Every once in awhile in mankind history there is a milestone event that shapes us, that changes the course of history, an event that sets high standards, and makes us all cry. Epic events such as this one do not come without the proper anticipation. Massive hype is built over time, and the excitement consumes us. Unfortunately, many of these “events” come to see the light of day, only be forgotten and be left in the dust. Many videogames nowadays have developed a high amount of hype overtime, but when they are released, they come crashing down taking all of our beliefs down with it. This has affected our ability to believe in many things we hear about games. That is our fate; games with high hype resulting in failure. But. A doctor once said: “We mustn’t allow ourselves to be chained to fate.”

Consequently, this isn’t the case with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. MGS4 has enjoyed rich hype since the beginning. Thankfully, MGS4 lives up and beyond its hype unlike many before it, and many after it. Guns of the Patriots goes beyond everyone’s hype and surpasses all of our expectations in a dramatic end to one of the best sagas in the industry. This, a title that will have you crying and wanting more, has come to an end. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has obliterated the competition, and marked a milestone in videogame history just like its predecessors; only this time it is ten times better than what we all expected it to be. MGS4 is without a doubt a peace of art. Before going on - and stating some facts and whatnot – we would like to thank Mr. Hideo Kojima for delivering such an epic title to over millions of households worldwide. Without further ado, here is XIK’s Metal Gear Solid 4 review.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has outsold every-other game in Japan with a ratio two to one. In four days sold about 500,000 million copies, and in Europe over a million copies were sold in a week. After experiencing this thrill I can say, MGS4 equals the greatest game in videogame history. This is why XIK has dubbed MGS4 to be a Videogame God! With controllers that will have you killing or sneaking left and right, with a story that will conclude the best videogames has to offer, visuals that will blow your mind, and with audio that will completely get you pumped and into the action, MGS4 delivers high quality gaming goodness.

Metal Gear has always enjoyed a very rich, consuming, intriguing, and utterly confusing storyline. Without giving any spoilers, we can safely say that the story stays true to its predecessors, and puts an epic end to our old hero with his last mission. The story has been delivered across six games, this seventh being our hero’s last mission. Metal Gear Solid started with groundbreaking cinematic and dialog that set a standard a while back when the original MGS debut on the original PlayStation. This title goes beyond what we’ve seen before and brings us a true movie blockbuster to our PS3’s for us to take part on.

Cinematics – There isn’t one game that does it better than MGS4, but I will probably be saying the same thing over this whole review. Anyways… The cinematics are amazingly done. You feel as if you were watching a movie, but a bit better. They have implemented the use of the shaky camera to make things feel a bit more alive. The astonishing graphics and visuals also help the cinematics come to life. Combining this and all the other aspects, make this epic tear dropping experience the best you’ve experienced on your couch, sofa, bed, chair, or whatever your sitting, or laying on. We also need to outline how the cinematic experience seamlessly transitions to the gameplay. As one cut-scene comes to an end it effortlessly takes you in control of Snake, making things, well, cinematic, which is what MGS is all about.

Story –MGS has come with immense story throughout the whole franchise. This story according to many, including myself, it’s the best by far. Once again, this is why Metal Gear Solid has always set the standards when it comes to story telling on a videogame; heck it’s even better then any movie I’ve seen lately. With over seven rounds of playing through the single player campaign, I can safely say it is the most moving story the MGS Saga has delivered. It is also what finally gives us the answers to most of our questions, one of which is “who are the Patriots?” As gamers pick up this game they know what comes behind it, over twenty years in the making. Snake is old. This hero needs a rest up, and we will admire his last mission in this final ambitious installment of MGS. Nevertheless, knowing that this is Snake’s last mission, we have come to expect this game to be a tearjerker. No doubt about it, MGS4 Guns of the Patriots will put some if not a lot of tears down your cheek. Over three people from three different blogs have admitted of crying for this passionate title. I myself was in ongoing tears for the heart-stopping ending. No movie, no show has even come this close of making these many people cry for someone we loved for over twenty years of our lives. Of course the tears didn’t just start at the end. The emotion built up throughout the game. It was without a doubt a solid experience through and through. One part we must bring up is the memories of our gaming past. MGS4 makes us reminisce of our gaming past with the original MGS in such an impacting way that our hearts will literally skip a beat. Many have had a long history with the game. I personally have a great bond with my cousin thanks to it. Remembering those moments in this amazing set-up was the most incredible experience. The most incredible thing is how they make you relieve these memories; throughout gameplay, and plot, our past comes to life once more in MGS4. Yes, I might be a bit more emotional than most of you, but to sum things up, MGS4 is without a single doubt the greatest ending of the best saga in videogame, movie, and TV show history.

