This review contains spoilers
MGS3 is by all means a great follow up to the masterpiece that was Metal Gear Solid 2 doubling down on all the things that made the gameplay fun while also coming up with new ideas that feel incredibly welcome, and a perfect way to end off the trilogy while also get gears turning for more.
Level design is pretty strong with the levels feeling like these jungle environments and military bases while still being linear enough to consistently know where to go, and every single part of the level is designed with all the mechanics in mind and are full of secrets to look for.
New mechanics like the CQC, Camo, Stamina/Hunting and durability all work quite well, CQC (outside of control issues that come with the PS2/3 versions exclusively) feels great to use and feels a lot more natural than just slamming the guy to the ground and then moving him every time.
The Camo system is absolutely stellar albeit it'd be nice to have some more exact numbers on what the percentages mean for enemy visibility ranges,
Stamina works surprisingly well and feels totally natural for the series and the hunting is a really fun mechanic especially due to how game-like it really is, no handicaps due to realism or anything.
The durability just works fine, It prevents the game from being entirely cheesed if you just hit tranq shots over and over, adding some sort of punishment for spamming shots and not looting at all, It can feel a bit frustrating losing all suppressed weapons though as looting becomes vastly harder and can feel very tedious.
Boss fights are really fun, challenging you to master certain mechanics of the game such as stealth, aiming and general weapon handling, though the final few are a bit more frustrating and dull.
Story is just amazing, you can really feel the Bond style coming from every little beat, but still keeping the military espionage, plot twists, emotional moments, politics symbolism, and humor that makes the series so great.
Over-all the game has a very consistent quality, but continues the trope of having the final act filled with the worst moments of the game, MGS1 had the backtracking and waiting with the keycards leading up to the very irritating or boring final boss fights, MGS2 had the part where you run around naked and unarmed and then the miserable boss fight with all the Metal Gear Rays, and MGS3 leaves it off the worst with a boss fight where you just wait for the boss to turn around and shoot, then a car chase, into another fight where you wait for the boss to be spun around and shoot him in the back, but this time with 2 separate phases, and THEN the horrible escort with EVA, and THEN finally the worst boss in the game, The Boss, who throws away everything you've learned about the game to instead force you to run around in circles, attempt a counter that you're not even told exists, and then spam buttons if that doesn't work and then shoot when they're on the ground, rinse and repeat (as well as being not only one of the few areas in the game with a forced fixed camera, but a bad one at that!) thankfully the game has about an hour left of story afterwards to settle any frustrations from that point though, and leaves you off with some of the best scenes in the series.
Overall, as with everything in the trilogy, a must play even for non series fans.
Level design is pretty strong with the levels feeling like these jungle environments and military bases while still being linear enough to consistently know where to go, and every single part of the level is designed with all the mechanics in mind and are full of secrets to look for.
New mechanics like the CQC, Camo, Stamina/Hunting and durability all work quite well, CQC (outside of control issues that come with the PS2/3 versions exclusively) feels great to use and feels a lot more natural than just slamming the guy to the ground and then moving him every time.
The Camo system is absolutely stellar albeit it'd be nice to have some more exact numbers on what the percentages mean for enemy visibility ranges,
Stamina works surprisingly well and feels totally natural for the series and the hunting is a really fun mechanic especially due to how game-like it really is, no handicaps due to realism or anything.
The durability just works fine, It prevents the game from being entirely cheesed if you just hit tranq shots over and over, adding some sort of punishment for spamming shots and not looting at all, It can feel a bit frustrating losing all suppressed weapons though as looting becomes vastly harder and can feel very tedious.
Boss fights are really fun, challenging you to master certain mechanics of the game such as stealth, aiming and general weapon handling, though the final few are a bit more frustrating and dull.
Story is just amazing, you can really feel the Bond style coming from every little beat, but still keeping the military espionage, plot twists, emotional moments, politics symbolism, and humor that makes the series so great.
Over-all the game has a very consistent quality, but continues the trope of having the final act filled with the worst moments of the game, MGS1 had the backtracking and waiting with the keycards leading up to the very irritating or boring final boss fights, MGS2 had the part where you run around naked and unarmed and then the miserable boss fight with all the Metal Gear Rays, and MGS3 leaves it off the worst with a boss fight where you just wait for the boss to turn around and shoot, then a car chase, into another fight where you wait for the boss to be spun around and shoot him in the back, but this time with 2 separate phases, and THEN the horrible escort with EVA, and THEN finally the worst boss in the game, The Boss, who throws away everything you've learned about the game to instead force you to run around in circles, attempt a counter that you're not even told exists, and then spam buttons if that doesn't work and then shoot when they're on the ground, rinse and repeat (as well as being not only one of the few areas in the game with a forced fixed camera, but a bad one at that!) thankfully the game has about an hour left of story afterwards to settle any frustrations from that point though, and leaves you off with some of the best scenes in the series.
Overall, as with everything in the trilogy, a must play even for non series fans.