Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Tim Steffes

War. War never changes.

Actually, scratch that. As far as the world of Metal Gear Solid goes, war has drastically changed. From the genetically enhanced soldiers of the original title, to a world that is all connected electronically, and where Private Military Companies fight proxy wars for business purposes. Nanotechnology is now everywhere – it enhances the abilities of everybody on the battlefield, it locks down weapons so that they can only be used by the user at specified times, and it forces the loyalties of these soldiers.

When Metal Gear Solid 4 starts, you find that your arch nemesis, Liquid Snake, now having fully taken over Ocelot’s body and calling himself Liquid Ocelot, is running the world’s 5 largest PMCs. With an army that surpasses that of the USA, he’s going to use his force to take over the nanomachine system that the PMCs use, and thus rule the military on the entire planet.

Your goal? Find Liquid, stop him from breathing, and ultimately save humanity. All in a day’s work for Solid Snake.

I’ll come right out and say it – MGS4 looks absolutely fantastic. When somebody wants to know just what the PS3 can do, this is the game to show them above all others. The character models are nearly lifelike, the environments are extremely detailed, and cinema scenes are of movie quality.

To start, the character models are some of the best detailed models in the business. Each character oozes life, from the way that they realistically move about and do their thing, to little things like facial hair and scarring. It clearly looks like they’re talking, and each character is capable of bring their actual emotion to the TV screen.

The environments have the same level of detail as well. You’ll start off the game in what looks to be a Middle East city, and there’s plenty of environmental detail to show that. Puffs of dust blow by in the changing wind, missed bullets make visible impact on nearby walls, and rats scurry by in an attempt to find food (or avoid the firefights). The latter levels are just as amazing, if not more so.

Finally, we come to the cinematics. Hideo and crew have outdone themselves this time with the cinema scenes in MGS4. Quite a few of the scenes look like they’re ripped out of a movie simply based on how they’re presented. They’ve mastered their art, and frankly I’d love to see them work on a big budget movie production.

One thing of note – sometimes you’ll see a bit of graphical slowdown. Thankfully, it seems to only happen during the mission briefings. Also, there’s a cinema or two that, while still done using the ingame graphics and character models, is actually a movie being shown. The reasoning behind that is simple – to eliminate the loading times between the parts of that scene that would’ve otherwise been in the game. I think it’s a more than acceptable tradeoff, as the scene was far better because of it.

There are two things that the MGS4 series is well known for – an outstanding soundtrack and the quality of their voice actors. Simply put – part of the reason the series is so well known is because of this.

Just as in the prequels, the game tends to be relatively quiet to start off each mission. It isn’t until you either encounter something unusual, or if you get spotted by the guards (with their trademark whoop noise), that the soundtrack kicks in. And what a soundtrack it is. During a firefight, it’s intense and makes you feel like you’re being attacked on all sides. Afterwards, when what guards are left are searching for you, it’s muted, but it still keeps you on your toes.

In addition, the same voice actors you’ve heard in the last two years reprise their roles. As before, they’ve all done an outstanding job, helping you get drawn in the conspiracy theory filled world of the future. Not a single line is a phone in – these are professionals that love their line of work, and in most cases, have been doing it for years.

As to be expected, the series has evolved with the times as far as the controls go. Every button has its use, and most have multiple functions depending on exactly what you’re doing. The game also supports motion sensing (you can ‘shake off’ your current camouflage), vibration (“Vibration is back!”), and pressure sensitivity (how hard you hold down the L1 button determines if Snake throws his grenades under or overhand). It’ll all become second nature a short time after starting up the game, and even faster if you’ve played the prequels.

One question I have to ask though - why can't you fire from the hip? While it rarely happens, you can get knocked off of your feet by a melee strike. When that happens you're forced to aim down the sight to fire back, giving your opponent a second to fill you full of lead.

The year is 2014, five years after the events of MGS2. The world has changed drastically as far as the military goes – war is fueled by Private Military Companies, fighting proxy wars against each other. Nanotechnology is used worldwide, enhancing the abilities the soldiers, as well forcing their loyalty upon the PMC that owns them. The five largest of these PMCs are owned by a single entity called Outer Heaven, which just happens to be owned by Liquid Ocelot. Because of how he owns a military larger than the US, he intends to take over the nanotechnology that rules over the military.

