Growing Up with Metal Gear

“My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.'”

-Forrest Gump

And Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best chocolate you will ever taste.

I was still in Form 1 back then and just bought a PS2. A casual conversation with my classmate brought up a game called Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. My first reaction was of course, what kind of name is that, Snake Eater? Of course, 2006 is the golden era of PS2 piracy, where games cost five ringgit each, that means you don't have to regret your purchase even if the game sucks, so I bought the game. My first Metal Gear game.

To be honest, I am a late bloomer when it comes to playing video games. Sure, my father bought me a PS1 when I was five,  but after a few session of FIFA World Cup 1998 and Road Rash, it was stowed away somewhere out of sight because I was considered too young to be playing video games. It wasn't until 2003, when I was in Standard 4 that I started gaming again. Even then, I was mostly playing games like Tekken, Time Crisis, Gran Turismo and Initial D, in another word games with the minimum amount of story.

Then, I played Snake Eater, I wish I could say that I was instantly mesmerized by the graphics and the story. But I was not. The intro cutscene about the Cuban Missile Crisis and whatnot and the radio chatter felt way too long for me, none of the game I've played in the past have done something like this. But I kept on watching those cutscenes, and then I reach the gameplay part in the Russian jungle of Tselinoyarsk.

With my EZ Gun (I played it on Very Easy and I am not ashamed to admit it), I realized I could put enemy to sleep, no game has ever done that, at least in my experience you HAD to kill the enemy, there is no other way around it. That is when I realized this game is something special. Not only could you put them to sleep, you can also choke them, interrogate them, slit their throat, push them to an electric fence, feed them to the crocodile (feed the crocodile a grenade), throw them off a cliff, blow them up, drown them and burn them. What's more, you can even fed one of the boss rotten animal meat to give him food poisoning hence draining his stamina bar, adjusting the PS2 internal clock two weeks ahead so one of the boss died of old age or kill him with a headshot much earlier in the game.

Even by today's standard, this kind of gameplay freedom is unparalleled, unmatched. Of course, I didn't discover all these feature in the first playthrough, and I certainly have lost count of how many times I've replayed the game. But still, back in 2006, the prologue alone have already captured my attention, and then the overlong story cutscene got better, way better. It become like a movie and eventually better than a movie, and by the end, I was in shock. Never in my 13 years old mind have I imagined that video game can tell a story so well.

Ask me about any movie I've watch in 2006, and surely I can tell you that I have already forgotten about it, but not Metal Gear Solid 3. A tales of betrayal, romance and loyalty with some of the best gameplay and best graphic (at the time) all roll into one of the best video game ever. This game made me curious about the real history of Cold War and the politics behind it. While other kids are busy playing DOTA in the cyber cafe, I was busy reading about Cold War on Wikipedia. Now that is what I call a great game, a game with a lasting impact on the player.

P/s: I also need to give credit to Pearl Harbor, for igniting the imagination on my eight years old self, and made me curious about how people live in the past. While other people hated Sejarah period in class, I am in loved with it. All because of Metal Gear and Pearl Harbor.