Sorry there Snake, "Solid" doesn't cut it when describing Metal Gear Solid 4...
Please note, while a fair and in depth review cannot be delivered without a few spoilers, nothing major will be mentioned in regards to individual characters (outside of them appearing in the game) and the story that the followers of the series know and love.
Metal Gear Solid 4 takes place in 2014, some 5 years years after the incident at Big Shell portrayed in Metal Gear Solid 2. We see a figure that looks like Altair from Assassin's Creed... who's smoking... and holding a rifle. Clearly this is Solid Snake. Cut ahead one scene, Snake pops out... and is... old?!? Yes, Snake has aged tremendously, although it's for the player to find out why. The wrinkles on his face, and brow, the individual hairs on his grizzled moustache, the liver spots on his hand, everything is rendered with stunning detail, easily rivaling or surpassing the likes of Heavenly Sword or Gears of War. The level of detail for all characters is equally high, so Snake isn't the only one with special treatment.
Anyways, called out of retirement Snake is to terminate Liquid Ocelot, who is a powerful warlord now in charge of many PMCs (Private Military Companies). The first act takes place in the Middle East where Snake must traverse a hostile terrain of bombed out buildings and military encampments while avoiding the PMCs.
Snake can do this by standard means of evasion, killing, and other sorts of trickery such as his newly Otacon devised Octocamo. By simply pressing against the wall or ground, the suit will mimic the texture Snake is touching, including that oh so tacky pink and orange checker pattern that you refuse to throw out dear... Ahem. The Octocam can be set to memory or to auto depending on your preference (later you will get an Octocam mask which does the same thing and makes you nearly invisible). The Octocam suit also is explained in game to make Snake physically stronger and why he can regenerate if not moving.
Anyways, you can also try working with the rebels (who appear in other acts as well). They actively fight enemies which allows you to sneak by easily. Sometimes if you don't help with the rebels, the enemies will overrun you and certain paths will be cutoff. Also, helping out the rebels enough will make them friendly and they will assist you if you are under fire. While purely there for extra options, they are a welcome assistance to the previously solo sneaking mission expert. I would say one thing that might help you decide to bother at all. You can fire from behind cover. Think of an improvement to the game's design, no more crouching in the middle of a firefight or being stuck to a wall. If you want to hide behind a wall and pop out of a corner and blast away like in Gears of War (the master of cover shooting mechanics), Metal Gear Solid 4 offers this. Additionally, you can shoot from the hip by pressing fire. But if you want to go into first person mode, press L1, then triangle, then you can shoot from first person mode for more accuracy. By the way, certain guns come with laser scopes on them, and using the shooting from the hip mechanism allows you to see where Snake is aiming in the first place. Guns with scopes, whether you use them in first person or from the hip have better accuracy. Back to how this assists the rebels is if you shoot from out of the enemies detection range, or even in it, as long as you aren't seen and other rebels are near by, the enemy believes it was the rebels, and not you, and won't raise an alarm. Something to think about.
As you progress on you really get a sense of the war around you, from crumbling buildings with dilapidated walls to constant explosions and screams in full Dolby Digital Surround Sound (TM). At one point Snake must progress through a collapsed building and prior to it, Otacon calls up warning Snake the building is structurally unsound. Snake dismisses it and goes in anways, only to have the player and Snake greeted with a huge explosion and dust storm with flying debris going everywhere. The game is fully of immersive details like that everywhere that use both audio and visual aspects of the PS3 to it's fullest.
Later you run across Octcon's invention, the Metal Gear Mark II, which is conveniently controlled by a PS3 controller. This little guy can cloak and run around and grab things for Snake and stun enemies. Unfortunately it has a short range and I only used it very rarely when I could tell that enemies were around and I needed a fix on their location. Othewise, old fashioned sneaking with the Octocam is sufficient.
Making your way through the city some more you come across a fellow named Drebin, who happens to be an arms dealer. In the time of the government (more specifically, the Patriots) controlling everything, gun laundering is important for those not in the system. Snake can sell old guns he collects from fallen enemies (Yes! they do not fade out like prior games) and sell them to Drebin. He can then sell you other goods and weapons in return for your trade ins. Basically, it's impossible to run out of ammo in this game if you even remotely try to trade in weapons to Drebin. Drebin is accompanied by his monkey friend Little Grey who is addicted to NARC soda... and by the end of the game Snake's cigarettes. Sometimes these two provide the comic relief one expects amidst the often serious tone of the Metal Gear franchise.
One aspect of Drebin is that you don't get item X in scenario Y to beat boss Z or shoot out door lock A. In that case, weapon progression is much less linear than before, something that might appeal to new faces or those who didn't give prior installments a "shot".
