Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater bosses ranked in time for Delta

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Metal Gear Solid: Delta is finally here, a faithful recreation of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which has already received universal acclaim from fans and critics. For those unaware, you take on Naked Snake, a US agent who’s sent to sabotage the Soviets’ plans during the Cold War, where he must face off against his own mentor and the fearsome Cobra Unit. 

It’s this memorable team of bosses that originally helped cement Snake Eater as one of the best sequels/prequels of all time. So, now that Delta is here, we’re going to take a look back at the original game’s bosses and rank them until we reach the best. Remember, this list is for the boss fights in Snake Eater – and so we can see how they measure up in the remake.

The Escapist recaps

• The Metal Gear series began in 1987, with the first entry arriving on NES, MS-DOS, MSX, and other platforms.
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater first debuted in 2004 on PlayStation 2, developed by Konami, and is chronologically the first entry in the whole series.
• The title is still regarded as one of the best games of all time, thanks to its story, innovative gameplay, music, and more.
• The remake, Metal Gear Solid: Delta, came out on August 26 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Bosses Ranked

9. The Sorrow

Two-thirds of the way through the game, Snake gets knocked out, and you find him on the plane between life and death. Starting at one end of a river, implied to be the River Styx, you have to slowly wade through, but there’s a rather grisly catch.

While traversing the water, you’re forced to reckon with the hostile spirits of everyone you’ve killed in the game so far. Some will try to harm you, so it’s a case of avoiding them while they try to take their vengeance from the afterlife. 

As for The Sorrow himself, he presides over this reckoning, serving as your judge, and while your victims try to serve as your collective executioners. You can’t do anything to battle The Sorrow directly. Instead, you have to get to the end of the river, avoiding the undead, until Snake wakes up. 

It’s not really a boss fight in the traditional sense, but it’s a poignant reminder that the enemies you kill in Snake Eater are people, and it makes the player think twice about being so bloodthirsty as they continue their mission.

8. Colonel Volgin

Colonel Volgin is Snake Eater’s main villain, who’s far less interesting than his Cobra Unit allies, and, for the game’s Big Bad, feels rather one-dimensional by comparison. The Soviet colonel, who’s imbued with enhanced strength and electric powers, tortures Snake and Eva halfway through the game until they escape and take the fight to him.

This battle can be a frustrating one throughout, as it can seem impossible to avoid his lightning attacks, and he will heal himself significantly by recharging at a nearby power box. Eventually, after unloading on him with bullets from assault rifles and pistols, he’ll go down. Granted, it’s a necessary fight for the story, but it’s a rare moment in the game where you just want it over with.

Volgin feels like a bad guy for the sake of a bad guy, rather than the layered and complex antagonists MGS is known for. 

7. Ocelot

In what feels like a poetic touch, much like the first boss of Metal Gear Solid 1, you encounter Ocelot as the first boss in Snake Eater, but a younger version of the triple-agent, who is yet to earn the ‘Revolver’ moniker. With a chasm between you, Snake has to aim and shoot at him as fast as possible, all whilst avoiding his accurate shots, as well as those that he can make bounce into corners.

There are some nice touches here, such as being able to shoot beehives onto Ocelot, distracting him, thereby giving you a chance to shoot. It’s a simple fight, but a memorable one, and for players who have been with the series since the original PlayStation entry, there’ll be some nostalgia to enjoy here, too.

For Metal Gear lore enthusiasts, though, this fight is the start of a very long and complicated relationship between the two characters, and for those who stem from their genetic legacy. 

6. The Pain

After defeating Ocelot, Snake falls into the crevice, trying to find a way out in a maze of caves, water, and amphibians. Soon enough, he faces The Pain, the first of the Cobra Unit. He uses these insects in a bunch of ways, such as a Tommy Gun, bombs, and an armored vest to protect against most attacks.

This fight is where the environment helps Snake again to win. By diving into the water, players can avoid getting injured by the hornets and can collect items, as well as fish to keep Snake’s stamina up. Items like smoke and flame grenades will keep the hornets off The Pain, giving opportunities to end the fight quickly. It’s a fun one, and it gives you hints towards how the game will offer the environment to your advantage.

The Pain is a fitting first boss, but possibly the least interesting and fleshed-out member of the Cobra Unit. But he’s a great way to introduce the concept of characters who’ve quite literally begun to personify their code names to a possibly supernatural degree.

5. The Fear

Fast and agile like a spider but able to grab objects thanks to his extra-long tongue, much like a lizard, The Fear ramps things up a notch with a section of the forest laid with booby traps and pits. Armed with two poisonous crossbows, you have to spot him quickly as he jumps from tree to tree like a spider monkey.

