11/10. The veteran can now have a rest, but his legend goes on forever.
MGS4 sets its background in the year 2014, five years after the "Big Shell Incident" in MGS2. At this time, the global confliction becomes more and more intense, leading to violent wars all over the world. The PMC (Private Military Company) has taken the place of governmental forces in the battlefields. And with the development of Nano technology, a kind of microchip is implanted in the body of every warrior, not only to enhance their combat ability but also to keep them under control.Behind five biggest PMCs (Praying Mantis, Otselotovaya Khvatka, Werewolf, Pieuvre Armement and Raven Sword) is only one character: Liquid Ocelot. His objective is to cause a world-shaking upheaval, including nuclear catastrophe, to impose a new order of warfare in which his warriors hold the supreme power. To stop this madness, Roy Campbell, currently working for UN, has to contact Solid Snake to assign a secret fatal mission: getting to Middle East to eliminate Liquid. Despite deteriorated health and the effect of FoxDie virus on his body, Snake departs for unpredictable danger ahead. We will follow his paces from Middle East through south America, Eastern Europe and Alaska.
Once again MGS4 revive the humanistic antiwar thought which has been passed through each version of the whole series. Metal Gear never focuses on the "Superhero" abilities, but instead emphasizes on the human aspects of its characters, that is, the normal feelings of sorrow, happiness, passion and fear. The great value of the storyline in MGS4 is the answer for accumulating questions from prior versions. To fully contemplate this value, you should know the plot from Metal Gear 1, 2 to Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 3 and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Familiar roles remain in this release, many mysteries are unfolded, all surrounding the hidden character called The Patriots. Thanks to Kojima's masterful art of novel construction, MGS4 becomes the main thread to keep all previous episodes in touch in details and consistent in terms of idea. There is no redundant part, but without this last piece, the whole architecture will collapse.
The story in MGS4 is more severe than its predecessors, mostly because of the large amout of sentiment conveyed in each scene. Following Snake through this long, arduous journey is like carrying a Cross of heavy emotions on the path of the Messiah! Sometimes, we feel like reaching our limitation and have to stop a moment for a rest, but one way or another Kojima has produced a haunting masterpiece that will resound for a long time in our memory.
Stay true to its repute as father of "stealth action", this factor is leveraged to the highest level in MGS4. Game encourages players to use it as much as possible in all manners we can imagine: crawling on the ground to avoid enemies' eyesight, self-covering behind obstacles, using chloroform weapons... and staying ready for close combat (CQC) whenever necessary. If you feel like mopping up like Rambo, then forget about MGS4, since the idea of staying in shadow still remains essential in game play like it has always in the last two decades and you will miss the palpitation in breath-taking stealthy scenes.
MGS4 succeeds in changing players' attitude towards stealth factor, from "having to" to "enjoying". Playing an important role in its appeal is the OctoCamo suit, a great improvement of "camouflage" mode in MGS3. No longer do we have to change our outfits to fit the neighbourhood because this "chameleon" suit can automatically adapt to surrounding changes. There is a camo index at the right corner of the screen, indicating the adaptive level of Snake to the environment, the higher this index, the less possibly the enemy can detect him. OctoCamo leads to a drastic change in our experience with the game. The paper box in which Snake can shelter, the former icon of the series, though still remains in MGS4, has really become redundant. So is the cling and swing actions used to appear everywhere. All these tasks are now undertaken by OctoCamo, which allows players to constantly concentrate on the uninterrupted flow of actions in game. In order to introduce this original suit, the developers include a clip at the beginning in which Snake disguise himself as a statue on a dais without being detected by his foes. Besides, the terrains of MGS4 are also more diverse than MGS1 and 2 (confined in buildings) or MGS3 (only in a tropical forest). Here we have a change to travel through the deserts of Middle East, the bushy forest in South America, the turbulent metropolis in Eastern Europe and finally the frost field in Alaska. Despite all surrounding variations, the suit is reliable and we can always enjoy watching it changing its pattern from scene to scene. In addition, the FaceCamo mask can further increase Snake's stealth effect to 99% chance of avoiding eyesight. Not to mention his new ability to imitate death, these new gears can insure success in almost every case.
