Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 4 has up to this point been one of the biggest titles of 2008. This most anticipated sequel in a year of big anticipated sequels has come, and unfortunately, has gone for the most part, and we missed the review train, but for a game as great as Metal Gear Solid 4, it’s never too late to catch the next train. Hit the jump for my review of the game.

From the moment you boot up the game disc, to when you first take the reigns of Solid Snake, are just crazy enough. The experience continues into a war-torn battlefield, filled with not only broken bones and lifeless bodies, but a world of chaos and lost cause. You play as Solid Snake, the legendary Hero of the series, who is poised to serve in not only his final mission, but quite possibly his final game. Snake, who has progressively aged faster than should be expected, has only a short amount of time before he “dies”, and his fate depends on this last truck through the MGS universe. Despite the game’s amazing quality, there does exist a few pitfalls. I’m trying not to spoil TOO much, so I will do a shorter bullet-point style review that was started by our friend Donnie B. I’ll tell you what I loved and hated about the game, and why.

Loved:

• The new camera angle that was introduced in the re-released Metal Gear Solid 3 fits perfectly in this scenario, where you’re going to need to keep your eyes and ears open to keep your eye on the hectic battlefield. It allows you to view your surroundings in a much more robust way, as opposed to the fixed angle we’ve come to expect from Metal Gear games. If you’re stuck, you can just take a moment to swivel your camera around the area and plan out your route. You can scout the nearby area for enemies or get a close up on Snake’s new mustache.

• Otacooonnnnn!!!! I love how Snake screams his name in the night… no homo. But Otacon comes through once again with his amazingly advanced technology and witty devices. Helped by his “daughter” Sonny, Otacon helps guide Snake through his mission with not only intel, but new gizmos and gadgets as well. Queue the Solid Eye, Octocamo, and the Metal Gear Mark 2, two devices and one nice ass getup that will prove extremely useful on the battlefield. The Solid Eye, first and foremost, helps you by giving you a bio-detection radar, which doesn’t do much in helping you find your way through the terrain (you can press the Start button for that), but it will be useful when you’re going into unfamiliar territory and you need to know if any enemies stand nearby. Use your judgment on what’s what on the radar, however, as the living breathing world of Metal Gear Solid 4 will also show up on. This includes any animals that might be crawling around just to piss you off.
• Octocamo is a piece of technology that will help you blend in with the battlefield without you having to do anything: PERFECT FOR MY LAZY ASS. If you lay in a patch of grass, expect to go green. Laying in a pile of rubble will you’re your suit a bumpy, tan texture. If you don’t want to run around with the weird camo on after leaving the area, the Sixaxis technology allows you to change back to normal by simply flicking the DualShock or Sixaxis up. The Metal Gear Mark 2 is my next best friend, though. I admittedly went through this game on Naked Snake Normal (which I believe is Japan’s version of Normal) and I didn’t even touch MGM2. However, during my “The Boss Extreme” run through (the hardest difficulty) in which I restricted myself to No Kills, No Alerts, and No Continues, I felt myself making Snake whip out his Dualshock 3 a lot more often. Snake controls the Metal Gear Mark 2 around the area as he can use it to scout the area for enemies, knock these enemies out with his electro-static “arm”, and even carry the downed enemies’ guns back to Snake. A press of a button and he also goes invisible, making him the ideal candidate for sending something out into the dangerous battlefield in place of snake.

• Of course, things don’t operate without batteries. You have to make sure you manage just how much you use the MGM2 and Solid Eye, as not only do they run on batteries, but they share batteries as well. You could very will find yourself stuck in a spot where using these devices could help you. The batteries are rechargeable, though, and it’s worth it to take MGM2 for a spin around the Nomad during mission briefings to see what kind of Lithium goodness you can find.

• One thing that caught my eye when I began playing Metal Gear Solid 4 was the presentation. It’s clear that Kojima Productions has pushed the PS3 further than any developer has been able to do thus far.Although this game doesn’t always run at a solid framerate, it more than makes up for it by just how great it looks. Nearly every inch of the environments are crisp and highly detailed. Clothing items are textured realistically, weapons have been paid a high level of detail, and things like the ground beneath you and the walls around you look as real as if you were there. This helps to immerse the player deeper than any MGS game has ever done. In-game cutscenes makes for great transitions between cinematics and gameplay, but this doesn’t happen as often as need be. The game’s score is great. I’ve never been one to pay attention to a game’s soundtrack too closely, but Metal Gear Solid 4’s score really sets it above and beyond any game out to date. From the beginning scene when you’re promptly inserted into the Middle East, to the epic battle between Snake’s biggest rival, the soundtrack will almost-literally blow you away.
• The Bosses in Metal Gear Solid 4 seem sort of Generic at first, but each member of a group of females called the BnB Corps. has an interesting backstory revealed to you by way of Drebin at the end of each fight. The battles themselves are somewhat interesting, but way too easy with the exception of the Praying Mantis (Psycho, anyone?). Up until this point, you were handed the task of first finding the enemy, then shooting the hell out of them until you depleted their health just enough for the Beauty forms of the Beasts to break out of their shell, where they’ll attempt to dry hump you to death. Each boss battle with the BnB Corps. ends the same, which I was kind of disappointed at, but what can you do? A fight against the Laughing Octopus has her disgusing herself as different MGS4 entities, including Snake himself, and blending in with the environment, wanting to play what is more or less a game of Hide and Seek with you. The Raging Raven sends her lieutenants tossing bombs at you, sending in scouting drones, and her just trying to blow the crap out of you.