A little further on, Snake meets Meryl (OMG She's so hot... err... you'll get that if you saw Metal Gear Awesome) who has grown up into becoming the nanomachine enhanced commander of Rat Patrol 01. Under her command are Ed, Johnathan and Johnny "Akiba". After sneaking through their encampment, the team and Snake are introduced to Liquid Ocelot's elite forces and you are forced to fight your way out (even if you've never fired a shot prior to this part, you will now).
More sneaking results in the final cutscene of the mission where Snake meets Liquid Ocelot and other familiar faces. What happens in that scene is then explained in between acts in debriefing modes. Debriefing allows you to look around the Nomad where you can use the Metal Gear Mark II to run into people in the ship for extra bonus items and such. Flashbacks (as happened earlier in game) will be seen if you press the X button during the flashback. This serves three purposes. First is fan service to Metal Gear veterans. Second is to keep the player's hands on the controller instead of making them passively watch only. Third for every time you hit the flashback button you get more Drebin points at the end of a chapter.
Some more information comes out and you then have to proceed to South America. This time Snake can free more rebels being held by PMC forces and watch them die or he can free them and they will assist him for most of the level (take a guess which I suggest doing). After a sneaking segment and tactical storming of a fortress, you encounter the first boss, Laughing Octopus of the Beauty and Beast brigade. This is a challenging boss as she has Octocamo as well, but can climb on the ceiling and come out of windows and everything. Think of it as a game of hide and seek, with deadly consequences (even though you are in a building, even sniper rifles have their uses here). Following that confrontation, you engage the woman inside of the suit in combat, where you can kill her outright or stamina kill her for a reward. This goes for the other 3 BB members you fight later.
Handy tip, weapons in this game can come with multiple ammunition types. For instance, a shotgun has buckshot, slugs or vortex rings (think bean bag shots that police use). Two vortex shot blasts from a shotgun puts the Beauty down in short notice. Grenade launchers can shoot traditional, white phosphorous, chaff, smoke, you name it. There are many different types of ammo and additions to guns you can get from Drebin and pick up in the field.
Following that combat, Snake must trail people and do the scouting thing. This means following footprints, looking for broken sticks, leaves etc. The diversity of nature and destruction on the local scale from footprints is presented in a realistic manner, again illustrating the power of the in game graphics engine. Footprint depth and size comes into play here. When Snake meets up with the party he's following, Drebin comes to the rescue after things go bad and one of the best on rails shooting sequences since the end of Metal Gear Solid 3 comes to play where you blast your way out of the compound and escape the giant Metal Gear hybrids known as Gekko.
So far we've had traditional Sneaking, combat on large scale and boss fights, tracking and an on rails shooting sequence. It doesn't stop there.
Next level is a doozy. You start off tailing an undercover informant through the military patrolled city. You at the same time must not let Snake get discovered, but help the guy you are following get past security checkpoints through any means. Took me some tries here, but this was really open ended, from merely sniping soldiers in the way to putting down a Playboy (yes Playboy) to distract them to throwing a spent magazine to distract them with sound.
Once you get to your location, things start coming together. You may have had a lot of questions before, like most specifically "Who are the Patriots?" This and more will be answered and your previous thoughts of who is the real bad guy will be altered and your mission not so simple. I refuse to say anything more than this is an epic revealing moment on the level of finding out Darth Vader is Luke's father.
Shortly afterward another nostalgic on rails sequence takes place followed by a boss battle against another BB member.
The fourth act is by far my favorite. It finds Snake back in the frozen North... literally, in Shadow Moses, the site of Metal Gear Solid 1. Snake must sneak into the base yet again (via a retro MGS 1 interlude) while avoiding giant Gekko walkers. When hunkering down in the freezing snow that is raging in a blizzard, Snake gets built up with dynamic snowfall, and upon standing up, the snow blows off.
While this feature was present since the start of the game, I should mention it now. Remember the stamina gauge from MGS 3? It's back in the form of a Psyche Meter (which is monitored by Rosemary from MGS2... no I'm not telling you anything). By being in the extreme heat (like in Act 1) or cold (like Act 4), your stress rises and the psyche goes down. Having no psyche can result in Snake collapsing to not being able to shoot well. Resting when not in combat or in a place where temperatures are more moderate are required to refill this gauge. Shadow Moses teaches you survival in regards to the psych meter.
After sneaking around in some of the truly most sneaky parts of the game by avoiding rolling sentries that similtaneously deploy green shimmering laser beams that even Catherine Zeta Jones couldn't wiggle her shapely behind through, you come across the third boss, Crying Wolf who leads her pack of elites in a sniping battle with Snake. Upon defeating her, Snake sneaks into the hangar where Metal Gear Rex is found. There, you combat the perennial favorite villain, Vamp. After a few cutscenes and more revealing information and a very poignant moment, you get no time to relax, more Gekko's storm in with guns blazing. Did I mention that Otacon was actually firing up Metal Gear Rex? Yes, you finally, for the first time in the series history get to pilot a Metal Gear. Gundam fans eat your heart out. You have to escape Shadow Moses prior to it going up like a tinderbox. You have a laser, machine cannon and missiles to destroy waves of Gekko on your way to freedom.
