A decent game held back by its Plot Delivery Mechanism.
Having only recently been able to afford a PS3, i've spent the last week or so playing the exclusives that i'd looked forward to prior to Sony pricing me out the market.
One such title is Metal Gear Solid 4. Having been a fan of the series since MGS on the Playstation, i've been looking forward to MGS4 a fair bit and for the most part it doesnt disappoint.
In MGS4 players take the role of Solid Snake, an elite infiltrator formerly of Foxhound, now currently tooling around with Otacon, a brilliant scientist rescued in the first game. However this time around, Snake isn't feeling too good. Thanks to his convoluted origins (he's the clone of a legendary soldier) Snake has begun to age rapidly.
Purportedly this was done to show off the graphical capabilities of the PS3 and test Konami's design team. But it also has the side effect of balancing Snake with his antagonist Liquid Ocelot. Ocelot is a fair bit older than Snake, which without the rapid ageing would have produced a climax of a geriatric being beaten up by someone significantly younger.
Snake's mission is to infiltrate a warzone to dispatch his nemesis, Liquid Ocelot, before his knackered old body gives out. Of course this being a Hideo Kojima game, nothing goes to plan and instead Snake and co. travel around the world to various locations trying to thwart Liquid's diabolical scheme.
This globe-trotting version of Snake provides something that was lacking a tad in previous MGS games: Environmental Variety. Whilst the jungle of MGS3 provided a much needed change of scenery after the indoors antics of the previous two games, it still turned out a bit samey.
MGS4 on the other hand takes you from the middle east, to a rain soaked european city and even back to the snowbound Shadow Moses. And said environments are beautifully created, Konami have outdone themselves this time around.
Gameplay follows the series staples. Emphasis is placed on avoiding enemies rather than dispatching them, and Snake has a variety of ways to do so from the ever-present cardboard box, to the fancy pants OctoCam system.
Taking inspiration from everyones favourite camoflage expert, the octopus, Snake comes equipped with a body suit that can blend in with the surrounding environment. Octocam is an evolution of the camoflage system of MGS4's predecessor, and as a whole works rather well. There were some tense moments involved as i lay on the floor hoping the Metal Gear walking past didnt see through my tarmac camo.
Music wise, Konami once again excels itself. The orchestric scores provided by Harry Gregson-Williams never fail to stir the soul. The in game iPod also allows players to listen to segments of previous games soundtracks,along with a behind the scenes podcast.
So given i've been positive so far, why only 4 stars?
Well i'm afraid thats because of the story and how it is presented. To say the plot of MGS4 is convoluted is an understatement, and if you have never played a Metal Gear Solid game before you're going to become rather baffled pretty quickly.
And the way chosen to show this plot was to shove in as many cutscenes as humanely possible. Whilst exposition is necessary, the previous MGS games carried it off with far more aplomb than MGS4.
Hideo Kojima should be admired for trying to discuss deeper concepts in his games than most, some of the characters musings are definitely interesting to hear. He just hasn't perfected the delivery yet.
So overall the game is certainly worth a purchase. It provides a satisfying, if slightly confusing, end to the adventures of Solid Snake and provides hours of tense, fun gameplay. If you are a fan of the MGS series then stick an extra point or so onto my score, if not go out and buy/rent the previous games prior to playing this, you'll get far more enjoyment out of it if you do.