You, as a rapidly aging Solid Snake, are sent out one last time to find Liquid Ocelot, stop what he’s doing, and save the world.

In doing so, you’ll travel across the globe, meet up with just about everybody in the MGS universe, and either sneak past or kill a whole lot of people that get in your way.

The basic gameplay hasn’t changed too much – you still for the most part are supposed to sneak from Point A to Point B, using deadly force only as a last resort. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from laying waste to everything in sight. It just keeps aging Snake’s Stress level down.

Yes, you read that right – there’s a new mechanic or two to keep track of in the latest MGS. This time around it’s your Stress and Psyche bars. The first goes down whenever you’re in a stressful situation. Once you’ve been spotted, for example. Once that gets too low and stays there, your Psyche level will drop. When that gets low, that’s bad. Snake ‘loses confidence’ in himself, affecting things like his aiming ability.

Thankfully, the two mechanics are relatively easy to fix. Stress will go back up on its own once you’re out of any stressful situations (out of combat, not crouchwalking around, and in the shade), while your Psyche will increase via special drinks, herbs, and naturally on its own once your Stress level drops.

Another new mechanic is the Drebin Store. Basically, Drebin is an arms dealer. Not only does he have the useful ability to unlock guns you find (basically so any soldier can fire them) for a small fee, but you can buy new guns and lots of ammo from him at anytime, anywhere. But you need to work up a little favor to do so first.

How does that work? Any time you pick up a gun that you already own, you’ll empty the ammo out of it, and then you’ll sell the weapon to Drebin (apparently through some sort of transporter technology, as the reasons given don’t exactly make sense). You’ll then use those points to deal with him. This makes the game just a bit easier, as you no longer have to procure on site your weapons and ammo. Does this mean that you can go hog-wild with your weapons? Not exactly. But it gives you a lot more leeway.

Next we come to the bosses of the game. In pure MGS tradition, you’ll encounter some very strange faces at the end of each act, along with one or two others you just might remember from your past. Each boss fight has a lone way or two that they’ll more easily be taken down, but you can also just pump them full of ammo and accomplish the same means. It’ll just take a bit longer. But you’ll remember the boss fights long after you’ve finished the game, as they’re that memorable.

Finally, the story. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that it wraps up just about every loose end that the series had over the years. After the credit sequence rolls by, you’ll be fully satisfied as to what happened.

Are there any negatives to the game? Yes, there are some small ones. The main one though is the constant loading time between areas. Not only do you have to endure 3-5 minute install times between chapters, but you’ll have to sit by for 10-15 seconds between each area and cinematic. While annoying to experience, it’s something that doesn’t bring the overall game down much.

Additionally, after giving you total freedom as to how you want to do your job in the first two chapters (shooting everything in sight, sneaking around, or a combination of both), you're basically thrown on rails for the rest of the game. Plus, what enemies you do fight during the final chapters are limited in number, or aren't as fun to take down/dodge around as they were earlier on. Why the developers decided upon that approach, instead of sticking with the formula that worked so well, is something that only they know.

Your $60 purchase goes a long way here. Not only do you get a roughly 20 to 25 hour game to play through the first time, but you also have one with multiple difficulty levels, each drastically changing how the AI works to blast you to next Tuesday. At the very least, you’ll want to play through the game a second time, just to see if you can get through the game without killing anybody as intended.

In addition, you have an entertaining multiplayer component to keep you occupied if you get bored with saving the world. While it won’t exactly stand up against games like Call of Duty 4, it is fully featured and an excellent addition to this already fantastic title.

Odds are that if you own a PS3, you’ve already purchased and played this game. If you haven’t, you need to run out and buy this game right away. Coupled with a download via the Playstation Store that’ll explain the series to you so far, this game is playable even if you haven’t been following the series for years.

Gaming Trend Score

93

1. Graphics: 95
2. Audio: 98
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 90
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:93