METAL GEAR SOLID 4: Guns of the Patriots - Master Collection Version

LIQUID!!!

The original release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots in 2008 on PS3 was an event. Looking back at it feels very different from actually living through the years between the immense success of MGS3 and the release of MGS4 and constantly seeing hints, teasers, announcements and promises of what the game is going to be. From a half-joking announcement trailer made entirely with MGS3 assets and referencing other stealth action franchises (notably Splinter Cell), to early teasers with gameplay shown from first person perspective, to more complete cinematic teasers showing different parts of the game that remained, more or less, the same in the finished product… Not to forget how some of the pre-release materials directly referenced the power of Playstation 3 hardware, with the game being exclusive to that console, and how that was used to fuel the fire in the “console wars”. But then, the game was released to mostly universal acclaim among critics and a somewhat more confused reaction from the players, who criticized how much cutscenes versus gameplay there was in the title. And for years that game remained locked to PS3, never getting any re-releases or ports. Until now, when Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume 2 got released on all modern platforms. With a genuinely great port with some cool additions and improvements and only a couple of omissions. But is the game worth playing? Well… Yeah?.. It’s complicated. Metal Gear titles, at least the mainline ones, all had certain “phases” to them in a way. The first 3 games felt like remakes of each other, with MGS1 working as a transition of all the cool ideas from MG1 and 2 into 3D, but still sticking to the same general structure and formula. MGS2 turned this idea, of being a “remake” into the main plot point, but also evolved the classic arcade-like approach to stealth to near perfection. MGS3 pivoted towards more systemic and complicated stealth with camouflage and a valid pacifist approach to combat. And MGS4, essentially, continues this idea, except the camouflage is mostly automated. But conceptually, MGS4 has a lot of elements that work as a clear evolution of mechanics and systems from MGS3. The developers went even further with NPC AI, so now apart from their general “awareness” reactions to the player, they can exhibit a bigger range of reactions and emotions (that is also connected to the plot) and can have their own fights between different factions. While you can choose to participate in those fights and help a faction or try to ignore everyone. The amount of movement abilities, the melee combat, the stealth options is increased, once again focusing more on pure stealth and quick (and often non-lethal by default) removal of enemies. This is the game, where the crouch walking was introduced and also the game where the modern over the shoulder shooter conventions for controls were fully implemented (though, worth noting, in the original release the shoulder buttons were aim and shoot, not the triggers). And you still could engage in crazy shenanigans with human dominos and whatever you could invent. If one were to just look at all of the systems and mechanics of MGS4, the expectation would be that it’s a pure masterpiece and a perfect amalgamation of what MG stealth was before MGS3 and all of the best ideas of MGS3. But then the reality kicks in. The reality of the game’s structure and all of the cutscenes people often complain about. See, Metal Gear titles usually have huge and mostly interconnected locations. There is a story structure and clear cutoff points. And most of the time you don’t need to backtrack, even if you can. But you’re usually exploring a place. MGS4 is divided into Acts, with each act taking place in an entirely new location. And even within one act, you’re usually more or less “on rails” from one cutscene to the next. I do wonder if one were to count the gameplay sequences and compare them to MGS2, if the amount would be more or less the same, because it’s not like there’s not enough cool gameplay ideas. First two acts feature the already mentioned factions constantly fighting each other, third one works as a big tailing puzzle across a large part of a city, fourth one focuses more on robot enemies… There’s a lot of variety here, a lot of surprises and unexpected (and usually cool) ideas. But because of how directed everything feels and because of how long the cutscenes are, the overall balance really does feel to favor “watching” over “playing”. And it does not help that what you’re watching is… not the best? Metal Gear plots are quite ridiculous, that’s part of the appeal. But in case of MGS4 the problem was that they had to resolve every major plot point established in the series so far, because this was meant to be the final game in the franchise (at least one with Solid Snake). And given that some of the plot points that were established were seemingly put out there just to “sound cool”, but never be explained, the developers basically wrote themselves into a corner. With the end result feeling like a complete mess. It’s often entertaining, but nowhere near as fun as most of the prior entries. Or even the Peace Walker. Though, despite the dark themes, the game is not a misery fest that MGS V ended up being. The port is great, it looks, controls and plays well. It has all of the later updates that the original PS3 version received, including the post-DualShock 3 release one that returned the vibration functionality and, as a result, tweaked one particular cutscene. They even got at least one voice actor back to redo a few lines to make sure that the platform-specific fourth wall breaking joke still works. However, the Metal Gear Online part of the game is, sadly, missing. And while it’s good that you no longer need to install each new act from a Blu-ray and wait while this is happening, that special installation screen had a cool little animation of Snake smoking and it seems to be entirely missing now. There might be a few other things changed or missing that I didn’t notice, but most of the things seem to have been left intact. Anyways, is it worth getting? If you are invested in the series, this is a fun title to explore. It’s uneven and odd, but really fun nonetheless. If you haven’t played any other games in the series, don’t even attempt to play this one – you won’t understand a thing. I enjoyed my revisit of the game well enough. But also confirmed to myself that this is not the entry I want to replay very often.