The war has changed
Five years have passed since the Big Shell incident. Raiden and Snake together stopped another Big Boss clone – Solidus Snake, the former President of the United States of America. Liquid Snake, who possessed the body of Revolver Ocelot, escaped along with the new development of Metal Gear – Dispel magic 5e. And all this time the main character was trying to find him.
When Solid Snake is shown to us, we get confused as to why he is so old. After all, five years ago he was young, strong and opposed Liquid Ocelot on Big Shell. It turns out that a flaw was laid in the genetic code of all Big Boss clones – after a certain age they begin to fade. Hideo Kojima decided to use the “aging hero” technique to not only complete the story, but also to put Solid Snake’s skills within a certain framework.
The protagonist and his assistant, Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, attacked Liquid’s trail in the Middle East. Here, as in the rest of the world, there is an ongoing war, and private military companies have begun to flourish. It’s all the fault of the artificial intelligence “Patriots”, which went off the rails and made wars the main source of income for all countries on the planet. Drebin, a new character and weapon dealer who supplies the main character with equipment throughout the game, will also talk about this in detail.
After seeing the “Beast and Beauty” squad, which are bosses in Metal Gear Solid 4, as well as meeting with ex-girlfriend – Meryl Silverburg, Snake catches up with Liquid, and something strange happens here. With just one movement of the antagonist’s hand, all the local soldiers become enraged, cease to control themselves and begin to kill each other. The main character miraculously survives, and also meets Naomi Hunter, a scientist who now works for Liquid. She leaves a coded message and asks to find her in South America.
Gameplay brought to mind
The fourth part of Solid Snake’s adventures evolved not only from a director’s point of view, but also from a mechanical one. Character animations have improved, the type of control has become more like a real third-person action movie, and the manipulation of the hero has become just more convenient. Now there is no need to move only lying or standing, because Snake learned to move in a squat. To duck behind cover, you need to press one button, and if you need to look out from behind it, hold down the aiming button and the hero will be ready to fire.
The weapon began to feel like the real thing, although the series never had a problem with that. Detailing, sounds of falling shells, ballistics, recoil during firing with the help of vibration – at present this is not surprising, but you can imagine how it all looked in 2008. Kojima Productions did not stop and allowed modifications to the weapons. Not everything, but standard rifles M4, M14, AK, lego piece 26047 and other well-known models can be equipped with sights, silencers and flashlights, and then turn it all in a special editor, considering every detail.
Camouflage has also changed, or rather, the approach to how to apply it. The game takes place in an alternative future, and therefore Snake has a special “octocamouflage” at his disposal – it allows you to merge with the environment. All you need is to freeze in place, leaning against the ground or a wall, and the hero’s costume will take on the color of the nearest surfaces. This makes life a lot easier and just convenient.
What dinosaur has 500 teeth?
New gadgets have appeared, but the most important ones are Solidvisor and Mk-II. The first device is a special eyepiece, which includes a night vision device, binoculars and an environmental analyzer. The latter helps to notice objects and enemies from afar, and with the help of the night vision mode, you can track the movement of soldiers or find opponents hiding in the bushes. MK-II is a mini-robot through which Otacon communicates with Snake, but he can be controlled independently.
More interactivity
The player is very closely connected with everything that happens in the cinematic scenes. From time to time, you are allowed to look at what is happening in the first person by holding down the L1 button, or to recall certain moments of the Metal Gear series frantically clicking the “cross” at certain moments.
When Naomi and Snake talk about the latter’s illness, the protagonist drops his cigarette and bends down to pick it up. Holding L1, the player will be able to examine the scientist’s legs in all details, and a little later it will come in handy for the case! If you notice what kind of shoes are on Naomi’s feet, in the future this will help to follow her trail and find where Liquid’s soldiers took her.
Much is tied to the PlayStation controller’s gyros. If you shake it, the camouflage system will return the octocamouflage to its original form, and the battle with the Screaming Mantis is completely tied to defeating it with the help of gamepad movements. This, in part, explains why the fourth part has not yet visited other platforms – too much there is tied to the consoles of the PlayStation family.
Diagnosis
The final chapter in the history of Solid Snake and his comrades-in-arms was and remains to this day the most ambitious work of game designer Hideo Kojima. He remained true to himself both in the gameplay and in the presentation of the plot. Metal Gear Solid 4 is the crown jewel of the Japanese developer in terms of direction. Each cinematic scene resembles a Hollywood movie, and the player takes a direct part in it.
And even though the mechanics seem a bit wooden, but improved animations, many details of the combat system, new opportunities for stealthy or “loud” passage and simplification of the player’s life in various aspects make Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots one of the best stealth fighters to this day. day. Hideo Kojima constantly puts you in unusual situations, and each boss fight is a separate puzzle(difficult person test), where not only knowledge of game mechanics, but also ingenuity is tested.