Metal Gear Solid 4 Review

**Fair warning: This is both long and contains spoilers.**

Well, my time with MGS4 has come to a close. I won't say it was a bad experience; it's far from that. It was more of a....necessary experience. Allow me to elaborate:

Metal Gear Solid 4 is the last in the epic Metal Gear series. As such, the story that started over 18 years ago finally comes to a close. In terms of game play, nothing stands out in Metal Gear Solid 4 over it's previous iterations. In terms of story, MGS4 really lags behind the others. However, the story, and the game as a whole, are necessary.

• Necessary to close the story.
• Necessary to end the Metal Gear Series.
  
• Necessary to get Hideo Kojima paid.
• Necessary so said developer can work on other games.

Let's talk about the previous Metal Gear games for a brief moment.

MGS1, Metal Gear Solid / (Twin Snakes) is the original (modern) Metal Gear. It's the first introduction for all the major characters, and the boss battles were some of the best ever created at the time. The Psycho Mantis battle is still one of my favorites in video game history. It had incredible depth in both story and with the codec system. It's only folly is it's age. (although it's been remade for GCN)

MGS2, Sons of Liberty is one of my favorite games of all time. It was also my first experience with the Metal Gear Series. The boss battles weren't as good as Snake Eater's, but the story was superb. I was also quite fond of the setting. And I don't care what anyone else says, playing as Raiden was cool. The music is also my favorite in the series, and it's one of only two games that ever made me cry. Not outright balling like a baby, mind you, but shed a few tears. A testament to the power of the story.

MGS3, Snake Eater was an excellent addition to the Metal Gear series in terms of letting us learn more about the characters and really helps you to understand the story as a whole. The setting was also unique and who can forget all the great boss battles. The battle with the End is truly a moment in gaming history. The sheer amount of boss battles also make it great. Snake Eater is a Prologue to the events of all the other Metal Gears. A lot of people don't realize this, and think they are playing as Solid Snake. This could lead to a lot of confusion in understanding Guns of the Patriot's story.

And now we come back to:

MGS4, Guns of the Patriots. The boss battles are decent, but nowhere near Snake Eater's or Sons of Liberty's. In fact, almost all are copies of battles from the previous games. The Metal Gear battle was kick ass though. (It kicks even more ass with rumble.) Of course the graphics are superb, and it seems like that is all reviewers are looking at these days. MGO makes the whole package of MGS4 a bit more appealing, which probably explains it's high score despite it being the weakest in the series.

You really need to play the previous games in order to understand MGS4. Even then, it is a complex and winding story. (Perhaps even a bit too complex for its own good.) It's also the shortest of them all. I feel MGS4 is really only suited to two people:

• Existing fans of the Metal Gear series / Metal Gear veterans
• Those only interested in MGO.

MGS4 has it's high points, which for me, would be it's boss battles and the trip back to Shadow Moses Island. Let me break down the boss battles:

Laughing Octopus

• Battle: 7/10
• Character Background: 6/10
• Difficulty: 3/10
  

Laughing Octopus is the first boss you will encounter, and is the first of the BBs. (Beauty and the Beast) This is probably my second or third favorite boss battle. Each of the BBs has an emotion that they are tormented by and some sort of animal that their battle suit personifies. Her battle suit features 8 mechanical "tentacles" that can shock you, grab you and throw you around and other various things. The thing that makes this battle so good are the environment in which it is fought and her method of fighting. As she has the traits Octopus, she has the ability to camouflage herself and which point she will spew off taunts at you until you find her. She is almost impossible to see until you are right in front of her, but you can hear her and track her easily using the Solid Eye's NV mode. Once you do some damage to her, she will spew ink at you, which blinds you if you don't move, then move to a different location to assault you from.

After you defeat her, she sheds her battle suit and you are treated to a scene of her being tormented by her specific emotion. After this, she will start walking towards you slowly. (trying to grab you and do something unpleasant I'm sure...I don't know, as I've never let it happen.) You then have the option of either killing her, or knocking her out with the tranquilizer gun. I chose to knock her out, as you get a special face camo if you do. After knocking her out / killing her, you will get a call from Drebin explaining her story. Laughing Octopus had one of the best stories, and I'll let you play the game to hear it.

All of the battles with the BBs play out like this. The only difference with them are the Beauties themselves, and the location that you are fighting in. You always have the option to kill them or knock them out at the end. You will receive each BB's face camo if you chose the non-lethal route.

Raging Raven

• Battle: 5/10
• Character Background: 4/10
• Difficulty: 5/10

Raging Raven is the second boss battle, and was one of my least favorite. She was generally uninteresting, and somewhat annoying to fight. As her name suggest, she is angry and she flies around like a bird. You fight her in a multi story tower which she flies around and crashes through the walls periodically. Outside of the tower there are several other Ravens which look identical to her and they will shoot rockets at you.

Following the same method as the other BBs, once you defeat her she sheds her battle suit, you kill / knock her out then Drebin calls you and tells you her story. Blah, blah, blah. Three more left...

Crying Wolf

• Battle: 7/10
• Character Background: 5/10
• Difficulty: 2/10

Did you play Snake Eater? Remember the battle with The End? Well, the battle with Crying Wolf is basically the same. She doesn't have a sniper rifle, but rather a rail gun. This battle was very easy...In fact, the only damage I ever took was from the soldiers around the area and once by her when she ran over me. Her battle suit is one of the best looking and is well designed. Imagine a giant, black mechanical wolf.

