Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is an epic conclusion to the Metal Gear Solid saga that aims to wrap all the loose ends of the franchise, to both its benefit and detriment. The story is this game’s biggest highlight with an explosive end to the saga that ties together all the characters you know and love from MGS1, MGS2, and MGS3 all in a neat package. It’s most definitely fanservice to die-hard Metal Gear fans but it’s a welcome one for the most part. The only character I feel like was wasted in this game’s story is Naomi who honestly feels mischaracterized. Her motivations and actions in this game really don’t mesh well with the ending of her character arc established in MGS1. She feels like just a motivator for Otacon instead of an actual character with agency like she was before. In addition, Raiden feels like a backstep from his character arc from MGS2, having to relearn the same arc he did in that game. Though I will admit he does have a much cooler design in this game and thus I can overlook his backtrack of character development. He’s kind of like the Vegeta of MGS4. He looks cool and someone who you want to root for, but constantly gets owned in combat by the story to establish how big of a threat the bad guys are. Though these are really minor nitpicks in a game that mostly presents its other characters well. The biggest gripe I had with this game’s story is probably the end credits scene which just feels like overcompensation on Kojima’s part to tie up and story loose ends he could. While I like Solid Snake’s final end I do feel the final exposition dump should have either been cut or slimmed down. Some things in a story are just better off unexplained and left up to the player’s interpretation. Story is still mostly great, just these things bothered me a bit while playing.

The gameplay is probably the highlight of this game for me. I love the open world areas that Solid Snake has to traverse through. It makes combat options feel more open and varied. Do you approach by stealth, sneaking by enemies and doing stealth takedowns? Or do you go guns blazing into enemy fire? I love this dichotomy because it gives the player the freedom of choice to choose how they want to approach any specific scenario. It’s great fun. While saying that, this game does flesh out its combat and gunplay way more than any Metal Gear game prior did, with shops that sell weapons and weapon mods that allow you to customize your combat options to the heart’s content. I see this as a welcome edition that while I personally did not use too much, it’s good for those who wish to get creative. This game desperately deserves a modern port with a higher frame rate as the low sub-30 FPS gameplay does hamper an otherwise excellent experience.

Boss fights are a huge step up from previous games. It’s no longer just about shooting your opponent as many times as you can, now you really have to think about how bosses move and their attack patterns. The only boss I feel like was not great was Raging Raven who just took too long to finally defeat. In contrast, the final boss of the game was an excellent finale and brilliant payoff to someone who played these games back-to-back.

MGS4 is an excellent conclusion to Kojima’s Metal Gear saga that just has a few minor things that hamper it from being better than MGS3 for me. Still a great experience and definitely deserving of a port to modern platforms.