The Stealth Action Genre made its debut appearance 20 years ago when Hideo Kojima released Metal Gear for the MSX2. Since then the series has spawned many similar titles including Splinter Cell. Now, as the series comes to a close, you can’t help but bask in its glory. But is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots really a revolution in gaming?
Metal Gear Solid is known for its inventive Gameplay style, but of course, 10 years of the same mechanics can get boring and tedious. But in MGS4’s case, it’s easily noticeable that Kojima kept every aspect of his masterpiece refreshing and new. What really strikes this game, what really makes it notable, is how it shifts mechanics throughout the game. One minute you may be sneaking around the war torn Middle East, and next you’ll be tracking down someone in the jungle!
The smooth transition between the different styles of Gameplay really keeps you attached, you will never get bored, and there are just too many nooks and crannies that turning your head away for one second will mean missing out on something fun, or new, or hidden.
Of course, as most of you readers know already, MGS4 is packed tight with cutscenes, some of them even nearing the one hour milestone. But none the less, the scenes are extremely interesting and riveting enough to keep your attention, especially the amazingly long, and amazingly good epilogue. Some may be turned off because of this, but I encourage you to stagger through every one of them. Trust me; you won’t want to miss them! Nearly every plot point from every game is tied up and explained.
Another worthy Gameplay mechanic is the use of Drebin points or DP. These points act as currency in Drebin’s (the arms dealer) shop. You can fully customize your weapons using the different mounts, this allows you to really go in depth and edit your play style according to the weapons you choose.
The Gameplay though, sadly is not perfect in every sense. The installs do cause minor annoyances after each act, not to mention the small loads every 15 minutes between areas; though these aren’t enough to put anyone off the game, it certainly is a pesky occurrence.
Overall, the Gameplay is a brilliant accomplishment in terms of modern gaming. It’s never repetitive and constantly innovates new ideas as you play. Along with that it’s padded out with cinema worthy cutscenes, beautiful camera transitions and a moving score by Harry Gregson Williams.
MGS4 is easily one of the best looking games of the year. You’ll have a hard time looking for pixilated textures or low-poly models. Everything is detailed, from the gritty walls to the wrinkles on snakes face. Though it’s more comparable to Call of Duty 4 rather than Crysis, MGS4 makes a bold statement in what the PS3 is really capable of!
MGS4 comes fully packed with Metal Gear Online, the standalone multiplayer component set in the Metal Gear Solid universe. But unfortunately, MGO doesn’t live up to its single player counterpart. The communication is confusing and hard to grip, especially when using Bluetooth headsets. The small selection of maps doesn’t help either. Most of the maps come from its predecessor in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and others are mostly inspired from maps within MGS4. Unfortunately this makes Metal Gear Online Mediocre, and you can’t help but feel it was more of an afterthought.
The controls are definitely worth noting. They have been refined from their uninspired roots. They in fact, are easier to grasp and all around better to use and get used to. Now, instead of shooting when releasing square, R1 has been designated as the main attack button, with L1 to aim. Another new feature to the controls is a much appreciated reload control. Many newcomers will be easily drawn in by the simplicity, but fans may find it hard to get used to the new scheme of things.
In general, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots definitely refines the stealth action genre; it brings a new meaning to the word “sneak”. This game is masterpiece, and raises the bar. To newcomers it will be fun and interesting, and to hardcore fans, it will be snake’s final hour, and possibly his best.
The PlayStation 3 may not have been the strongest generation for Sony, but there were still some diamonds in the rough that deserve a revisit as PS5 remasters.
Even if they could just remaster and put on PSVR2, some would still look great as VR titles and could do a whole lot to bolster the headset w these exclusives! I'd imagine the investment of reworking these titles into VR would be way less than building new games from the ground up, and they could be amazing experiences, and VR often makes flat games feel fresh again. The Resistance and Killzone games are particularly what I want to see!!
I played killzone 3 in 3d and it really changed the game per being immersive.
In vr, that would be even more awesome.
Funny you mention that... my son wanted to play some PS3 games in 3d on my PS tv and he was blown away by how good KZ3 was. It really was a great addition to the game. Im surprised there have not been more 3d games from that era being ported to the PSVR/VR2.
resistance 1-3, killzone 1-3, uncharted 1-3, uncharted golden abyss, folklore, socom 4 , motorstorm, twisted metal, MAG, heavenly sword
Killzone 2+3
Sly Thieves in Time
Crack in Time
God of War Ascension
Motorstorm
Modnation racer
Infamous 1+2
Killzone trilogy in VR would be amazing bonus points if they offer shadow fall.
There was a psvr1 Killzone project that supermassive was working on at one stage which wasn't up to scratch and Sony brand it back in house I was hoping we would see that on psvr2 eventually.
Personally I'd love to see some more love or acknowledgement of psvr2 from Sony in general it was a expensive headset and Sony barely acknowledge it's existence
The amount of work needed to remaster these games wouldn't be beneficial on a financial and business sense.. MGS4 would probably be the best bet as it would need the least amount of work!
The time is perfect for a resistance fall of man game campaign coop multiplayer
The resistance series is str8 trash to me. Socom 3 I would welcome. Or killzone MP.
