Customer Reviews
THIS IS THE BEST PS3 GAME EVER MADE!!! EVER!! - By: Mr. M. Walkland, 19 Jul 2010 
THIS IS DEFINITELY THE BEST PS3 GAME EVER MADE AND IT HAS NO COMPETITION IN WINNING THAT TITLE. FOR SUCH A CHEAP PRICE IT IS A MUST HAVE SO JUST BUY IT NOW!!!
Great game but..... - By: FilipinoJV, 08 Jun 2010 
I enjoyed the game naturally as i love the MGS series, i like the epic story, the action & i really liked when you go back to shadow moses island, & a great touch of emotion to the characters....its a good thing they used the original vioces
BUT.....i didn't like the new camera (behind snake instead of up high).....sure it creates a new level of style but i prefered the way it wasin the first & second MGS, & also i know he's old now but i really hated how slow he was, the way the melee attack was & how awkward it was manually aiming the guns were....i do agree with some of the reviewers that there was too many cut scenes, esp the ending.....but i honestly didn't find it a big problem
Fantastic fun! - By: Ernie J. Lumsden, 21 Apr 2010 This game is so much fun. There's so much to do & explore. The controls are sometimes a bit tricky but you soon get used to them. I would really recommend this game, its brilliant fun!
Old Snake, new tricks - By: G. Hanks, 20 Apr 2010 Hideo Kojima's epic saga reaches its conclusionin the final chapter of the Metal Gear Solid's story. Of course at the time of writing this Metal Gear Rising is alreadyin development but this looks set to be the closing chapter of Solid Snake's adventures.
Gameplay has been refinedin places, over-hauledin others & is generally a satisfying improvement over previous iterations. The camouflage dynamic introducedin MGS3 returns as Octocamo & thankfully now adjusts automatically after a few seconds to blendin with whatever Snake is leaning against, saving constant treks into the menu system. Aiming has been improved along with camera work providing a swap between a third person over the shoulder Gears of War approach & an iron-sights first-person view.
Making Snake easier to control is an absolute necessity as the battlefield that he inhabits this time feels far more hectic & explosive than previously. Being able to move from cover to cover, taking quick shots at the enemy & then going to a camouflaged prone state needed to feel fluid & Konami have certainly succeeded. It may not have the immediacy of your average First person shooter but works for a game primarily based on stealth & taking the quiet more cerebral approach. There are many ways to approach most situations, differing routes, differing tactics & a host of weapons to choose from. Sniping is extremely satisfying & provides a great thrill whenin a well hidden place, panicking the enemy as you take them out one by one. A few moments suffer from enemy re-spawning which can prove slightly unfair when you take a couple of enemies out only to have reinforcements immediately replace them. This can lead to cheap deaths as enemies come from outside the perceived map area catching Snake unawares. Fortunately a generous Continue system does alleviate any frustrations & keeps the pacing well balanced.
Whilst the game starts on a very busy battlefield it's not long before the settings start getting changed up with highs & lows keeping a variety to the play experience & giving much needed reprieves from the action. One of the particularly noteworthy detours from the template has Snake trying to track a kidnapped ally through forestry whilst also avoiding being detection. It's an extended moment of great tension & requires careful route planning & a keen eye for ambushes.
The Metal Gear series however has always been a war between game-play & cut-scenes. At its peak the series hits a good balance of pacing, action, cinematography & intrigue to keep the player hooked & unaware of the time spent without padin hand. Unfortunately MGS4 really shows that someone needs to rein Kojima's writingin as so much of it is surplus to requirements & far too self-indulgent. Cut-scenes frequently over-labour points, hammering them home with all the subtlety of a brick to the head. One of the main themes Kojima has hooked onto is Solid Snake's smoking & it's referred toin virtually every scene & is so badly acted that it's cringe-worthy & frequently ruins the solemnity of the more serious scenes. Snake has been intentionally weakened for the fourth outingin many ways but at times when smoking is involved just comes across as childish which is a real shame as Kojima really has destroyed much of Snake's mystique & appeal to the point of being offensive to the player.
