The popular PS2 game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater almost got an extremely long boss fight. The game’s director, Hideo Kojima, came up with an outlandish idea that would have cost players two weeks of gameplay. And we’re not talking about “in-game weeks”, but about calendar weeks.
Who is Kojima? The well-known Japanese developer Hideo Kojima is known for his unconventional ideas and the distinctive style that the games he creates show. His games from the Metal Gear series are considered legendary and milestones in gaming development.
However, some of Kojima’s ideas are a little too unconventional, such as one of his ideas for the game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The popular game came out for the PS2 in 2004 and is set before the events of its predecessors.
However, Kojima planned to incorporate a special idea into his game. Players would have had to despair of a single boss fight for almost 2 real weeks if the developer had had his way. Snake’s original voice actor, David Hayter, talked about this in a video.
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This boss fight is about: The setting of MGS3 is an alternate past in the 1960s, during the Cold War. Players take on the role of CIA agent Naked Snake who must rescue a Russian scientist and destroy an experimental superweapon.
One of the boss fights in the game is against an opposing agent called The End. He is a legendary sniper that players must find in a large area that spans three zones. They are repeatedly shot at by him and have to work out where he is using clues such as footprints and the direction of the darts from The End.
Sniper Duel should be as realistic as possible
Hayter says: In a video from the gaming trivia channel “Did You Know Gaming” on YouTube, voice actor David Hayter shared a story about how the fight against The End was originally supposed to last for 2 weeks. Because it was meant to replicate the excruciatingly long, deadly game of hide-and-seek between snipers in the real world:
[…] During development, Kojima fell in love with the stories of writer Stephen Hunter, whose books The Master Sniper and Point of Impact were about snipers in Bergen trying to take out each other.
Kojima’s idea was that Snake’s fight against The End should be as close to an actual sniper fight as it could be. It should have played out over a period of two real-time weeks.
David Hayter
Players should have used their surroundings to stay hidden and silent. At the same time, they should have looked for clues as to where The End is hiding in order to land the perfect sniper shot.
The developers on Kojima’s team had to read Hunter’s books to get a better idea of the fight between two snipers. Her boss even dragged her into the mountains himself for “real training.”
The crazy thing is that this bossfight actually made it to the prototype stage. It really was part of the playable build at one point. However, when it came to the tests of the fight, no one could beat the old man [The End] locate. Numerous players have spent hours searching for The End and found nothing. […]
David Hayter
Kojima’s outlandish idea did not resonate with his peers. They found the combat extremely boring and frustrating because it blocked progression through the game. The team even booed the developer for it.
This is how it went: While the idea for the battle didn’t make it into the final game, traces of it can still be found in MGS 3. The boss fight against The End is a shorter version of Kojima’s idea and can be completed in different ways:
A little tongue in cheek that 2 weeks of gameplay is a little too long for a single boss fight.
How do you like the idea of Kojima? Do you find realism in games exciting and desirable or not? Tell us in the comments.
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