The old man and the C4
(This is a review from my own blog and podcast)
There are three questions that a gamer needs to ask him or herself regarding Metal Gear Solid 4. The first is whether you enjoy stealth-action games. The likes of Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed have set the bar high in the past few years, largely inspired by this series. Fortunately unlike previous games the rigid enforcement of stealth has been relaxed in all but a few places and a player could quite happily charge through most of the game, guns blazing and not be penalised for it. Unlike Sam Fisher’s previous outings where being spotted results in a mission restart, MGS4 gives you room to breathe and make mistakes. It’s a completely new engine built with the Call of Duty crowd in mind and it genuinely makes a difference in how you play as Snake.
The second question is whether you have played the previous games. You could probably get by on a thorough perusal of Metal gear history online but this is a game built upon a foundation of dense characterisation and vividly realised set-pieces designed to evoke emotion. This cannot be swiftly assimilated in a few pages. To get the full effect you will have at least had to have finished Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater add texture and history to the saga, which then fully enables the player to feel the true sense of completion in Guns of the Patriots. If you haven’t played any of them, track down Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 or if you own a Wii or GameCube find the remake; The Twin Snakes. It hasn’t been played by many and both have their strengths and weaknesses but the improved graphics may make the transition smoother.
Final question. Do you own a Playstation 3? If the answer is no, does this single game truly warrant the hefty investment? Going back to question two; if you have completed the first three and thoroughly enjoyed them and are hankering after this final instalment then this could indeed be the one killer app to convince you. It is a fantastic game in it’s own right. Almost every facet from previous instalments has been polished up and perfected from the once-fiddly camouflage to the cluttered item selection. Now your sneaking suit mimics your surrounding environment with a single prompt and the in-game menu gives full interface with a vast arsenal of weapons and gadgets, siphoning them into handy quick-select packages. The photo-real graphics and awe-inspiring soundstage push the PS3 to new heights of excellence and the new third-person camera finally makes hunting down enemies a joy rather than a chore. It is in short, everything Metal Gear could and should have been. It will remain Sony’s flagship game for quite some time.
It isn’t without its flaws. Half the game is spent sat passively watching lengthy cut-scenes which will become tiresome if you don’t know your history. Even if you do, in fact even if you have loved every previous moment of Kojima’s unusual blend of melodrama, action and oddball humour you might wish he’d had a better editor to trim a few of them down. The crawl mechanic is still broken and clumsy and you will often hit the deck and struggle to get back up when you are being attacked. However, long-time fans will forgive these as eccentricities of the series and will most likely be glued to the screen in rapt attention as the ghosts of previous adventures are evoked and explored.
In summary, this is so far, without a doubt the best game on Playstation 3. If the clumsy, archaic online mode is anything to go by, the future of the series will NOT be spent there. So whether we see any more from Snake and friends, this moment, frozen in time will mark the noble death and rebirth of the stealth action game.
Alex Shaw
UK
There are three questions that a gamer needs to ask him or herself regarding Metal Gear Solid 4. The first is whether you enjoy stealth-action games. The likes of Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed have set the bar high in the past few years, largely inspired by this series. Fortunately unlike previous games the rigid enforcement of stealth has been relaxed in all but a few places and a player could quite happily charge through most of the game, guns blazing and not be penalised for it. Unlike Sam Fisher’s previous outings where being spotted results in a mission restart, MGS4 gives you room to breathe and make mistakes. It’s a completely new engine built with the Call of Duty crowd in mind and it genuinely makes a difference in how you play as Snake.
The second question is whether you have played the previous games. You could probably get by on a thorough perusal of Metal gear history online but this is a game built upon a foundation of dense characterisation and vividly realised set-pieces designed to evoke emotion. This cannot be swiftly assimilated in a few pages. To get the full effect you will have at least had to have finished Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater add texture and history to the saga, which then fully enables the player to feel the true sense of completion in Guns of the Patriots. If you haven’t played any of them, track down Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 or if you own a Wii or GameCube find the remake; The Twin Snakes. It hasn’t been played by many and both have their strengths and weaknesses but the improved graphics may make the transition smoother.
Final question. Do you own a Playstation 3? If the answer is no, does this single game truly warrant the hefty investment? Going back to question two; if you have completed the first three and thoroughly enjoyed them and are hankering after this final instalment then this could indeed be the one killer app to convince you. It is a fantastic game in it’s own right. Almost every facet from previous instalments has been polished up and perfected from the once-fiddly camouflage to the cluttered item selection. Now your sneaking suit mimics your surrounding environment with a single prompt and the in-game menu gives full interface with a vast arsenal of weapons and gadgets, siphoning them into handy quick-select packages. The photo-real graphics and awe-inspiring soundstage push the PS3 to new heights of excellence and the new third-person camera finally makes hunting down enemies a joy rather than a chore. It is in short, everything Metal Gear could and should have been. It will remain Sony’s flagship game for quite some time.
It isn’t without its flaws. Half the game is spent sat passively watching lengthy cut-scenes which will become tiresome if you don’t know your history. Even if you do, in fact even if you have loved every previous moment of Kojima’s unusual blend of melodrama, action and oddball humour you might wish he’d had a better editor to trim a few of them down. The crawl mechanic is still broken and clumsy and you will often hit the deck and struggle to get back up when you are being attacked. However, long-time fans will forgive these as eccentricities of the series and will most likely be glued to the screen in rapt attention as the ghosts of previous adventures are evoked and explored.
In summary, this is so far, without a doubt the best game on Playstation 3. If the clumsy, archaic online mode is anything to go by, the future of the series will NOT be spent there. So whether we see any more from Snake and friends, this moment, frozen in time will mark the noble death and rebirth of the stealth action game.
Alex Shaw
UK
