Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Ok so I just finish playing Metal Gear Solid 4. Yes yes I know it is a bit late and I don’t know why I took me this long to get it as Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorite game series of all time. Because I loved all the previous titles my expectations for Metal Gear Solid 4 were extremely high and I am glad to say that, like its predecessors, surpassed it and blew my mind. Playing Metal Gear solid has always felt different to me, it doesn’t feel like any other game I have ever played before. It feels more like an interactive movie to be honest. This game has achieved what little other games have achieved, it grab my attention so much that I finished it in just 2 days!

I must say that if you have not played the previous games; Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear solid 3: Snake Eater you will not appreciate Metal Gear Solid 4 as much as you should. So don’t just grab it because it is new and got good scores, rather do yourself a favor and play the others first ( don’t worry they are just as awesome ). In fact you won’t understand what the hell is going on if you don’t play the others first.
If you played them all in order, as I have, you will realize that this could be one of the greatest stories ever told in a game. There are so many twist and turns that you are constantly surprised and amazed. You almost have to play every game twice to fully understand every little detail. Hideo Kojima went into extreme length to give each and every character a highly textured and unique personality. When you finish the last game Metal Gear Solid 4 you feel like you know the people and you are almost sad that you are not going to see them again ( If you haven’t kept up with the series you won’t know what I am talking about ).



I will try and not give any spoilers so if you have already played the game some details will be left out for the sake of the new players in fact I myself had a “media blackout” when it came to this game and it was totally worth it.
So let’s get to the game. In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots you once again play as Solid Snake but you are now known as Old Snake. Although it has only been 5 years since the Big Shell incident Snake looks like an old man. The reason behind this is revealed later in the game. The game starts of in Middle Eastern urban battlefield as Snake sets out to find and kill Liquid. You soon meet up with Meryl Silverburgh from the original Metal Gear Solid and shortly after that you meet the new “supernatural warriors” called “The Beauty and the Beast”.





You will see some of the familiar faces return like Metal Gear Sold 2 star Raiden and of course Otacon and even some unexpected ones make a return. The boss fights are clever as they have always been. The cinematics are even more awesome than the previous games. Obviously the cinematics looks allot better than the previous games because of the power of the PS3 ( The game runs at 1080p). The sound is done very well and the cinematics does not feel “rushed” at all ( some games when you watch the cinematics it tends to feels like they are in a hurry to finish it ).
The game play consists of some of the usual stealth levels and some run and gun areas. What changes this game a little bit from the previous ones are that you are in the middle of a war but you are not there to fight the war, you are on your own side. This gives you the ability to “choose sides” temporarily, for example: let’s say you want to break into a certain building, then you help the attacking side a little bit to make your job of breaking in undetected easier. You have a cool new suite that dynamically transforms its texture based on your surroundings, they really did allot of work on this as every time I see some cool texture I change my camouflage to check what it looks like.



There are loads of guns to choose from. In Metal Gear Solid 4 all the guns are id tagged so you can’t use them at first. But you meetsomebody that is able make the guns usable but at a price of course. You get money by selling guns that you pick up that you already have and worry this is all done automatically with the help of your own little Metal Gear.

Overall this is an amazing game. Unlike The Matrix the story ties up all loose ends that you might have though they have forgotten about ( remember to wait until the end of the credits). Great game play, great graphics, great cinematics, great level design, great sound and an amazing story. What more do you want? If you haven’t already played this game you are in for a treat.