Maybe as gamers we expect more these days & previous iterations were no better but so much of the dialogue here jumps between cheesy, overlong & flowery. Maybe it has always been like this but it just doesn't feel like Metal Gear some of the time & comes nowhere near the highs of the first & third games. Saying that the attention to detail & camera work is superb & among the lows are some superb highs. There is a lot of fan service here & when it works it really is pretty spell-binding & sure to garner an emotional response from those who have followed Snake through the series. There are sacks full of references to the previous games & a plot so complex that wraps up all the gamesin the series. Sadly this does guarantee that newcomers really wont be able to penetrate the multiple strands of storyline but fans will bein heaven.
So a game of two halves then? It's essential for any fan of the series, despite a few disappointments. It genuinely comes close to greatness, if there was more game & sharper more succinct cut-scenes then this would have top marks but a few niggles just keep it out of the triple A echelon.
My favourite game, and i didnt even like the previous Metal Gears! - By: Kazman, 08 Jan 2010 If people were to ask me about my gaming habits & views, it would most likely look something like this
Interviewer: What are your favourite games?
Me: Football ones
Interviewer: What genre of game do you like most overall?
Me: Sport
Interviewer: Whats your favourite game?
Me: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Interviewer: Okay...that makes no sense at all
But it's true, every year since i was about 8 i have brought Pro Evolution Soccer (up until 2008, then i switched to fifa...sorry), & the football games are the ones that i read up on the most, & i love my sport! Yet despite this, Metal Gear Solid 4 is, by far & away, the most exhilarating, captivating, exciting & emotional experience i have ever seenin a game, which is impressive considering i had to be persuaded by a mate to get it & experience it myself.
Im not a huge fan of cut scenes, often preferring to get straight into the action, after all, football games dont exactly have long,in depth storylines do they? This game however, has constant cut scenes that last for AGES! & i mean AAAGGGEEEEEESSSS. But its not a bad thing at all, because they are so well done, that you can happily sit through them & soak up the evolving story that keeps you immersed from the title screen, where you see Solid Snake walking through a gravevard, all the way through to the games conclusionin Act 5, without giving a moments thought to how long the scene your watching has gone on for.
Its not just the cut scenes that make this game the best game i've played either, the gameplay deserves just as much credit, from helping the militiain Act One, to sneaking around Shadow Mosesin Act Four, all of the gameplay is interwoven seamlessly with the cut scenes, so that one minute your watching these superbly created characters talk & act amongst each other, & the next minute your playing alongside them as the game changes from a film to putting youin charge.
Of course, one thing that should not be disregarded is the soundtrack, which glues together the cut scenes with the gameplay. I cannot emphasise how much the soundtrack influences your excperience of the game. The emotion it adds is simply staggering at times, & adds a whole new level to the game. Listening to the tracks even without the game is a pleasure to behold, for anyone who wants to check themselves, typein 'Metal Gear Solid 4 Soundtrack: Father & Son' into Youtube & listen to it there, its music worthy of awardsin my opinion.
The funny thing is, i brought the game about 2 weeks after it came out all that time ago, not expecting much from it, as i hadn't ever really gotten into Metal Gear Solid 2, although for me that was more the camera angle that put me off, thankfullyin this game its different. Even now, all this time later, & after playing games as good as Assassins Creed 2 (which i would also recommend), nothing comes close to MGS4
Perhaps the biggest compliment i can give the game is that, the second i finished it, i went back to the menu & started a new game, wanting to experience all the adventure, suspense, pain, joy, sorrow etc that I'd been through with all the characters already previously. All of this without stopping for a break, or setting down the controller, or getting up for a drink, & im not even an avid gamer, i much prefer playing the guitar for example! The fact that this game could make me do that, i feel, says it all.
The biggest criticism levelled at the game is that its more like a film. Maybe its true, but imagine your favourite film, one where you have really connected with the characters, moved through the story with them, & then imagine that you can take partin that film with them, & you get a good idea of what MGS4 is like.
At the end of the day, the most you will have to pay for it is £[], & if you dont like it, you can sell it on & make most of your money back, you dont really have much to lose, but have so so much to gain.
Go for it.
