MGS4 Review! Spoilers ahoy!

(Note: This review contains a hell of a lot of spoilers, even if though I will still avoid going into heavy specifics about the storyline. If you wish to remain in the dark about it before playing it for yourself, continue no further. You have been warned.)

Now that we have that formality out of the way, we can continue on.

So, the big question probably is: “What the hell took you so long to write up a review for this?” The simple answer is that I’ve been playing it. A lot. If it isn’t the main campaign that I’ve been playing, it’s Metal Gear Online. But, now that I have broke myself away from it long enough, MGS4 shall get the review it deserves from me.

Story/Environments: I will purposely avoid going over specifics in the story itself, as to not completely spoil the experience, but what I can say is that it does wrap up a lot of loose ends. I was surprised that one of my own theories turned out to be true (well, not really my own, since I’m sure others thought of it, too; I just never saw anyone talking about it), as well as the hypothesises that a lot of other fans have come up with since Portable Ops came out. There is one fantastic guest appearance at the very end of the game that really sealed the deal and made for one of the great moments in gaming. The cast itself pulls from every game in the MGS line, though I was kind of disappointed that Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 didn’t really come up at all, despite being within the canon storyline. Only one character from those two games gets mentioned and the only thing that does is confirm that he’s still alive somehow. Snake doesn’t even bat an eye at the mentioning of his name, so either the first two games really don’t have much of a place, or Old Snake was a bit senile at the moment and doesn’t remember names.

Some bits are also not touched upon, like as to whether Ocelot is the son of The Boss and The Sorrow. The answer is given in the MGS4 Database, but it would’ve been nice to have had it mentioned in-game. Some theories just turned out to be wrong and have completely different explanations. Let’s just say that the heavy supernatural overtones of MGS3 don’t have a place in the year of 2014, where technology will have an explanation for it. Overall, though, the plot is easy enough to follow and makes enough callbacks to the older games to help fill in the gaps for those new to the series. It may not explain everything to those players, but it will ease them into the story more.

What I will talk about is the locales. MGS3 raised the bar up a bit with having a larger over-all area in which the game took place. Prior to that, every other MG game took place within a facility of some sort and was usually confined to that one area. MGS4 shatters that and takes place in multiple locations around the world. The Middle East is only the tip of the iceberg, as you will then travel to South America and Europe afterwards for Acts 2 and 3. Act 2 is massive, with a lot of area to traverse and some large battles to sneak through. Act 3 poses the most dramatic shift in the game, as it takes you from dusty battlefields to the wet, rain-soaked streets of a European city. It’s a beautiful environment and something that hasn’t been done in the MG series before.

Act 4 is the most fun for myself and others, as it takes you back to Shadow Moses Island. If you want to talk about fan service, this place has it in spades. You don’t get to explore all of it, but it does take you back to some familiar areas of the facility. You also get to see some areas that have been altered a bit or completely new ones, making this visit not just one of retreading old ground. Act 5 then returns you to new territory, taking place on a futuristic submersible battleship for the final battles of the game.

In all, MGS4 wraps up the story nicely and leaves things at a point where Snake really is done with his fight. Could the series continue? Of course, but hopefully without continuing this story arc. The way it ends is fitting and should be left to stand on its own.

Gameplay: Ahh, the meat and potatoes of the game. For the most part, the control scheme of previous games hasn’t been changed. L2 and R2 still access items and weapons and the face buttons still handle rolling, crouching and actions. All attacking is done through R1 now. Holding L1 (which used to only allow you to move around freely while your weapon is readied by holding Square lightly) now puts whatever weapon your using at the ready, with R1 allowing you use it. While holding L1, it’ll initially put you into a third-person aim, similar to Gears of War. Pressing Triangle will allow you to switch back and forth from this 3rd-person view to the first-person view, making it easy to use and switch between the two viewpoints on the fly. Square toggles your Auto-Aim, should you have the feature enabled. It’s good for holding PMC troops up, but that’s about it, since it doesn’t allow for any precision firing. Triangle is now the all-purpose action button, doing everything from dragging bodies, going up small ledges and pressing up against walls. That last one is a change from the norm, since you only had to move up near a wall before to press up against it. It’s a change for the better, honestly, since it was easy to sometimes move away from the wall when tinkering with the camera. Speaking of the camera, the old camera system is gone and replaced with a floating third-person view. Where as it felt out of place sometimes in MGS3: Subsistence, it is great here and makes for viewing your area a lot easier and taking away the total reliance on 1st-person to get a scope on your surroundings.

X still handles rolling and going into a crawl position when you hold it, with tapping the button putting you into a new, crouched sneaking position. This is handy for staying low and mostly out of sight, though if you stay in it too long, Snake will clutch his back in pain and might give your position away. While crawling, you can do a inchworm crawl by lightly pushing the control stick in the direction you want. This maneuver is slow, but it doesn’t attract the attention of those in the area and makes no noise. Circle now is to reload your weapon, which is okay and more realistic than the quick reload that happened when you clicked a weapon on and off with R2 in the past. Still, I miss having that feature around, since it is generally faster than how everything reloads now.

