Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

This Review contains spoilers.

Solid Snake made his gaming debut in 1987 on the original NES

Metal Gear, and after many spin-offs, sequels, and prequels, 21 years later, he's back for more for his final mission.

War has changed. The PMC's that are fighting in the battlefields are being controlled via nano-technology. Their thouhts, their actions, their sight, and all their senses are being controlled. Now, who's the evil mastermind behind all this, you ask? Well, that would be Ocelot. And it is Snake's mission to stop him. Along his journey he will venture into the Middle East, Europe, South America, and Shadow Moses. Yeah, Shadow Moses, the setting of Metal Gear Solid, the PSX classic from 1998. Metal Gear Solid's story isn't for anybody by any means. If you don't know the Metal Gear history, well, you probably won't have the slightest idea what is going on, and that will take away from the experience. It's very complex and detailed, and extremely complicated. If you can keep track of it, and have the knowledge to understand it, it's simply amazing. But if you can't understand the story you won't be able to appreciate it.

Now, the gameplay has been completely modernized and the controls are much better. The game can now be played as a shooter, even though it is designed as a third-person-stealth-action game. As I said earlier you are Snake trying to infiltrate Liquid Ocelot's base and stop his madness. On the way there you'll have to fight off PMC's, well, that or sneak by them. The game is really up to you. If you chose the "hostile-kill-everything-that-moves" strategy you'll need some weapons. This system has been changed a lot from the previous installments in the series. You will now get points from the weapons and ammo you pick up from the battlefield, these will be given to Drebin, a pretty cool dude who is a big part of the gun and ammunition market. Some fans may not like this, however. All you have to do is go to the weapons menu and buy your weapons, and instantly get them. This takes away from the low ammount of guns and ammunition from previous games, because I assure you you will never run out of ammo.

Along the way on your mission you will run into some old friends: Otacon, Meryl Silverburgh, Cambell, Naomi, Rose, and Raiden to name some.

The game has many easter eggs, funny things, and references to other games. I won't mention any of them, but keep your eye out for them,

Kojima loves a bit of comic relief in his games, whether they be in cutscenes or in a secret place, there always there.

There's also some pretty cool gameplay mechanics in this game. For example, OctoCamo, which is technology created by Otacon that Snake wears that changed as the environment he is in changes. Snake also has an iPod, which he uses to listen to music, of course. There are hidden songs around the game that you can find. And the soundtrack for this game is amazing. Songs fro

m previous games are thrown in here too.

The whole game is beautiful, with some of the best graphics consoles have ever seen. It's running of a dual-layered 50 GB blu-ray disc. Also, another thing is that every time you enter a new act you will be required to have a 1-3 minute install, after the inital 7-8 minute install at the beginning of the game. This isn't too much of a pain, it gives you a breather and time to take a break, or smoke, like Snake.

The world design is amazing. It's huge, and, while you are aiming at a certain spot, there so much stuff to explore. You can approach the situation in many different ways, and there's many different ways to sneak around your enemies. You can just crawl right through a bunch of a gun fire and explosions and hope you don't get seen, or you can go off to an alley and find your way through that way, avoiding your foes.

And aside fro m ju st having a rendezvous point there are events that will happen. You'll have to fight through a mansion, escape through a bike chase, sort of "GTA-like". And the boss fights are also phenomenal. They, too, can be tackled many different ways. Sneak around and be cautious, waiting for the perfect time to get a shot in, or just go guns blazing and praying the boss dies. There's also a very epic fight at the end of the game.

The game has a lot of replay value. There are 5 difficulties, one that is unlocked when you start your first new game. After completing your first playthrough you can play through again with all your guns, ammo, camoflauge, and other things carried over.

The game has 40 emblems that you can earn. Each emblem has a "title", or "rank" and you will be named that when you earn them. They range from "500 headshots" to "50 deaths" to "Beat the game with no alerts, deaths, or kills on the highest difficulty." So those should keep you busy for a very long time.

The game also features a stellar online feature, Metal Gear Online. It comes with a bunch of good thought-out maps and many expansions will be released later on. Some of the maps are straight from the single-player, and others are designed just for the multiplayer. This online shouldn't be treated like Call of Duty. It really isn't that. You can definitely sneak around and have success. There are quite a few modes. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, a game where you have to capture a Ga-Ko and bring it back to your base, similar to capture the flag, and one where one player is Snake, full-equipped with OctoCamo, and stealth camo, and the other players are aiming to kill him.

Final Decision
Snakes final mission ends with a bang. You won't be disappointing one bit when the game ends. Wait, I take that back. You will be disappointing because you just ended one of the most epic stories in gaming history. It's all wrapped up here. You'll want to start another playthrough soon as the game ends. That is, after the 25 minute long credits end.