Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

June 23,2008 - Metal Gear Solid 4 is finally here. The biggest PS3 game everyone has been waiting for these past three years is out now and we can finally see if the wait was worth it. With the fourth iteration of the Metal Gear Solid series, Hideo Kojima attempts to finally put an end to Snake’s tale once and for all while reworking the gameplay to be a much more appealing game for outsiders to the series to play. Does Metal Gear Solid 4 manage to live up to the hype or are Snake’s last moments wasted?

Metal Gear Solid 4 takes place five years after the Big Shell Incident that occurred at the end of Metal Gear Solid 2. Old Snake, aging at a rapid pace, is after Liquid Ocelot, who is in the Middle East and is definitely up to no good. With a large cast of characters returning from previous games, Kojima does a great job of keeping track of all of their storylines and wrapping things up as the game nears the end. Instead of essentially one continuous level like in previous MGS games, MGS4 is split up into five acts, allowing for more easily consumable chunks of the game. The game manages to do a very good job of mixing fan service, nostalgia, and enough attempts to explain things for those new to the series that it shouldn’t be too hard for most to get through the game and get the gist of what’s going on.

The first big change to the MGS gameplay that MGS4 boasts is the new control scheme, which goes hand-in-hand with the new over-the-shoulder camera make for what’s easily the most accessible Metal Gear game to date. This opens up the gameplay to letting you play as you want rather than playing only as the gameplay allows, especially with big battles going on around Snake that can mask a lot of his actions quite well. That’s not to say you can move around freely when fights are going on, but your enemies are certainly a bit preoccupied with trying to kill the rebels attacking them. The nice thing is that big battles aren’t all you’ll see in Metal Gear Solid 4.

More so than pretty much every other MGS game, MGS4 features a great variety in gameplay from act to act. Not only are there the standard sneaking missions, but each act features its own mix of different types of gameplay based on the current story and setting that keeps you on your toes as you try to anticipate what’s coming up. Not everything is a hit, but there’s enough great gameplay moments spread throughout the game that you’re not left in an underwhelming situation for very long. The other issue that this brings up are the cutscenes, which start off with a really nice ratio of more gameplay than cutscenes for most of the first half of the game, but then the need to move the story along greatly increases so that cutscenes start becoming more frequent and plentiful, though none of these cutscenes ever really feel like they’re pushing gameplay out of the picture. It’s mostly an unfortunate result of Kojima’s need to wrap up the loose ends that he’s promised to do so by the end of the game.

Snake Eater’s camouflage system returns, though the new OctoCamo Suit cuts out the heavy reliance on menus by being able to automatically “absorb” the texture of the wall or ground you’re leaning or lying against. As you play through the game, you’ll earn a face mask that can further complete the illusion along with other face masks that let you pretend Old Snake is another person, much like in Snake Eater, too. You can also find other costumes that’ll help you fit better into your surroundings when camouflage is no longer appropriate. Just because you’re well-camouflaged, it doesn’t mean the soldiers can’t find you, as they’ve now got a greatly-improved awareness of their environment. You can be easily spotted above these soldiers if you’re moving near the edges in broad daylight while accidentally kicking pots or other loud objects can cause nearby soldiers to rush over to see what the source of the noise was.

The selection of weapons in MGS4 is the greatest of all Metal Gear games, with dozens of weapons ranging from normal military-grade weapons to some more eccentric weapons that can be bought from Drebin or unlocked through special means. Drebin is one of the newest characters to the Metal Gear cast, a weapons launderer who removes the locks on guns that keep everyone but the right person from using those weapons, and as soon as you meet him in the first chapter, you’ll see how much just his presence in the game adds to the atmosphere. Not only does he offer weapons and ammo for sale, he also offers suppressors and other attachments for the guns that allow you to change weapons to fit your needs. He operates on the Drebin points system, which gives you Drebin points for collecting guns you already own, while you keep the ammo, along with even activating nostalgic pieces of memory throughout the game for extra points, which is just a cool thing to experience on top of just playing through the game.

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