METAL GEAR SOLID 4 – Guns of the Patriots

Distributor – ATARI
Platform – PS3
Genre – Tactical, stealth, espionage, action
Rated – M15+

For those of you who are familiar with this style of game play or have played the first 3 in the series then you may have some idea of what to expect, but this has to be the best looking, most comprehensive game of its type so far. It’s like playing an interactive CG movie, with seamless transitions from cut scene to game, that when they finish sometimes you have to remind yourself to start using the controller again. The cut scenes have multi-angle viewing and by pressing X when prompted, you can view flashbacks from previous games to piece together the story. MGS4’s story is set in 2014 and the opening sequence shows futuristic warfare with massive 2 legged mech’s shadowing the action on the ground, but when you start in the Middle East with the basics you forget about the future aspect until it shows up later in the game. You play as “Old Snake” who is ageing rapidly due to an unknown virus, on a mission to stop bad guy “Liquid Ocelot” from taking over the military nanomachine system called “Sons of the Patriots” run by Private Military Companies (PMC). He already owns the top 5 of these companies called “The Outer Haven” and is protected by his private army including nasty women terminators “The beauty and the beast corps”. If you haven’t played the games until now, it is a good idea to get a complete understanding of the story background, so there is a free download from the PS3 store called Metal Gear Solid Database. This allows you to view a complete dictionary, a history of characters and locations etc from all the Metal Gear games. MGS4 is set in 5 different locations (the Middle East, South America, Eastern Europe, Shadow Moses Island and the Outer Haven) and is divided up into 5 different acts (Liquid Sun, Solid Sun, Third Sun, Twin Suns and Old Sun).

From the start Snake has a slick camouflage suit (Octocamo) that changes depending on the environment, this can be set to automatic or manual, so if you are lying on the ground it replicates the colour and texture of the sand or standing against a wall it will do the same for the brickwork etc, very handy for the stealth feats you are expected to perform but not so good if an enemy is up close. Eventually he gets a headpiece made out of the same material for this suit, which amongst other things can disguise his face and make him appear younger.

Along the way you meet up with a dude called Drebin and his cigarette smoking, fizzy drink addicted pet monkey. Drebin is a weapons launderer who appears at various parts of the game to give you the heads up and backgrounds on enemies and their connections, as well as giving you a nano upgrade, allowing you to use the more fun weapons in his itinerary. At one stage Snake even jumps on top of Drebins pimped up APC using the mounted machine gun to clear zombie like creatures out of the way. As you progress weapons you pick up that you already possess will automatically get taken back to him via a handy little robot called the MK II which earns you ID or Drebin points and allows you purchase, upgrade and swap weapons and ammo. The MK II allows you to communicate with your nerdy ally, eyes in the sky Otacon, as well as other interesting characters and even a psychologist. Taking control of this little critter is another added bonus as it can turn invisible and act as your eyes in combat allowing you to see how many enemies, where they are located in order to work out the best strategy to get to the next checkpoint and even give them a nasty shock via its own electric charched arm. Another handy gadget is the eye patch; its infrared abilities come in handy for some of the bosses and for tracking footprints etc.

Just when you are getting used to wartime stealth aspect, the game makes a sudden turn, upping the interest level to 11 with the appearance of flying robotic beasts, mech doglike creatures a Doc Oc looking Laughing Octopus (whose cackle equals that of the wicked witch of the west), some making appearances as bosses later in the game. It is this futuristic element that sets MGS4 apart from other espionage wartime shooters. In one of the scenes Snakes old ally Raiden comes to the rescue using his ninja like, gravity defying abilities to twist and slash his way through massive 2-legged moo cow mech’s cutting them down to size. You also get doubled on the back of a Triumph motorcycle (it seems product placement is as much apart of games as it is movies these days) whilst shooting down mechanical birds and enemies on the ground whilst riding at top speed through the streets of Europe.

The background sound effects are perfect and along with the soundtrack create an intense atmosphere to suit each part of the game. The game play is fast paced and apart from the sometimes really long cut scenes (which can be skipped, but that takes away from the experience) visually these and the in game graphics are phenomenal. The attention to detail, even on the guns when shooting and reloading will blow your mind.

Each level deepens and twists the plot adding layers to make your ageing head spin, introducing new weapons, friends, enemies etc as you progress. MGS4 has definitely raised the bar for espionage shooters from this point on.