Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (MGS4) - Hell Yeah I’m Old Snake!
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Game play is very solid, but the movement of Old Snake is a bit slow, even in run mode, and a bit jerky, as it was in this game's predecessors. All the other characters seem to move perfectly fluidly, but alas, the one main character that matters is still not quite perfect. I guess it conceivably makes sense as Old Snake is now, well, old. This is a pretty convenient excuse really, not that they need one; it just seems a little founded in “marketing-speak” to me, as it truly takes one to know one.
If you liked any of the earlier ones, you will definitely like this one, as it’s just great! Mostly. All of our old friends are back, plus some new ones. As you might expect, some who were good have turned bad, others that were bad have now turned good. Old weapon favorites are still around, plus great new weapons like the Rail Gun, which is my personal favorite at the moment. Of course, you really can’t beat a good RPG or Anti-Tank gun.
One fabulous addition to the game is a new weapons dealer named Drebin. As you are right in the middle of a war zone, neither on one side or another, there are a lot of people shooting at each other, that all stop and start firing at you. This creates the need for an enormous amount of ammunition, and an incredible number of dropped items after you finally kill everybody. With the addition of Drebin, you are allowed not only to purchase ammo and new weapons immediately (yes, strangely, right in the middle of battle when you run out), but also “sell” all duplicate weapons found for credit in the Drebin weapons store. Drebin does not sell any sort of health or items of that nature, but it really takes the heat off finding specific ammo, or running out of something you really need. It’s expensive, but very handy.
One thing I found really strange is that the game does not install all at once, at least on the PS3 anyway. Each designated “level” installs separately, and I couldn’t figure out the benefit of doing such a thing, except for allowing new players to start much quicker, by installing a fraction of the game.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quite low, especially in the beginning, as you can be standing about two feet from an enemy, and he/she is most likely not going to see you, much less shoot at you. In fact, it’s so slow that I was able to make the first few checkpoints by simply running past hordes of enemy soldiers that were shooting at me. It does seem to get much better later, as trip and stun grenades seemingly await you around each corner, past the second stage.
Another strange thing was a quick visit to the past, namely playing a small level that was very much like (or exactly like, I do not know) the first Metal Gear. It’s not very big, and definitely looks much worse, but if you are feeling at all nostalgic, then this “break” comes as a welcome change in play and you even get to see the old ending of the game. I can’t spoil this room for you, but I can tell you it’s not easy to figure out what to do -- without a weapon, no less. And I don’t know about everyone else, but I just couldn’t remember what to do with a dazed enemy using old controls.
It only lasts a few minutes, but it was very funny. What was not so funny is when my HDTV had to switch from High-Def to No-Def to show it, and then switched back again when finished. I could have done without that aspect of it.
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