Metal Gear Solid 4 is a PS3 exclusive game that stars the legendary soldier, Solid Snake as the main character. Timeline-wise, MGS4 is the direct sequel to MGS2 and is the canonical concluding game for Solid Snake.
STORY
The story of MGS4 takes place few years after the events of MGS2. Solid Snake, now an old man because of his accelerated aging, is called to action once again to complete his final mission to eliminate Liquid and stop his plan to bring the world into chaos.
The game have long cutscenes and less gameplay. The story is really great and done its job to canonically conclude the MGS series but it's full of twists and exposition making it a bit complicated than previous MGS games. I advice that you play from the older MGS game first or go for the extra mile and play Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
Because of the long cutscenes, the devs implemented button prompts that gives Snake flashbacks, view the scene in Snake's eyes (first person mode) and recover lost stamina whenever he gets depressed or shaken in the battlefield.
The story is divided into Acts and each acts are set in different places in the world. Everytime you go to the next Act, the game needs to be installed and it's a very long install session. Good thing that is patched so that you can install the game before starting a new game and don't have to install on every Act.
There are some plot holes and other unexplained things in the game, like how Raiden became a Cyborg Ninja. These plot holes can still be made as a game. Now that Hideo Kojima left Konami, time will tell if Konami is still going to make that prequel that will take place between MGS2 and MGS4.
Manual codec conversations are only limited to Otacon and Rosemary, you can't even manually dial the frequencies of the other characters and call them. The lack of codec contacts is a little disappointing, but the codec conversations is still full of useful info/tips and it's still fun to watch and listen to.
Because of the long cutscenes, the devs implemented button prompts that gives Snake flashbacks, view the scene in Snake's eyes (first person mode) and recover lost stamina whenever he gets depressed or shaken in the battlefield.
The story is divided into Acts and each acts are set in different places in the world. Everytime you go to the next Act, the game needs to be installed and it's a very long install session. Good thing that is patched so that you can install the game before starting a new game and don't have to install on every Act.
There are some plot holes and other unexplained things in the game, like how Raiden became a Cyborg Ninja. These plot holes can still be made as a game. Now that Hideo Kojima left Konami, time will tell if Konami is still going to make that prequel that will take place between MGS2 and MGS4.
Manual codec conversations are only limited to Otacon and Rosemary, you can't even manually dial the frequencies of the other characters and call them. The lack of codec contacts is a little disappointing, but the codec conversations is still full of useful info/tips and it's still fun to watch and listen to.
GAMEPLAY
MGS4 is still a stealth game and its controls and mechanics are modernized. Gun combat now plays as a third person shooter with an over the shoulder aiming perspective and first person mode for better aiming.
MGS4 fixes MGS3's tedious camouflage system and implemented the OctoCamo mechanic. Snake wears the OctoCamo suit that automatically makes him blend with the environment by mimicking the the texture, patterns and colors of the terrain when pressed on the wall or laying down on the ground.
Alongside the OctoCamo suit, Snake also have the Solid Eye. This replaces the Soliton Radar and this equipment also acts as a Night Vision Goggles and Binoculars.
CQC mechanic also improved, Solid Snake can now do CQC techniques like Big Boss in MGS3 but much better because of CQC throwing and holding variations. Snake can also hold-up and easily frisk enemies for ammo and items.
Old age hasn't slowed Snake down a bit. Snake have new dodge animations and he can dodge in any directions (while aiming) by pressing X. Snake also have heightened senses, it appears as a circle around him when he's crouched or laying down, the circle gets distorted depending if the there are enemies close by, the closer the enemy the higher the circle's distortion on the that enemy's direction.
The weapon and item selection stayed the same, but with weapon select shortcuts by tapping R2 button that easily switches between previous and currently held weapons.
The Drebin Shop is connected to the story's plot. The shop lets you unlock the ID-tagged weapons that you picked up and freely use these weapons. You can also buy weapons, weapon attachments and ammo here by spending Drebin Points (DP).
The game also have a gun customization mechanic that lets you install weapon attachments you your weapons (especially the M4 Custom). This is a nice addition to the game, because it improves your weapon and gives you the advantage over the enemy.
