THATS RIGHT BABY!!! I DID ALL THREE IN ONE MONTH!! I CAUGHT FLU AND SMASHED THIS OUT WHILE I WAS OFF WORK!!! wHAT A THRIIIIILLL
alright enough of that.. this one had me Doubtful in the beginning. i dont love some of the level design in this and it was difficult to adjust to the new setting and mechanics, like the camouflage and catching animals. plus, i dont think that the codec characters are as good as they have been in previous games. but these things didnt stop me from enjoying the game too much (and in hindsight, i should be grateful for the codec conversations i did get. this is about mgs4. we'll get to that)
by the time i had finished the game i knew it was going to be imprinted on my brain in the same way the other two are, i was so happy with how it all culminated. this is a super cinematic game and is just as ambitious as the first two in that sense. i know its a matter of preference but i love this aspect of it. i also really liked the music, although now only a couple of tracks truly stand out. like that one... oh what's it called.. you know! that one... ahh its like... snake.. snacker? i don't know
baby twink ocelot is something i did not know i needed in my life but i absolutely did. hes my favourite iteration of ocelot (so far..?) but it took some time for him to grow on me. same with eva, who i ended up REALLY liking by the end. because she is a nice girl who wants to kiss me (snake (me)). big boss have two hands
yeah anyways thats it. not as much depth gameplay wise but packed with lore and story and Themes™. i love it's stylisation as a Bond type story, complete with a Bond theme and intro and a Bond girl (ocelot)
smashin game. good chicken, i play this game.. not for honour.... but for youuuuu

While I enjoyed the story and setting of Snake Eater, I found myself mostly frustrated with the gameplay. I never felt as incompetent in MGS1 or 2 as I did in this game. I straight-up fumbled my way through the entire game, and I found that largely to blame to the removal of the radar map that shows enemy movement and placement, like in the first two games. Sure, you get a motion radar, but it is tremendously more difficult to read compared to the radar maps in the original MGS or Sons of Liberty. I understand that they likely went with this approach to make it more appropriate to the technology of the 1960's; but for me, it just felt like the removal of a key system that helped me successfully navigate through these games. I think I set off alerts in nearly every single area I entered because I just could not accurately determine where enemy placement was. I don't really blame this on the game, I just blame it on my sheer inability to adapt to what this title was demanding from me. Still, that doesn't mean I wasn't any less frustrated. Regardless, the game allowed me to progress through most of the game like a bull in a china shop, which I am thankful for, because it could have been even more frustrating otherwise. The progress never really felt satisfying though, because I never really felt like I was playing Snake due to how badly I was fumbling through each area -- I might as well have been playing as Austin Powers.

Outside of the stealth gameplay, I did quite enjoy the survival aspects of the game. Gathering food to maintain your stamina gauge, utilizing different camouflage, treating wounds -- these were all things I mostly enjoyed.
Though, I must admit, having to frequently open the somewhat-slow opening menus to access these functions was a tad bit annoying. I also can't say I was a huge fan of the newly-added limited inventory space either, which also forced you to constantly go into the menus to manage.

Overall, despite my gripes and frustrations, I still enjoyed the game overall, and I loved the story and characters just as I did in the previous titles. I think I would have enjoyed the gameplay aspects more had I actually understood what I needed to do to be proficient. Otherwise, having come off replaying Sons of Liberty, I found that the story was much more grounded in Snake Eater, which I did appreciate. Toward the end of the game, I kept waiting for Kojima to reveal some bat shit crazy twist that melted my mind, but it never happened, and I was pleasantly surprised.

In the future, I would like to play through Snake Eater again, possibly after I've gathered enough information as to how to competently stealth my way through the game. I think once I understand what exactly I was doing wrong and started to actually feel like I'm in the shoes of Snake, I will probably rate this game much higher. But for now, I can't look past the level of frustration that I experienced.