Why Metal Gear Solid 3 is the Best Prequel Ever Made

ign.com:

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4.

It’s been a long time coming but Metal Gear fans finally have something concrete to look forward to. Although series creator Hideo Kojima has moved on to other projects, his long-beloved stealth action franchise is making a grand return to the forefront of gaming with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Now that we have our first look at Delta’s gameplay from the new trailer shown at the Xbox Games Showcase, we’re even more excited to get our hands on it. But for now, we want to take a look back at the original Metal Gear Solid 3, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year on November 17th, 2004.

Specifically, we’re going to talk about how MGS3 tells a more vital prequel narrative than most other franchises can match. What was at the time seen as a course correction from Metal Gear Solid 2’s lack of Solid Snake playtime and perhaps even a delaying action of paying off 2’s narrative threads to the eventual Metal Gear Solid 4, the benefit of hindsight has shown that MGS3 is a critical installment in the series’ mythology. Sure, it received great reviews on release, but why does the story not really work if you just played MGS1, 2 and 4 as a trilogy when they happen in chronological order? Let’s take a look at what makes MGS3 so essential.

After two games set in a “few years in the future” sci-fi setting, Kojima went in an entirely new direction with Metal Gear Solid 3. The mechanics and systems he used to create such iconic stealth action gameplay in MGS1 and 2 could have been iterated on to even greater success, but 3 made the bold leap of developing new ways to engage with the genre. From the camo index system where players had to adjust their disguise to match their surroundings, needing to hunt for food in the wild to keep up stamina, curing serious injuries in the field, and depriving players of many of the futuristic gadgets that were so helpful in previous games,