• The Crying Wolf hides herself in a mess of snow and treets, leaving you with her prints to try and find her. Simply using the Solid Eye should help you pinpoint her location, and taking her down is, unfortunately, the easiest part of the battle. But the Praying Mantis is one of the funnest bosses I’ve ever faced. After a very hectic battle between a round of F.R.O.G.S., the praying Mantis, who has the ability to control people and objects with kenesis, brings the dead F.R.O.G.S. back to life, and convinces Snake’s old friend Meryl to attack you with a pistol. All of this is controlled with what you might call Voodoo dolls (but are called Mantis dolls in the game). You must take the Dolls away from her and utilize them against her. This battle was by far one of the hardest (even harder than a battle between 2 well-known Metal Gears)  but also one of the funnest. All in all, the bosses are satisfying enough, but Kojima and the team could’ve put more effort into making the endings of each battle more interesting.

Hated:

• Despite all of these great come-ups, Metal Gear Solid 4’s great presentation is cut short by a problem that seems to be plaguing many PS3 games. Seamless transition between cinematics and gameplay are rare, and there seems to be more loading times than anything: even after having to constantly install game data between each act to make up for the Blu Ray’s slower-than-average read speeds. Even though the loading screens aren’t very long, there are so many of them. One example is when you meet up again with Drebin, a weapons launderer out on the battlefield to collect guap. He helps you, his monkey, and Snake’s lady friend out of a tough spot in a PMC tank he’s managed to “acquire”.

• Throughout the battle, you roll through each area, taking out enemies and big, unmanned bio-mechanical massive walking tanks of death called Gekko along the way. In this 2-3 minute sequenece (that includes killing all the Gekko and helping Drebin advance) there are at least 4-5 loading screens, each small area needing its own time for loading. This shouldn’t put too big of a hit on the game, however, as Kojima undoubtedly had big ambitions that the PS3 were just not able to handle.

• The story of MGS4 will do well to wrap up any loose ends that any MGS fan has been worrying about. Nearly every part of the Metal Gear Solid universe is touched upon, and nothing goes unexplained. However, a lot of the times it felt like Kojima just let the story run too wild in previous Metal Gear Solid games, and needed a clever way to wrap it all back up in the end. Even with the game’s epic storytelling, it all felt more or less the same: “Nanomachines” are the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything that surrounds it. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve played this game, or once you finally get a chance to play it. The story was still great, however, and I’m glad Kojima chose this game to answer every question any MGS fan could possibly have.

• The gameplay mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 4 aren’t too hard to grasp, they’re actually more intuitive than ever, but the dated MGS engine is starting to show. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to attempt to climb a ladder because I had to have Snake face to face with it, at the right angle, just to start climbing. The same goes with pressing yourself against a wall, running up stairs with sharp turns, etc. The game also suffers from bad enemy AI. Ok the Octocamo (especially when paired with the matching unlockable Mask) is supposed to keep you hidden in the battlefield, but come on: And enemy walks right next to me, in clear daylight and in the middle of a street, and doesn’t notice me? Don’t get me started on how an enemy will run up to me, go into alert status, and take 10 seconds to react accordingly. It just made the game feel so broken at times, and made it easy for me to turn the game off just because it bored me how easy it was to exploit this fallback. The AI can be cheap too, though, especially on The Boss Extreme.

• If you raise an Alert status, or even a caution, expect 8 more enemies to appear almost out of nowhere. Sure, enemies respawning in games is fine, a lot of games do it, but some of those games do it wrongly and beside Call of Duty 4 on Veteran, MGS4 is one of them. One instance I’ve come across had my back toward a very tall wall in a very deep and narrow alley. I was waiting for a caution alert to go down, and suddenly, the Alert status goes back up and I have 4 rebel Soldiers stomping my head. This just disgusted the hell out of me, but I sucked it up and kept on keeping on because the game is very rewarding for playing the traditional Metal Gear Solid way.

All In all, MGS4 was a great fucking ride if I do say so myself. MGS4 is one of the few games where I was not only pushed to complete the game more than once, but on the hardest difficulty as well. I would say it makes it harder for myself by not being able to use any weapons or go into alert status, but this task is actually very simple if you stick to stealth and Snake is better off with it. I haven’t played enough of Metal Gear Online to fully review that aspect of the game, but it definitely does its job in extending the replayability of an already replayable game.

I understand I haven’t covered nearly every aspect of the game here (like the Drebin weapon laundering system and Kojima’s fetish for anything Apple) because both the new way of acquiring weapons and the existence of the Apple iPod is a Love OR Hate thing. Sometimes I love weapon laundering because if im low on Ammo, I can just hit Drebin up (of course, this doesn’t apply in a No KAC run as you can’t buy non-lethal ammo) and sometimes I hate Drebin because it makes the game somewhat easier (although you aren’t really forced to utilize Drebin.) If I had to play any PS3 game 100 times, it would most definitely be Metal Gear Solid 4, and for all that it’s worth, I believe it’s the best game to have come out in the past 1-2 years.