Review written by Playstation4.net staff member Aaron Randolph

The Metal Gear franchise has enjoyed a long, rich history. With its somewhat humble beginnings on the MSX, and again on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Snake managed to imprint himself as one of the most heroic characters in video game history. Always alone, always striving to do what’s right, no matter what it cost him.

And now, with Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami and Hideo Kojima have managed to give Snake one hell of a sendoff.

This game is the ultra-mind-blowing-phenomenal-decisive-strike-bucket-of-incredible-insanity. It’s the be-all-and-end-all. It’s the holy-crap-why-can’t-all-games-be-like-this. And it’s only for Playstation 3.

I’ll even go so far as to say that this isn’t a game. It’s an experience. It might be a cliche’, but in this case it’s 100 percent accurate. This game may just change the way you think.

The plot is easily Kojima’s best. Despite the plot twists and questions the game brings up on its own, Kojima and his staff SOMEHOW managed to tie up nearly every loose end from MGS 1, 2, and 3. Remember MGS2, and how that game left you with so many questions as to be preposterous? Those questions will all, ALL, be answered in this game.

Yes, Snake’s old now. Being a clone will do that to you, apparently. Liquid Ocelot is taking over the world, and who else is going to stop him? There’s one problem. Liquid owns five PMC’s (private military companies, think mercenaries but more organized) that are so huge that they can be labeled ‘world powers’. Through five chapters, you’ll learn the truth about what Liquid’s really trying to do, as well as what is in store for Snake. And the truth isn’t pretty. One of the things I don’t like about this game (but won’t affect my score) is the fact that the plot gets somewhat depressing during certain sections of the game, mostly the end of Act 3 and the middle and end of Act 4. But as a creative work, it’s simply genius. Yes, some of the cutscenes run obscenely long, verging on qualifying as a full-length movie on their own. But, trust me, if you like Metal Gear Solid AT ALL, you’ll be too engrossed in what’s going on to care. Just keep your potato chips and other snacks handy.

Hideo Kojima’s also known for making a statement with his games, and for me, this one really stands out. While the other games seemed to denounce a certain product of war (nuclear proliferation or child soldiers, for instance), this game denounces war itself. The anti-war theme in this game is so strong that any desire I had to play Call of Duty 4 has been crushed. I don’t even want to look at the box. If you want to kill your enemies in MGS4, you might want to do so on your first playthrough. It’s been hard for me to kill anybody in the game since. On the plus side, you can also expect Kojima’s now-trademark breaking of the 4th wall, which tends to be amusing as ever, like a playful wink at the player from Kojima. Another trademark of his found here is nuances. They’re subtle, but they’re everywhere, literally carpeting the game world. You just gotta know where to look.

The graphics for every Metal Gear Solid game have been a benchmark for what the Playstation 1 and 2 could do graphically, and this is no exception. You see this Middle Eastern battlefield, and you reflexively tense up. You can’t help it, since it looks so real that you feel like you’re really there. This is the level of realism that’s prevalent in the game. MGS4 is flush with reality, to the point where you’ll catch yourself stopping to just look around at everything. The one downside is that being so graphically intensive, the framerate sometimes has a hard time keeping up, especially during cutscenes. It never gets bad, but it is noticeable from time to time. But the trees look amazing, the animals look amazing, the land looks amazing, the buildings….well, they mostly look like someone shelled the hell out of them, but they look positively real. And it all helps make MGS4 into the juggernaut experience that it is.

The sound is an auditory masterpiece from start to finish. Sound effects run the gamut from bullets to bombs to birds to breakfast, and each and every effect feels perfectly in sync with this world. The voice acting is on par with just about every other Metal Gear Solid title — it’s the best in the industry. If I had one complaint about the acting, it would be the same as the complaint I have about every other game with voice acting in it — exaggeration and no subtleties. Since voice acting appeared in video games, characters have been allowed to have four emotions; happiness, sadness, rage, fear. And the voice acting in games has always emphasized those emotions, leaving no room for implied emotion or subtleties of any kind. If a character’s feeling something, the voice acting, combined with the cutscene direction, will beat us over the head with it so that we know exactly what that character is feeling. Gamer’s aren’t stupid, and we never will be, so I wish voice directors would back it up a bit and stop exaggerating. The Metal Gear Solid series has always been on the cusp of this level of theatrical presentation, but never quite takes that last step. I’m not taking any points off for it, like I said, they remain the best in the industry. It’s just a little disappointing. Yes, the Metal Gear series is a melodrama. My problem is, it could be so much more. Though it should be noted that there are a few moments in the game where this kind of implied emotion or subtle hints at more than what we’re shown shine through, mostly involving Snake or Otacon.

