After decades of anticipation and fanfare from across the globe, the saga of Solid Snake is finally at its end. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots definitely isn’t perfect in any sense of the word, but does manage to truly be greater than the sum of its parts to go down as one of the defining games of this generation of consoles.
At its core, the Metal Gear series has always been about stealth and story, and MGS4 isn’t any different. The game does, however, feature a number of additions that make sneaking around a bit easier, most of which are influenced by items in Kojima Productions’ previous title, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.
The most notable of the bunch is the OctoCamo, Snake’s new suit that adapts to look like almost any surface he touches. It’ll allow you to interact with, and hide in, places that you typically wouldn’t in a MGS game, which also makes for some interesting approaches in regards to how you reach certain destinations.
The levels themselves are something to admire as well, thanks to the high quality of the game’s graphics among other things. For the first time in the MGS series, you’re not strictly confined to one or two main areas for the course of the game. MGS4 spans the globe and takes you to a number of locations, all of which come with some great level design to boot.
Playing these levels also has another wrinkle with the introduction of the PMC and Militia factions who happen to be at war with each other. Throughout the game, you’ll come into contact with one or both sides of each group, and can choose to help out. If you scratch their backs, they’ll scratch yours, and can make some parts of the game remarkably easier as a result.
The camera also helps with this, as the third-person perspective from MGS3: Subsistence is implemented. Along with Snake’s Solid Eye (the new radar system), you’ll have a much better sense of the numerous environments that you’re in. And as a result, you’ll be able to make better decisions and truly play the levels the way you’d like to.
New shooting and cover mechanics have also been structured into the game and employ a style similar to Gears of War like so many other recent Western titles have. The style, along with the game’s psyche meter, meshes well together with some more familiar aspects of MGS gameplay and feels like a natural extension of the combat controls.
Acquiring weapons in the game are easier too, and as a result it’ll take a bit of the strategy out of your hands if you don’t restrain yourself. Once you’re introduced to Drebin (the game’s weapons launderer), he’ll be accessible to you anytime from the pause menu to obtain weapons, ammo, and other misc. items you’ll use in battle. You’ll do so through the use of Drebin Points, which you’ll obtain mainly by collecting guns off of enemy soldiers.
Regarding the game’s story, it’s almost impossible to go into any detail of it without spoiling it for someone but, as was touched on earlier, truly does conclude the Solid Snake chapter of this series. Old characters, such as Octacon, Raiden, and Col. Campbell, make appearances, as well as new characters that all add something to the series’ huge mythological universe.
The Beauty and the Beast Corps, the game’s group of bosses, is also impressive. While they probably won’t go down as the best of the boss groups in the series, there is little question that these are, collectively, the most open of the bunch as the wide scale of all of the areas are put to great use through the course of the fights.
There is also a ton of fan service in the game, and as with many other titles in the series, brings quite a bit of fourth-wall breaking into the fold as the game constantly reminds you that you’re, well, in a game. It also tries to catch you up on some of the key points in prior games via a number of methods, but executes that in some ways better than others.
Telling that story, however, is done the majority of the game by cut scenes. While being extremely well done and a beauty to watch, they can break up the pacing of the game in certain areas. While the Metal Gear Solid series is certainly no stranger to this, MGS 4 is a whole new beast entirely as some of the more important sequences can be at or near 30-40 minutes in length.
On the flip-side of that, the number of codec conversations has been drastically reduced, which is most likely a byproduct of the decision to go with the longer cut scenes.
The game isn’t without its technical faults, though. Minor frame rate jumps occur and installation times throughout the game after the aforementioned cut scenes can be a nuisance, along with annoying re-spawns of soldiers in certain places.
To top all of that off, the game also includes a multiplayer component in Metal Gear Online. Once you get past the extremely tedious setup process of creating two separate IDs to register, you’ll have the ability to create a character solider and play in a number of traditional online matches. There are new maps utilized for Metal Gear Online exclusively, but it also makes use of some of the areas in the game’s single-player story as well.
There’s no telling where this franchise will go from here, but the final chapter in Solid Snake’s story wraps up as the best of the bunch and Hideo Kojima and his development team should be applauded for their efforts. If you’ve got a PlayStation 3, there’s no reason you shouldn’t have this game in your collection.
Final Score: 4.5 out of 5
Tags: action, hideo kojima, metal gear, metal gear solid 4, metal gear solid 4: guns of the patriots, old snake, ps3, solid snake, stealth
