My Rating: 7.1 / 10

This game has been out for months now, but this review WILL contain Spoilers without warning, now you have been warned.

Clearly Solid Snakes (Old Snakes now I guess) final adventure isn't all as great as we wanted it to be. Of course this was supposed to be the defenitive Metal Gear game.. literally any character who hasnt died yet is in this thing. Otacon, Raiden, Campbell.. Eva? Big Boss? yeah it's a little farfetched huh?

Taking place 5 years after the Big Shell incident (Metal Gear Solid 2 for the uninformed), the Pariots rule over the world seems to have been taken to new highs, including the new SOP (Sons of the Patriots) system which controls the entire soldiers actions, emotions and the ability to fire weapons. yikes.

The game kicks off a good start with Solid Snake dressed as a rebel making his way somehow into the Middle East (because clearly, this part of the world isnt featured in that many video games is it?), in which the Resistance seem to be struggling to win a battle against the PMC. This sounds a bit more reminiscent of Call of Duty than it does Metal Gear, but oh well.

You would think this would make good sense, well no not really, considering the last games seem to be Solid Snake being tasked to destroy Metal Gears, well, it all makes sense eventually, Solid (Old, sorry) Snake's mission is now to find Liquid Ocelot, and kill him. Easier said than done? Yeah pretty much. Now i'll stop because I don't want to write a novel.

So you know the bare basics of the story, the characters (everybody), but let's discuss the other 20% of the game, the gameplay.

Metal Gear Solid 4 takes a new direction, like alot of next-gen titles, it's alot like a third-person shooter, actually it even has a Resident Evil 4 or SOCOM style over-the-shoulder camera angle, does this play much to the Tactical Espionage bit? (you know, 2/3 of the sub title), well no. Multiple weapons are immediately at your disposal depending on how many drebin points (thats money basically) you have, and since the game is overly generous with the amount of enemies you can kill and pick up their weapons, then you'll have a ton of weapons at your disposal.

So yeah the weapons, well, MGS1 had about 4 weapons, here you get about 400... so what do we have on our hands these days? Well you have the tranquilizer as usual, the Operator and then.. a .50 cal? Desert Eagle? ...the Patriot? Sadly, this does hinder the gameplay much, you dont really have to worry about those alerts where you can clear the enemies heads off with a ridliciously cheap high-powered pistol, out of ammo? go buy some more. So basically you should see what i'm getting at... the Tactical Espionage basis is just gone, in MGS2, you'd be sneaky sneaky because you NEED that ammo, and plus the SOCOM (or USP I guess) would basically set off the alerts anyway and you'd get your ass handed to you. This ruins the challenge and turns it into a generic shooter where you can kill everyone to proceed. May I also mention that Solid Snake aquires an AK102 before he does a Pistol... since when in any MGS does Snake get a MG before a pistol? It ruins any challenge since before you even kill anyone you can take their head off with a machine gun.

So.. the graphics. Well, they are good I may say. Maybe a bit too good? At various points during the game the framerate clearly slows down, it doesnt make the game unplayable, but plenty of points during the game it does hinder it a bit because it's far too noticeable. Does this matter? Well, it's not a big deal, but it occurs far too often during the game, hell, it's obvious that running inside actually only achieves a very smooth framerate. Remember Bully: Scholarship Edition on 360, well if you do, it's just like that.

So basically, is this game good? Well yes it is, it's certainly playable, and fun, and if you like MGS, you will enjoy watching the cutscenes, but for an 'epic last adventure', there isn't enough gameplay, the story just ties up loose ends as soon as possible, things just look out of place, characters returned for no reason, silly fanservice was given out in all directions (Raiden as the Cyborg Ninja was possibly the worst direction ever, and turning him into a human right at the end also killed any possible character direction), the game was too much of a sequel to MGS3 than MGS2, nearly all closure was brought from rumours bought up in MGS3 than MGS2 as if the past games are some kind of embrassment that shouldn't really exist, now I know that MGS is a definately a series that retcons too much, but this was just too much, so like I said, is this an 'epic last adventure?', well no it isn't. It's not a embrassment to the series, just not excellent closure, should they make an 'epic last adventure' as a sequel to MGS4? well no, a series doesn't have to get closure from every point. I think it would be more for the best to just forget about MGS, and focus on other projects such as a Policenauts Remake/Sequel, Snatcher Sequel&Zone of the Enders Sequel, and lets MGS be an icon of the past, not a bad reminder of the present day.

My Rating: 9.5 / 10

This game is awesome. I was worried that I would find myself hating the ridiculous cut scene length, but after about the third one I found myself really enjoying them. 

My Rating: 10 / 10

My Rating: 7.5 / 10

I was very excited for this game, but generally disappointed.


+Story was good for the most part, very cinematic
+Good voice acting
+Fantastic music
+Lots of weapons
+Excellent graphics
+Running around, then switching to 3rd or 1st person aiming is a welcome change
+Good game modes online
+If you bought the collectors edition, the extras are fairly nice

-Gameplay itself isn't really that long
-Story can be a bit silly at times
-Good for only a few play throughs

-Seperate IDs. One for your online gaming, and one for Konami. I don't know why...
-DLC is seperate from the PSN store
-5 maps to boot
-Headshots are extremely easy and are the most common kills
-Trash-talking and generally unfriendly Americans
-One character slot
-One account per PS3
-Steep learning curve
-Sluggish aiming
-Online may be frustrating for people


This game was alright, but I still consider MGS3:S the best.