In MGS4, the enemy AI still feels the same like in MGS3 They're still competent though and will flank you if you hide too much, but you can easily outsmart and overpower them because of your past MGS2 and MGS3 knowledge (if you've played those games) and improved weaponry. What makes the enemies a bit harder in this game is that there's so many of them, because you've been thrown in the middle of the war between two factions and they have unmanned weapons too.
Boss battles are challenging and impressive. All of them have different attack patterns and combat behavior, and they all have supporting units to back them up so you'll have to think of a strategy and choose the correct weapon to defeat these bosses and their support units.
GRAPHICS
MGS4's graphics is great for an early PS3 title and still holds up to this day. The game pushes the PS3's hardware and runs in an unlocked frame rate that ranges from the occasional 60FPS (happens when using the night vision goggles) to the usual 30FPS. The frame rate goes below 30 when there's lot of stuff happening. Even with the framerate drops the game is still playable without having any delay on the controls.
The environment is pretty detailed and realistic, but if you look closer there are some muddy textures in the game.
The character models looks great, one of the best looking character models in a game that I've seen. You can see the detail on their clothes and if you look closer, the characters have textured skin (pores, other blemishes, etc.), in short they look realistic. They're also animated well thanks to motion capturing.
Gun models looks great and detailed when viewed in the gun customization menu. They're still detailed even in-game when you go to third/first person view to check out if there are some graphical slacks on the guns.
The cutscenes are all in in-game, done in real time and almost no pre-rendered scenes. There's one pre-rendered scene in this game, it's that when Liquid does his comedic finger pointing and shouting "Bang, bang, bang, bang!" to his enemies in Act 3.
MUSIC/AUDIO
As usual, the soundtrack of MGS4 is a masterpiece. There are some music to collect in the game too. The other music contains some music from old Metal Gear games, (original and some rearranged). There are also some music from Kojima's other games. These music can be played on the in-game iPod (yes, Snake have an iPod).
Voice acting is great, the majority of the original voice actors/actresses reprises their roles to voice their characters. I'm not complaining because they've done their job pretty well.
REPLAY VALUE
The game is short if you skip past through the cutscenes. If you already know everything in this game, the game will last for only 3 hours (skipping cutscenes). If you're a newbie, it will take you 12 to 16 hours to finish game (if you also watch the cutscenes) and most of those times are spent evading your enemies, hiding and dying.
If you finished your first playthrough, you can try to save your data and load it again to go to New Game plus. Most of your items, weapons and other stuff are carried over to New Game plus. You can also try a harder difficulty to challenge yourself.
There are lots of items/weapons and camo to unlock. If you're a completionist, you'll spend lots of time hunting, trying other difficulties doing lots of gameplay styles, to unlock these things.
This game have Metal Gear Online 2, the multiplayer part of the game. Konami closed down the MGO2 servers after patching the game for the last time. Now you cannot download, install and play MGO2.
CLOSING REMARKS
MGS4 is a great conclusion to the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid series. Kojima really did a good job to peacefully retire Solid Snake. The game's story and characters are great. The refined/improved gameplay mechanics/elements and new gameplay additions makes this game fun to play. It's highly replayable too. The game looks beautiful and aged very well. It makes some of the later PS3 games look like they're the old/early PS3 games. This is one of the best reasons to buy a PS3 and it's not to late to play this game. So play (or replay) it now!
MGS4 fixes MGS3's tedious camouflage system and implemented the OctoCamo mechanic. Snake wears the OctoCamo suit that automatically makes him blend with the environment by mimicking the the texture, patterns and colors of the terrain when pressed on the wall or laying down on the ground.
Alongside the OctoCamo suit, Snake also have the Solid Eye. This replaces the Soliton Radar and this equipment also acts as a Night Vision Goggles and Binoculars.
CQC mechanic also improved, Solid Snake can now do CQC techniques like Big Boss in MGS3 but much better because of CQC throwing and holding variations. Snake can also hold-up and easily frisk enemies for ammo and items.
