Snake slipped forward through the tall grass, slowly crawling up on his target. He rose to his feet, silent as a shadow, and wrapped his arms around the hapless soldier's neck, bringing the tip of his blade to the poor bastard's Adam's apple. "Tell me where they're holding the doctor."

The guard croaked his defiance. "Go to hell."

Snake simply shrugged, and slammed the trooper into a tree, knocking him rather messily unconscious.

Oh yeah. Snake is back. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was on display at this year's E3, and it is sweet. Hideo Kojima and Konami Computer Entertainment Japan may have added wildlife, camouflage, and a stamina bar, but the real meat of this version was in the Close Quarters Battle. Stylishly and brutally dispatching soldiers with a short blade has never been this fun.

Close Quarters Battle is purportedly based on realistic Special Ops hand-to-hand tactics. Of course, realistic doesn't always mean fun; just ask anyone frustrated by the difficulty of the Rainbow Six series. Rest assured that CQC is visceral fun. At its heart, CQC is simply an extension of the simple grab move from previous Metal Gear Solid titles, usable when Snake is wielding a pistol with a combat knife. Instead of being a from-behind-only move, now Snake will be able to grab any soldier within reach, and throttle him unconscious (and throw the body at another nearby guard), use him as a shield, slit the poor bastard's throat, or interrogate the hapless trooper. Some of the moves are poached from Splinter Cell, but Sam Fisher never moved like this: one demonstration had Snake grab a guard, use him as a shield while shooting a second guard in the head, throttle the first guard unconscious, and fling the body at a third guard, bowling him over. No more standing still and lining up headshots.

As always, actually dispatching guards is a bit of a last resort; Metal Gear is and has always been about evading guards. As Snake Eater will be, at least initially, set in the deep jungle, that won't be as simple as looking around corners and hiding in lockers. Now, Snake will have to hide in tall grass, climb up trees, and match his camo to his terrain. Snake will have a concealment meter, expressed as a percent. At 0% (or negative numbers), he sticks out like a sore thumb. At 100%, nobody can see him unless that person steps on him. The camouflage meter will go up when kneeling, pressed up against a wall, in shadow, or in tall grass, but what gets it up to useful levels will be matching Snake's camouflage suit to the terrain. Bark pattern will be more useful when pressed against a tree than, say, when pressed up against a brick wall. Without the nooks and crannies that a base provides, Snake will be doing a lot of hiding in grass and skulking in shadows to try and stay out of sight.

Unfortunately, this is a jungle after all, and other creatures like to hide in tall grass or dark shadows. Quite a few of these creatures, like, say, poisonous snakes, happen to frown upon unwelcome human visitors. Of course, Snake can always return the favor, and bite back. As the subtitle Snake Eater might imply, Snake is going to have to deal with hostile wildlife as well as feeding himself. Snake will have a Stamina Bar, which decreases as time goes on. When his stamina bar is particularly low, his health will drop, his aim will falter, and his movement will be noiser. Stamina, of course, will be refilled by devouring tasty snakes, alligators, honey, rats, or whatever happens to wander into Snake's larder. (This stamina system will completely replace the magical healing rations in previous Metal Gear titles; Snake will only be able to heal by resting while crouching.)

The jungle is one element lifted from movies like First Blood: Rambo; the setting is another. The game will be set in the 1960's, at the height of the Cold War. Snake will be hunting down Communist footsoldiers and foiling Communist plots. Along with the politics of the times goes the technology; many of the traditional Metal Gear gadgets, like the radar or silencers, will be limited-use (and some may not even be in the final version.) Gadgets will wear out batteries, while silencers will just wear out and will need to be replaced. In their place will be the quintessential video game weapon; Snake will now be able to acquire a sawed-off shotgun, for efficient close-range guard disposal or alligator defense.

Tech-heads may be disappointed; Metal Gear Solid 3 won't be significantly prettier on a technical level than Metal Gear Solid 2. Where Snake Eater will excel is in the detail and beauty of the jungle environments. It will absolutely be possible to just look and see Snake sneaking through what could be a real forest, with real trees and real animals. The whole place seems to be teeming with life, and what would be impassable barriers in other games will frequently turn out to be crossable hills.

Note that this preview only refers to Snake, not Solid Snake. This is intentional, as this will be how Snake Eater will refer to the protagonist, a dead ringer for Solid Snake. This character could very well turn out to be Big Boss, or Solidus Snake, or someone entirely new; Hideo Kojima is not above the old switcheroo. The 1960's were a long time ago. Likewise, the Game Over screen in this demo has some nonsense about a TEMPORAL PARADOX, so it's likely that Mr. Kojima is up to his old tricks again.

It's pretty, it's stylish, it's brutal, and it seems to have an utterly incomprehensible plot. After three years of dabbling with wannabes, spinoffs, and remakes, welcome back, everyone, to the real Metal Gear Solid. Aaah, how everyone has missed you. Hopefully, the final game will live up to the potential of this demo, when it's released this Christmas season on the PlayStation 2.