Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

The Good
Metal Gear Solid 4 is a strange beast. Upon its release, it was a hot-selling title which earned rave reviews almost across the board, as with the previous games. But these days it seems to be a title that is strangely forgotten and rarely discussed anymore, except when discussing which PS3 exclusives are the best to start off with. It feels half-forgotten even amongst its peers. Even the earlier games in the series seem to be brought up with more frequency on internet discussions. This disparity between critics reviews and overall impact made this the game I was most looking forward to playing when I started my journey with MGS. Afterall, how can a game which earned a 10 from two of the biggest sites in gaming be forgotten about so quickly?

MGS4 begins about five years after MGS2. It’s the future (well, it’s really the past, since the game is set in 2014) and war has become a profit machine, where countries hire Private Military Corporations, to fight their battles for them, regardless of ideology. The PMCs are monitored and controlled by a network of nano machines and AI handled by the Patriots, referred to as the “System”. This allows for things such as battlefield support and stress regulation. Most notably, soldiers can only fire guns and drive vehicles of their own. Meanwhile, Solid Snake has begun aging rapidly due to his nature as a clone, but is tasked with his final mission to stop Liquid from taking over the System and mounting an insurrection of the world.

The gameplay of MGS4 retains some of the better ideas of Snake Eater while adding in a number of new elements of its own. Camouflage is still a factor in this game, however Snake has a unique suit called the OctoCamo, which is automatic camouflage that matches the texture of whatever it is pressed against. However, you have to hold still for a second or two before it actually changes, making moments where you must crawl over different textures very tense. It also makes it easier to hide if you end up getting spotted, as enemies have to come quite close to you before they actually notice you. In addition, enemies are more sensitive to sound, and can even smell you if you’ve been hiding in a dumpster.

Early on, Snake acquires a pair of really cool new gadgets, both of which become important to the game. The first is the Solid Eye, which acts as a radar, binoculars, and night vision goggles all-in-one. It also lets you see which side soldiers are on and what items are laying on the ground. It’s an extremely useful device, and you will likely have it equipped for about 90 percent of the game, though there are times when you’ll need to unequip it so that it can charge, which can be very tense. The other major new gadget is the Metal Gear Mark II, an adorable miniature Metal Gear that serves as Snake’s support unit in the field. This little robot can scout ahead, grab items, and can even knock out or distract guards with its stealth camo capabilities. There are a couple of other neat uses that it has, but I would be spoiling some great moments if I told you about them.

The other major addition is the weapons shop owned by Drebin 893. Drebin is an arms dealer that you meet early on who can remove the ID restrictions on weapons that you find in the field. Finding multiples of the same weapon will allow you to sell the surplus to Drebin for points, which you can use to purchase new guns, ammunition, and weapon licenses. What this means is that you’ll rarely have to worry if you forgot a weapon for any given situation, as if you’ve got the points, you can simply buy it. Of course, it’s easy enough to find weapons out in the field, however, and you can play the game ignoring the weapons shop entirely if you wanted to.

This is all backed by great level design, which is pretty consistent in allowing the player to either shoot or sneak their way through. Levels typically offer multiple paths, and thorough exploration will earn you some of the best goodies, just like in MGS3. There are a ton of unlockables throughout the game, ranging from unique weapons to additional soundtrack songs and face skins for Snake.

Perhaps the greatest change is the new, shooter-style control scheme more in-line with contemporary games such as Gears of War. This control scheme offers a much smoother experience, especially when it comes to dealing with occasional shootouts Even the boss fights and setpieces, which are expected from every MGS game, are better than ever here thanks to the revamped control scheme.

The last interesting thing to mention is the game’s structure. While previous games mostly centered around specific settings over a small area, MGS4 offers a true globetrotting adventure. What’s even more unique is that it allows the game to offer much more variety than any MGS game in the past.It honestly feels like Kojima Productions made five different games and threaded them through with the storyline.