But it doesn't stop there. I'm not going to say anything, but the next showdown is epic (I know I use that word a lot, but nothing else describes it). Suffice it to say fans of the series will go bananas. Even the non fans will love the precise controls of controlling Metal Gear Rex (heck this "minigame" is better than a lot of full mech games, I'm looking at you, Mechwarrior).
In the interlude and beginning of Act 5, the final act, you will see that the situation has turned grim and you really start to feel for the cast of characters. An opening cutscene of Pearl Harbor type proportions is your treat to enjoy before Snake's final mission. In this mission a small amount of sneaking followed by boss fights and more sneaking followed by another cutscene to the culminating battle with Liquid Ocelot on top of the Outer Haven battleship. I will say at first the control scheme of this fight is annoying because there is only the control pad, X, R1 and Square. Square attacks, X dodges and rushes and R1 uses CQC (by the way, Snake knew CQC all along, but refused to use it until he recently found out Big Boss wasn't actually a traitor). Done in an incredibly stylish matrix type slow down and zoom in manner with full on facial deformations and spraying blood and sweat, the final fight with Ocelot is a fitting end to the gameplay.
Sit back and enjoy the fantastic ending. It is an hour long, and it is a satisfying conclusion to say the least. I'm not going to say what happens, as I completely did not expect what happened to happen. Questions are answered even more than you'd anticipate. I will say one thing... do not turn off the machine or reset it prior to completion and you getting your results. You should read all of the names of the amazing voice actors who have consistently put forth phenomenal voice work since Metal Gear Solid 1. You should also appreciate all of the graphics and modeling engineers and the programmers and sound technicians. You should realize this game took many people many years to complete.
In the end, Snake gets his much deserved rest, this I promise you.
A "Solid" 10 out of 10
Recap
Gameplay : Think of Metal Gear before hand with the same equipment and weaponry and items. But think of many more options on how to get around. Imagine a whole list of different play modes as I described. Imagine a tweaking of the control scheme for maximum efficiency and least aggravation. The developers took prior gripes, including camera (which is totally controllable) and integrated them in properly. A seamless action adventure game is what you get.
10 out of 10
Graphics : From ambient dust clouds from explosions, to disturbed leaves and sticks, to dynamic snow build up to the umpteen varieties of textures of metal, concrete, fabric etc for you to see and Snake to mimic, this game has an amazing graphical repertoire. The character modeling in all aspects from textures to animation is nothing short of superb. Near CGI quality from a completely in game engine. Little touches like watching a screen from up close allowing you to see individual pixel lines on the screen to the little serial number and capacity storage size on the back of your in game iPod. Every minor detail, as always, is included by Kojima Productions.
10 out of 10
Sound : The game likes to recap that the sound is done in Dolby Digital, and for someone with 5.1 surround or above, this game is a sonic masterpiece with ambient directional sound, an amazing score by Harry Gregson-Williams and a flawless voice cast headed by David "Solid Snake" Hayter. To not have a 5.1 system with this game would be a shame.
10 out of 10
Value : One run through of this game (not including some deaths or resets) took me approximately 21 hours. I know I'm playing it again shortly. For 3 dollars an hour of entertainment. This is well worth it. Playing it in the future is like watching the Star Wars saga again, you know you will. Built in, but not mentioned in my review is Metal Gear Online, which features team based death matches using the same in game engine. This just adds to value and replayability.
10 out of 10
Tilt : What can I say. Writing this review as hard, as it was very difficult to skip on the improvements while at the same time making it informative and exciting yet not give away any of the major spoilers. I hope I did just that. Had you read my Mass Effect review I'd have said something similar. This game is depressing... Depressing in that having completed it I feel hollow and lacking in good games to play. Everything pales in comparison. The epic storytelling, the vastly improved and widely varied gameplay, nothing I have compares to that. It's like an old friend you said goodbye too and parted in a joyful way, but know you'll never see again unless you watch home movies.
The characters develop in such a way done in such an artful and skilled manner that I have to use the cliched "This isn't gaming, this is art" statement. One hint I will give. After beating the 4th BB member, watch the cutscene with Meryl in it. Mr. and Mrs. Smith has nothing on that seamless choreography.
I guarantee fans of the series will be satisfied with the conclusion and hopefully some non fans will discover a new treasure.
10 out of 10.
Good :
+ Graphics are top rate
+ See same for sound and voice quality
+ A wide variety of highly polished gameplay modes
+ Fitting end to a 20 year saga.
Bad :
- It ends...