Control/Gameplay – Many MGS players know about the tedious controller scheme the previews titles have had, but MGS4 changes the controllers and core gameplay dramatically. Taking a hint from titles like Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and such, MGS4 has an outstanding controller scheme. This new advance in the core gameplay lets players do things that many would of want to do in previous titles. The addition of the full 3D camera was implemented in MGS3: Subsistence; now, following that we have crouching, and a press against wall button, along with some other great additions. This all comes in handy whether you are sneaking or blazing through the streets run & gunning everyone. That is also something we want to talk about. This game lets us play the way we want, and how we want to. Say you want to kill everything in your way; you can. You have over 60 weapons at your disposal to take on everything and anything standing in your way. Then again, lets say you are like me and like stealth games. You have your OctaCamo, Solid Eye and many tools to sneak pass enemies and leave no trace that you were ever there. After all that is your job, infiltrating and being invisible. The controls for an all out war scenario are great! With either over-the-shoulder or FPS views for shooting you can take about anything down with ease. Crouching, rolling, rolling sideways, all this has been well thought of. Everything works well seamlessly. Your stamina, which is now your psyche, goes down when you are next to enemies or tired and what not. Your stress increases when time passes and you are in a tight situation. Like we know from many MGS games, oddness always happens. Crack-open a PlayBoy Magazine and look into it your psyche will restore as Snakes hums along. Get yourself inside a drum, call Otacon and he will ask what the hell are you doing in there. It will decrease your stress.

Drebin Points or DP (Please do not confuse this with the other DP we all know about) is also a new implement to the series. Now you wont run out of ammo in the most epic fight you’ve had, all thanks to Drebin. Just buy some rounds, or grenades, or any gun from him and you are set. You score these points by being stealthy, getting headshots, etc. And you also get extra points at the end of every Act depending on how you handled the situation.

There are many great features to cover on this one, but overall the experience is addicting and will have you wanting more and more. The replay value is exceedingly rewarding. The great things to unlock like in previous games are eminent reasons to comeback and play again and again.

Graphics/Visuals – Lacking an HD environment, I cannot describe the exact experience of MGS4, but I will try my best. Not many games come out in true HD (1080p,) but look at the back of MGS4’s case and you will see that it’s given to us in full HD. This takes full advantage of the PS3’s processing power and brings great visuals and outstanding graphics to our HDTV’s. The graphics along with the story in MGS4 surpasses those of CoD4 and Bioshock by a long shot, said by IGN staff and reviewers. You can easily tell the emotions and face expressions of every character. If you don’t fall in love with the cuteness of Sunny by the end of the game, you just don’t have a heart. Her face, along with the rest of the characters, mimics so perfectly human emotion, it seems almost impossible to match or beat this amazing standard set by MGS4.

Audio/Sound – Kojima and his crew went around the world recording new sounds and environments for MGS4, one of which was Peru. (My home country by the way.) They gathered sounds and based some locations on the Icas structures for their South American setting. Kojima and his team even went into the Skywalker Ranch to mix and match the audio and footage of this masterpiece. Kojima said that being in the Skywalker Ranch was a very majestic experience by itself. I also lack the THX certified 5.1 environment, but across the Internet many reviewers and podcasters have said that this game carries serious amount of jaw dropping sound to make it yet an even better epic affair. No doubt about it mixing sound, visuals and story you are up for a great “Tactical Espionage Action” adventure.

Installation/Main menu – The installation process in MGS4 is quite equal sided, it is both good and bad. The way this works is simple. When you first play the game you install every act or mission as you progress through the game. It takes about 3 minutes max. In these little breaks the games tells you what time it is, and perhaps that you should take a break and whatnot, very entertaining if you ask me. The problem with this installation system is that we have to install them over and over again every time we want to go back to previous acts or reply the game over again. They don’t give us the option to install it all at once. But, after all it is a minor detail. Another thing that has us a bit disturbed is the lack of cut-scenes gallery on the menu screen. We can see the briefings, but we can’t see the cut-scenes?! They have implemented this in MGS3: Subsistence why not do it here?

People that don’t like single player games complain – Too many cut-scenes, confusing plot twists, and redundant dialog... While many people think these are reasons for lowering the rank of this game, I believe it isn’t right to try and tackle this epic title like this. This is why MGS is the best franchise in the industry; the level of design all put together to make a superb movie experience is something that shouldn’t be critiqued but admired.

MGO – Guns of the Patriots is a full game that does not need anything else added to it, but Kojima was kind enough to give us MGO. With MGO you take the skills you’ve obtained in the single player and put them up against people online. Whether it is deathmatch, team deathmatch and so on it will be a great time. MGS4 does not need MGO to survive at all, nor to be a complete game, so you will get more than your moneys worth for a copy of MGS4 alone.

Overall this game is a great investment. The thrilling ride you will endure as Snake will show you what a true game is. Video games will not come close to getting a stab at MGS. This is something PS3 owners should be proud of. That is why XIK has given MGS4 the title of the Big Boss of videogames. MGS4 is a true Videogame God!

The Good: Everything. Stunning visuals, gorgeous graphics, mind blowing sound, thrilling heartbreaking story, ever so twisting plot, fun intuitive gameplay, sensational replay value. All of these and more make this title a must have! MGS4: Guns of the Patriots a true Videogame God.

The Bad: To those who do not enjoy a great and solid single player campaign, this title isn’t for you. We don’t buy MGS for the online we buy it for the story. But, you do have a great online expedience after all. You wont be taking full advantage of the game if all you want is online. You will also be a bit confused if not very out of place in the story if this is your first MGS game. Recommendation here is to buy the Essential Collection (29.99 MSRP) and play through one, two, three to get to know the story. Otherwise you will be completely oblivious to this groundbreaking, heart melting, thrilling story.

Verdict: Buy it! There isn’t a reason why you shouldn’t try new things. If you never played MGS chances are you wont get it, but you will have more fun than with other games. After playing you will most likely get involved on how everything happened, but of course playing the first titles first would make more sense. Either way you want to look at it this is a videogame God in our eyes.