Review: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

Surprisingly for a game with new controls, gadgets and a fresh director, those who never played beyond 1998's MGS will feel alarmingly at home in 2008's sneaking world. That's not to say that MGS4 plays as rigidly as MGS1- the new aiming system finally gives Snake the potential to become a true killing machine, and every conceivable gizmo from Snake's three-game armoury makes an appearance. There's simply a consistency to the core gameplay that transcends such variety. The dozens of possible solutions to the simple task of getting from A to B unseen should keep devoted players busy for a hundred play-throughs - nothing has fundamentally changed, but without throwing in too many alterations Kojima Productions has been able to consolidated the series' strengths.

The core gameplay has never felt as confident since Metal Gear Solid laid down its rules hard, fast, and clear, so it's more of a shame that after the game's first two acts set-pieces and boss battles begin to dominate. That isn't to say that they don't entertain, far from it, merely that as soon as the complexities of Snake's new abilities begin to become second nature, the player is whisked off on some heady chase or climactic, awe-inspiring scrap with little use for cunning or improvisation. Ultimately the latter half of the game progresses with a staccato rhythm that doesn't give much chance for players to grow bored, but neither does it allow them to settle. It's further compounded by the final act's descent into lengthy bouts of pseudo-interactive exposition as the last elaborate revelations of the game bend and twist the decade-spanning storyline for one last time.

With so much plot to defrag a good quarter of MGS4 feels as much an epilogue to the saga than part of the game in its own right, retooling the relationships of even the most banal bit-characters to add some unneeded extra gravitas. Metal Gear games have always been revisionists to their own convoluted histories, but it reaches new heights here as twin writers Kojima and Murata back-pedal over several incredibly brave, profoundly moving turns in the plot to toss characters back into the fray for no good reason. That it was felt necessary to add a stupendously over-long post-post-post finale "debriefing" to tie up those pesky outstanding loose ends at the expense of the tragic "real" ending casts doubt over the capacity of the writers' ability to self-edit. The dialogue also suffers, words wielded as ungainly here as anywhere else in the canon, with a preference for preachy monologue that deadens the message that Kojima obviously cares so much about delivering to the player.

Regardless, the quality of the character animation and visual direction during the often-maligned cut scenes manage to maintain the attention, and give the ensemble voice cast a chance to show their rather varied abilities. Snake paradoxically feels more alive here than any previous offering thanks to David Hayter's convincingly haggard performance; alas, Christopher Randolph's Otacon never makes the leap from side-kick to believable character, his descent into blubbering man-child mid-game one of many emotional moments that land either unintentionally amusing or awkwardly embarrassing. Thank goodness for Pat Zimmerman's magnificent arch-anarchist Liquid Ocelot, who steals the game. Perversely, his remarkably extravagant delivery treads the line between camp and menacing to the perfect degree, the knowing preposterousness delivered with such a charismatic cross of Moriarty-like moustache-twirling supervillainy and old Western outlaw that it lends his often suspect dialogue a vital weight.

When the final lines are spoken - a typical Metal Gear cross between the touching and the comic - it seems only then MGS4's real influence on its player begins. Its unlikely any game this year will have divided fans and created so many debates, which was perhaps Kojima's plan all along. Despite his constant attempts to pass the series on to his team, its hard to imagine anyone else being able to handle the knotted hydra that he has created. Many will mourn the end (or is it?) of the series, but with the plot truly buried, perhaps it can finally move on and become the game that it so often hinted it could be, as much as the singular artistic creation it always has been. For all that, though, Guns Of The Patriots is a magnificently entertaining game. It would be irresponsible to recommend it as universally as Halo or ICO, or to place it alongside Resident Evil 4 as a genuine series reboot, but for those who fall under its spell, it could easily become one of their favourite games of the year.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Colin Whiteside