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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost Perfect, December 9, 2004
This review is from: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
Metal Gear Solid 3 is an incredible game no matter how you play it. But go through it without some help and you're bound to miss something. This guide is almost perfect in everyway possible. But there are some troubling things that keep this guide down a little.
First of all, this tome is jampacked with tons of helpful tips. Everything you need in the opening pages to know about the game is there. The guide details on all the basics of CQC. From the basics to the advanced tactics. You'll be a master of CQC. The guide also spends a lot of time detailing everything about the food.
The food section tells you if you can use it on enemies or not and how. They also tell you how it taste and whether its worth eating or not. The cure section tells you all you need to cure wounds and how to do it.
The walkthrough is very well written. Each section has a detailed set of maps, the location of every guard and the location of every item. It's very well written too, with EXCELLENT boss strategies that help out really well. Each portion of the walkthrough is broken down by area rather than objective. This is great in the sense that it's more organized. The walkthrough is actually done really well with great tactics. This is easily one of the most well written walkthroughs I've ever read.
The Easter Eggs and secrets are really cool. They go into detail on some of the better ones and talk about the bonuses and such. The secrets chapter is also done well. Alongside that, the Snake vs. Monkeys is also done really well. Each strategy to take on the monkeys helps you get excellent times and even first place assuming you take them in the recommended orders.
Then there's the stuff after the meat of the game. The interviews are spectacular and help you learn more than anything about the production of the game and the MGS series. After that there's an excerpt from the Konami Comic Book of Metal Gear Solid. This is an incredible comic. It may actually make you want to by the series.
But the guide isn't without a few faults. For one, the walkthrough is only written for Normal mode. There are areas where there are more guards and such and the guide doesn't talk about that. What's the difference between playing the game on Normal and Extreme? You'd be surprised how many hardcore MGS fans just jump to Hard Mode without ever touching the lower difficulty levels.
The guide also mentions that there are "secret" frequencies to call but they never tell you what the frequency is! They mention that you have to interrogate a guard in order to get it. But they still don't detail what the frequency is or what it does...
Then there's the biggy (and the reason five stars was an impossible feet), there are several easter eggs and secrets missing! They don't mention that you can get the EZ Gun on other difficulty levels nor do they mention anything of the infinity face paint. Not only that but they never mention how it is you're supposed to come across certain ranks. All the ranks are listed but how do I get say... the "FOX" ranking? The guide doesn't detail it.
It really is a good guide, almost perfect. But the small tidbits (and the one rather large rat) are annoying at times. I wish it was a bit more detailed on some of the secrets and gave more insight for the different difficulty levels.
Either way though, this is the perfect MGS3 companion. You shouldn't have any trouble getting through the game without it. It'll help you conquer the game and even master it at some point. But be warned that this guide is only good for its walkthrough and not much else.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
an extremely helpful guide for a challenging game, March 4, 2005
This review is from: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
Bradygames brings us this strategy guide for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for the Playstation 2. This is a fairly large paperback edition and is filled with details about the game and color screenshots from the game. The most important thing to note about this guide is that it only covers the walkthrough of the game on the "Normal" difficulty setting. While the maps would be the same on "Easy" or "Hard", the number of enemies and their locations would change on the more challenging difficulties. The location of certain items may also change, but this guide does not cover any other difficulty but "Normal". Since I played through the game on "Normal" mode, I can speak for how helpful it was for that difficulty.
The first thing to note is that this guide is packed with information. The guide begins by covering all of the items, weapons, camouflage, and different fighting techniques. Everything is listed at the start of the guide. This is very nice, but I didn't find myself flipping back to check out the techniques or items. I just used whatever basic moves that I could remember and worked my way through the game and took whatever came my way.
The real reason to buy a guide, however, is the walkthrough of the game. Before every section of the game, this guide includes a map of the area and small diagrams of where the enemies are and what sort of patrol pattern that they walk. This is helpful, but not nearly as much as it was in the guide for Metal Gear Solid 2. The problem here is simply that instead of being inside a building the entire game, the player is mostly outside in a forest or swamp. So, while the guards may walk a particular pattern it was difficult to determine just where you are on the map. What the map truly helped with was to give a general idea of where the enemies are, how many, and a general idea of where the items are. The text walkthrough (with some screenshots) is where the true value of this guide is. The text is clear in where you are, where you are going, and what you have to face. I've been playing video games for at least fifteen years, but Metal Gear Solid 3 is a challenging game without a walkthrough. The boss strategies are also quite helpful and helped me to beat them (as well as helped me defeat a couple of bosses with only the tranquilizer dart).
There is also a section which covers little "Easter Eggs", like hidden posters and figurines which reference previous Metal Gear games. It isn't terribly important, but it does add a little extra flavor. There is also a walkthrough of the Snake Vs Monkey mini-game (which I didn't bother playing).
Without this guide I would have missed many items (I have no doubt about that), been spotted by guards more often than I was (which was often), been killed many more times than I was (very few times), and spent quite a bit more time than the 24 hours that it took me to conquer the game. While this guide could have been more clear and helpful with maps and enemy locations, it was invaluable in getting me through this game. The guide is probably not essential to get the player through this game, but I have to say that it helps a lot.
-Joe Sherry
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Perfect Guide for the Perfect Game, September 28, 2008
This review is from: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)
I purchased the Essential Collection, and, I must say, it is also excellent. This guide has a detailed walkthrough, bonus section, items and weapons listing. The boss strategy is also excellent, along with the food listing, and it completely explains how to cure every wound or sickness. I highly recommend it.
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