Some legends are meant to die
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a stealth action game, just like its predecessors. Also much like its predecessors, it contains many, many lengthy cut scenes. About half of this roughly 15 to 20-hour game will be spent watching, not playing. Even for series veterans, this is a surprisingly large amount. However, MGS 4 is improved from its forebears in a number of important ways.
The first major improvement to the series' blueprint is in the controls and gameplay mechanics. In previous games, aiming and firing a weapon in first person was a hassle that required you to press several buttons, and you couldn't move while aiming. In MGS 4, pressing down on the left shoulder button will enter aiming mode, at which point the camera will switch to an over the shoulder perspective, much like in Resident Evil 4 or Gears of War, making shooting a much easier task. You can even go into first-person view and play the game like an FPS game, if you want. Some controls are still a bit fiddly, most notably the CQC (grab) moves, but these are advanced moves you don't ever really strictly need to progress. Combined with the plethora of guns in the game, it seems that Hideo Kojima really wanted players to just blow off some steam and forego the usual stealth shenanigans from time to time. In fact, the game will straight up demand that of you every now and then, but more on that later.
When you're not engaged in a firefight, you'll most likely be sneaking around. This area of the game has also been made a lot more playable. Snake is equipped with a high-tech suit, called Octocamo, that adapts to whatever surface you're on, much like a chameleon. This means that you can hide effectively almost anywhere without having to go into the menu and switching camouflage like you would in MGS 3. In one cut scene, Snake is lying prone in a forest area with Octocamo on, and I didn't actually spot him until he moved.
Speaking of cut scenes, well, I hope you like them long! MGS 4 is touted as the final game in Solid Snake's saga, and as such, it has a lot of loose ends to tie up. To its credit, it does so. Without spoiling anything, I can say that finality is a big theme in this game. The cut scenes themselves look incredibly impressive. The characters' faces and body language make you forget you're watching digital actors and not real people. Relationships between characters from almost every Metal Gear game are fleshed out and developed, and Kojima's writing ability has definitely developed in this area. Where it hasn't developed so much is in the exposition. The game is divided up into acts, and every act starts with a very lengthy briefing scene to bring you up to speed on the plot, which by now is so complex that Konami has released a wikipedia-like Metal Gear Solid database on the Playstation Store. The game will throw lots of jargon and acronyms your way and it expects you to know what most of them mean. Make no mistake, this game is made purely for fans of the series. If names like Big Boss and Solid Snake sound silly to you and you don't know what a Metal Gear is, turn away, this game is not for you. That's not to say you won't enjoy the gameplay, but the story's emotional impact is totally reliant on your knowledge of who these characters are.
Emotional impact. This is a term you might not hear associated with video games very often, but as a longtime follower of the series, there is no way certain parts of the game won't at the very least make you teary-eyed. All the elaborate conspiracy-theory plot happenings wouldn't matter one bit of you didn't care for these characters, and that's where this game shines. The relationship between Snake and Meryl in particular is expertly handled and shows how much Kojima's storytelling has improved. By bringing back a huge cast of characters from every game in the series, Kojima has given this game an epic feel. The chain reaction that started the events in the game started years and years before Snake was even born, and to see it all come together is truly remarkable. Sure, some twists might be far-fetched. Sure, the exposition is long-winded and dry. But as a fan, you won't care. You won't care because you get to see what happens to all these characters, and it's satisfying in a way that few video games are.
It's not just the story that is satisfying. As previously stated, the game is divided up into Acts, every act contains an action-filled set piece. You are tasked with taking on an entire unit of elite troops in an abandoned multi-story building together with a familiar character and her squad, you get to ride several vehicles as the gunner, and you even get to control... well, that would be spoiling, but suffice it to say this is what fans have wanted to do since Metal Gear Solid 1. Every time you think the game has outdone itself and it cannot get any more exciting, it ups the ante once more.
Metal Gear Solid 4 improves on its predecessors in almost every way and provides an extremely satisfying story for any fan of the series. Newcomers will probably scratch their heads and wonder what all the fuss is about, but to review this game for these people would be silly. This game is 100% fan service, and with that in mind, I cannot score this game any less than Perfect.
