History VideoGame / MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: A ''[[OverlyLongGag long]]'' and otherwise uneventful ladder climb is livened up by a reprise of the game's main theme.
** In Secret Theatre, Snake and The Boss fight...with RockPaperScissors. [[spoiler: The Boss wins with the Davy Crockett.]]

*** It means "Son of Raiden" in Russian.

After the release of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' and the fanbase's [[LoveItOrHateIt highly polarized]] reaction to all its changes, HideoKojima had his work cut out for him when the time came to make another sequel and reunite the fandom. Needless to say, '''''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater''''', released in late 2004, did the job with flying colors and is still considered by many fans as the best game in the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series, even after the release of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4''.

With its much less convoluted story, the game was viewed as a return to form by many. Again, there was a main character switcheroo, but this time for Solid Snake's [[IdenticalGrandson identical progenitor]], Naked Snake, which helped ease the pain. Taking place in the defining years of the ColdWar, the plotline embraces every spy movie trope in the book (up to and including a JamesBond-esque musical intro sequence). With a truly [[ManlyTears gut]][[TearJerker wrenching]] TwistEnding, plus a few truly tense and memorable boss fights, it's easy to see why many fans still consider this one as one of the best games on the {{PlayStation 2}}.

* BottomlessMagazines: Averted; enemies do need to change clips in battle. They won't run out of clips, though, unless you blow up their ammo dumps. Then they only have one clip for their assault rifle, one clip for their handguns, and then they need to rush you with their combat knives or go home. Also, averted with the mounted turret guns, unusually. Of course, getting the infinite facepaint gives you unlimited ammo for everything too.

** A subtle example: At one point, the player will acquire the Snow camo, which is almost entirely white. It seems a little pointless when the game takes place almost entirely in the jungle. Then the player gets to the final battle between Snake and The Boss...which takes place in [[spoiler: a field of white flowers]].
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Used to [[LampshadeHanging parody]] some of the more unrealistic game mechanics. For instance, Snake can find glowcap mushrooms, and call his MissionControl team to discuss its nutritional properties, when Snake starts to wonder if eating the mushrooms would replenish the batteries on his equipment. His MissionControl tells him to believe whatever the hell he wants...and as luck would have it, eating glowcaps ''does'' replenish the player's batteries, which Para-Medic assumes is some sort of weird placebo effect.

** It was implied in a few radio calls that the Raikov mask's original purpose was similar to what it ultimately ended up being used for. Apparently, it was going to be used in a different, previous mission where a CIA agent was to be sent to Tselinoyarsk, pose as a GRU Major (implied to be Major Raikov), and steal some secret documents from within a Soviet installation, but the mission was cancelled before they could put it to use.

* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Mostly averted. Any time the player sees Snake performing [=CQC=] maneuvers in cutscenes, he's using the exact same moves that are available outside the cutscenes, although the stunts that Snake pulls off are a bit tricky to recreate in gameplay.

** During the fight with The Sorrow, [[spoiler: every enemy the player killed in the game up until that point will reappear, and their bodies will reflect how they did it: kill a guy with a GroinAttack, and he'll reappear in this fight, clutching his junk and shouting "I'm worthless now!". Where it gets crazy is that the player can kill a guard in the mountain area, let a vulture gnaw on his corpse, then catch and eat the vulture, and the guard'll show up with the vulture perched on his shoulder, shouting "You ate me!".]]
* DisneyVillainDeath: Averted with Volgin: Volgin initially falls into a ravine thanks to EVA and Snake exploiting the C3-rigged bridge that the former set up earlier to get rid of the Shagohod. Unfortunately for them, he managed to eject a large part of the Shagohod in order to get back up to the ravine, although on the flipside, the Shagohod's now vulnerable.

** The prospects of the first half of that scene are quite frightening the first playthrough, considering Big Boss is well known for having an eyepatch.

** In the Secret Theatre film ''Cat-like behavior'', Ocelot shoots Snake in the groin shortly after Snake says that he doesn't have what it takes to kill him, a shot that was also implied to have killed him.

* GunAccessories: Snake has to collect silencers since each has a finite lifespan, and there's also the matter of Ocelot pulling out a clip-on skeleton stock for one of his revolvers, The End's horrible mutant Mosin-Nagant (with a folding stock and pistol grip) and Snake's custom [=M1911=], which has been variously twiddled and re-customated to the point it takes him over a dozen closeup photographs to adequately describe it to [=SigInt=].

* HarsherInHindsight: An in-universe example: after being delivered via a D-21 drone launched from an M-21 carrier, an optional radio conversion has Snake tell his support team about issues with control that could lead to pilots being killed. The real-life M-21 program was cancelled after the drone collided with the mother plane during the fourth launch, killing the drone launch control operator.

* HilariousOuttakes: The Secret Theatre films qualify as such.
* HistoricalInJoke: Several relating to 1960s projects and events: If Snake calls Major Zero shortly after arriving in Dremuchij North, during the conversation, Snake will tell Major Zero that the drone he used to infiltrate Tselinoyarsk may need its landing buffer redesigned, as potential pilots will get hurt or killed if they have to use it in the its current state. This refers to the real-life reason as to why the project ended up cancelled: A launch went awry and crashed midair into the M-21, which killed the drone operator.

