I never believed in a perfect game until I played this. Kojima, we salute you.
Minus: There are some loading times
Interesting: One of the cutscenes go for 90 minutes
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was meant to be released in 2007 but was delayed until 2008. It's a stealth action adventure, the 4th in it's series, not including the spin-offs. Abbreviated to MGS4, this game is said to be one of the best video game in this generation, by critics and gamers alike.
The story is probably the strongest and biggest part of MGS4. Most people say they won't buy this game because 90% is cutscenes and 10% is gameplay. This isn't true, but when I was playing I was wanting the cutscenes more than the gameplay, and not because of how bad the gameplay is, because it's awesome and I'll talk about it later, but because the story is so epic, so brilliant it just makes you want to sit down and watch it for the whole day. The game is set in the near future of 2014, and Solid Snake, the main character from most of the previous games, is going to do his final mission. The world in engulfed in war, with the PMCs, aka Private Military Companies, mostly being the bad guys. If you haven't finished or played most of the previous games before this one, then you will get really, really lost. But that's not bad, because I never played a Metal Gear game before. All I did was sit at the computer for 2 hours reading and filling in the gaps. So if you've never played a Metal Gear game before it can get tricky but basically Solid Snake is a war guy, who was cloned from this other war guy named Big Boss. It was for an experiment to try and make some really strong super warrior. There were also two other clones from Big Boss, Solidus Snake, and Liquid Snake, who are also war guys. Solidus died in a previous installment, while Liquid is the main antagonist in MGS4. That's pretty much the basics that you need to know, but you will definitely have to ask someone or read somewhere to fill the other bits out. Any way in this installment Snake, now Old Snake due to rapid growth stuff from being a clone –much like from Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, has a mission is to assassinate Liquid, now called Liquid Ocelot. To make things simple… there was this guy called Revolver Ocelot who got his arm cut off, and Liquid had been killed, but apparently they had a plan, so Ocelot got an arm transplant with Liquid's arm… and he possessed him. Weird, huh? So yes the story is very heavy handed with twists and bumps and lots of funny Easter eggs. It's very big and dramatic and is a perfect ending to Solid Snakes last mission.
So as I already said you play Old Snake, trying to hunt down Liquid Ocelot. But there are more characters than just them. You will most probably see all the characters from the previous games, plus some new ones. You will fight alongside Meryl, you will see Raiden square off with Vamp, etc. Each character is built perfectly. There facial expressions are realistic and they all have their own special personalities. Snake has heaps of call gadgets, such as the Solid Eye which has night vision, etc, the Metal Gear mk.2 which is a little scouting robot he controls, and the Octocamo suit. That is probably the coolest one he has, which is when you stand up against a wall or lay down on the ground for a few seconds his suit copies the environment that your pressed against, making it more harder for the enemies to see if you're in a dark place or with rubble and obstacles –obviously they will notice you if you're in the middle of nowhere- which brings me to the next awesome thing. The AI is incredible in this game. It's like… Ubisoft failed on their AI plan with hiding, etc, and then Hideo Kojima whipped it up and perfected them. With the enemies they're not dumb, but they're not going to notice you if you play dead next to fallen bodies. It's really good knowing that it's not going to be hard or easy. I think that the incredible AI makes the game's difficulty not easier of not harder, just normal (well choosing the difficulty at the start of the game has a role too). So anyway there are these nanomachines that are in most peoples bodies, such as the PMCs, which let them be controlled, etc. It's very interesting and cool to see all the old characters, but still awesome to see the new ones.
This is definitely a stealth action adventure game. You could play it through as a straight out shooter, but that would be hard in some parts. MGS4 is more like… Gears of War meets Splinter Cell and Call of Duty 4. You can take a more stealthy approach and not kill anyone, until the bits where you have to kill, which would be more fun then just straight out shooting everyone, which will most probably get you killed. It's really fun, Snake has lots of weapons he can use, mostly guns, and can upgrade them too. Near the start of the game he meets this gun launderer named Drebin. Every time you collect a weapon on the battlefield and you've already got one it is automatically sold for Drebin Points (DP). You use the DP to buy new weapons, ammo and to upgrade your guns. The upgrading is probably the best I've seen in a game, and the shooting is amazing too. You hold down L1 to aim -3rd person view- and can tap triangle to go into first person. You can decide which way to play which is the best bit about it. You can do CQC –where you go up behind an enemy and cut their throat, or use them as a human shield, etc. The mechanics are perfect in the gameplay. Snake has a stress meter and psyche gauge you need to look after. The stress goes up (which is bad) when Snake is in hot or awkward places, carrying heavy objects, and so on. The stress controls the psyche which controls the health bar. If Snake is too stressed, then his psyche will be bad. Loosing psyche means aiming the crosshairs will be hard, he will be less tolerant to damage, and he won't recover very well. Obviously if his health bar drops to 0 then he will die, and you will restart at the last checkpoint. I love this and I would say that a lot of hard work went into the gameplay to keep it like the original games, but improve it and add new mechanics.
