The Perfect Ending.
By Ameer Ammar
Having played through MGS1 through 3 this past month for the first time ever, it only made sense to get into MGS4 Guns of the Patriots next. Unfortunately, due to Konami's general mishandling of Metal Gear Solid for the past decade, MGS4 remains to this day completely locked to the PlayStation 3 without any alternative official means to play it. Thankfully, PS3 emulation has come a long way, and I was able to emulate MGS4 via RPCS3 and play the entire game with minimal issues at 4K60FPS. Finally allowing me to experience MGS4 in all its glory for the first time ever, a game that, as an Xbox 360 owner back in the day, I was dying to get my hands on.
This review will feature spoilers for the entirety of MGS4.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has my favourite narrative in the franchise so far. Set as the finale to the entire Metal Gear Solid story, before I even got to press "New Game", Hideo Kojima and team wasted no time in getting straight into the finality theme of MGS4, as I was treated to one of the most gorgeous main menu screens I have ever seen, depicting Solid Snake smoking a cigarette at a gorgeous graveyard. The identity of the grave he is at is unknown to me at this moment, but seeing this alongside the incredible guitar notes of the "Old Snake" theme playing in the background, I knew I was in for an extremely emotional finale to this franchise.
MGS4's narrative is deep, emotional and masterfully written; hours upon hours of cutscenes are present here, which I was surprised to see was somehow controversial considering that this is trying to wrap up every single thread and mystery from the franchise so far. The cutscenes and their length never bothered me, not even once in MGS4. I was completely engrossed by the story from the get-go, and it did not disappoint one bit. The first reveal of Old Snake as he dodges a series of small Metal Gear-looking robots was right when I knew we were so back.
Solid Snake in MGS4 is an old man, despite only taking place a few years after MGS2. Due to accelerated ageing caused by the fact he was created as a clone, Solid Snake looks like he's in his 60s/70s, and this results in Snake feeling like a much different kind of person. He is tired, has consistent back pain even during gameplay, and his body is falling apart as the narrative goes on, but he never backs down from his duty to finally put an end to the Patriots and to Liquid Ocelot's plot. The world of MGS4 is much grittier than previous MGS games due to the fact the Patriots basically won in MGS2 and now have full control of the war economy, with endless conflicts across the world breaking out between private military companies and a world where proxy wars are the norm, with a system ensuring they continue perpetually.
Playing as an old man version of Snake in this post-Patriots victory world is thematic perfection and David Hayter frankly acts his ass off in this game, he brings his A game here giving Snake new dimensions that we just never got to see before from the legendary hero who can't falter, he consistently makes stumbles in this game, consistently doubts himself and every single person around him is constantly telling him to just give up and leave this fight to someone else, and I feel like this echoes the feelings of Hideo Kojima himself, who by this point wanted his staff to make MGS games and not him anymore, but was dragged back into directing it after fan outcry due to him announcing that he wasn't going to direct MGS4. I truly believe Kojima put a tonne of himself into Snake in this entry, a man forced to finish what he started because it is his duty to do so.
The narrative as a whole is massive, with so many moving parts, plot points and quadruple crossings that it can almost be difficult to keep up with everything that is going on, especially as this is the first MGS game that takes place across multiple locales rather than being situated in just one location like previous entries. My overall thoughts on the narrative have been hard to put into words because of how much actually happens here, but the main plot points that shook me to my core were:The Patriots being revealed as actually having been the cast of MGS3 all along floored me. This twist was something I did not see coming and puts everything I experienced in MGS3 in a completely different light. The 50 years between MGS3 and MGS4 obviously means countless events and changes to those cute characters in MGS3 that we just never got to see, so it wasn't this plot twist that made no sense, as I saw some fans claim. A lot can change in a single decade about people, let alone 5 decades. So I fully bought this plot point and found it incredible. Eva returning and revealing that she is Snake's mother was another reveal that I adored. I truly believe Big Boss loved Eva in his own way, and I am glad to know Eva loved him back as well. MGS3 kept that a bit vague by the end with her whole spy reveal. I also thought her death was handled very well, though, and Snake getting half his face burnt off as he tries to save his mother was a heavy moment that hit as well. Eva was my favourite character in MGS3, so seeing her end here was emotional.
