Product Description

From infiltrating enemy compounds and man-made structures in MGS and MGS2, to the challenges of the jungle environment in MGS3, MGS4 brings a totally new concept and situation, resulting in the toughest Metal Gear infiltration mission ever devised. The game is set after the events of MGS2 and players will reprise the role of top secret agent Solid Snake with appearances by characters throughout the MGS series. With the addition of online capability, MGS4 is a leading product for "PS3" and will signal the dawn of a new gaming era for the MGS series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #420 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Konami
• Released on: 2009-03-13
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Format: Unknown format
• Dimensions: .34 pounds

Customer Reviews

A great game, a poor movie
Metal Gear Solid 4 is a divisive game. Armed with overbearing movie-like pretentions, be prepared to spend as long watching beautiful big budget cutscenes for at least as long as you'll spend actually playing the game.

In gameplay terms things are better and more accessible than ever. It takes a third-person viewpoint as standard, as seen in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2), and the controls are refined, making it more playable and almost as smooth as the best third-person shooters. Snake has access to a huge amount of weaponry and is able to buy ammo at any time, encouraging a much more confrontational stance than previous entries in the series - why not shoot just your way through when you never have to worry about ammo?! However, the gameplay can be varied to those who want it, as there's a huge amount of items and weapons should anyone want to make use of the more interesting equipment such as C4 or Metal Gear MkII.

The plot picks up four years after Big Shell and all is not well with Snake - I won't give anything away, but Liquid is in control of the world's five largest PMCs (Private Military Company) and is wanted dead or alive by the US military, prompting this; Snake's final mission. The plot twists and turns across the game's 18 hours - characters thought dead return, people are not who they seem to be and everything has been leading up to this, which generally makes quite a neat effort of tying off all the plot threads. It is, however, apparent that writer and director Hideo Kojima desperately needs a team of editors as the cutscenes are hugely self indulgent and excessive - he seems to take ten minutes saying something that should take two.

The visuals are brilliant, the technology driving it all very impressive and it sounds pretty much as good as any videogame in existence. There is a 4Gb install to the hard drive, and it installs each of the five chapters before they take place, which generally takes 3-4 minutes. It can still sit amongst the foremost games on PS3 in terms of presentation and wow-factor.

At the end of the day, MGS4 is an impressive game and anyone who's been a fan of the series should really play it to see the concluding story arc of one of gaming's favourite characters. Probably its greatest failing is in its pacing - some people love the hour long wannabe-movie cutscenes, whereas others will find them tiresome and overlong. MGS4 is undoubtedly a divisive game, but untimately one that's worth experiencing.

Metal Gear Solid 4, The Review
Opinions are always biased and they depend on each person's personality and taste.

Same thing obviously applies to videogames.

The Metal Gear Solid franchise is a one of those where you either love it, or it simply is not really your thing. Considering it's "my thing", I'll now review it, comparing this one with the previous releases.

Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4 from now on) can be defined from the start as a "private joke". That is to say that it is close to impossible to fully appreciate the game unless you've experienced the past masterpieces from Hideo Kojima.

And when I say "fully appreciate", I mean "appreciate it the way it should be appreciated". So, for starters, I wouldn't advise anyone who hasn't played the prequels (MGS, MGS2, and MGS3) to try MGS4. The game is undoubtably good, and it will feel like a good experience, but still extremely confusing.

It's the exact same thing as watching the last movie from the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars franchises, without watching the other ones beforehand. It's not about admitting that the game is good in terms of gameplay, or graphically. It's about being unable to fully understand why the game IS the way it IS.

With that out of the way.. I'll proceed with the review for those who have indeed played the other MGS games.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a good game. You can usually tell that without even playing it. But why is it a good game?
For starters, it shares the exact same type of gameplay as it's predecessors, and that is: "It's a really long and well done movie, which tells an amazing story, and whom you are part of, by playing Snake". Not the RPG-esque type, but the linear type, where the story is simply told, while you get to experience it.

That's a good way to put it. But as a game, how good is it? In terms of gameplay, presentation, soundwise?

