Jumping into this newest and final installment in the Metal Gear Solid series is much different than any other kind of videogame experience. Emotions and character attachments are brought into the picture. Metal Gear Solid isn’t just played for its fun factor or its cutting edge presentation, but for its story, characters and movie-like experience. It transcends all storytelling mediums to be something entirely unique, and ever since the original game made its debut on the first PlayStation years ago, there’s still nothing like it. For this gamer, gameplay in these titles takes a backseat to story and cinematic presentation, and while the gameplay in Guns of the Patriots is Metal Gear at its most polished, years from now, when I look back on Metal Gear Solid 4, what I’ll remember will be how much I adore Solid Snake as a tragic hero, the relationships and motives of characters like Liquid Ocelot, Naomi, Otacon and Raiden. To me, Metal Gear Solid is the "Star Wars" of videogames, a landmark piece of interactive entertainment that is not just refreshing and fun but also carries with it a incredible amount of political commentary and various subtext about life in general.
Goodbye Old Friend
It was made very clear to us, that as an old man, Snake’s story will come to an end in Guns of the Patriots and knowing this Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has crafted a game that conveys a sad undertone that haunts players at every moment. The series has always been known for its melodrama but never has it felt as dramatic as it is here. Hearing Old Snake’s voice for the first time had sent chills down my spine. It’s just too familiar, the voice of an iconic hero that I’ve learned to adore and worship, but weak and filled with sorrow, as if death is this soldier’s ultimate desire, to finish the fight once and for all. You’ll pity him and mourn for him. I admire David Hayter and all of the game’s voice actors, as well as those involved with that aspect of the game’s production, for delivering, what has to be, the most impressive use of voice acting and spoken dialogue in any videogame to date.
Metal Gear Solid 4 does its best to address and tie-in all loose ends in the story of the Metal Gear saga. After playing Sons of Liberty, you’ll realize how difficult of a task that would’ve been for Kojima Productions but, thankfully, after all their hard work, any questions fans may have had after the convoluted and confusing mess that is Metal Gear Solid 2 have been answered. You’ll figure out why Vamp seemingly cannot be killed, why the FOXDIE virus selects which victims it takes, and YES, we learn exactly who the Patriots really are.
In truth, Guns of the Patriots is the ultimate fanservice, designed to honor those that have followed Snake’s struggles from the beginning. Because of this, you’ll find yourself gaining an attachment to the game unlike any other. It didn’t really hit me until returning to Shadow Moses Island from the original Metal Gear Solid and hearing the its end credits song, the beautiful "The Best is Yet to Come." There’s no denying that moments like these will put a smile on a player’s face but at that same time stir up something within that can almost bring you to tears. They’re encountered at every corner, with past dialogue being played in the background, reminding player’s of important character relationships, like that between Raiden and Rose; Raiden, a war torn and traumatized cybernetic ninja, like Darth Vader, torn from his humanity with a forgotten love the only thing that can bring him back from darkness. All integral to the experience, we see how characters have evolved over the course of the saga and appreciate the series more than ever before. While Metal Gear Solid 4 will act well as a standalone game for newcomers, it’s best played after experiencing the first three MGS games. Only then can you appreciate its true beauty. Only then will you realize how great of a spectacle it is and how important the franchise has been to the industry, showing that this medium can deliver some of the most memorable narratives you’ll ever witness.
No Place for Hideo
In the past, I’ve always creeped and crawled my way through the MGS games... tranquilizing enemies, dragging them out of sight to prevent reinforcements from arriving, etc. Of course, weapons confrontations popped up here and there, but I would always try to do my best to avoid them. It didn’t really seem like confronting enemies in a gunfight would be too great of an idea because the aiming system felt so archaic, if not broken. You couldn’t accurately aim a weapon unless you were using first-person mode and to make things worse, you couldn’t move in that instance anyway. Fortunately, making the game more friendly to fans of titles like Gears of War, Call of Duty or Halo, things have been revamped completely. While there may not be anything revolutionary to be found here, a targeting reticule and laser pointer-based aiming mechanic, coupled with the user controlled camera introduced in Subsistence version of Snake Eater, has done wonders to make MGS more playable than ever before. However, I can’t help but see this as a Catch 22 situation.
Sure, Solid Snake is more of a force on the battlefield than ever with this new aiming mechanic but as a result, the fear of being detected by enemies isn’t as threatening as it had once felt. Now, what I’m trying to figure out is, how am I supposed to play this game? Well, the truth is that there is no definitive way because you have the freedom to approach things in a multitude of ways, more ways than you may even consider possible throughout the course of the game. While I think this concept is cool and all I can’t help but feel that approaching things stealthily is nothing more than the path of least resistance and the least excitement. The tension is gone. So while things control better than ever, the whole stealth aspect of the game has been gimped a tad.
When Too Much Hype is a Bad Thing: A Personal Regret
I try to be in tune with the gaming community, and I’ve made my thoughts clear as to how I feel about the game and read what others think as well, and I came across a comment that really stood out in my mind, with that being that Metal Gear Solid 4 is more of a spectacle than anything else. I can’t say I disagree with this remark in any sense. It’s the series’ own fault as to why it feels this way as well. Metal Gear Solid 3 had left me on such a high emotional note that any kind of expectations that I and other fans may have had seemed impossible to achieve, but Kojima and crew did their best and its an amazing game because of it, but for reasons almost inexplicable I can’t help but think that Metal Gear Solid 4 is in actuality my least favorite in the series. Improvements in cinematics, presentation and gameplay make it a tremendous next generation experience but it almost feels empty. Any emotional reaction gained from MGS4 is all due to fanservice and nostalgia. If anything, Guns of the Patriots made me realize how amazing past games were than to see how great it is itself. For a game that should’ve been an emotional end to the gaming industry’s greatest hero, I can’t help but feel robbed of any real attachment to the game. Then again, this could just be withdrawal from finally seeing one of my all time favorite gaming series come to an end. It’s difficult to say at this point but regardless of my own personal feelings and attachments Guns of the Patriots is without question a greatest interactive experiences you’ll ever play and defining piece of next-generation gaming.
