Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released in November 2004 in the U.S. and although it came four years after Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, chronologically it takes place before all of the Metal Gear games, even prior to the original Metal Gear.
The game takes place in Russia during the Cold War – 1964 to be exact - and you play as FOX operative Naked Snake, who would later go on to be the infamous Big Boss. Since Solid Snake is a direct clone of Big Boss, they look and sound identical, so the “feel” of Metal Gear is definitely retained in this prequel.
Naked Snake’s mission is to rescue a kidnapped weapons designer named Sokolov and destroy an experimental super-weapon. No, the super-weapon is not Metal Gear, but the Shagohod, a nuclear-equipped tank. The Shagohod is a direct precursor to the Metal Gear models, however.
Since Metal Gear Solid 3 takes place in 1964, a lot of the characters in the game don’t appear in many other installments. Snake is aided by Major Zero, Para-Medic, and Sigint, while he goes up against a special forces unit called the Cobra Unit. The Cobra Unit is led by The Boss, Snake’s former mentor, who turns on your early on in the game. The intro consists of The End, an expert snipe who is credited as the father of modern sniping; the Fury, a former cosmonaut that wields a flamethrower and uses a jetpack; the Pain, who can control hornets; the Sorrow, the ghost of a dead medium; and the Fear, who has supernatural agility. As you can see, Metal Gear Solid 3 contains more science fiction elements than other installments.
The other big villain is Colonel Volgin, a GRU colonel who has the power to control electricity. Colonel Volgin is bisexual and his lover, Major Raikov, is a direct parody of Raiden, the protagonist from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Revolver Ocelot also plays a major role here. His name is simply “Ocelot” and he leads Volgin’s elite Ocelot unit. It’s revealed in the game that Big Boss was the one to introduce Ocelot to his trusty Colt Single Action Army revolvers.