The music for Metal Gear Solid 1 was good. The music for Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 was incredible. The music for Metal Gear Solid 4 is a full-on auditory masterpiece. The best music in anything, movies, TV, video games, you name it, will supplement the original material, help you experience what the characters themselves are experiencing. No matter what game you’re playing, if you find yourself at a fever pitch, the music is at least partly responsible for that. This game had me at a fever pitch, sweating in my air-conditioned apartment, stunned into shock with my jaw dropped open, smiling openly, near tears and even in tears on a few occasions. It was only on my second playthrough that I even noticed the music was there. It just fit into every section, every moment so damned well. And once I noticed the music, I started listening, and I understood. This music goes several steps beyond brilliant.

Now for the meat of the matter. The gameplay is definitively the best in the series. The controls are FINALLY intuitive, and everything is adjustable to get it just how you want it. Speaking of choice, you once again have your choice of how to play the game. You can rush in, killing everything in sight, or you can sneak through without being spotted, that’s par for the course in a Metal Gear game, though the first option is of course far more costly. You can tranq enemies, use CQC, hide in dumpsters, roll over them in an iron drum, choke them out, use them as shields, all still nothing new.

But now there are more options than ever before. Do you ignore the battle and just go on to your objective, or do you stop and help out one side or the other? You want to give your rations to a wounded soldier or save them for yourself? You can even have the Metal Gear Mk. II knock out your enemies for you, collect weapons and ammo in the middle of a battle, make noise to draw enemies away from you, manipulate buttons or switches, or even just send it out to see what lies ahead. Want a dot sight on your M4? You can put one on it. How about a laser sight instead? Or a flashlight to see in the dark or blind enemies? A suppressor to silence the gun and fore grips to increase your accuracy are also available. Or maybe you want a bigger boom? Attach a shotgun to your M4, or better yet, a grenade launcher. You can let that helicopter shoot up the rebels, or take it out with a surface-to-air missile. This game is filled to the absolute brim with choices. And I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but at the end of Act 4, you get to do something that I’ve wanted to do since the first Metal Gear Solid. Now THAT was FUN.

On the flipside, there’s the fact that while any gamers who haven’t played any of the Metal Gear series will still enjoy the (excuse the pun) solid gameplay, they won’t have a clue what’s going on. Which, I might add, is the perfect excuse to play the three previous incarnations. Which they should have done to begin with.

And then there’s online play, which isn’t exactly what I’d hoped it would be. You’ve got your standards, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag (known as Capture Mission), King of the Hill (known as Base Mission), pretty much the same old stuff that was tired in the days of the PS2. The one unique mode in this game is called Sneaking Mission, where two teams face off against each other AND Snake himself. If Snake collects enough dog tags, he wins. If either of the teams kill Snake enough times, that team wins. It’s enjoyable to play something that isn’t simply cookie-cutter online play, but the enjoyment didn’t last long, and I ended up quitting MGO after less than an hour. Metal Gear Online is an interesting perk, but it doesn’t extend much beyond that.

Snake may be old, but he’s not dead yet, and as long as he lives, you can expect him to continue to be one of the biggest badasses on the battlefield, and one of the most popular characters ever. This game serves as a remarkable tribute to the power of the Playstation 3, to the idea that video games can be art, and finally, to Snake himself, a legend in his world and ours.

9.7 OUT OF 10

Pros: Incredible gameplay
      Remarkable story
      Ingenious music

Cons: Not for Metal Gear newbies
      Online play not very engaging
      Snake’s story comes to an end….