A [[UpdatedRerelease HD version]] of ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' was released for the {{PlayStation 3}}, {{Xbox 360}} and {{PlayStation Vita}} as a component of ''Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection'' and a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] for the Nintendo3DS titled ''Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D'' was released on February 21, 2012.

->''"The one who survives [[YouKillIt,YouBoughtIt will inherit the title of Boss]]. And the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle."''

->''"The one who survives [[KlingonPromotion will inherit the title of Boss]]. And the one who inherits the title of Boss will face an existence of endless battle."''

* DuelBoss: The Boss. Snake's main mission is to fight and eliminate her, and thus their unavoidable confrontation is hyped up for the entirety of the game. It does not disappoint. ''[[Awesome/VideoGameBosses Not in]] [[TearJerker the least]]'' (see MirrorBoss below).

** Subverted to hell and back with the two main characters, though: [[spoiler: "Snake" is the one who ends up tempted and fooled by "EVA's" lies, and "ADAM" ends up playing both of them by posing as Major Ocelot with no one the wiser]].

After the release of ''[[MetalGearSolid2 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' and the fanbase's [[LoveItOrHateIt highly polarized]] reaction to all its changes, HideoKojima had his work cut out for him when the time came to make another sequel and reunite the fandom. Needless to say, '''''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater''''', released in late 2004, did the job with flying colors and is still considered by many fans as the best game in the ''MetalGear'' series, even after the release of ''[[MetalGearSolid4 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]''.

The next game in the series, ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', shifted the focus back to Solid Snake, but the game has also spawned a direct sequel in the game ''[[MetalGearSolidPortableOps Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops]]'', continuing the story of Naked Snake as he forms the [=FOXHOUND=] unit. ''Portable Ops'', in turn, was followed by ''[[MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker]]'' a few years later, depicting the rise of Outer Heaven.

* ArtifactTitle: This game takes place before the implementation of the Metal Gear project, and it features the player (who isn't even named ''Solid'' Snake) trying to take down the Shagohod instead. Granted, the Shagohod fulfills pretty much the same purpose as Metal Gear, but it's made clear in-universe that they're two different projects. This would ordinarily just be a NonIndicativeName, but considering [[MetalGearSolid4 the next game in the series]] isn't even about stopping a nuclear threat...[[hottip:*:unless one counts Liquid Ocelot's plan to fire a nuclear warhead at a satellite to stop the Patriots in that game as being nuclear threat.]]

* ColdBloodedTorture: Colonel Volgin's favorite pastime. He seems rather proud of his skill, though in actuality, he's very, very bad at it; nobody he tortures ''ever'' talks, and he actually manages to interrogate ''himself'' while torturing Snake. Not that this matters to him. It's outright stated by EVA that he literally gets off on the pain of others, and doesn't really care if his victims talk as long as he gets his kicks. After witnessing it firsthand, Ocelot decides that torture isn't as bad as he previously thought; anyone who's played ''MetalGearSolid'' will know his ratio of people tortured versus information extracted is similar to Volgin's.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev aside, two of the attendees at Big Boss's award ceremony (implied to be the CIA Director and a high-ranking member of the DOD) were based on John McCone and Robert McNamara, who were the real life CIA Director and Secretary of Defense, respectively, during that time period, and had it not been for [[MetalGearSolidPortableOps some]] [[MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker changes]] in the story, they most likely would have been the exact same people. Likewise, while not actually seen, TheStinger has Ocelot briefly talking to the KGB Chief Director, who is strongly implied to be Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny (the real life Chief Director at the time), about the time arriving to overthrow Khrushchev. Semichastny, in real life, was indeed involved in the deposement of Khrushchev and the installment of Brezhnev.

* {{Retcon}}: How Naked Snake/[[spoiler:Big Boss]] managed to lose his eye was different than previously stated (in the manual for [[MetalGear2 Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'', it mentioned that Big Boss lost his eye while in conflict during the 1980s).

* AnachronismStew: Colonel Volgin's absurd resources are said to have allowed him to develop quite a few things "early:" the passive IR goggles are lampshaded as being ridiculously high-tech for the setting, the Mi-24 first flew in 1969, and the [=WiG=] is from the early '70s. The [=XM16E1=] is also about a year early to have been issued for evaluation in any significant number (though enough were delivered that it's still somewhat plausible, and they did [[ShownTheirWork nail the designation]]), and the Lockheed M-21 that delivers Snake for Operation Snake Eater first flew in December 1964; the first drone launch from one wouldn't occur until 1966.

** It ends the same way as the first game: [[spoiler: Ocelot places a secret phone call where he reveals that he's actually a triple agent for the U.S. government]].

* IReadItOnlyForTheArticles: InUniverse, after Snake escapes from Groznyj Grad's prison, should he have the magazines on him prior to capture, calling EVA will have her reveal that she knows about the magazines (although she nonetheless promises not to throw anything away), with Snake being unable to explain why he had them. EVA, however, isn't too upset that he has them in themselves, more that he would actually read them during a mission, or that he would use them to distract an enemy, explaining that [[ThatCameOutWrong he should request her help [in distracting the enemy], at least.]]

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Shagohod sounds incredibly wacky for a name of... pretty much everything in Russian native.

* ActorAllusion: Para-Medic calls Naked Snake "a real Captain Nemo" after he states that his name is John Doe. Akio Ohtsuka, the Japanese voice actor of Naked Snake, had previously voiced Captain Nemo in the anime series, ''Nadia: Secret of Blue Water''.