I also can't talk about characters without mentioning Raiden, turning Raiden from a whiny kid into this traumatised Grey Fox- Esque Ninja was a genius decision and instantly makes him a gigantic highlight of the story; the dude is a straight-up badass, and Quinton Flynn delivers a flawless performance, transforming his voice completely from the more whiny tone from MGS2.
Otacon and Solid Snake's bromance is another major highlight. Otacon is basically Snake's family at this point; he's far more of a brother to Snake than any of his actual brothers ever were, and it's just awesome to see this bromance flourish across the series and truly peak here. These guys are inseparable and just want the best for each other. I freaking love Otacon.
Talking about the narrative of MGS4 is difficult because this story covers so much ground; there's practically a 10-hour-long movie in this game, and I can only really go over the major highlights that stood out for me:The Patriots' reveal floored me, as I mentioned earlier. Alongside Eva's return, returning to SHADOW MOSES was an INSANE moment that I did not see coming. The fact that every item placement was kept the same was another surreal part. I kept going the exact same paths I took when I played MGS1 a month ago, and I couldn't get over how every single corner is identical, all the spots I hid in, and all the entryways and ducts that I crawled through in MGS1 rendered now beautifully in MGS4. It was a surreal experience that's hard to describe, and I can imagine this hitting to an insane degree if you had played MGS1 when it came out and then experienced this. Leading up to the showdown between Snake and Vamp, then Snake singlehandedly taking down an army of gekkos and leading into piloting freaking METAL GEAR REX. I was in pure awe throughout this entire act and getting to actually use a metal gear was something I never even considered as a possiblity, Rex having all the exact same weapons that were used against you in the fight during MGS1 was another small touch that I couldn't get over, and this also leads up REX vs RAY, the level of goosebumps I was feeling at this point I can't even describe, this entire game is a love letter to fans but Act 4 in specific feels like it was made purely to reward people who have played this entire franchise and its beautiful, some may argue its cheap fan-service but I believe fan-service can inherently be a good thing if done well and here its done beautifully with a good story reason as well, incredible section.
Going into Act 5, MGS4 builds up an incredible finale as Snake makes his way through a microwave. I was MASHING the triangle button by this point; I was convinced Snake wouldn't make it, but he barely makes it as all his allies are beginning to lose the battle. It's an incredible scene, and when Snake finally makes it, it truly feels earned. Finally taking down the Patriots AI system thanks to Naomi's sacrifice was a truly great moment, and this leads into what is now one of my all-time favourite boss fights:Snake finally faces off against Liquid Ocelot, and this boss fight is a trip, going through every single MGS1-4 HUD, mechanic and music as phases of the boss fight. It was genius and an incredible way to cap off this game. The constant close-ups of Snake and Ocelot battering each other, the flashes to the previous games, and the countless nods to Ocelot's history with Solid & Naked Snake all come together beautifully as the perfect finale boss fight to Metal Gear Solid 4.
Following this boss fight is the current guiness world record holder for the longest cutscene in gaming history, at a monsterous almost 90-minute runtime, MGS4's ending is massive, seeking to give satisfying conclusions to every character we've come to know and love over the course of this series and its just beautiful, watching Raiden finally get his resolution and his family with Rose, Meryl finding love, Campbell being redeemed as we finally discover he never married Rose, Drebin starting his own business independent from the Patriots' hands, Sunny being able to live as a normal child and Otacon accepting a parent role to Sunny as well as saying goodbye to his friend, with Solid Snake making his one final sacrifice, to take his life to save the world. As an ending, this was perfect enough, but Kojima once again pulls the rug from under me, and with a 40-minute-long post-credit scene, BIG BOSS himself is revealed to have been alive. This entire exchange between Boss, Snake and Major Zero is one of the most profound endings I have ever experienced. There's so much covered in this scene and so many emotions, with Snake and Big Boss actually forming a father-son relationship for once. Snake doesn't even speak much during this scene; he just listens, as he is as shocked as the player that this is all happening and that he even is still alive. Ending Metal Gear Solid's story with the franchise's two biggest icons sharing a cigar at The Boss's grave is practically perfection, and I genuinely think there are very few writers in history that are able to pull off an ending this well written."This is good, isn't it?"...
