Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots(minor spoiler)

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is said to be the final game featuring Solid Snake and many hope that the game will live up to the huge expectations. The story takes place 5 years after MGS2 which is surprisingly short considering how Snake looks in MGS4. Snake has aged at an accelerated rate, Snake no longer has the looks of the bad ass worrier that took down Metal Gears without so much as a drop of sweat. Instead, he looks more like a veteran soldier who needs to live out the rest of his life in a retirement home. Still, Snake is purchased for one final mission, to finally take down his Arch-enemy,Liquid Snake/Ocelot. War has taken it's toll on the world. War has even created it's own economy, titled the "war economy". In this economy companies provided their military services to those countries and groups that have the money for it. Snake is placed alongside rebel factions that fight off the Private Military Corporations(PMC).

There's a lot of information to absorb in this game. I mean a lot. All questions from the previous games are answered and most are done through long cinematic cut scenes. These cut-scenes though very, very long, will provide the info that many gamers would suck a cock for. For those of you not into plot, these scenes are skip-able. For those of you like me that love the story of the MGS series, I think you will find themselves fully satisfied by the plot in MGS4. After all, a chapter of your life will be completed.

Sneaking around has and will always be the backbone of the Metal Gear series. MGS4 takes stealth to a different level. Prior to MGS 3, your main tactic was to slowly walking past soldiers or making noises to bring the soldiers closer to you whilst you run away in the other direction. With MGS3, camouflage was brought to light, allowing Naked Snake(Big Boss) to blend into the environment allowing soldiers to walk on by without noticing he was there. For MGS4, a device called Octo-camo(created by Snake's friend, otaku, and mech engineer, Otacon) is used to help with the stealth movements. In this game two other futureistic stealth weapons were created, the Mark II, a small robot which snake controls, and the Solid Eye, which allows snake to see in a few different ways. MGS4 can be played in 3rd or 1st person view. The objective of the game to move to different spots on the map as told to by Otacon or other characters leading Snake, and killing as few people as possible. In some chapters, Snake will have the ability to befriend the rebellion army that he is helping. By fighting on their side, they'll gladly charge the field with you providing a fair distraction for you to sneak through.

MGS4 has many new features,and one of my favorites is a new character named Drebin. Drebin will provide you with a variety of weapons and add-ons for those weapons. You meet Drebin early in the game, and he will give you extra points(called Drebins) for weapons you find on the battlefield. Weapons range from handguns to anti-tank missiles. The add-ons can be as simple as a laser sight or a grenade launcher. Though,if played right, snake doesn't Even need weapons, Snake has his close quarters combat(CQC) to take down enemies in various ways. The previous Metal Gear Solid games gave you the choice of killing enemies, kicking their asses, or knocking out enemies with a tranquilizer gun. To make the game a little more challenging, Snake now has both a psyche and stress meter. These will change how well Snake performance will be on the battlefield.

As usual, MGS4 doesn't hesitate to show off the system's power with its awesome graphics. There is so much detail that you want to just spend a few minutes taking it all in. The beauty can take you back with almost picture perfect scenes that can make the best of Hollywood directors envious.Thankfully, the voices are as top notch as the graphics.It's obvious that rather than just speaking the lines given to them, the voice actors actually acted out the role. It easy to tell the high caliber of production when you compare them to other games.

After completing the game, you'll have quite a few reasons to beat the game again. Depending on how long you take, how many people you kill, and how many times you've alerted the guards, you will be given a specific rank. For the OCD side of you, this can will lead you to beat the game again and again. On top of that. There are several unlocked items and weapons that come along with beating the game using specific criteria. Also, you get to keep all your weapons, ammo, money, and camouflage you unlocked the first time around. Plus, if you feel like you want more or less of a challenge the second time around, you can select a different difficulty.

Bottom line, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots lives up to the hype of the Metal Gear Solid series. For a Metal Gear Solid fan this game should satisfy any hope you had for this game. I'm giving this game an 8/10.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feedback on this review would be appreciated.