But there are other ways to defeat him, highlighting the innovations that the game offers. For instance, taking the Death Pill, which makes Snake fake his death, brings The Fear out of hiding, showing disappointment that he couldn’t give a longer fight. By being revived, you can quickly take him out. Another is by throwing him poisonous foods, emptying The Fear’s stamina, and rendering him inert. It’s a very exciting fight. Full of tension but full of fun ways to win.

Our only criticism is that The Fear endlessly shouts his own name like some kind of deranged and murderous Pokémon. 

4. The Shagohod

A proto-Metal Gear, in essence, The Shagohod was developed by the Soviets as a means to launch nuclear missiles from anywhere on the planet. However, Volgin plans to use the weapon for his own means. The tank is destroyed by the combined efforts of Snake and Soviet spy Eva, who both recognize the threat it poses to the safety of the world.  

Armed with missiles, twin machine guns, a turret, and more, it’s an on-rails battle that ramps up in intensity. Once enough shots land, Colonel Volgin steps out, and he takes control of the Shagohod using his electric powers. It’s a tense fight, as you need to switch between several weapons to weaken the tank, followed by hitting Volgin at precise moments. 

The explosions, the music, and the stakes are all amped up here as we get to the final part of the game, and it’s a fitting end to both the Shagohod and Volgin, for the time being. But most importantly, the Shagohod is a chilling precursor of weapons to come in the series and what they could represent. 

3. The Fury

Whilst en route to Groznyj Grad, a huge fortress that houses the Shagohod, Snake encounters another of The Cobra Unit called The Fury. Appearing like a black-suited Astronaut, he’s armed with a flamethrower and a jetpack, where he can ignite part of the underground tunnel, causing you to dodge the flames quickly. 

The Fury is very sensitive to hearing, so you have to sneak slower than usual to stop him from being alerted. The environment comes into play here again, as shooting pipes will be able to extinguish some of the flames, as well as The Fury himself.

Eventually, enough bullets will render him defeated, exploding into a ball of flames. It’s high on this list due to the claustrophobic feeling the area gives, and sometimes it can feel creepy when you see what looks like an astronaut walking in the distance with a flamethrower. It’s off-putting, but it works to the game’s advantage. 

You may want to save your progress before facing The Fury, just so you can fight him again and enjoy the battle. This is also the battle where you start to realize that there’s more to the Cobra Unit than just a group of highly trained soldiers. 

2. The End

The End is arguably one of the most iconic bosses in the entire Metal Gear series, and it’s for good reason. First off, you can avoid the fight completely by just shooting him early on in the game. If you do, Snake gets hit by one of the wheels from his wheelchair, and you get a call from Major Zero, commenting on how it seemed there was going to be a bigger fight between you both – and he’s right.

Set across a huge landscape, you have to use almost all of your items to find The End, a legendary sniper who will be hiding somewhere on the map with his scope trained on you. You’ll have to hunt him down and outsnipe him while he tries to do the same thing to you. As Major Zero calls it, it’s a “long, grueling, sniper battle,” but it’s one of the best in gaming.

This is a fight that could take hours, especially if you don’t trace his footprints, which is why patience is the key here. There’s also the factor of what happens if you don’t play the game for over a week. If this occurs, The End will simply pass away of old age, tired of waiting for you. It takes you by surprise, but leaves you with regret that you didn’t deliver the world’s greatest sniper The End he was hoping for. 

1. The Boss

Fighting The Boss is the crescendo of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Having taught Snake everything she knows, the last lesson is ironically, her death at his hands. With a timer set to 10 minutes before the nuclear bomb is dropped, both characters stand in a field of white grass lilies, perfect for The Boss to hide in. 

With no music playing at first, all you hear is the wind, and The Boss wants you to defeat her. She will appear fleetingly, fighting you with CQC (Close Quarter Combat), and if you’re fast enough, you’ll be able to counter her. But usually, you’ll be on the floor, followed by The Boss dismantling your holstered weapon. It’s the ultimate battle as the stakes have never been higher. As the minutes count down, the game’s main theme, Snake Eater begins to play softly, as a way to signify that the end is coming.

Once it happens, it’s incredibly bittersweet, with one more action to do. The Boss begs Snake to kill her with her own gun, and it’s left to you to pull the trigger. And no, the game won’t progress until you do it. Once the button is pressed, you unusually feel a sense of shame, as the white grass lilies turn red and they surround The Boss’ lifeless body.

As the final moments of the game play for the next half an hour, Snake seems different, especially when he avoids shaking The President’s hand. At the end, when he salutes The Boss’ grave and he sheds a tear, you know that we’re no longer playing as Snake, but as Big Boss. The student has become the master, and it’s now an unbearable burden. 

And once you learn why The Boss had to die at Snake’s hands, you’ll understand his anger – and why what happens next in the story mattered so much. This moment arguably sparks the entire Metal Gear Solid story. That is why the fight with The Boss can only be at number one.

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References

1. METAL GEAR SOLID 3: Snake Eater – Killing The End Early (YouTube)