Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a stealth action game, just
like its predecessors. Also much like its predecessors, it contains
many, many lengthy cut scenes. About half of this roughly 15 to 20-hour
game will be spent watching, not playing. Even for series veterans,
this is a surprisingly large amount. However, MGS 4 is improved from
its forebears in a number of important ways.
The
first major improvement to the series' blueprint is in the controls and
gameplay mechanics. In previous games, aiming and firing a weapon in
first person was a hassle that required you to press several buttons,
and you couldn't move while aiming. In MGS 4, pressing down on the left
shoulder button will enter aiming mode, at which point the camera will
switch to an over the shoulder perspective, much like in Resident Evil
4 or Gears of War, making shooting a much easier task. You can even go
into first-person view and play the game like an FPS game, if you want.
Some controls are still a bit fiddly, most notably the CQC (grab)
moves, but these are advanced moves you don't ever really strictly need
to progress. Combined with the plethora of guns in the game, it seems
that Hideo Kojima really wanted players to just blow off some steam and
forego the usual stealth shenanigans from time to time. In fact, the
game will straight up demand that of you every now and then, but more
on that later.
When you're not engaged in a firefight, you'll
most likely be sneaking around. This area of the game has also been
made a lot more playable. Snake is equipped with a high-tech suit,
called Octocamo, that adapts to whatever surface you're on, much like a
chameleon. This means that you can hide effectively almost anywhere
without having to go into the menu and switching camouflage like you
would in MGS 3. In one cut scene, Snake is lying prone in a forest area
with Octocamo on, and I didn't actually spot him until he moved.
Speaking
of cut scenes, well, I hope you like them long! MGS 4 is touted as the
final game in Solid Snake's saga, and as such, it has a lot of loose
ends to tie up. To its credit, it does so. Without spoiling anything, I
can say that finality is a big theme in this game. The cut scenes
themselves look incredibly impressive. The characters' faces and body
language make you forget you're watching digital actors and not real
people. Relationships between characters from almost every Metal Gear
game are fleshed out and developed, and Kojima's writing ability has
definitely developed in this area. Where it hasn't developed so much is
in the exposition. The game is divided up into acts, and every act
starts with a very lengthy briefing scene to bring you up to speed on
the plot, which by now is so complex that Konami has released a
wikipedia-like Metal Gear Solid database on the Playstation Store. The
game will throw lots of jargon and acronyms your way and it expects you
to know what most of them mean. Make no mistake, this game is made
purely for fans of the series. If names like Big Boss and Solid Snake
sound silly to you and you don't know what a Metal Gear is, turn away,
this game is not for you. That's not to say you won't enjoy the
gameplay, but the story's emotional impact is totally reliant on your
knowledge of who these characters are.
Emotional impact. This is
a term you might not hear associated with video games very often, but
as a longtime follower of the series, there is no way certain parts of
the game won't at the very least make you teary-eyed. All the elaborate
conspiracy-theory plot happenings wouldn't matter one bit of you didn't
care for these characters, and that's where this game shines. The
relationship between Snake and Meryl in particular is expertly handled
and shows how much Kojima's storytelling has improved. By bringing back
a huge cast of characters from every game in the series, Kojima has
given this game an epic feel. The chain reaction that started the
events in the game started years and years before Snake was even born,
and to see it all come together is truly remarkable. Sure, some twists
might be far-fetched. Sure, the exposition is long-winded and dry. But
as a fan, you won't care. You won't care because you get to see what
happens to all these characters, and it's satisfying in a way that few
video games are.
It's not just the story that is satisfying. As
previously stated, the game is divided up into Acts, every act contains
an action-filled set piece. You are tasked with taking on an entire
unit of elite troops in an abandoned multi-story building together with
a familiar character and her squad, you get to ride several vehicles as
the gunner, and you even get to control... well, that would be
spoiling, but suffice it to say this is what fans have wanted to do
since Metal Gear Solid 1. Every time you think the game has outdone
itself and it cannot get any more exciting, it ups the ante once more.
Metal
Gear Solid 4 improves on its predecessors in almost every way and
provides an extremely satisfying story for any fan of the series.
Newcomers will probably scratch their heads and wonder what all the
fuss is about, but to review this game for these people would be silly.
This game is 100% fan service, and with that in mind, I cannot score
this game any less than Perfect.
