Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D

The gameplay of Snake Eater is similar to that of previous games in the Metal Gear Solid series. Snake, controlled by the player, must move undetected through a hostile, enemy-filled environment. Although Snake acquires various weapons (ranging from handguns to rocket-propelled grenades), the emphasis is on using stealth to avoid confrontations. Many objects and gadgets can be found along the way to aid in this, including motion detectors to track hostile soldiers, and the Metal Gear series' trademark cardboard box, which Snake can hide under to avoid visual detection.

Despite the fundamental similarities, Snake Eater introduces many new aspects of gameplay not present in previous Metal Gear games, including camouflage, a new hand-to-hand combat system called "close quarters combat" or "CQC", a stamina gauge, and an injury-and-treatment system.

Snake Eater takes place in an alternate history of events, set within the Cold War during the 1960s. The game's story acts as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series, exploring the origins of several events covered by previous games, as well as being the first chronological chapter in an overarching story following Big Boss.

The protagonist of Snake Eater, Naked Snake (David Hayter/Akio Ōtsuka), known as Big Boss in subsequent games, is a young former Green Beret assigned to the CIA unit FOX. During his mission, Snake is assisted by fellow FOX members over his radio: Major Zero (Jim Piddock/Banjō Ginga), commander of FOX and a former member of the British Special Air Service (SAS), who provides Snake with mission advice and battle tactics; Para-Medic (Heather Halley/Houko Kuwashima), who provides medical information, as well as advice on flora and fauna; and Sigint (James C. Mathis III/Keiji Fujiwara), who provides weapon and equipment information.

Initially, the game was supposed to be developed for the then-upcoming PlayStation 3, but due to the long wait for the console, the development was moved back for the PlayStation 2 instead. From the outset, the game's director Hideo Kojima wished to drastically change the setting from previous games. He stated that the jungle setting is what both his development team, and the Metal Gear fans, wanted. However, he acknowledged that the elements of a jungle environment, such as the weather, landscape, and wildlife, were features that would present problems during the game's development. Whereas in previous installments the player started close to, or even within, the enemy base, Kojima wished for Snake Eater to be more realistic, with Snake starting miles from civilization and having to work his way to the enemy encampment.

Kojima asked Yoji Shinkawa to make Naked Snake similar to Solid Snake. However, unlike Solid Snake, Naked Snake was a rookie and thus acted more naïvely. Shinkawa stated he had no difficulties in designing Naked Snake as essentially a revised version of Solid Snake. As a result, Naked Snake is virtually identical to Solid Snake from the previous Metal Gear Solid games in terms of appearance.

Snake Eater was a commercial success, selling 2.38 million units in Asia and America by December 2004, and 3.6 million copies worldwide by August 2005. This was considerably lower than Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which had sold 7 million copies. Snake Eater sales increased to over 3.7 million units by September 2005, and more than four million units sold worldwide as of March 2010. In Japan, Subsistence sold 133,339 copies and Snake Eater 3D sold 79,284 copies.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Gaming website IGN awarded a 9.6/10 and Edge rated it 8/10. GameSpot, who granted it an 8.7/10, commented that the game is "richly cinematic" and "a great achievement". GameSpy hailed it as "probably the best Metal Gear Solid game yet", and Eurogamer called it "overwhelmingly superior to MGS2: Sons of Liberty" in their review.

Snake Eater was developed as a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series, and was followed by several direct sequels: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. In 2011, Kojima revealed that he floated the idea of a Metal Gear Solid 5 set during the World War II invasion of Normandy, showing The Boss and Cobra Unit's assistance in the fight. However, the team was hesitant about such a big project and Kojima later felt that "simply dropping MGS5 on the younger staff members was a bit heavy." Although the ending of Metal Gear Solid 3 reveals Naked Snake was given the Big Boss title, Kojima stated "he's not really the Big Boss yet". With Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, he wanted to explain how Naked Snake became the man who appeared in the original Metal Gear games as Solid Snake's enemy.

The game has since been listed on several "Best of ..." lists by video-gaming publications. In 2009, IGN placed Subsistence at number 3 on its "The Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time" list. GamePro listed Snake Eater and Subsistence at 8th place on its list of "The 36 Best PS2 Games" in 2010.