I must say that the controls are all in the right position in this game. As I already mentioned, aiming and firing is easy, but what about movement? So when you move around you can press x to crouch, or hold it to lay down. You can also aim from laying down and crouching. When you near a wall you can tap triangle to press against it. From there you can move sideways and look around corners. Press it again to detach. There isn't a tutorial in the game, but there is in the instruction manual. In the manual you get with the game it shows a comic, which is actually a tutorial. It's well done but it could have been better if they added that into the game, or had a separate tutorial level, but it's not bad. Just a little read should get you ready for this action packed game.
When I say "this game has the best graphics on a home console game," I really mean it. The character models are perfect and the animations are smooth and realistic. This is really what defines 'good graphics.' When you're watching a cutscene and it's almost over, the HUD comes up with no transition, it just kind of fades in and you're like… it's amazing. The gameplay graphics are basically identical to the cutscenes. This is a true masterpiece. All the cinematics are pre-rended and are just beautiful to look at. It's definitely true: this game has the best graphics for a video game.
One of the items you start off with is an iPod. Yes, an iPod. When you equip it you can listen to songs, podcasts etc. The best bit about it is that it heals Snake's psyche gauge when you're listening to it. It eases the tension when you listen to it, apparently, and you can unlock more tunes throughout the game. Besides from the iPod, the music is awesome anyway. It feels right and in place, the music builds the tension. It's perfect and entertaining to listen to.
Kojima didn't have to put in a multiplayer experience to make this game a masterpiece, but he did and that's what Metal Gear Online (MGO) is. It uses the same controls and concept as the single player campaign, but brings it online for players to battle it out in up to 16 players. Sadly there is no local multiplayer, but the online is literally amazing. When you start off you create your own character, including clothes and voice, and you also start off on level 0. You can go into any match you like even if you're not a high enough level as them, but it would probably be unwise. There are only about 5 maps to choose from, but there are expansion packs coming out, which make it better but right now I'm talking about this particular game. There are plenty of fun game types to choose from, such as Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. But there are also new ones exclusive to MGO. There is a good one with two teams and one person is snake, and is fully equipped with the Octocamo suit. One team must defend him, etc, while the other team needs to hunt him down. While that's all going on the person playing as Snake needs to go around the battlefield and collect these dog tags, and once they're all collected the game ends. My favourite one would have to be the sneaking mission, where one team has a special suit that makes them invisible to the other team, but the only weapon they get it a tranquilizer gun. The other team is fully visible but they can choose any weapon, from Assault Rifle to Shotgun. Each team gets an advantage. You eventually level up by beating people stronger than you. You also get 4 special abilities you get. There are lots of them, such as running faster, stronger in sniping, etc, but you can only have 4 slots equipped. You also level them up making it more stronger, and when you participate it official matches you earn reward points on how well you did in battle. At the end of the match you can cash in those reward points for items at the reward shop where you can buy new clothing and accessories. MGO is played by many people as is a great thing to play after you've completed the story mission of MGS4.
The length of that story mission is actually fairly good. Depending on what difficulty you choose, what style you play, what you do, etc, it will take you from 20 to 40 hours to complete. If it's your first time playing through then it will probably take you 35+ but if it's your second or third time through it will be more like 20+ because you won't need to upgrade your weapons as they're already upgraded from your last play through. It's very long, even if you rush through and skip cutscenes you will still get a fair bit from it, but if you take is seriously and slow then definitely more than 40 hours is what you'll be playing.
After you've finished an awesome game you want to play it again, but you're not going to play if there's no replay value in it. In Meal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots there is a hell of a lot of replay value! There are so many Easter eggs, which are little unlockables, that most people I know who have it has gone through at least twice. When you play it the first time you're kind of just wanting the story, but the second time you play through you will be looking for all those unlockables. There is music for your iPod, hidden jokes, and you will want to get all the weapons and upgrade them. You might even want to take a different approach to the gameplay than you did in the first play through. After you've finished the game I can guarantee you will want to play it again, and even if you don't, Metal Gear Online offers great replay value with leveling up and so on.
So this is one fine masterpiece that should be enjoyed by anyone who doesn't mind long cutscenes. The thing is the graphics are great, the gameplay is fun, the music is awesome, and the multiplayer is wicked. Don't believe the hype over this game… why? Because this is BETTER than the hype.
Story: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Controls: 5/5
Graphics: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Multiplayer: 5/5
Length: 5/5
Replay Value: 5/5
Overall Rating:
100/100 – Masterpiece