Suddenly, the Gekkos appear - the bipedal Metal Gears from the previous trailers - and Snake is forcibly ejected from the truck. He disembarks in a cinematic swoop, as the background pulses with Gekko shrieks, militia screams and booming gunfire - completely disorienting in 5.1 surround. The camera zooms in, pausing for a microsecond, and - unbelievably - you’re playing the game. The cut-scene to real-time integration is even more dramatic, and seamless, than Uncharted. We were so excited, we could have popped.
What follows is a dramatic real-time tutorial - Snake is invited to crawl, move, look and explore his inventory as events literally explode around you. Otacon urges you to follow your radar to a safe zone. The action’s interrupted by a cut-scene, as a Gekko corners Snake and he cinematically loses his cowl. The opening song ‘Love Theme’ (lyrics by Hideo Kojima) surges into life, as Snake reaches for his gun. Viewed from the first-person perspective, Snake lifts his gun to reveal the words ‘Produced by… Hideo Kojima’ underneath - a typical cinematic touch. Snake eludes the Gekkos using octo-camo and a cardboard box decoy.
The game flips ‘three days earlier,’ to Old Snake at the grave of Big Boss, as seen in the trailers - repeatedly tap a button during key moments in any cut-scene to see Assassin’s Creed-style flashbacks from previous games - before he’s interrupted by Otacon and Colonel Campbell. We’re not going to even attempt to recap the plot. Suffice to say, Snake is aging, his brother Liquid has re-emerged to take over the world, and the all-powerful Patriots (from MGS2) are behind the scenes. The game begins with Private Military Companies (PMCs) waging war in the Middle East, controlled via nanomachines, creating a form of war economy controlled by The Patriots. Confused? Watch the trailers.
MGS4 is unashamedly for fans, stuffed with in-jokes, easter eggs and secrets. Newcomers will be oblivious to about 70% of it, but the more obscure references are a deliberate choice on Kojima’s part - in our late night chat, he claimed the uncompromising approach was inspired by the Bourne films, which work as individual units, but also in unison to weave a more nuanced story. As huge fans who’ve finished every game (sometimes more than once), even we found bits of MGS4 confusing - but you have to admire the depth and attention to detail.
When gameplay resumes, you’re back in the Middle East. A key change is that the game’s much less stealth dependent - there’s even an FPS mode - and combat’s more about aligning with warring factions, than quietly going it alone. One quibble: the opening ‘tutorial’ leaves gaps, so you’ll need to visit the menu to hone your specialist skills. We blundered through the first 30 minutes with a vague feeling that we weren’t ‘doing it right,’ such is the haphazard nature of progress - in fact, it’s much like the opening of MGS3, when you look back hours later and wish you knew then what you know now. On the flip side, it provides incredible replay value.
When you retry the opening section alone - skills honed after completing the game - you realise the incredible depth, and emergent AI, in every scene. For example, when we were first attacked by the Gekkos in the tutorial, we ran in blind panic. Second time out, we ducked into cover, and hid - marveling as the Gekkos engaged in real-time combat with the militia, exhibiting vicious AI. Even in the ‘tutorial,’ there are multiple routes, allowing you to nab extra Rations, Ammo and Arsenal Compress items. In fact, we were emboldened enough to take on the Gekkos with a knife, succeeding in slashing the back of their organic legs and felling them, but lacking the firepower to finish them off. But - we swear it’s possible, and even in that microslither of MGS4’s epic sweep, it’s a game in itself. Every scenario contains thousands of such moments, only with far more complex opportunities as your weapons, and the enemy, improve.
