PixlBit

Metal Gear Solid 3 is without a doubt my favorite game in the series. It was so good that after playing it, the other Metal Gear Solid games feel a lot less fun. The story and the gameplay (I'll get to why I like it more than 4 tomorrow) are both my favorite of the series. Its story doesn't try as much as 2, but it gets so much more right than that story. I'm not going to go too in depth since I already typed a write up at 1up, but I have to give something on it.

While I've only beaten the game twice, I've probably played through the Virtuous Mission 6 times. It's a fantastic introduction to the game, giving a young Revolver Ocelot in a way that mirrors the original encounter with him in 1, the areas offer a plethora of options to sneak through and secrets while also introducing you to the camoflage system well. 

The rest of the game definitely keeps this up. Besides that escort mission towards the end, I cannot think of any moment I thought was really bad. Every area gave its own set of mysteries to discover which played into the stealth very well. The game also has my favorite use of regenerating health and one of my favorite health systems ever where regeneration happens slowly and is dependent on your stamina. It makes boss fights especially tricky as instant healing items are very hard to come by so you can't really stock up on them before. It's more of a battle of your skills rather than items.

3 in my opinion also has the best roster of bosses in any video game. Ocelot had a fun fight that was similar yet very different to his original one even making a comment that mirrors his first one in it, the creative ways you can use to take out The Fear and The End make both of them infinitely replayable, The Fury, while more standard, is still intense and interesting to take out, The Sorrow was a complete mindfuck, and The Boss was the perfect way to finish off that game. The Pain and Volgin were the only weaker points, but they weren't that bad, just not as good as the others which set the bar so high.

There's not really much I can complain about without feeling like nitpicking. The controls aren't as natural as 4's, but I never felt like I was fighting them except when it involved pressure sensitive buttons. Seriously, the series' use of pressure sensitivity may be worse than any use of tacked on motion controls I've seen. The camoflage system, first aid, and eating can get tedious also, but again, these feel like nitpicks.

Then there's the ending. I'm not going to spoil it, but the only video game ending I like more is The Last of Us'. And if it weren't for how long the final cutscene was, with that plane bit in particular that didn't need to take as long as it did, I would probably put it above TLoU's. is in my top 10 games of all time with reason and I don't care how many times Kojima rereleases this gem, I'll buy it every single one of htem.