6 Prequel Games That Didn’t Disappoint
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Everything in the Metal Gear franchise comes back to the actions of Big Boss. The original games, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, focused on him primarily as the main antagonist, but the reverberations of his actions and his ideology would be felt throughout the rest of the series. When it was announced that they were going to be doing a prequel with Big Boss as the protagonist, I was immediately worried; my mind jumped to the Star Wars prequel series, and Kojima potentially ruining the intrigue behind the character by overexplaining, like George Lucas did with Darth Vader.
What we got from the game, however, was not that at all. It turned out to be Bond-esque spy thriller with a story that could stand on its own two feet, without any indication of what went on in the previous Metal Gear games. It told a personal story of betrayal between a mentor and her pupil, while having a larger story of a nuclear threat set during the cold war period. Kojima managed to put together a compelling story that made you care and identify with the primary antagonist of the franchise. Ultimately, it made you understand what made Big Boss the character he is in the later games of the series.
It’s not all story though, MGS 3 also has some of the most interesting boss battles and gameplay design, where you be your own field medic and sustain yourself off of the fruits and animals available in the wilderness. The boss battles and a cast of bosses are very similar to those of Metal Gear Solid, with small changes that make them more intriguing in my opinion.
The End might be one of my favorite boss battles of any game or series, yet he’s one you can bypass completely by just setting your PlayStation’s clock ahead a few weeks. MGS 3 is just a perfect example of what good you can do for a series by going back and exploring characters that you may not have thought much of, or just felt general disdain for.