Supporting Snake's observation is the Solid Eye which provides valuable information about the location and size of enemies on the map. Players will find it easy to switch between three modes of the eye: normal, binos (Zoom in, out) và nv(infrared ray, used in the dark). This, combining with the Threat Ring around Snake's body which changing its color due to situation, allows us to predict precisely the distance, status and danger level of opponents even when staying still. In addition to OctoCamo and Solid Eye, our name-part also have a useful "prolonged arm": robot Metal Gear Mk.II. Thanks to its tiny size and ability to steal in and out as perfectly as its owner, this creative invention of Otacon provides a great diversity to game play. In dangerous situation, Snake can have Mk.II making noise at a far distance from his shelter to distract the enemies, or control his electric whip to eliminate them one by one from behind, as well as collecting trophies for him.
A variation of stealth action is tracking quest in which Snake has to follow footprints of enemies to rescue a VIP or the mission to follow a rebel to his lair secretly while avoiding detection of other guards. This requires not only close observation but also judgement and prediction based on the depth and number of these footprints.
In spite of the quality of Stealth factor, sometimes you are still dragged out of shadow to face dozens of enemies and even bosses.In such case, MGS4 becomes a superd third person shooter (TPS). It's a consistent trend of this series to improve the quality of shooting scenes so that they get on a par with Stealth Action. That's the reason this release employ an user-friendly control mechanism and rapid-fire gun duals. Have a look over the control: auto-aim mode can be turn on and off easily by square button; third and first person angle can be switch by triangular button. The collection of weapons are big and diverse enough to satisfy shooter fans, from the dagger with additional stun feature to grenade launcher RPG and Rail-gun with massively destructive power. An interesting point is you can collect guns throughout the journey and keep them in the "museum" Metal Gear Mk.II. All guns are controlled by ID, hence, you have to meet Drebin 893, a weapon smuggler, to unlock them before you can make use of your trophies in battle. Besides, this guy sell nice accessories like telescopic sight, sound muffler ect. Of course you have to gather enough DP (Drebin Point) by selling abundant gears, or gaining bonus point.
MGS does not stay the same without poetic delight of boss fights. In MGS4, The Beauty and the Beast Corps consists of 4 fanciful bosses: Crying Wolf, Raging Raven, Screaming Mantis and Laughing Octopus. All of them are female and well equipped with super high-tech gears, which no doubt will satisfy you. Throw-back like the appearance of old bosses (Vamp or Liquid Ocelot) with slight modification is also welcome. Besides, there are several racing scene on mechanical vehicles like armour-plated tanks and motobikes. The most special should be the episode Snake drives Metal Gear REX battling Metal Gear RAY in Gundam manner. And if all of these are not enough, there is always Metal Gear Online which support up to 16 players for you to discover.
"Incredible"- that's what you must utter when contemplating the audio-visual show in MGS4. Only when you watch each screen with your own eyes could you understand why Konami delayed the game for so long to polish it further so that their trump-card can become the game with best graphics on PS3. The first impression is the sublime appearance and lissome movement of character models, the result of the combination between PS3 and HDTV. No one can ever forget how magnificent Naomi Hunter looks (as if we had just met her the first time) or the vestige of time on Solid Snake's face. Though Kojima never calls himself a perfectionist, he did take good care of every sophisticated details, even the smallest. Did you notice the dim wave of steam left on the wall after the cold hand of the character slightly touch it, or small cloud of dust stirring in Middle East battlefield? Kojima's passion for motion picture continue to manifest itself through cut scenes built right on the engine of the game. Their quality is on a par with classic movies. It's not a surprise that we can not skip a moment even in the 30 minute clip. Shaking effect is cleverly applied on some scenes to make an impression that it is filmed by a camera! MGS4 continues a tradition of the series, that is, the total amount of time for cut scenes is nearly as big as game play itself. However, for some gamers, it still seems not enough!
Audio in MGS4 manages to keep up with other parts of the game. Voice play is still undertaken by the familiar squad who has been working under this title for many past years. Each of them can now become their favourite character once more, especially David Hayter in the role of Solid Snake. Background music of prior games is maintained with some variation here and there. Merely few chords in "The Best is Yet To Come" song when Snake returns to Shadow Moses can move old fans of Metal Gear to tear, reminding them of the long last memory with this game.
As Jeff Haynes of IGN said, if there were a 11/10 score, MGS4 still deserves. "Im no hero... never was... never will be." - Snake's speech will forever be in our mind, as the keepsake of a wonderful time with an unforgettable masterpiece, and the reminder of a universal truth: There is no hero in an unjust war.