Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

This week i felt compelled to play through Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots again; what with the Metal Gear series ranking up there in my all time favourites. The series has long been known for its longer than necessary cutscenes and codec conversations, as well as its solid stealth gameplay (no pun intended).

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a stealth action video game developed by Kojima Productions for the PlayStation 3 console. The game was directed by Hideo Kojima and made its worldwide release on June 12, 2008, ten years after the release of Metal Gear Solid and twenty years after the North American release of Metal Gear. (interesting facts for you all)

STORY
Now, Metal Gear games have always been story heavy, at least, they have been since Metal Gear Solid. MGS4 is no exception, and it expects that the player has understood and accepted everything that has happened before it. To sum the story up; MGS4 is set 5 years after MGS2, in a time where the world economy relies on continuous war, fought by PMCs, which outnumber government military forces. PMC soldiers are outfitted with nanomachines to enhance their abilities and control the stress on the battlefield.
The control network created through these nanomachines is called Sons of the Patriots (SOP), and Liquid Ocelot is preparing to hijack the system. You play as Sold Snake (now known as Old Snake), who accepts a request from (Colonel) Roy Campbell to terminate Liquid. The story also revolves around Snake's accelerated aging, and the FOXDIE virus circulating within him.

The story, if a little convoluted, is intricate and fairly well written; with likeable characters and interesting situations to say the least. But as I said before, a lot of this story really depends on the players knoiwledge of previous MGS games.
If you're new to the serious, a lot of the little references and nods to previous games will go straight over your head, but if you enjoy the series, the story of MGS4 will not disappoint.

PRESENTATION
A well written and interesting story is only as good as the manner in which you tell it. Thankfully, the graphics in MGS4 are superb, and settings vary from The Middle East, to Eastern Europe; with each setting having its own unique gameplay feature. For example, you may be sneaking through gunfights in the Middle east, but in South America, you may attack the PMC companies to make the local militia friendly.
The soundtrack in Metal Gear Solid 4 fits in as well as any other MGS game, with epic tracks to accompany Hideo Kojima's epic story.

As well as this, Snake has his own iPod, so many songs from MGS past will become available to the player through exploration. Another thing that comes back from past Metal Gear Solid games, is the superb voice acting. Whats the point of having an hour long cutscene, if the person acting in it is shit, right?

My biggest problem with the presentation, is that many of the cutscenes are extremely long I'm quite sure on one occasion that it went past the hour mark. However, considering my adoration of the story, this problem doesnt seem like much of one in the end. At least there arent hour long codec conversations anymore.

GAMEPLAY
Guns of the patriots plays a little differently than previous games under the MGS banner. Controls are solid as usual, but instead of playing from a top down perspective, you control snake over the shoulder, like a 3rd person shooter. This can also be changed at any time to control Snake in 1st person. I found this to be extremely useful, seeing as many situations will force you to take the direct approach, and fight. The answer isnt always found inside a cardboard box.

While the gunfighting gameplay is tight, what with the Drebin Store allowing you to buy guns, ammo and upgrades; the stealth gameplay lives up to its reputation. You can procure many items to use, such as cardboard boxes or even Playboy magazines, to slip by the enemy unnoticed.
It's nice to know that if you do fuck up the stealth, you can fight your way out.

There are also many cool side gameplay features I'm gunna just allude to, but you wont know what I mean till you play the game. They're extremely unique in the MGS game style, but break up the sneaking/shooting gameplay nicely.

REPLAYABILITY
For all the Metal Gear Solid fans, this game has a number of titles and secret items that should have you playing through this game over and over again. I'm already on my third play through. For those who aren't so interested in that, there is Metal Gear Online, for all you wannabe Solid Snakes out there. No trophies are available, however it is a solid title without them anyway.

OVERVIEW
Metal Gear Solid 4 is a must have game, not only for anyone who is familiar with Hideo Kojima's previous works, but for anyone who owns a PS3. No, even those who don't should get this, if only to look at it and imagine playing it. Ok, fans of the series will love this, those of whom who aren't will have hours of fun with the solid gameplay, but may choose to skip the detailed story entirely. It is one of those games that depends on backstory quite heavily.

So thats another review, and i hope people are reading this. Leave Feedback, somewhere, please! See you next time!