Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is the latest title to come out the deranged mess that is Hideo Kojima’s mind and once again it raises the bar for storytelling in video games.
Following on from the events in Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake has aged. A lot. Yet the raspy old fellow is back for what has been heavily hinted at – his final mission. Rather than sticking the the one facility or area players will be able to switch between 5 locations across the globe hunting for Liquid Ocelot the main antagonist of the game.
Spoilers aside the game does a very good job of salvaging something that resembles sense from the mess that many people found the closing hours of MGS2. The game succeeds in providing closure to the story that has spanned almost 21 years across 7 games.
The story is not completely perfect however, you do come across several retcons in the game which is never good but many of them seem forced just to make the events of MGS3 and Portable Ops seem more relevant.
As always the performances from the voice actors are nothing sort of incredible David Hayter once again brings amazing depth to Snake and in my opinion Metal Gear without Hayter is just dumb. The only minor complaint about the voices is Christopher Randolph’s (Otacon) inability to fake crying. I can’t quote the exact words for spoilers sake but he sounds cringe worthy all for the wrong reasons.
Of course this is still a video game and the game play is also brilliant. However to Metal Gear aficionados they may have a problem with the more action orientated play rather than the stealthy game play we are used to. It definitely feels like at some point during this games development somebody played Gears of War and said ‘oh…’
The controls have also been modified and for the most part it’s for the better. The CQC (close quarters combat) system has been improved as it was just done on the one button rather than the 3 or 4 you would have had to use in Snake Eater. However I did miss being able to interrogate opponents which as far as I can tell has been excluded
from the game.
The motion sensing has also been used sparingly (which is good) simply having to shake if you want to return the camouflage to it’s original color and also using it to strangle people among other minor uses. It all works fairly well but I’d still be much happier having to push a button but that’s just my personal preference.
The audio in this game is stunning, there is no denying Guns of the Patriots is the best sounding game for a long time, every little thing sounds perfect and sounds exactly like it should do.
The game does have some minor issues, firstly the boss characters were a bit disappointing after such an amazing group of foes in MGS3. Sure its still beats other boss characters in other series but they are not of your usual Metal Gear caliber.
Also whilst it is an excellent game it’s not such a good Metal Gear game. While you can be stealthy and try not to get spotting there is no real reason too. In past Metal Gear games if you got seen chances are you would be dead before you realized. Guns of the Patriots however Snake is heavily overpowered and any guard can be taken care of very quickly. It’s not a problem for the majority of gamers but fans of the series may find it slightly annoying that you can just Rambo the whole game.
If you own a PS3 you owe it to yourself to buy Metal Gear Solid 4. Every console has had that small group of games that decades later it will be remembered for and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is one of those games for Sony’s machine.