Upon release, MGS4 was hailed as having the best graphics in any console game up to that point in time. While the graphics were quickly surpassed, even by later PS3 efforts such as Uncharted 2, I have to say that game’s visuals are still quite good by today’s standards. In particular the character models are visually spectacular, with great detail and excellent facial animations that help to really bring the personalities to life, and I dig the slightly plasticine look that they have. Compare these to the faceless models from MGS1 and the difference is really quite stark. Video games really did come a long way between 1998 and 2008, and MGS4 was proof of that. Details exist in this game that I’ve never seen anywhere else - you’ll actually see dust and sand particles on the camera when sneaking through the middle east, and aiming down the iron sights when laying on a ledge actually distorts the camera view to reflect what Snake is looking at. About the only thing that isn’t up to modern standards are the environmental shadows, which are horribly blocky and unconvincing. In addition, the framerate can take a nasty hit during heavy, high-octane action sequences, of which there are quite a few throughout the course of the game.

The Bad
While much of the gameplay is the best it’s ever been, there is one slight drawback to it all- the AI doesn’t seem as smart this time around. They aren’t nearly as ruthless in searching the place out as they were in 2 and 3. They can detect you pretty easily, but aren’t quite as aggressive enough in coming after you or scouting you out. I was able to end an alert by simply hiding behind a car, where the guard never chased me I think the developers were aware this, as Snake takes a lot less hits this time around before he kicks the bucket. Now granted, I only played on Solid Normal, and I’ve heard the game is much harder on the other difficulties. The again, this could be the result of the controls. Whatever the case, the game simply doesn’t have quite the same level challenge of the last two games, though it still remains enjoyable thanks to minimized frustrations.

The major thing when it comes to MGS4 is the story, which is given a much more increased emphasis here than in the previous entries. MGS4 is infamous for having some of the longest cutscenes in gaming history. There are parts of the game where you will spend over an hour until you can actually play again, and the ending cutscenes alone are nearly feature length. The reason for this is pretty understandable, since MGS4 is all about giving closure to a 20 year story, plus the games were always known for having a lot of cutscenes and dialogue. Hideo Kojima really wanted to wrap everything up here, so he tried to give closure to just about every major character in the Metal Gear series. Of course, this is hardly the last game in the series, which does take out some of the story’s weight.

The story is torn between trying to develop an alien new world while trying to somehow involve every major living character from the MGS series. The game goes to great lengths to explain things like the war economy, the nanomachines, and the system, before shoving in references from half-forgotten events and characters from previous games. As a result, the story ends up unfolding in ways that feel inorganic. Characters and events are included not because they make sense but because Kojima is trying to please the fans. MGS4 suffers from some serious fan service overkill, and while it makes for some very engaging moments if you’ve played the previous games, the story ends up suffering as a result.

The split desires between reveling in past glories and expanding the Metal Gear universe ultimately hampers the storytelling. Moments that were supposed to be mind-blowing or emotionally gripping sometimes ended up eliciting a “who cares” response from me, because either I couldn’t quite grasp what was going on or had little interest in the characters. That said, the fan service was still enjoyable at times and made me recognize just how epic of a journey I’ve been on, and there were some truly wonderful surprises and easter eggs to be found within the game. Ultimately, I suppose MGS4’s story is okay enough in the end, but just okay doesn't cut it when you have a legacy of over 20 years of iconic stories to live up to.

The Bottom Line
Upon finishing MGS4, I recognized that I had played a very good game - one of my favorite PS3 games, in fact, It's an improvement over the previous game in many ways: graphics, gameplay, and acting, except where it matters most: the story. While MGS4 is great as a video game, it doesn't quite hit the mark as a conclusion to one of gaming's grandest sagas. MGS4 leans too heavily on nostalgia for its own good and as a result doesn't satisfactorily wrap things up, even with its long cutscenes. MGS 4 should have ended with a nuclear-sized bang, instead it explodes gently like a legal firework. The end result is still worthwhile and entertaining, but not quite what you are hoping for.