The gameplay has been different since the last iteration of Metal Gear (MGS3:S), which allowed the players to play in a 3rd person view instead of the usual Overhead view which we all knew and love from the first Metal Gear.

I'll consider that a good move by Hideo and his team. In terms of game design, it's the best approach, since it allows players to watch what's in front of them without having to use the 1st Person View button every 5 seconds to "re-check" what's in front of you.

Also, they managed to compensate the lack of overall awareness around the character, by creating the new "Spidey Senses" Ring. Basically, everytime you're not standing up (when you crouch or prone), this ring shows up around snake, and it works a bit like a soundwave. It basically detects threats. The closer they are to Snake, or how much of a threat they represent to you, the higher the wave. It'll also change color depending on their state of awareness (Caution or Alert).

It's a good tool that'll basically save you the trouble of having to peek around corners or rotate your camera every second to check your surroundings. It'll also save your bottom more often than not when you least expect it.

The other important introduction is the Octocamo. Basically, the theme from MGS3 was kept, where camouflage is indeed important to succeed on the sneaking mission, but this time around, you don't have to pause the game every time you get out of the grass, or when you get against a wall. Why? Because snake's camo automatically changes it's texture to look similar to what you're leaned against.

Although a good gameplay choice, it's obviously extremely irrealistic. But then again, if you're used to playing MGS, then you already know it's always a blend between realism, and other silly things (like hiding under cardboard boxes). Again, a matter of taste. Take this game as a good Hide and Seek game, and not a "Representation of a how a Real Sneaking Mission actually works". It's a game with a certain intent/goal, and it succeeds at that.

I won't get into the Drebin Point system, but I can tell you that the game has a huge amount of weapons, all extremely well represented, and somewhat fun to use. It has one major flaw though, that it's predecessors had too. And that is that the game never rewards you for using them. Sure, it makes sense that ending the game without killing anyone promotes a non-violent way of completing the mission. Yet, this also makes it so that everyone that actually uses the weapons (or goes through the trouble of buying them) will feel like a fool.

It's like Kojima's right next to you whispering: "Hey, you're the Big Boss if you finish this game quickly and without alerting anyone nor killing a single person. Oh, but here's all these awesome weapons for you to buy and use".

This bothers me for this simple reason: Snake's never seen wielding one of the non-lethal weapons in the cutscenes. Either the Operator or the M4 are in his hands during the cutscenes, and it obviously bothers anyone who's trying to play the game in a "sympathetic" way towards the virtual enemies.

Although I enjoy turning my opponents to gibs with rockets in games like Unreal Tournament, I also love sneaking behind soldiers and putting them to sleep (literally) while playing Metal Gear Solid. I just feel bad when I do it, because it apparentely doesn't seem like Snake cares.

When it comes to the graphics, I have to admit I enjoy them, but then again I'm used to PC graphics. That means I play games at much higher frames per second, and with much finer detail. Metal Gear Solid 4 looks good, but unfortunately it suffers from two major issues:
1) The facial animations are extremely weak (and just so you have an idea, Half-Life 2's facial animations beat it by FAR), which is only compensated by the incredible voice actors behind the faces;

2) It has slowdowns throughout the whole game. Most of them you won't notice, simply because you'll be "enjoying" one constant slowdown along the whole experience. To play the game at 60fps (to suit with the 60hz from the typical TV), just get go up some stairs befor meeting up with Rat Patrol 01, and turn the camera to the wall and floor. Now move Snake a little bit. That's the real game speed. As soon as you turn the camera back, it'll turn into a choppy experience again. When you play computer games for 15 years, you happen to notice these things very easily. The common casual player won't notice a thing, probably, and even if he does, he definitely won't care. Basically, the slowdowns don't affect the experience. It's just something I personally dislike.

When it comes to the Sound, it's extremely rich and well done. Music, sound effects, everything. The game feels alive, and that's what matters. Obviously you'll need a decent audio setup to feel "in the zone", but for what it's worth, they did a fantastic job on it (just like they have been doing since the first game).

