Goodbye Solid Snake

by ERIK LEIJON

The rapidly aging, chain-smoking super spy Solid Snake is fighting his final mission in Metal Gear Solid 4: Gun of the Patriots (PS3/Konami, Kojima Productions). So what better way to send off one of gaming’s most memorable figures than by pitting him against a bunch of slimy babes in robotic suits and camouflage gear?

The release of MGS4 also marks the 20th anniversary of the series, and even though the story has become so convoluted that the game’s characters have trouble explaining things to each other, series creator Hideo Kojima’s seventh title in the Metal Gear canon is an enthralling conclusion.

Since the seven games weren’t released chronologically, it can be hard to retrace the steps needed to truly understand the mystery of Solid Snake and the increasingly chaotic world around him. All one needs to know is the story deals with how society handles war, and the ever-changing face of the battlefield.

ENTHRALLING CONCLUSION: Metal Gear Solid 4: Gun of the Patriots

Set in a war-ravaged 2014, fighters are now genetically-controlled killing machines mentally altered to the point where they don’t realize the severity of their actions. Solid Snake is once again a lone wolf confronting a sea of foes, although this time he’s been afflicted with early aging; his long-time contemporaries look only slightly older while he may keel over at any second.

Because of his disease, the especially fiendish plot of his DNA-sharing rival Liquid Ocelot, and the massive size of the private military corporation and rebel armies, MGS4 has a sense of urgency that’s never been captured to this extent in a video game before. Snake’s body is breaking down, and he’s forced to inject himself every so often with drugs to stay functional.

In the future, soldiers have nanotechnology swimming through their veins, giving them superior fighting skills and making them utterly submissive to their Patriot masters. Fighting alongside Ocelot are some familiar enemies, as well as the aforementioned flying evil vixens in robot suits. Of course, there’s also a new line of Metal Gears, which are bipedal mechs who marry flesh and steel.

Hideo Kojima had a lot of loose ends to tie up before sending Snake to the retirement home, so he’ll be forgiven for occasionally going overboard with the cinematic cutscenes. The interactive videos (containing amazing flashbacks of previous games with their original graphics) are all well produced, and the fight scenes owe a debt to Hong Kong action films.

The gameplay may not feel fresh to longtime fans expecting a gaming revolution, but the streamlined controls and game mechanics take the best elements of MGS3: Snake Eater and MGS2: Sons of Liberty, without attempting any potentially horrible gimmicks. I would say the Mk. II friendly-robot controlled by Snake’s pal Otacon reminded me of a mechanical Jar-Jar Binks, but at least the Mk. II can sit still, cloaked in a corner until his battery dies out.

I was never particularly good at sneaking around—which typically represented the majority of the MGS experience—but there is now more leeway in how Snake scuttles from point A to point B, not all of which involves pure stealth. There are numerous shooting-intense scenes, and since Snake is caught in a rebel/PMC war, he is often forced to hide in the middle of a raging war zone.

Even though the gameplay is familiar, the true triumph of MGS4 is how the story feels intertwined with the missions, instead of how cutscenes and the game portions typically exist as separate entities. It may be the last in the series, but Metal Gear Solid 4 represents a new beginning in interactive storytelling.