Old age hasn't slowed Snake down a bit. Snake have new dodge animations and he can dodge in any directions (while aiming) by pressing X. Snake also have heightened senses, it appears as a circle around him when he's crouched or laying down, the circle gets distorted depending if the there are enemies close by, the closer the enemy the higher the circle's distortion on the that enemy's direction.
The weapon and item selection stayed the same, but with weapon select shortcuts by tapping R2 button that easily switches between previous and currently held weapons.
The Drebin Shop is connected to the story's plot. The shop lets you unlock the ID-tagged weapons that you picked up and freely use these weapons. You can also buy weapons, weapon attachments and ammo here by spending Drebin Points (DP).
The game also have a gun customization mechanic that lets you install weapon attachments you your weapons (especially the M4 Custom). This is a nice addition to the game, because it improves your weapon and gives you the advantage over the enemy.
In MGS4, the enemy AI still feels the same like in MGS3 They're still competent though and will flank you if you hide too much, but you can easily outsmart and overpower them because of your past MGS2 and MGS3 knowledge (if you've played those games) and improved weaponry. What makes the enemies a bit harder in this game is that there's so many of them, because you've been thrown in the middle of the war between two factions and they have unmanned weapons too.
Boss battles are challenging and impressive. All of them have different attack patterns and combat behavior, and they all have supporting units to back them up so you'll have to think of a strategy and choose the correct weapon to defeat these bosses and their support units.
GRAPHICS
MGS4's graphics is great for an early PS3 title and still holds up to this day. The game pushes the PS3's hardware and runs in an unlocked frame rate that ranges from the occasional 60FPS (happens when using the night vision goggles) to the usual 30FPS. The frame rate goes below 30 when there's lot of stuff happening. Even with the framerate drops the game is still playable without having any delay on the controls.
The environment is pretty detailed and realistic, but if you look closer there are some muddy textures in the game.
The character models looks great, one of the best looking character models in a game that I've seen. You can see the detail on their clothes and if you look closer, the characters have textured skin (pores, other blemishes, etc.), in short they look realistic. They're also animated well thanks to motion capturing.
Gun models looks great and detailed when viewed in the gun customization menu. They're still detailed even in-game when you go to third/first person view to check out if there are some graphical slacks on the guns.
The cutscenes are all in in-game, done in real time and almost no pre-rendered scenes. There's one pre-rendered scene in this game, it's that when Liquid does his comedic finger pointing and shouting "Bang, bang, bang, bang!" to his enemies in Act 3.
MUSIC/AUDIO
As usual, the soundtrack of MGS4 is a masterpiece. There are some music to collect in the game too. The other music contains some music from old Metal Gear games, (original and some rearranged). There are also some music from Kojima's other games. These music can be played on the in-game iPod (yes, Snake have an iPod).
Voice acting is great, the majority of the original voice actors/actresses reprises their roles to voice their characters. I'm not complaining because they've done their job pretty well.
REPLAY VALUE
The game is short if you skip past through the cutscenes. If you already know everything in this game, the game will last for only 3 hours (skipping cutscenes). If you're a newbie, it will take you 12 to 16 hours to finish game (if you also watch the cutscenes) and most of those times are spent evading your enemies, hiding and dying.
If you finished your first playthrough, you can try to save your data and load it again to go to New Game plus. Most of your items, weapons and other stuff are carried over to New Game plus. You can also try a harder difficulty to challenge yourself.
There are lots of items/weapons and camo to unlock. If you're a completionist, you'll spend lots of time hunting, trying other difficulties doing lots of gameplay styles, to unlock these things.
This game have Metal Gear Online 2, the multiplayer part of the game. Konami closed down the MGO2 servers after patching the game for the last time. Now you cannot download, install and play MGO2.
CLOSING REMARKS
MGS4 is a great conclusion to the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid series. Kojima really did a good job to peacefully retire Solid Snake. The game's story and characters are great. The refined/improved gameplay mechanics/elements and new gameplay additions makes this game fun to play. It's highly replayable too. The game looks beautiful and aged very well. It makes some of the later PS3 games look like they're the old/early PS3 games. This is one of the best reasons to buy a PS3 and it's not to late to play this game. So play (or replay) it now!
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