I've spent so much time talking about MGS4, and I haven't even mentioned the gameplay once, and if you're wondering how it is, well, it is by far easily the best gameplay the franchise has had up to this point (obviously later MGS5 would manage to surpass this). With the addition of finally being able to crouch walk, aim in third person and be able to move around while aiming, there are so many changes that make MGS4 actually feel like a modern game that could come out today compared to MGS1-3, which are obviously more products of their time. My only issue with MGS4's gameplay really is that it stops being a stealth game after the middle of Act 3 and turns into mainly a shooting gallery from that point onwards. Don't get me wrong, the shooting is fun, and there are a tonne of guns here, a ridiculous amount actually, but I did find myself really missing the stealth mechanics, as in Acts 1 and 2 I could feel how much more in-depth they've become, and I wished there were more opportunities to experiment with them. I guess that reason is probably why Kojima ended up making MGS5 such a gameplay-focused game compared to this one. I especially loved the OctoCamo, which has Snake's entire suit change its pattern to match whatever surface he is currently sneaking on; it felt like a really smart evolution of the camo system from MGS3. Overall the gameplay is a blast; I just wish there was more of the stealth, which is a minor flaw in the grand scheme of things.
Visually, MGS4 has held up beautifully. It was groundbreaking at its time for its visuals, especially when you consider how big of a jump it is over MGS2 and MGS3. Rendering MGS4 at 4K via an emulator really shows how well it's held up. The filters that the early PS3/360 era games used can be considered "ugly", but in my eyes, they've really given many games a timeless look. MGS4 looks very gritty, and I appreciate it for that choice considering how dark the story and Snake's world have gotten. The Middle East section in particular looks especially impressive even by today's standards; as someone who has grown up in the Middle East, I was surprised at how many little details were correct about the buildings, their interiors and streets. MGS4 doesn't need a remaster but just a port, and I truly hope that we get it sooner rather than later, as the barrier for entry to this game remains insanely high considering your only choices to play MGS4 are to either play it on the PS3 or to emulate it on PC, which is what I went for.
I want to talk about the experience of emulating MGS4 on PC, which worked surprisingly well. I had minimal visual issues throughout the experience (mainly just artefacts on computer screens for some reason). The game held a consistent 50-60 FPS for me on my mid-range gaming laptop (RTX 4060, Intel i5 12400f) at 4K. I was definitely CPU limited, which did cause audio issues during some cutscenes, but aside from that, the experience was fairly stable, and if you have a higher-end machine, I am certain you can play it with next to no issues. I also only had 2 crashes during my whole experience, and considering the state of emulation just a few years ago, it's shocking how playable MGS4 has become. There are some great tutorials on YouTube you can follow; it took me about an hour to set everything up, but the shader compilation did take quite a long while, so I just left my PC on overnight to get that done. Outside of that, just an enjoyable experience. I will 100% be replaying MGS4 if it ever releases on modern platforms in an official capacity, which I am hoping happens sooner rather than later with a Master Collection Vol. 2.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a timeless masterpiece of storytelling that I will be spending a very long time processing. It caps off every story thread built up since MGS1 perfectly and stands as a prime example of how you should end a story.
I don't rate games in my retro reviews, but this is an obvious buy & play if you haven't played it yet. It's a fantastic experience, and next up I will be playing Peace Walker and then replaying MGS5!