That’s right its back baby! Bad guys, villains and monsters, all the people we love to hate packed into ‘Boss Rush’.
The Metal Gear series has been around for the last 20 years or so then you’ve probably played at least one of the titles. If like me you joined the series in the early 2000s chances are you owned or at least played a game called Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
For the unacquainted Snake Eater is a Metal Gear title originally released for the PlayStation 2 back in 2004. Since then has become a fan favourite with the expanded release Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence in 2005 and the HD re-release for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the 3DS. In this entry, the player takes on the role of 1960’s CIA agent Naked Snake to track down the defector scientist Sokolov from the Soviet Union and bring him back safely to the U.S.
Our boss,The End ironically appears to slow the player’s path about mid-way through the game making The End Snake Eater’s token sniper boss. The End is a really interesting sniper, though, because up until this point in the game he has been sleeping in a wheelchair, however if you really want to skip the fight there’s an opportunity to kill him in his sleep – just put a bullet in his head.
By the time you show up he’s 100 years old, making him a veteran in BOTH World Wars. He doesn’t even need a spotter; he uses a parrot to tell him when enemies are near, if that counts? He can communicate with nature but not in a tree-hugger kind of way either. In fact, The End can photosynthesise like plants, meaning he regains health and is capable of changing his body heat to match his surroundings making him almost invisible to thermal imaging.
His weapon of choice, a 1891/31 Mosin-Nagant rifle manufactured by the Red Army for World War 2 with a PU Soviet scope. It’s also modified to fire tranquilizer rounds out of a non-removable magazine and my favourite part of his weapon has been retro fitted to accommodate a folding stock making the rifle easier to transport and easier for use when parachute jumping.
The encounter with The End is set in a dense Russian forest spanning four huge areas featuring everything a sniper needs from high ground to lots of foliage and noisy distractions. Despite the disadvantages stacked against you, there are number of ways to defeat The End and they are all pretty easy to pull off.
The first one is simple; kill The End! Remember when I mentioned you could kill him in his sleep? If you want to take the easy route, then you can do that. When you see The End being wheeled off a dock into a warehouse, take out your sniper rifle and shoot The End in the back of the head. Hey if he wants to sleep on the job that’s his problem and your opportunity.
Alternatively you can turn The Ends spotter against him by capturing it. Get into the fight, release the bird and then wait for it to show you where The End is perched and shoot him right in his photosynthesising face.
If you’re a little more honourable and want to do it the old fashioned way, more power to you. It’s your game you play it however you see fit! Just remember if you move any faster than Snake humping the ground then prepare to be filled with bullets. He will spot you! He will shoot you! You will die! You have two options here:
- Drag yourself around The End sniping position, crawl up on him and hold him up! Rinse and repeat three times and he eventually will give you his woodland camouflage which is one of the best camouflages in the game
- You can simply wait two weeks. Yeah apparently Father Time doesn’t have a whole lot of patience and this old sniper wastes away dying of somewhat natural causes – unless you alter your console date and cheat time itself! You monster!
As far as boss fights go, The End and the various means to bring to his own end are at the very least interesting. He fits quite comfortably amongst the villainous ranks of the Metal Gear series but like all the rest, ends up just another notch on your kill count.
That’s the end of The End.
