Back in college I was a huge fan of Metal Gear Solid. I loved the characters and over-the-top cinematic aspect of the games that served as it’s trademark. When the third game came out I played it almost exclusively for about a year, beating it over and over again to see if I missed anything cool hidden around in the environment. It was definitely my favorite in the series to say the least. I loved skulking around the wooded areas, plugging anyone who got too close with tranquilizer darts. I was impressed by the meta-game of eating to survive and performing surgery on yourself when you were greatly injured. When I heard about the game being re-released in HD as a part of a bundle (including MGS2 and Peacewalker) I bought it solely to play the game again in glorious HD. It was good to be back with my belly against the forest floor.

I never dared play the game on extreme so I figured now was as good a time as any. I noticed a lot had changed in the jump to the highest difficulty (not counting european extreme):

A russian soldiers first reaction to seeing a box anywhere in the environment is to shoot it over and over again, and then kick it over. Even when I was hiding in a warehouse filled with boxes they still came right up to me with their whole, “HUH? A BOX?! HERE!!??” act and it never worked.

There’s no radar, you’ve gotta rely on your wits. At first I just went head first into each area but that effort was immediately thwarted. You’ve got to take your time and survey the land.

Enemies have the eyesight of a hawk or eagle. No matter where they are in the area in relation to you, if they saw something move they’re putting the whole crew on alert.

Shooting people in the dick with tranquilizer rounds is super effective and a good way to work out your frustration if you’re stuck on an area for too long (pretty sure this has nothing to do with the difficulty though.)

Every time I’ve approached this game I spent almost all of it slowly crawling around so I figured I’d give actually standing on my two legs a shot for a change. This is not a good idea at all. They will see you. Any time I ever popped my head up for anything they saw me, always. You gotta keep low.

Take the boss fight with The End for instance. I always loved this battle, it’s an epic sniper duel that could last an hour if you did it right. He’s out there watching you, somewhere in that vast forest and all you can do is keep your ass to the ground and shimmy around looking for clues to his whereabouts. After a while I’d get frustrated and stand up, figuring he wasn’t in the area and almost immediately I’d hear his old man cackle all around me and get shot in the eyeballs with tranq darts until i dodge-rolled my way to safety. Then you have to go into the survival viewer and extract all these tiny darts from your skull before you pass out.

Snake really is a man of many talents. Not only is he an expert foodie, taking time to deliver his opinion on each delicacy he finds on the jungle floor, but his abilities as field surgeon are unmatched. Through the course of the game I successfully removed countless arrows and bullets from his head and lived to fight on. That takes some serious skill.

I loved this game and I always will love this game.