The new camo system, OctoCamo, works wonders. It beautifully replaces the camo system from MGS3, which was honestly very clunky to use. All you need to do is hold still for a second or two on whatever surface you are crawling on or pressed up against. The OctoCamo will take on the texture. Once you get the FaceCamo, it’ll greatly increase your ability to blend in, making a 99% camo index possible in most situations. Combining it with the inchworm will maintain your camo index, allowing you to get around, albeit very slowly. There are also unlockable FaceCamo, allowing you to look like a number of other characters and also like MGS1 Snake! The Solid Eye you obtain early in the game is an invaluable tool, as well. This gives you a radar system, as well as binoculars and IR/night vision. It runs off of batteries, so you got to keep an eye on that, but additional batteries can be found throughout the game, allowing you to have it equipped for much longer. This is especially so when using IR/NV, since that will eat through batteries rather quickly.

This also the first game in the series to have a ton of weapons at your disposal. A mulitude of handguns, SMGs, assault rifles and others wait to be used, with some of them having the option of equipping various types of ammo. Weapons can procured on-site or purchased through Drebin’s shop. The weapons you get from PMCs are locked, so you need Drebin to take care of unlocking it for your use. Once you do that, it is yours to keep and any duplicates are converted into Drebin Points, which can be used to purchase weapons and ammo from Drebin, as well as weapon add-ons. Those can range from laser sights, flashlights and suppressors. There are a number of unlockable weapons, too. Some of these are weapons seen in the series already, like EVA’s Chinese Type 11 handgun and The Boss’ Patriot rifle, to the Solar Gun from Bokura no Taiyo and a Tanegashima rifle (complete with long-ass reload time).

Concerning enemy AI and boss battles, the enemies follow much different patterns of scoping out the areas you are in and more actively go after anything they find suspicious. This is especially so in the harder difficulties, where their hearing and sight become uncanny and can pinpoint you with precision. When they are fighting with the local militia or rebel groups, this makes sneaking by a bit more troublesome, since you are trying to sneak by while also getting shot at. You also will have to worry about pissing off those militiamen if you go around killing indiscrminately, making it twice as difficult to not get spotted. Normally, it’s in your best interest to either wear the disguises you might have to blend in with them or help them out. You also need to be aware of any unmanned units, like the Gekko, that might show up. Act 4 is comprised entirely of unmanned units, which have an easier time spotting you. Fighting the Gekko early on is really a pain in the ass, as it takes a good bit to destroy them. As your arsenal beefs up over time, they become easier to take care of. FROG troops are probably the most vicious to come in contact with, as they are well-armored and barely show up on your radar. They can also pick up the hum of your IR/NV when you have it turned on, making you easier to find. Truly dangerous.

Boss battles this time around are a semi-mixed bag. The fight with Raging Raven is probably the weakest overall (just a lot of her flying around; boring), with Crying Wolf and Screaming Mantis being among the best in the game. Crying Wolf will call back to your fight with Sniper Wolf, which is further helped by the fact that you are basically fighting on the same snow field. It makes for a tense battle, as you are dealing with FROG troops and her at the same time. Screaming Mantis requires some outside-the-box strategy to take on and is also a rather enjoyable battle. The final fight with Liquid atop his carrier at the end of the game mixes everything up and becomes a unarmed fight, complete with a different attack set assigned to R1. The whole fight is truly epic, with lots of callbacks to other games in the series.

Also, the camera is back. This time around, you can actually import photos from it and turn them into JPEGs to share with people.

For example:

Very cool.

Visual/Audio: Obviously, the screenshots that have been released for the game make it look great. Seeing in motion really does do it a lot of justice. Character models look great, with a lot of detail in all that you come across. Lots of little flourishs occur, too, like blood, sand or snow hitting the camera during various situations. Characters are quite emotive, too, during cutscenes and in-game, giving everyone a lot more personality. All items appear as they should, too , as opposed to the same graphic being used for all healing items and weapons that was done in previous games. Although, I do have to say that since nothing floats around anymore, some items can be hard to spot.

Voice acting in this installment is very well done, blowing away prior games in its quality. Go back through MGS1 to see how far along it has come. Ambient sounds are plentiful, with far-off battles being heard clearly. Gunfire packs a punch and explosions look and sound scary as hell sometimes, especially when things pick up. I honestly wish I had a 5.1 setup to be able to see how much better everything is with it. From what I’ve heard, the whole experience becomes even better by having that kind of set-up.

All in all, the whole package comes together nicely and is definitely one of the best examples of the next-gen experience I’ve seen so far.

Really, what more can I say than just go play the game. This is one of the few instances where hype has managed to live up to itself. I’m currently in my third playthrough, with at least a couple more afterwards to earn as much as I can. There are ton of things to find and unlock, along with 40 emblems to collect for doing various things in-game. The Big Boss emblem will be a bitch to get, as it requires one to play on Extreme and beat the game in under 5 hours, using no healing items or continues, not getting spotted and using only non-lethal methods of dispatching enemies. Extreme is no joke and trying to work within in those contraints is, for me, a tall task.

So, yeah, go play Metal Gear Solid 4. Even if you haven’t tried any of the previous titles or didn’t really like some of them, give it a shot. Everything is much smoother and easier to get into, with a presentation that is second-to-none. This is truly a game for the ages and the best title on Playstation 3. It’s going to be tough to top this one.

-AncientFlounder

Posted by AncientFlounder