My good friend and our amazing editor Geoff Holland had the fortune (or perhaps misfortune) of reviewing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater last year. Having never played a Metal Gear Solid title, he was in for a surprise. MGS is far from the most user-friendly title around, and I'll be completely honest here. I love Metal Gear Solid and MGS 2: Sons of Liberty... and I gave up on MGS3. After playing so many third person action games with dual analog control I couldn't readjust back to what was once easy to play in the original Metal Gear Solid. I was crushed by this, as I was dying to find out about the legend of Big Boss - who Solid Snake was eventually cloned from - and discover what Ocelot was up to in his younger years, possibly even finding out why he is 100% dedicated to The Patriots and America in the modern day Metal Gear stories. Fortunately, there were enough people in the same jungle as myself and now MGS3 has returned in the guise of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, with an updated control scheme and camera - and it makes all the difference in the world.

If you've never played the original version, or don't know what it's about, then I suggest checking out Geoff's superb review. For those of you with a short attention span, here's the run down: Metal Gear Solid 3 takes place in 1964, long before the events of the original two Metal Gear titles, and even longer before the original Metal Gear Solid titles. Those of you who've played any of the four MG games know that you're playing as the infamous Big Boss. The Big Boss who was your commander in the first Metal Gear, who went on to betray his FOXHOUND unit and create Outer Heaven, a place where soldiers can go to be heroes, not tools of the government. In Metal Gear: Solid Snake, Big Boss was the final enemy in the game and apparently killed by Solid Snake. In the Metal Gear Solid titles we discover Solid Snake, Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake are all clones of the greatest soldier alive, Big Boss. He is nothing but an enigma who is referenced constantly but never seen again. With that in mind, playing Metal Gear Solid 3 is a truly exciting experience. MGS fans are shown why Big Boss is so infamous, why he betrayed FOXHOUND in the future games, why he is the 'Big Boss', and why he may not have become a bad guy at all, but instead an anti-hero standing sturdy on his beliefs. You know Metal Gear is always full of twists, and this game will twist you up in knots and leave you with your jaw dropped.

Watching the story unfold is truly gripping, especially when you know that there is going to be a huge surprise (and trust me, there are plenty in the game's final moments). MGS3 is not obvious, either; many things must be thought about and figured out (such as who The Boss and The Sorrow's son actually is... he's right under your nose the entire game, and it isn't Snake - if you don't figure it out the game certainly isn't going to figure it out for you!) The cinematics rival Hollywood blockbuster action scenes and have much more emotion and intensity, and as I said, the storyline is plain brilliant and in my opinion the best prequel I've ever seen, game or not. Of course, you really do need to play the other MG and MGS titles to fully enjoy it! So, get to it!

Now, Geoff's review makes it evident that the gameplay in MGS3 rocks. What didn't rock was the camera and controls. Before you start crying "it isn't Metal Gear without the top-down camera!" I'm here to tell you that it most definitely damn well is. The top down camera worked in the previous two Metal Gears because of two reasons - indoor buildings and radar. This game has very few indoor places and no radar anything like the two games before it. Those aren't bad things, but the camera needed to be adjusted so that we can actually see what Snake is seeing and move at the same time (which means the first person view doesn't cut it).

Luckily, the third person view and right analog stick camera control has been flawlessly worked into the game and works beautifully. Finally, I can carefully look around while in the brush. I can rotate the camera all around to check my surroundings. I can switch back to the classic camera when I'm inside - I can enjoy one of my favourite franchises of all time! New players will still struggle with the control scheme, which is very different from anything else nowadays, but once they adjust to it, this game is as playable as any other.

This isn't just MGS3 with a new camera though; players can now enjoy all the cinematic scenes without playing the story thanks to the Demo Theater, and there are also new camouflages that can be transferred to a memory card and used in the game. The second disc is full of great goodies, such as absolutely hilarious parodies of the in-game cinematics (previously available on the MGS website), new (Solid) Snake vs. Monkey missions, a mode where you can replay all the boss fights at high difficulties, bonus MGS4: Guns of the Patriots trailers and even the entire two original games upon which the Metal Gear Solid series is based, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, for those of you who either didn't play the original titles or perhaps weren't even around then! Best of all though, is the brand new ONLINE MODE!

Metal Gear Online? On the PS2? Surely it's crap! I admit, I didn't think it could be pulled off very well... but I'll happily eat my words, because it's bloody brilliant. Eight players can log onto lag free servers that seem to never disconnect randomly like most other PlayStation 2 online titles. It works beautifully and almost everything you do in single player is possible online. Players can lean against walls, peak around corners, hide in boxes, dive, use third and first person aiming, crawl across the ground and use a variety of weapons and tools found in single player.

Modes include Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, the latter of which allows the highest ranked player on the team to play as a special character from the main game (Raikov or Ocelot) and the lowest ranked plays as Sokalov (complete with stealth suit, as he takes damage easier than other players). Bonus players from Konami's Rumble Roses series make an unfortunate appearance and do their best to completely cripple what balance the gameplay has, but luckily they don't show up too much.

Other modes featured are Stealth, where one player controls Snake equipped with almost all the gadgets from the game (including stealth) and a huge lifebar as he tries to capture a Microfilm and return it to base, while all other players chase him and the one that kills him plays as Snake in the next round. Capture and Rescue modes round out the list, both in which teams are either trying to obtain an item or are defending it. Metal Gear Online is a superb start for what could be the next big online franchise, and with a little more polish it will be truly great. A warning though: the learning curve is astonishingly high and you will get frustrated with it when starting out!

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence is a great retooling of the original, with plenty of extras to justify even an owner of Snake Eater to pick it up. I'm sure they're probably looking for an excuse to go out and play MGS3 again anyway, so here it is! All the great cut scenes, hidden gags and cinematics, excellent boss characters, superb story and tie-ins with the modern games, and the crumbling of the fourth wall can finally be enjoyed with a camera system that actually works, complete with a more fitting control scheme. All the extras are very entertaining and then online mode is nearly flawless; Metal Gear Solid has returned to glory as not only one of, if not the best story in video gaming, but also as one of the best playing games. Now equip the best camo you can find, sneak into your local store, procure your copy of the game and get out of there ASAP. Your PS2's life may depend on it! GO GO GO!*

*Do not steal, sneak, grab, crawl, hide in a box, hold up, threaten, or do anything other than pay for MGS3: Subsistence in a friendly and courteous manner. And definitely no taking hostages!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).