My primary reason for getting a PS3 was to play MGS4.  There are only 1 or 2 other games on the horizon that are PS3 exclusives that I would say that I would like to play.  But MGS4 is the only one that made me want to buy a PS3.  Metal Gear Solid 4 is the last in the Metal Gear Series that has been going strong for a little over 20 years now.  I was a little disappointed that they decided to end the series, but at the same time glad that they weren’t going to drag it out either.  With this being the last one it had a lot to live up to.  That and the fact that MGS3 was one of the best games I ever played.

MGS4 starts you in the middle east.  In a not so brief cut scene you learn that the world has turned to PMCs (Private Military Contractors) to fight battles between different countries or groups.    The worlds entire economy is now reliant on these proxy wars.  You go there to stop Liquid Ocelot from taking over the SOP (Sons of the Patriots) system.  While your there you are taught about how SOP works and you find out that SOP is actually controlled by the Patriots.  It controls not only the weapons the soldiers use, but the soldiers themselves.  Suppresses pain, sickness, and even emotion so that the soldiers can become the ultimate tools of war.

This control is maintained by nanomachines inside the soldiers body.  Newer ones than what Snake has.  Snake meets up with a gun launderer named Drebin 893.  Throughout the game he assist you by breaking the ID on weapons you acquire.  He also hooks you up with new nanos.  You meet up with quite a few familiar faces while playing.  Naomi, Liquid, Vamp, Meryl, Mei Ling, Eva, Raiden, Solidus (kind of), and even Johnny.  If you don’t remember who Johnny was remember back to MGS1.  He was the solider that Meryl beat up and took his clothes.  He’s also the guy who let you out of your cell by accident.

Allies aren’t the only familiars you deal with.  Each of the main bosses, while not the exact same character, are based off of the bosses of MGS1.  You have Laughing Octopus (MGS1 – Decoy Octopus), Raging Raven (MGS1 – Vulcan Raven), Crying Wolf (MGS1 – Sniper Wolf), and Screaming Mantis (MGS1 – Psycho Mantis).  Lets make some comparisons.  You never actually get to fight Decoy Octopus, he dies from FOXDIE.  However, his power was to be able to disguise himself as other people.  Laughing Octopus can do the same thing, except she can also cloak herself and she has 8 limbs…technically speaking.  The only comparison that I can make between Raging Raven and Vulcan Raven is that they both use really powerful weapons.  Crying Wolf snipes just like Sniper Wolf did.  Actually out of all the boss fights hers was the most annoying.  Then you have Screaming Mantis that takes control of people to do her will, just like Psycho Mantis did.  To make things even more nostalgic is that she takes control of Meryl and first has her try to kill you, then she has her try to kill herself.  The thing I like about Screaming Mantis is that when she takes control of people it looks like a puppet master stringing along a marionette.  Each one of the bosses is apart of a unit call the B&B (Beauty & Beast) Corps.  Reason for the name is because they all look like horrible beasts while in their suits, but after you beat the beast form they shed the suit and show you what they really look like…complete babes.  Babes with complete psychological issues.  Every time you finish a fight with one of them Drebin tells their story.

You play through the game as Old Snake.  Snake for some unknown reason is aging very quickly.  After you talk to Naomi you find out why.  It’s not like they just slapped a old skin on Snake and then let you play.  He moves a bit slower, if you jump from a ledge that is just a little too high you can hurt his back.  His lower back seems to hurt anyway, he pats it all the time during the mission.

The game is based in the future as always so you get some pretty cool toys.  The one you will use most is the octocamo.  Basically, you lay up against whatever you want your camo to be and it mimics the  the colors.  You get the octocamo mask after you defeat Laughing Octopus.  You also get the MK II, which allows you to control a cloaked robot around the battle field to check things out.  You get the Solid Eye, which allows you to see enemies on radar, identify weak points in enemy equipment, and identify units as friend or foe.   Its not as accurate as the Soliton Radar system that Mei Ling built, but that makes the game a bit more challenging.

Overall, it was a great game.  They tied up every lose end in the story.  I do still think that MGS3 was a better game though.  But that doesn’t mean this game was lacking, its just that MGS3 was so freaking awesome.  Actually, by playing MGS4 I gained a greater appreciation for MGS3 because they explained some details about what happened after the events of MGS3.  If you played MGS3 you think its pretty much the story of how Big Boss became Big Boss.  But after playing MGS4 you realize its a lot more than that.

There is one thing that I didn’t like.  During the 1 hour 10 minute ending you speak to a very special person and he goes on to explain more about the story.  The explanation he gives in my opinion is a little anticlimactic.  You have this one vision in your head about what happened and then he pops out the wood works and its like…really?  really??  And then after that it kinda turns into a anti-war commercial.

But other than that, I loved the game.  I thank Kojima for putting so much hard work into the series.  Many series that run this long start to get stale, or try to change drastically to attract new players.  The entire Metal Gear series has been consistent in terms of quality, story, and overall fun.  Metal Gear will be missed, but at least they had a great send off.  I know Kojima has some games in the works.  I really hope they pick up the Zone of Enders series again and complete that.