There is almost no visibility in the area, due to a blizzard, so most of this battle is fought with the Solid Eye in NV mode. Basically, you track her down by either following her footprints or the sound of her crying. Then you snipe her a few times and she'll run away. Rinse and repeat until she leaves her battle suit and starts walking towards you. You know the drill by now; Kill her or knock her out then you'll get a call from Drebin telling you her story. I didn't find her story to be all that interesting, and it was similar to the other BB's.

Vamp

• Battle: 7/10
• Character Background: 8/10
• Difficulty: 4/10

Yes, Vamp. You'll learn much earlier that he didn't die in MGS2. The battle with Vamp is pretty fun in terms of the way you have to defeat him. He is immortal (somewhat) so every time you bring his health or psyche to 0, he will just resurrect. In order to beat him you must beat him down by the normal means described then grab and inject him with a special syringe.

He isn't that hard, but he is fast. He will throw blades at you and jump at you and try to slash you with his knife. All of his attacks are easy to dodge, and he is pretty easy to shoot. Overall a good battle, albeit an easy one.

Metal Gear RAY

• Battle: 8/10
• Character Background: 5/10
• Difficulty: 7/10

This is one of the best battles in MGS4, all because you get to pilot a Metal Gear! You fight RAY using a beaten up REX without it's rail gun. Just because REX is old doesn't mean he can't kick some serious ass. It has three weapons to choose from; Homing Missiles, a Laser Gun and a Gatling Gun. It can also do a melee attack at close range.

RAY was designed to defeat REX, so your on the losing side from the start. From what I saw, RAY has 2 attacks; A water cutting attack and an attack where he leaps on top of you. Each attack is pretty easy to avoid, but if you get hit by one they will do quite a bit of damage. The best way to defeat RAY is to wear him down using the Gatling Gun, then after dodging a water cut attack either charge up the Laser or Lock on as many missiles as possible and fire away. You only have a limited amount of missiles, but they do the most damage. Two complete lock on attacks on Solid Normal will take off over half his health.

The best part about this battle is the fact that you get to control a Metal Gear. They are very well animated and it feels very satisfying to fire it's weaponry and destroy the nearby buildings simple by walking into them. Overall a very fun battle.

Screaming Mantis

• Battle: 7/10
• Character Background: 6/10
• Difficulty: 4/10

The battle with the last of the BB's, Screaming Mantis is pretty much what one would expect after what you had been told of her. She is a puppeteer, and as such uses others to fight for her. At the beginning of the battle, you are in her control and unable to do any damage to her or the soldiers she animated without breaking free. After you figure out how to do this, your next step should be either killing or knocking out the soldiers she is controlling. Once you have done this you are free to attack her, which does nothing. Instead you need to attack one of her two dolls she uses to control people that are floating around her. After a few rounds of this she will eventually drop one of them and you need to pick it up.

As for her attacks, she uses the soldiers to shoot at you but if you kill them all / knock them all out she will either use Meryl to shoot at you or teleport to your location and do a few quick knife attacks from the air. They are easy to avoid, and the soldiers move slowly and are generally pretty inaccurate.

After you pick up both of her dolls, you use one of them to gain control of her. You then shake the controller and she will die. As with the other BB's, she sheds her Mantis suit and begins walking towards you. Kill or knock her out and you will receive a call from Drebin telling you her story....but wait! There's a surprise visit by our good friend Psycho Mantis before this, and he is there to do some magic tricks. It's a pretty funny scene actually. He attempts to do the things he did in MGS1, which were "read your past" (reading your memory card) and "move the controller by sheer force of will." (making it rumble) Since we don't use memory cards and most PS3 controls don't have rumble, his little magic show fails. He then fades off in the distance never to be seen again.

Overall a very fun battle, and probably the best in MGS4. Even if it was expected.

Liquid / Ocelot

• Battle: 8/10
• Character Background: 8/10
• Difficulty: 8/10

The final battle, and it's a tough one. It all takes place on the top of a ship, and for some reason you can fall off but you can't push him off. This battle is all done with CQC using a special control layout made specifically for the event. It's a very cinematic battle, and it is full of special cutscenes. Liquid / Ocelot will go through three different forms throughout the fight. Each one progressively harder. Oh, one more thing, he can also regenerate health by taunting you. (You can regenerate health too, but only at the same time he does)

It's a bit of a cheap fight. But it is still a good one due to it's cinematic nature and all the elements leading up to it. Once you beat him, grab some popcorn or make a sandwich because the game is over but you still have over half an hour of cutscenes to watch.




So theres the layout on the boss battles, the best part of MGS4. After all the scenes you will receive your emblems, something else I wanted to mention. Emblems are rewarded based on what you did during your play through. For example, a Hawk Emblem for over 150 headshots or a Lobster Emblem for spending over 1 hour crouched. Some Emblems will net you special rewards, and these emblems are generally the hardest to get. I like the Emblem system though, it's a good way to add replay value to the single player story.

All and all MGS4 is definitely the weakest of them all in story, and not that much higher in game play. But, as I've said before, the game is really meant to close the story and intended for existing Metal Gear Fans. Add in MGO and you have a solid package. The single player campaign would only net about 7/10, but including MGO we have:

Overall Score: 8.5/10