On June 12th, Playstation 3 owners fled from their houses to the nearest GameStops, Best Buys, and Walmarts to get their hands on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Well, okay, maybe not all of them—but if you didn’t, you should have.

Fresh from Kojima Productions, MGS4 marks the end of an era. It’s the final installment in the Metal Gear series to star Solid Snake, the suave protagonist fans know and love. As a PS3 exclusive, the game earned itself quite a bit of hype and lives up to every bit.

Guns of the Patriots takes place in the near future in a world so intently focused on war that it’s become standard activity in almost every environment. Eerily reminded of our own world’s affairs, we watch Snake traveling with rebel soldiers in the Middle East. He tells us how war has changed, how lives are controlled by it, how machines fight it. Immediately we feel transported to that “tired battlefield” and to Snake’s tired, prematurely aging body, fully immersed in the gripping monologue of a man who has seen more than anyone should.

A lot of critics say MGS4, as well as the entire series in general, is like a movie. Whether this type of remark is meant positively or not, it’s true. Cut scenes take up a decent-sized chunk of Guns of the Patriots, but they don’t subtract from its playable value. Thanks to the amazing graphical worth of the game, cut scenes not only further the plot but also shed light on the characters’ personalities. The graphics are so beautifully accurate that you can actually empathize with a character only by his or her facial expressions or body language, something I find difficult to do with most games because of their generally awkward character movement. But here you can see the longing in Snake’s eyes and the anger in Meryl’s posture. Even in actual gameplay, Snake has psyche and stress monitors which react to his surroundings, like when a dead body is near or if you’ve revealed your presence to mercenaries. Not surprisingly, smoking cigarettes and plain old relaxation keep these monitors in check (although smoking does gradually decrease your health).

Oh, the gags. The cigarettes, the game references, the poop jokes: they’re all there. Some say they’re childish and distract from the game’s serious tone, others ignore them completely and make the game seem like Rambo. But really, who’s never heard of comic relief? Most of the humor is optional anyway. Fans of the series will appreciate the references in calls to Otacon, and even newcomers will crack a smile when Snake snipes back with lines like, “This is real life, not some fantasy game.”

And it sure looks like real life. Yeah, there are the crazy Metal Gears. There are the characters who are a little too resilient to harm, and there are advanced nanomachines in everyone that coordinate their senses beyond belief. But how can you deny that the people in this game are anything other than human when you see them quake behind cover? Or when snipers look over their shoulders to make sure they’re not about to get tranqued? The game’s depth is undeniable. Every militiaman seems less like an NPC and more like a scared, nervous John Doe trying to keep it together and survive in a world riddled with warfare and carnage.

What I really love about this game is its versatility. So many games boast the option of stealthy gameplay, but none live up to the claim like Metal Gear. At the end of each act, you’re rewarded for not killing or alerting people, leading one to believe that it can be played without taking any lives at all. You can play stealthily with your stun knife or balls to the wall with a custom M4, but keep in mind the game was never intended to be Halo or any other fast-paced shooter. The controls for aiming are a little unnatural but nothing daunting. Only more of a reason to be sneaky, I say!

You’re given the full gamut of widgets and doodads, complete with self-activating camo that blends in to whichever surface you’re pressed up against and a small robot named Mk. II which can be sent in your place to scope out areas before you get your ass spotted and followed. You can even hide in the classic cardboard box, or waddle around in an oil drum if you like it fancy. Issues of Playboy lie around; you can plant one to distract someone or just view it yourself (Lecher!). My personal favorite is the iPod; there’s nothing quite like listening to bubblegum J-pop in-game while crawling underneath a line of fire.

Don’t be fooled by any uptight reviews telling you the game is strictly for fans. Some of the characters’ motivations can be difficult to gauge if you’re not fully briefed with past games’ information, but even if you have never played a Metal Gear game before, the plot will ease its way into your mind. As with any Metal Gear, everything is a little vague and pretty confusing at first, but that’s part of the beauty of it. I can appreciate a game with an intensely complex plot; it’s engaging rather than expectable and boring. MGS4 requires brainwork in terms of gameplay techniques, and it’s only fitting for it to also make you ponder the plot even after you’ve saved and turned off your system.

Hands down, the game is amazing. I’m a fan of the series, if you couldn’t tell, so if you haven’t, you should play the earlier games in the series too. I haven’t finished it yet, and I don’t really want to let it end, but it’s all I could have wanted and more from a new-generation addition to the Metal Gear storyline. Too bad I’m borrowing my sister’s PS3 to play it. Frankly, it’s making me want to buy one of my own.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am and is filed under Playstation 3, Reviews, New Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.