Stealth games often try to set up situations where the devs want players to sneak by foes, but commonly struggle with finding good rewards. This sequence felt like great "just desserts" mechanically and creatively speaking. In terms of story, I like how this sequence implies that Snake isn't a monster. That any life he takes follows him in spirit. This is legitimately haunting to me and I haven't seen anything really like it since. Mechanically, this sequence rewards stealthy players with a much deserved easier "battle," gives anyone that was killing folks left and right a reason to think twice about it the next time they want to pull the trigger, and very clearly communicates why players were getting the experience they did. This is fantastic narrative design. But the best reason for why this sequence is the way that it is gets very spoilery...
In a game like MGS3, players have sooo many tempting options to completely destroy people, so why shouldn't they just kill every person they see? This question is central to MGS3 from the start and it is something the dev team needed players to think about as much as possible before reaching the story's climax. If killing characters in a videogame is meaningless, or worse considered to be "fun," The Boss' death and effectively the entire game is frivolous. To me, The Sorrow is a unique and interestingly nonviolent sequence that helps bring meaning and just a little bit of depth to everything around it.
My least favorite things about Metal Gear...
Series wide: Misogyny.
1 - Meryl.
2 - The bait and switch. It's never going to feel like a good moment.
3 - Killing a certain character, that I feel a lot of folks will want to kill, at the beginning of the game ends with Time Paradox instant game over. Feels like a missed opportunity to do something really bonkers/weird here, even if it was a short sequence. The instant game over felt cheap.
4 - Johnny is not nearly as funny as the writers thought he was. Meryl (again). Only learning anything about the Beauty and The Beast Unit until after boss fights robbed the characters of any chance to be remotely interesting.
5 - Quiet: Kojima should feel ashamed of his words and deeds. The excessive chopper rides the start/end missions. Feels weird that it's close to being a real open-world game, but then isn't?
