Two of the best things about Metal Gear are the storylines and the sound. Regardless of whether they’re set in the near future or the recent past, a Metal Gear story is always the melodramatic lovechild of Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy. There’s spying, double-crossing, sinister military goings-on and a hulking behemoth of an experimental nuclear device waiting to destroy everything we know and love. There is always a mysterious man named Snake waiting to engage the enemy, and at some point someone will be more than willing to give us a long speech about what it is to be a soldier in the current day and age.

In Metal Gear Solid 3, that speech is all about “the times,” and how our allies may one day become our enemies. Set in 1964, one of the most turbulent decades in our recent past, the speech and its sentiments are all too realistic. With the Cold War in full swing, no one knows who tomorrow’s target will be and whether the countries we rely on are really looking out for our mutual best interest. The music that accompanies the story reflects the popular sound of the day, and does a spot-on job of resurrecting the sounds that made James Bond movies and the Beach Boys records so popular.

This two-disc OST covers all the tracks from the main game and then some. Included as bonuses are two sets of “healing tracks,” relaxing Sixties-style songs at the end of each disc that can only be found in the game through special means. The most memorable of these is Starry.K’s track Old Metal Gear, which takes the classic Metal Gear theme and reworks it into a cool surf tune. Starry.K also has two other bonus tracks, Sailor and Pillow Talk, along with 66 Boys’ Surfing Guitar, Salty Catfish and Rock Me Baby, plus Chunk Raspberry’s Jumpin’ Johnny and Sergei Mantis’ Sea Breeze. In addition to the healing tracks, the theme from the Snake vs. Monkey mini game is included. Whoever came up with the idea of pitting Snake against the crazy monkeys of Ape Escape is a genius.

The bulk of the game is made up of in game tracks highlighting featured characters and events. For every boss and major player there is a theme song, including Eva, Ocelot, Volgin and each of the members of the Cobra unit (The Pain, The Fear, The Fury and the Sorrow, plus The Joy, who is featured more prominently throughout the game). Each track effortlessly conveys the appropriate emotions a game of this genre should evoke- fear, panic and tension. Harry Gregson-Williams does an amazing job of making the music come alive in tandem with the story, characters and action involved, especially the final battle with his “Metal Gear Solid” Main Theme (Metal Gear Solid 3 Version), which incorporates a slow, melancholy rendition of the unmistakable musical mainstay of the series in the last few minutes of an otherwise furious and climatic track.

Also included, as the first track on the first disc, is Cynthia Harrell’s Snake Eater, another song that is sure to become a video game classic (if only for the line she sings about eating tree frogs, something that never fails to make me laugh inappropriately). Not only is it one of the most well known Metal Gear songs already but it has also been featured as an unlockable track in Konami’s Karaoke Revolution 3. The song is in English and has a Japanese counterpart (sung by a man known only as W.A.) that is not featured on this OST but can be found on the separate First Bite disc.

While people who do not play video games find them hard to take seriously, even someone unfamiliar with the series (and gaming in general) would find it difficult to not put this soundtrack up there with or even surpassing the most well made film score. Metal Gear Solid 3 gives Hollywood a serious run for its money.