I got the Metal Gear Solid HD collection on an XBox Live sale and I'm a few hours in, my first time playing. I'm up to the part where you have to take out 8 guards around the old warehouse.

I'm vaguely interested in the story, but I kind of think the combat and controls are terrible. Is this something I'm going to get used to? Is it worth it? Or should I just watch all the cutscenes on YouTube?

play it. why would you watch all of a kojima game on youtube? the stories are dumb and make no sense

If you don't feel like struggling through, a couple SA posters, Chip and Ironicus, did a fantastic LP of it a while back. If you don't give a shit but want to know what happens and still get an idea of the gameplay, they do a good job of both showing it off and being really funny.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrekaHLD2rhbekQxP_Pt1O_KVTcSgVVMU

Played it last year for the first time, fucking fantastic game. Worth playing.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is one of the ones in the series worth playing, yes.

Um, yes, it's worth playing. It's possible it's not for you, but it's definitely not a game just to watch on youtube. It's an actual videogame with gameplay that many people have enjoyed.

Depends. What's your opinion of this?

Metal Gear Solid 3 is the Kojima game that makes the most sense even with all its supernatural boss shit.

Definitely worth playing. Although, I'd recommend the Subsistence version (I think that's the one?) or better yet, pick up the MGS HD Collection. The camera is much better in the updated Subsistence version if I recall correctly.

no argument here! i liked the story in all the MGS games except for 4, and I think 3 is easily the best one. i was using hyperbole in my first post (hyperbole on the internet???) to urge this guy to play them because the idea of someone watching MGS3 on youtube and thinking that they've absorbed the game is offensive to me

Absolutely. I played it last year and now it's one of my favourite games. For bonus enjoyment watch the Chip and Ironicus LP episodes after you complete each segment to see the stuff you missed and other fun things.

I did revisit it when I bought the MGS Legacy Collection a few months back and it is really worth playing for the bosses and the final 1/3 of the story. Even if the gameplay doesn't interest you it's still worth slogging through imo.

It did take me a little while to adjust to the controls in MGS2 & 3. It kinda was a chore at times to play this go around despite how fond of those games I was several years back.

It's the best in the series.

You just have to find a groove with the controls and remember how things were different back then. But you shouldn't struggle through it, if you really can't stand playing it then maybe watch it. I guess my advice would be to get as far as you can in the game and dont feel bad about dropping the game and picking up a youtube stream around where you stopped. How much you enjoy the youtube video is related to how much you like the story.

It is a very good game even with its supernatural content it is a focused game. I put this along side MGS 1 as the best MGS games made in my opinion.

The magic of Metal Gear Solid is best experienced by oneself, and watching someone commentate over it doesn't sound like a fun time to me.

Yes, it is. It's arguably the best MGS game. The controls are not as refined as MGS4 or Peace Walker but you can get used to it soon enough.

Spread your wings and fly. 鳥になって来いッ！

You should play it. Recently replayed it on vita and enjoyed it, though its story isn't as good as I remember. I actually prefer 2 and 4 to 3, which is blasphemy on the internet, but fuck it! I like insane conspiracy shit and nanomachines.

I REALLY liked this game back in the day.

But earlier this year, when I wanted to relive MGS2 and MGS3, I just watched all the cut-scenes online. I don't think (especially in my case, after playing MGS4, with vastly improved controls) that MGS3 would hold up. Specifically because of the controls.

Also, I think you can get all the best parts from just watching cut-scenes online. And there's something like 5 hours worth of cut-scenes.

EDIT: I think @yummylee did some blog a year or two ago where he tried to go back and play the game, but it went poorly! (I apologize if that wasn't you, yummylee, just ignore this and move along!)

Best Metal Gear game, absolutely.

I'M STILLLLL IN A DREAAAAAAAAAAAAM, SNAKE EATERRRRRRR.

Hmm... the old warehouse, near the start with Ocelot? Yeah, definitely keep playing it. I say, at least go up to a little over half way and see what you think from there.

It's incredible, play it!

Somehow I plowed through MGS4 a year or two after it came out and loved it, but I just can't seem to get through any of the others. I'll have to try again given that I have the HD collection laying around somewhere.

Tree frog! D:

Being the only Metal Gear game worth playing on the sixth generation of consoles, I'd say go for it and then be disappointed when you move on to Peace Walker HD or back to MGS2. Hell, if I could go back and skip any game/games in the package, I'd have went straight to diamond that is Snake Eater and avoided the shitty ass rough of the other two.

Play it!

watch this LP http://chipandironicus.com/videos/mgs3/, don't watch a terrible youtube LP.

It's the best Metal Gear game. But if you do just want to watch it, the already mentioned Chip and Ironicus is on par or better than experiencing it on your own.

Am I the only one who feels the controls got worse with MGS4? (Obviously not, but I have yet to see anyone agree with me on these boards) Anyway, give it a bit more time. There's a learning curve, sure, but as long as you take it slow and survey the enviroment you should be alright. Whatever you do dont just Youtube the cutscenes, if you have to resort to Lets Play's do that, because a lot of the cutscenes require context that's provided during gameplay.

Play it, if only for the ladder fight.

If Metal Gear Solid 3 isn't worth playing then none of the Metal Gear games are worth playing because it's far and away the best in the series.

The story makes complete sense in 3, I don't believe you've played it. It almost feels like a sidestory in that sense its actually pretty straightforward aside from the bosses with supernatural powers. And YES its worth playing as I only played it myself a couple years ago.

@boozak said:

I'd be surprised if someone agrees with you on this to be honest :p People don't agree with me sometimes either. As I said in my post, you get used to the controls but it's not ideal. The problem is not the game's difficulty which in fact is very easy. Even back then the controls weren't good. A simple crouch would make the game a lot more fun (3DS version). At least you could controls the camera on the re-release. That itself made the game so much better. That's not to say MGS4 controls are brilliant either.

For me the best stealth game controls at the time were from Splinter Cell games and they got it right from the start. They were so easy to grasp even though you could do a lot of things.

Yes, it is very much worth playing. It was my first metal gear, and I loved it.

I played this game for the first time over the summer, and it's definitely still worth playing. If you play on easy it's pretty quick. Just knock it out!

It is definitely worth playing. It's the most interesting game world to explore in any MGS game, in my opinion (although I haven't played 4 yet, but that doesn't look so interesting).

You can't get the same sense of immersion from watching a video.

Kids today without your complaints about tight controls and frame rates.

If you're even asking this question, you're probably not going to like it. You'll probably hate it even more because everyone else likes it so much. Don't waste your time on experiences that you're not enjoying.

Fellas it's a year and a half old thread. :p

About a year after I started this thread I took another crack at playing the game and loved it. If you're getting frustrated by the controls and stuff its worth pushing yourself over the hump, its still a great fucking game. Also try experimenting with the different camera options. I actually preferred the top-down camera for some reason.

Glad to hear that you got over your initial impressions and enjoyed it. I too found that I used the overhead camera more often than the free camera. The free camera is too disorienting in some areas I find.

And the fact that the answer is still YES says something!