Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence



Game Info

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Kojima Productions

Platform: PS2

Genre(s): Third-Person Action

Players: 8

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: March 14, 2006


I'm not going to dissect this game thoroughly simply because the main game is actually an extended "director's cut" of SnakeEater.  The 2 disc set here also includes copies of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Solid Snake.  In addition, Kojima Productions has added features such as the Hidden Theatre, a blooper reel and online play.  The online play was very popular in it's time, but was discontinued in 2007.  The real advantage to this "director's cut" is found in the core gameplay.  Additional camouflage options, which had been previously available for download in SnakeEater, are available immediately in Subsistence.  The camera switches from a top-down view to more of a third-person view with complete 360 degree capability.  There are also six difficulty levels in Subsistence, including European Extreme, which ends the game immediately if Snake is ever spotted.  Subsistence does not recognize the SnakeEater game, so players would have to re-play the game entirely if they already own SnakeEater.  However, the add-ons do make this version worth the play and earned it a Metacritic rating that is almost double the SnakeEater version. 

Ideas:
Since I didn't get to finish playing SnakeEater, Subsistence has made my purchase list instead.  I'm lucky.  Metal Gear Solid is not the first or only franchise game to make my Top 100 list twice in different versions.  God of War is also on the list more than once.  The idea seems to be to add value and re-release games.  It's an idea that has worked well in these two cases.  The tweaking of God of War games and re-release on an improved console has been well-received.  The new catch-phrase in games, however, is DLC.  Before a fresh game has even been released, there is already talk of download-able content and the ways in which this improves both the customer experience and their view of the publisher and/or developer.  Valve, for instance, has become well-known for taking care of the player by adding value in the form of releases such as The Orange Box and for services such as Steam.  As a player, I prefer added value in the form of disc releases over DLC for a number of reasons.  A disc is a hard copy.  If your system crashes, you still have the content.  Also, it does add to the value of the existing price tag while DLC is often found at an additional price.  Finally, while I don't play on an Xbox360, having to pay for XBLA and for DLC seems to be a little insulting.  It's possible that I only feel that way because PSN is free, however.