Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Although Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots introduces a variety of new ways to kill your enemies, at heart, it’s still the same game it’s always been. The gameplay has been tightened up and vastly improved, but underneath that, all that gamers have come to expect from the Metal Gear Solid series remains. Convoluted plot lines, unbelievable twists, out of this world characters and nanomachines are all still present in MGS4. Despite being fundamentally the same as its predecessors, MGS4 gets my vote for being the best in the series.

As pretty much everybody knows by this stage, MGS4 will be the last Metal Gear game to feature Solid Snake. For most other game characters, this may not necessarily be that big a deal, but for Solid Snake it is. To many gamers, even those who have never touched a Metal Gear game, he has become something like a legend – a feat he has achieved independent of each Metal Gear’s previous instalments’ insistence that he is a legend of the battlefield. Speaking of which, you will be glad to know that by the end of MGS4, you will have found out whether love can bloom on the battlefield. Anyway, Snake is pretty much already a legend in gaming. This comes from being the lead character of a highly acclaimed series which, at this stage, has spanned a good twenty years. In that context, it is quite saddening that MGS4 will be the final chapter in his life within gaming. Luckily, Hideo Kojima has provided Snake with a fitting end to his career which makes MGS4 close to being perfect, at least for fans of the series.

Unlike nearly every game out there, the strength of MGS4 is not the game per se. Instead, one gets the feeling that the majority of the emphasis is placed on the story. Although, by this stage in the series, that should be expected. Also as in previous Metal Gear games, the plot is as convoluted as ever, with more twists in it than the wiring shoved behind your TV stand. The script, at times, is poor. In fact it can get so over the top and melodramatic, that even the biggest Metal Gear fan will probably wish they had employed at least one decent editor. That said, most of the time, the unnecessarily dramatic script fits the unnecessarily dramatic story and cut scenes, so maybe there was no editor for a reason. Nearly every character who means anything in the MGS universe makes an appearance in MGS4, except those who are dead. Actually, even some of them have been thrown into the mix somewhere.

If you hadn’t already noticed, much of what drives the story, and the manner in which it is driven, hasn’t changed in MGS4 compared to any of the older games. Perhaps the biggest change is that the codec conversations have been scaled back considerably. Gone are the boring codec conversations that last forever, serving to tell the player of a secret society of some sort. Instead, much more of the story is told via cut scenes. For a game with such high production values and a unique cinematic feel, thus undoubtedly works to the games favour.

As already mentioned, a number of the series’ better known characters reappear in MGS4. Obviously those include Solid Snake, Otacon, the Colonel and Ocelot, but there are also others who are still alive and need to have their stories concluded. Characters such as Meryl, Raiden and Vamp fall into this category. There are a number of others, but to say who might be to give away some of the more interesting plot twists of the game. Perhaps the biggest surprise in terms of the characters is that Raiden is actually a pretty cool character this time round. Gone are his feminine looks and tight fitting ‘sneaking suit.’ Instead, he sports a distinctly ‘ninja’ looking outfit, complete with sword and a futuristic looking helmet thing. Other characters don’t feel like they fit in quite as well as Raiden, unfortunately. As mentioned, pretty much all characters still alive appear and this makes for some fairly odd moments where, even by Metal Gear standards, it just feels like they shouldn’t be there. They just don’t fit in with the context of when they’re introduced into MGS4. Ultimately, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Kojima chose to put them in just to keep fans happy. I’m trying to talk around specifics here so as not to spoil the game, but once you play these parts of the game, what I’m getting at should become a little bit clearer [hopefully].

So the story is still as prominent as ever? Yes. But if this isn’t your cup of tea, don’t despair just yet, as the gameplay in MGS4 is easily the best in any Metal Gear game to date. One of my biggest criticisms of the past games, especially Snake Eater, was the camera. Its fixed position made it unnecessarily difficult to see your surroundings. Sure, Naked Snake was missing an eye but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t stop you from, say, looking in more than one direction. Luckily, this has been remedied in MGS4. The camera, like most conventional third person shooters, can be controlled with the right analogue stick. The camouflage is also much better than on previous games. Yes, I’m looking at you MGS3. Whereas before, crawling from one shade of grey to another required a laborious trek through multi-layered menus just to change your face paint, Kojima has thankfully implemented a more adaptable camouflage system in MGS4, whereby the ‘Octocamo’ suit automatically adapts to your surroundings.

As for the actual gameplay of killing people, there is not as much tactical espionage in MGS4. It’s actually quite easy to run n gun your way through, although you can maintain stealth if preferred. In the first two locations, different factions will be fighting each other. This adds an interesting gameplay dynamic because you now must evade two sets of guards or at least ally yourself with one of them. This is undoubtedly MGS4’s best new feature, and if the story hasn’t drawn you into the series thus far, this might. Or it might not since it suddenly disappears about half way though the game never to return. At this point, the game becomes very story driven. In other words, the new promise that MGS4 exhibits towards the beginning, is extinguished by the time you reach the half way mark.

To start with, this is a shame. The first level without two factions is easily the worst in the game. Firstly, you do hardly any playing in this area, and when you do play, it isn’t exactly riveting stuff. If you hadn’t guessed, this is where non-MGS fans will lose interest and realise why they don’t like MGS. On the other hand, MGS fans will be happy for a return to normalcy, having enjoyed the variety in the first half of the game. Despite the lack of actual playing in the second half, fans will probably enjoy this part more, due largely to the locations and characters.

Based on this, I think it’s a fair judgement to say that MGS4 is for fans of MGS. If you’re not, don’t bother. The gameplay is sufficiently unique to be fun for the first 8 hours of play, but thereafter you may as well go watch a conspiracy theory movie, complete with UFO’s and New World Orders.

This leads me to a dilemma. How do you score a game which one group of people will despise, whilst another group will adore it? I’ll let you come to your own conclusion on that one, but in answer to my own semi-rhetorical question, my solution is to give two scores.

Presentation: 10/10

Gameplay: 9/10

Story: 9.5/10

Longevity: 9/10

Overall (for fans): 10/10

Overall (for non-fans): 8/10

Oh and there’s also this thing called Metal Gear Online which isn’t that good. Every aspect of it feels like it came from the local discount store – it gets the job done, and that’s about it. If MGO were to be summed up in one word, it would be ‘mediocre.’ Honestly, there are better online games out there. I also got turned off straight away by the signing in process, which require registration on Konami’s website and obtaining TWO login ID’s between which you’ll get confused in about 120 seconds. That MGO is little more than a money grabbing exercise by Konami is pretty obvious too. You can’t have more than one account per PS3 without paying. You can’t even change you one characters facial features without being charged. Altogether, not very good.

MGO: 6.5/10