Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - appreciating a mess

Dec 29

Pictured from left to right: Meryl, ‘Old’ Snake, and Raiden. All credit to Yoji Shinkawa and Konami.

Happy Holidays y’all! I write these in advance, so I hope your holiday season is going great.

MGS4 is my favorite game in the series (in which I really only overall liked MGS3 to be fair but—) and it is an overall memorable game.

We pick up with Solid Snake (known now as Old Snake because, well, he’s aging rapidly) as he and his team look to stop the big bad group yet again!

The game feels far more in line with MGS 1 through 3 (which makes sense since it released before Peace Walker and Phantom Pain), and the more linear setting allows for the ridiculous story to be told better. It suffers from some agonizing QTE moments near the end (even if they’re thematically great) and leaves out a lot of plot-related things related to the obviously-not-yet-released PW/PP that could’ve made for an even more impactful send off.

SOTP has a lot of things I like: the story, the music, the way it ties things together.

It also has some things I dislike: it’s just as convoluted, it treats some of the female characters oddly (not like this is new to the series but it’s still worth mentioning here), it has an overstayed gag involving an ally character that wasn’t funny the first time let alone the 6th.

But the game also made me feel a strange sort of respect for the series as a whole. MGS was extremely hit or miss for me, with some massive highs and deep lows. SOTP made me retroactively appreciate the series and look on it a bit more fondly. I’m impressed, that’s never happened with a series before.

All in all, I’d recommend trying the series if you haven’t. If you can stand an at-times stupid plot with heaps of confusing nonsense, you’ll find a story that has some good things to say.

Stay safe and have a wonderful new year everyone!