Notably absent from E3 was any trace of a new Metal Gear Solid game, namely, the forthcoming Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Be that as it may, it wouldn’t be E3 without a little tactical espionage action. Konami had a couple of enhanced remakes on display: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (part of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection). So, what we have here is a console game moved to a portable platform, and a portable game moved to a console platform. Right on.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D felt like most of the other Metal Gear portable games – a little shaky, a little clunky, and a little choppy. The default control scheme at the E3 demo felt a lot like the PSP control scheme of Peace Walker. I’ve never been a fan of using the face buttons (A, B, X, Y) to control the camera, and Snake Eater 3D didn’t change my mind. The absence of a second analog pad on the 3DS limits camera control functionality, and at this point, Snake Eater 3D hasn’t found a way around it. Peaking around corners, aiming while pressed up against cover, CQC, and even crawling require that brain power be diverted from enjoyment to figuring out the unintuitive controls. The game hasn’t been released, so there are plenty of opportunities to fine tune the control scheme or offer additional options, because as it stands now, Snaker Eater 3D feels about as awkward as Metal Gear as ever felt.
Visually, Snake Eater 3D is almost impressive. The sense of depth created by the 3D effects is genuinely interesting in the jungle environment and could go a long way in actually enhancing gameplay rather than just being cosmetic. Metal Gear has always been about knowing where your enemies are, and 3D goes a long away in helping the player understand just how far away an enemy is. The animations were a bit choppy at times, especially during cutscenes, so I’ll be interested to see if the final product smooths itself out.
Meat Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD
While Snake Eater 3D left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD was a pleasant surprise. Despite the limitations of the PSP, I was a huge fan of the original Peace Walker. The game took traditional Metal Gear-style gameplay and flavored it with a few interesting (yet simple) character development and base building systems. Peace Walker HD felt amazing with dual analog sticks in hand. As mentioned, using face button to control camera took some time to get used to – but finally, Peace Walker felt natural. Though it is ostensibly a blown-up, high-resed version of PSP game, it doesn’t look muddy or over washed. I wouldn’t go as far to say that Peace Walker HD is visually unappealing, it’s just visually simple. It hard to get excited about a remake, but I can’t wait to pick this one up again.
While not the big splash Metal Gear fans hoped for at E3 2011, we’ll at least get a few chances to tickle our fancies in the coming months of 2011.