So I just finished MGS 3, and can confirm it is indeed playable from start to finish. 32 save games ranging from start of game to finish, including New Game+ here:
MGS 3 Saves
Using the same settings as MGS 2 (same libraries needed as well to avoid crashing at the credits!) the game works fine with the following caveats:
- Particle effects are missing, same as MGS2. Since there are no laser sight-aimed weapons here, it's less of an issue but it still makes most boss battles a pain (pun intended) including:
- The pain's bee shield is not rendering. You have to lob grenades when bullets don't seem to work to break it.
- The Fear's stealth camo effect is not there, rendering him truly invisible. Make SURE to pick up the Thermal goggles from Sokolov's room (I have in my saves) so you can track him.
- The Fury's flamethrower flames attack can't be seen. This is less of an issue however, since although the flame particles aren't there, the lighting still exists to indicate roughly the areas on fire that you should avoid.
- The Sorrow's fancy 'sonic' attack does not render at all. Standard evasion tactics apply: move from one side to the other at maximum speed to avoid it. Just in case, lower the volume.
- Half of Volgin's attacks don't render their effects. Thankfully, you can still see the bullets flying at you so, small comforts...
- Some geometry texture issues during cutscenes: black floors around characters etc. No such issues during gameplay. Models are also sometimes broken (Think AC: Unity face bug) and I noticed most of Eva's hair missing during some parts of the final cutscenes during the bike chase.
- I noticed textures missing from some tree trunks during my playthrough. Very rare (maybe 2 trunks sharing the same model across the entire game), but it was there.
- The emulator crashed 2-3 times for me during my entire 6-hour (in-game time) playthrough. I recommend saving often.
- Low frame rate makes this much more demanding to beat than MGS2. If you thought having to repeat the sniper part on the oil bridge because you missed a Claymore and Emma blew up was annoying, get ready to
LOVE the bike parts of the game!
All in all, it's playable but the frame rate is consistently lower across the board than MGS2 was.
