is an award-winning stealth action

Action-adventure game

An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...

 video game directed by Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima

is a Japanese game director originally employed at Konami. He is currently the director of Kojima Productions and was promoted to Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment in early 2011...

. Snake Eater was developed

Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 by Konami

Konami

is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

 Computer Entertainment Japan and published

Video game publisher

A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....

 by Konami for the PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

, and was released on November 17, 2004 in North America; December 16, 2004 in Japan; March 4, 2005 in Europe; and on March 17, 2005 in Australia. The game, which serves as a prequel

Prequel

A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...

 to the entire Metal Gear series

Metal Gear

Metal Gear is a series of video games.Metal Gear may also refer to:*Metal Gear , bipedal tanks appearing in the Metal Gear series-Metal Gear video game series:...

, was followed by two direct sequels titled Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

is a stealth game directed by Masahiro Yamamoto and written by Gakuto Mikumo, with series creator Hideo Kojima acting as a producer. Portable Ops was developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami in 2006 for the PlayStation Portable. It is the third Metal Gear title for the PSP and the...

and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

is a video game produced by Konami and Kojima Productions that was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2010. Peace Walker is the fourth Metal Gear title for the PSP, although it is only the second to be considered part of the series' main canon, following Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops...

.

Set in the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

-era Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, the story centers on FOX operative Naked Snake as he attempts to rescue a weapons designer and sabotage an experimental superweapon.