest. It is the perfect MGS story in such a setting.

I do think people put certain things like the codec conversations on a pedestal when most of it boils down to Para medic gushing about a movie and Big Boss repeating the line "Nope. Never saw it" which got old real fast.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

I do think people put certain things like the codec conversations on a pedestal when most of it boils down to Para medic gushing about a movie and Big Boss repeating the line "Nope. Never saw it" which got old real fast.

Incorrect. Para-Medic talking to Snake about food is more entertaining than the movie conversations, but both are great. Sigint's "nightmare" is peak Codec though, and they all have fantastic moments. I can literally spend an hour at the beginning of the game just talking to everyone without a conversation repeating.

and then MGS4 decided we didn't need that anymore

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8.5. The pinnacle of MGS storytelling by a very long way.

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9

The relationship between the Bosses elevates this

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LeonhartFour posted...

Incorrect. Para-Medic talking to Snake about food is more entertaining than the movie conversations, but both are great. Sigint's "nightmare" is peak Codec though, and they all have fantastic moments. I can literally spend an hour at the beginning of the game just talking to everyone without a conversation repeating.

Also the box thing, the mushrooms thing, "WHY DO THEY KEEP EXPLODING?" (Hilarious delivery by Hayter on that one. In fact Hayter is pretty perfect in this game, probably his best performance)

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I would rate MGS3 as Hayter's worst performance outside of Peace Walker, where he's a full-on parody of himself. MGS1 Snake is the most natural, MGS2 Snake is more gravely but is still within reason, and the extra gravel works in MGS4 because he's Old. MGS3 is more of an awkward in-between, and he doesn't actually get any good lines in the game to express his acting chops. The Boss gets them all, and for the most part she's monologuing to him.

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I think the writing of Big Boss in the game is tremendously helpful. He's funnier than Snake.

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"You're crocked, ain't ya?"

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I think I'd agree this is where Hayter starts to "lose" the Snake voice, but his overall performance is still good and he has plenty of good lines.

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10

Another of the best storylines in gaming history. Arguably the only Metal Gear game that's really trying to explore gaming as a storytelling medium too.

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10

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It makes no sense to hold future decisions about the series and MGS3's sucesss against its plot, when said plot would have been exactly the same regardless of how that went.

10/10 for sure. Might elaborate later.

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One last bump.

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