The Voice Acting is a world of its own in the MGS franchise. I personally lost interest in David Hayter since MGS1 (his best piece was the "now considered" alternate ending where Meryl dies and he was absolutely amazing). But the rest of the voice actors do their job very well, considering they're not japanese (who tend to be geniuses when it comes down to VA, from the Anime to Videogames; they feel right at home).
Otacon's voice actor, whose name I can't recall, hasn't really attracted me either since MGS2. Something about him doesn't sound right in this last release, and I might not be alone in this. I guess after watching him suffer from a certain someone's death in MGS2, he didn't quite do the job on this one.

I still believe that the Japanese Voice Actor for Old Snake would fit him perfectly compared to David Hayter, but I guess there's nothing that can be done about it. David sounds exactly the same as if Snake was younger, and to me that doesn't make any sense. And no, "Snake's vocal cords didn't change" is not a plausible excuse.

Overall, and before this reviews turns from big to herculean, the game is a good purchase to those have experienced the past games, but to all those who haven't, I can only advise you on experiencing the previous ones, and then getting MGS4.

It's definitely one of those franchises that even if you tried, you couldn't forget. It's a touching story, not because it's necessirely sad, but because it really makes you think even after you turn the console off. Much more than certain great flicks on the big screen.

Thank you for the reading,
-JN

An incredible gameplay experience, but a dissapointing ending for fans
Firstly, let's get the biggest problem of MGS4 out of the way:

It has lots of very long cut scenes. The longest is about an hour long. Personally, coming from playing the previous Metal Gear games on the PS and PS2, I am used to this, and you only need to view them on your first play through, but they are longer than ever this time round. You can skip them on the second play through.

Being the last in the series, Kojima ties up all the loose ends to the story and the characters, giving both long cutscenes. A few of them are totally unnecessary, but if you like soap opera style drama with healthy amounts of cheese, you should enjoy them. On the other hand, a handful of the long cutscenes are filled with action and combat, which are fantastic to watch. Lastly, some of the cutscenes require some game play input in between and transition seamlessly into the next level of game play/mission progression, which is great to watch, so if you skip the scenes, you may be lost as to what you need to do.

Now for the good:

Game play: MGS4 has some of the best game play I have played in a long time. It's varied; combining gun combat, sneaking and vehicle chase scenes.

There is a huge selection of weapons. From small handguns, machine guns to sniper rifles and explosive ordinance. Most weapons are upgradable through an attachment system and you probably won't use everything on first play through, but will soon find a favourite; like a fully kitted M4 carbine, with grenade launcher, flashlight, laser sight and scope. There is lots of gun porn here to keep a shooter fan happy.

Graphics: Richly detailed, colourful and sharp texture throughout the game, make it beautiful to look at. The models are solid, the worlds detailed and the post processing effects are superb. It's definitely a stunner of a game.

Sound. Turn your speakers and base up and play this game loud. From dramatic musical scores to realistic combat and ambient effects, the sound will have you fully immersed. The voice acting is also very good.

MGS4 is a terrific game that should be played at least once, even if you are not an MGS fan. But beware, because this is the last game in a 4 part series, and makes a lot of references to the past games, characters and events.

Why four stars? As a fan of the series, I was very disappointed with the ending. It ends the first time round on a great note, but then is dismantled by an hour long "alternative" cut scene that destroys the first, apparently fake ending. Kojima (the director) really screwed up and robbed Snake of the ending he deserved.

The Good:
*Varied game play
*Very good combat and weapon customisation
*Great action setpieces
*Beautiful graphics and presentation
*Epic music score and sound effects
*A showpiece game for the PS3
*Lots of replayability in order to beat rankings scores and collect secret but practical items and weapons, some of which can only be obtained after your first play through.

The Bad:
*Convoluted, philosophical crap filled script that is only for Kojima's egotistical benefit.
*Some cutscenes are longer than they need to be.
*History-heavy and not new player friendly, although the downloadable Metal Gear Solid Database (playstation store) will give every last detail of the entire series, if you have many hours to go through it.

Conclusion:
If you're new to the game, rent it and play it for the amazing action. This is some of the best, short of Uncharted 2, but unlike Uncharted 2, more varied in game play mechanics.

If your a fan of the series, you know what to expect, but may be annoyed at the deceptive and frustrating ending.