Aug 21st 1-2-3: The Snake Who Sold The World - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Greetings and welcome back to the Compendium.
If you’ve been following my little MGS/Kojima fanboy series, then you already know what's coming today. So without further ado:
What’s the story behind Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater?
1: The Story Behind The Story ( 5 minute read )
The first game within the Metal Gear franchise was the original MSX ‘Metal Gear (1987)’, and with that title Kojima had wanted to create a game that encapsulated the wild chaotic danger of a Jungle setting.
With two Metal Gear games, as well as two Metal Gear Solid games, under his belt, he planned to finally bring that vision to life with MGS3.
Both Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 begin with the player arriving at the enemies base of operations. Kojima had always wanted to tell a story where the player had to make that journey to the base, and with MGS3 he decided it was time to bring that idea to life.
The main idea was to create a game where the player was able to experience a realistic infiltration mission, trekking through the deep, treacherous jungle.
Having to mind their surroundings, mind how well they are able to hide within this environment, as well as how well they are able to survive off of what food was crawling around the wilderness surrounding them.
All these fledgling ideas inspired Hideo and his team to develop the gameplay around mechanics like hunting and gathering your food, managing your camouflage to stay hidden, as well as developing a deeper CQC system.
To understand the feeling they were trying to evoke within the player, Kojima and his team trained with military advisors on survival techniques and strategies, as well as what proper gear would be necessary for a mission like the one Naked Snake would be going on.
They even went to the lengths of planning out a trip in the mountains near Sagami Lake, imitating a two-day, one-night, mission in the wilderness with similar gear and sensory details as what they had planned out for MGS3.
They truly lived the mission before developing it in order to properly understand the exact feeling they were aiming for.
Metal Gear Solid 3 was shaping up to be almost a culmination of everything that had come before it within the Metal Gear Franchise.
It was planned to have everything its prior two titles had in terms of pushing video games towards a more cinematic style of development, its focus on immersion-first gameplay, as well as its trademark style of thought provoking themes and story.
It had everything its sibling ‘Solid’ games had, while also being much like the two original Metal Gear games before the ‘Solid’ series began in terms of its setting and survival- focused form of stealth gameplay.
A Snake Best Served, Naked
Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater was initially planned for PS3 with Kojima understandably excited to see how he could push the boundaries with its new power, though that plan fell through when the PS3 was delayed.
With PS2 becoming the chosen console for this title, Kojima used this as an opportunity to really push and see what he could do with a more familiar and documented console.
He chose to push forward with features like motion capture, and was forced to create an all new engine to support the natural jungle environments and terrain.
A new engine with new collision systems allowed the team to delve deep into creating a realistic, immersive jungle for the player to navigate and survive in.
With this jungle setting came a necessity for wildlife, weather systems, a hunger and food cycle system, as well as a self-surgery mechanic.
All just to create the most immersive jungle gameplay players had ever seen up until then.
His goal was to further blur the lines between real-life experience, and in-game experience.
When Snake was injured, he wanted the player to feel that pain, and he wanted the player to want to take care of Snake like they would themselves in this situation. He wanted the player to feel Snakes hunger, and so he created hunger-cues.
For every aspect of what Snake felt during his mission infiltrating this soviet base, he wanted there to be some sort of gameplay effect to have the player experience what Snake did.
This was all done in an effort to create emotional empathy through gameplay.
Snake’s mission was not easy, it was painful, tiring, and very tasking on Snake's body, and he wanted the player to feel all of that as well.
Kojima and his team approached every aspect of Snake Eater with this immersion-first approach they had refined over the years, and they took it to another level.
He even consulted with military advisors, and came to the conclusion that traditional combat would not fit the jungle environment. This led him and his team to research into CQC and guerilla fighting tactics.
They ultimately integrated a system of real tactics into the gameplay, via the CQC mechanic.
As a cherry on top of how Hideo built immersion into the very fabric of the game was through its various forms of "Game Over" screens where the on screen text turns to the text "Time Paradox."
Being that Snake Eater is a prequel, any mission failure is an event that changes the very course of the franchise, thus a "Time Paradox."
In every way possible, Kojima and his team went all out focusing on how they could "immerse" the player into the shoes of Snake into the world of Metal Gear.
The Man Who Sold The Snake
Metal Gear Solid 3 finally let players experience the story of the man who would later become the Big Boss, and what he did to become him.
This was bound to stir intrigue amongst fans.
The game was teased by Kojima in 2003, and later fully revealed at E3 2004, showcasing camouflage, survival mechanics, and jungle combat.
Hideo was clear with fans on the fact that this game was a prequel set in the 1960s, and simply told them that they would be playing as ‘Naked Snake’.
Fans were very excited though understandably skeptical of this new direction Kojima was taking the franchise.
From late 2004 to early 2005, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was rolled out across the globe, and almost instantly hit critical acclaim.
It was regarded as a pivotal marker for the video game industry in terms of story, characters, and cinematic direction.
The ending was widely talked about for its new character named ‘The Boss’, and was considered to be one of the most emotional moments in gaming at the time.
Fan reception however, was divided.
Some fans found all of Kojima’s iterations of stealth to be very cumbersome, while many also loved the games inclusion of more survival-focused stealth mechanics.
Regardless of who stood on which side of that line during the game's initial release, MGS3 quickly became one of the most praised entries within the Metal Gear franchise, often being regarded as Hideo Kojima’s crowning masterpiece.
This story is one of the more "stable" development stories for Kojima during his time building out the Metal Gear series.
Metal Gear Solid 3 was the result of years of learning to finally be able to go back to his initial idea with the franchise, and to do it the way he wanted in the first place.
With Metal Gear (1987) Kojima wanted to tell a story that was the culmination of the films he grew up watching which had influenced his creative vision so much.
He also wanted to subvert the combat heavy gameplay that was so common at that time and teach the player how to approach a game differently to how they were used to.
Finally, he wanted to tell a story that would immerse the player into a story-rich world, full of defined and memorable characters who you’d actually care about.
He wanted to push the medium of video games forward from a fun pastime to an evocative and interactive form of art.
MGS3 is a prime example that when you have a vision and you have some of the pieces of that vision, get started with what you have and over time you’ll find more of the pieces you need to bring that vision to its complete realization.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is just Metal Gear (1987), but with all the pieces.
So when you have a vision, some pieces, and a whole lot of passion, work with what you’ve got NOW!
Don’t waste time trying to get it all right on the first go.
Just use your artistic intuition, and use what you have at your disposal.
I mean shit, if your first try is not entirely what you envisioned, who’s to say you can’t try it again later down the road and make your own “Snake Eater” ?
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. If you have a vision for a project and only have some of the pieces to put together today, this is your sign to begin working with just those few pieces and see what it becomes. Once you are finished, review it and see what worked, what didn’t, and where you didn’t quite meet your vision. Then move on to the next project and make the goal of that one to refine one aspect of you initial vision.
II. If you’ve been down the road in your artistic journey and have already done your first attempt at what you envisioned, and have also moved on to doing a number of works since that first attempt, this is your sign to grab up that old first try and begin work on creating your own “Snake Eater”
3: Inspirational Quotes From Hideo Kojima
I. “When I first made Metal Gear in 1987, I wanted to set it in the jungle, but the MSX couldn’t handle it. With MGS3, I could finally realize that dream.”
II. “I wanted Snake to feel like a living person, so we added hunger, stamina, and the need to heal wounds. The player should feel his pain.”
III. “MGS3 was the culmination of everything I couldn’t do before. It was my chance to finally make the Metal Gear I had imagined in the 80s.”
Thank you so much for reading!