Review

Das Gamer Reviews Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots

June 17, 2008

It’s the game PS3 owners, and Metal Gear Solid fans, have waited far too long for. But if any game was worth this wait, it’s this one. Like every M.G.S. before it, Patriots is a serious evolution, one that pushes the concept of stealth action (and gaming in general) into new, inventive areas, while also resetting the bar for gorgeous graphics.

$Solid Snake\'s OctoCamo$

Set in 2014, five years after the events of M.G.S.2: Sons Of Liberty, Snake is no longer a spry spy; thanks to his genetic modifications, he’s prematurely ageing, and fast approaching the big shell in the sky. Thankfully, he’s got some cool new toys — including OctoCamo optical camouflage and the Metal Gear Mk. II, a plucky little robot with a handy, built-in Taser — to help him complete his mission: take out his old pal Liquid Ocelot (a.k.a. Revolver Ocelot), who’s now the leader of Outer Haven, a private military company. To do so, Snake starts off in the Middle East, where he has to navigate around an often active battlefield, one that’s not only filled with trigger happy soldiers, but some crazy, PMC-controlled biomechanical killing machines called Gekkos, and the series’ usual litany of colorful (and colorfully named) psychotics, including Screaming Mantis, Crying Wolf, and the particularly crafty Laughing Octopus.

In later acts, the games moves to South America and Eastern Europe as Snake continues his final mission, eventually leading you back to, well, let’s not spoil the surprise. Given all the complexity, though, it’s a good thing director Hideo Kojima opted to employ the far better controls and free camera from the Subsistence version of M.G.S.3, which were reminiscent, oddly, of those in the Splinter Cell games. This is especially noticeable when you’re shooting, since you can now aim from either a Gears-like third-person view or a sniper-style first person look. Also improving on the gunplay, you can now trick out your weapons in creative ways, adding silencers or shotgun attachments. Some weapons are I.D. tagged, and thus must be unlocked by a specialist you meet along the way.

Further testing your shooting skills, Kojima has included Metal Gear Online, an online multiplayer mode that might give Call Of Duty 4 a run for its money…well, for those who prefer the third- to first-person perspective, anyway. Even so, this is still a Metal Gear Solid game, complete with convoluted story, overly-talkative bad guys who rip off monologues longer than Mike Myers parodying a monologue as Dr. Evil, and an abundance of often lengthy cut scenes that sometimes make this feel more like an interactive movie than a video game. But those are small prices to pay for a game that will not only make you glad you’re the owner of a PS3, and an HDTV, but the gamer gene as well.

Das Gamer rating: Fucking wunderbar

–Paul Semel

The technical info:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots
(Konami)
PlayStation 3 exclusive

Buy this game today!