Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

The Metal Gear Solid franchise has been the one to reign supreme for over a decade. Each release has been a hit and has drawn players into a deep, intense, and colossal storyline.

In this final installment, Snake's body has begun to age at an accelerated speed (See: Jack), but he's been called to duty for one last hurrah, as they've finally located the whereabouts of Liquid/Ocelot, who's been schemeing another insidiously devious plot, like Skeletor, or Dick Cheney might do.

Unlike the other installments, this game takes you to several locations all over the world, which really gives an amazing scope to the entire game. With a game like this, I don't want to give too much away, but you do get to see a few familiar places, as well.

Along with places, a few characters make a return in MGS4, such as Meryl(not seen since the original MGS), and Raiden: The whiny bastard child from MGS2: Sons of Liberty. The good news is that the game's director, Hideo Kojima must have listened to all of the negative outcry about Raiden, and given him a shiny new set of balls. He's really kinda badass in this one.

Alright, now that I've given out as much story as necessary, without revealing anything, let's get down to the skinny of it.

Not counting the MGS3 Limited Edition, MGS4 is the first game to have a controllable camera behind you, and not mounted on a wall. This has to have been the only way to do this game, as even the tagline for the game release stated: "There's nowhere to hide". Regular updates to the gameplay such as a free-aim mode, active camoflage that syncs its pattern to anything you go near, and a weapon buy/sell system have been added, and it all seems to work perfectly into the storyline.

My only gripe about the gameplay, and it really could be said about the entire series, but moreso noticeably in this one, is that I felt as if I was watching the cutscenes in the game more than I played it. With respect and understanding to the fact that there was a LOT of storyline to go through, and that this is the point in the series where everything finally comes together, I still payed for a video GAME, not a straight-to-blu ray animated miniseries, I would have still liked to play a little more than I got to.

In comparison to any other game to date, especially on the PS3, there has been nothing that could touch the attention to detail of this game. You can see the wrinkles in snakes face, slight glimmer in his eyes, environmental things like the dust of sand being kicked up, visibility being reduced in a snow storm.

All in all, Metal Gear Solid 4 marks the end of Solid Snake, and his companion, Otacon's campaign against Liquid/Ocelot's attempt to ruin the world as we know it, while also giving Snake a sendoff that only the legendary hero, himself, would deserve.