Resistance was ok but Warhawk and Starhawk was better and kept me coming back for almost a decade of fun and petty revenge on the loud mouth unskilled players 🤣
Edit I loved capture the flag dropping the pot on the flag carrier was extremely satisfying as well as transforming your plane in bot form and stumping them to death 😱
An article looking at the symbolic meaning behind the cigarettes in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
Game creator Hideo Kojima is and probably will always be best-known for his creation and stewardship of the Metal Gear series at Konami, which since his departure has been more-or-less on permanent hiatus (don't mention Survive). In his almost three decades these games evolved to the point where they predicted certain problems of the information age (MGS 2), took aim at contemporary topics like Guantanamo Bay (MGS: Ground Zeroes), and ended on a profound sense of sadness about our species' inability to break the cycles of global conflict (MGS V).
It's not clear what sparked this reflection, but Kojima's been thinking about Metal Gear Solid 4, an entry that was (and unfortunately still remains) a PlayStation 3 exclusive. In that entry the player controls an aged Solid Snake in the year 2014, caught up in a civil war being fought between Private Military Companies (PMCs).
To this day, it's one of those games where I refuse to skip the cutscenes, no matter how many playthroughs I've done.
But if you ask me...MGS2 was bloody prophetic and has aged like fine wine. That game was blasted as the weakest entry, and yet it's so enduring. I replayed it some time last year and it was remarkable.
Heed not the lamentations of people that say that MGS2 is bad because of the Snake/Raiden bait and switch. Every MGS game has its own merits, and while most people consider 3 to be the best, they all shine equally in my opinion.
@sad
I would generally agree but with the exception of MGSV. It had truly excellent gameplay/combat, but dull and largely empty open world(s), and a narrative that is literally only half finished.
I really wish Kojima hadn't tried to go open world with MGS. It just wasn't right for the series. But I get it. He didn't want to make MG anymore but he wasn't allowed to make anything else. So he had to experiment within that franchise. Still, it was the wrong direction.
I have been thinking about this a lot, MGS2 being the weakest and getting blasted.
My conclusion, for some years now, it's my favorite game of the series.
Going from MGS1 to MGS2 was such a big leap, in graphics, mechanics, etc.
And now it's even more relevant for being 'bloody prophetic' as you stated.
Maybe dust of my vita and play it again...
It's a shame we never got a remaster of MGS4. The original game only rendered at 1024x768, and it ran anywhere from like 20fps to 60fps depending on the area. A remaster could have very easily cleaned up the visuals and performance. It's such a great game. I just want to play it again but in its best possible state.
I agree, but they did all sorts of tricks to make use of the ps3’s cell processor….they’d probably have to rebuild the game in order to make it run on another machine. And, if that involves remaking those cutscenes somehow, then itll never happen, unfortunately.
Nah. There have been plenty of remasters of PS3 games and they've turned out fine. It can be done.
War... war never changes. Or does it? The war has changed ...did it? The answer is no! Unless it is yes! No, of course it is! Is war! Yes! No! Yes?
He was always ahead with this series. MSG1 taught me about the importance of passing on our genes into future generations but in a responsible way, for they are bound to what we experienced in our lifetime. Sons of liberty taught me about global control and simulation runs to test society in a grand scale, the importance and dangers of control of information. MGS3 taught me about patriotism and how that can blind you into doing things you never would have otherwise, all for the sake of politicians who only see you as another pawn in their grand scheme of things. MSG4 taught me war is inevitable and always orchestrated because it's great for the economy. Soon simulation systems will start dictating who goes to war and why, all run through proxies. Privatization of military company are already here. We already started to see how a small group of elites dictates everything that happens. Nothing is done, nothing happens without strings being pulled.
All that was literally the themes and core story of each game, so not surprising he learned that from MGS. Metal Gear Solid 2 in particular is so relevant today, it was more than a decade ahead of its time and a work of genius. Kojima saw what the digital future was going to become when it was in its infancy. Even MGS 5 despite being unfinished and less of a traditional Metal Gear Solid game with regards to story, had a fair bit to say about language and control over it that is relevant today.
It's a highly acclaimed series for a reason, and one of my favourite.
I've watched my brother play the MGS games, but I only beat MGS1 myself on the PSP in 2014, and MGSV in 2016. I took the themes and plots as lore, tbh.. trying to piece together the story of MGS rather than relating them to our current times.
It's definitely social commentary, Eidolon. You should read the "themes and analysis" section of the Wikipedia page for MGS2: Sons of Liberty for a start! Game was heavy on this.
I'll take a look, thanks. Actually might pick up MGS2 again (PS Vita), It's been years since I last played. Might start a new game tbh.
MGS2 literally predicted digital manipulation of information that we see today all the way back in 2001. MGS2 became Zucc's playbook.
Yes back in 1998 when I was 13. Throughout the years more information has been shown on this subject matters, but go back to early 2000s and information wasn't as prominent. Kojima was ahead of the game
If it wasn't for the retconning of how FOXDIE works, including clunky scenes with Naomi and Liquid, MGS4 would be a perfect game. There are so many gameplay options. It felt like us PS3 owners got something truly unique and special.
just for you to know, I wrote this reveiw on a blog, but i transposed it for here, enjoy
I SEE :}!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!