This game also has the highest number of weapons available to Snake ever. So many in fact you probably won't use most of them by game's end, but oh well. Most of them are easily customisable with scopes, laser sight, suppressors, etc. There are two ways you can get them; either by buying them from Drebin (Gun Launderer) and his shop or finding them in the field and getting Drebin to unlock them.
What's to unlock you ask? You see, in Metal Gear's world of government and private military armies being enhanced and monitored by nanomachines, all guns have ID tags on them. So not just anyone can use them. I won't go into more detail as it's all part of the brilliant story, which is full of topical social commentary and product placement. My god, this game has a lot of product placement. Everything from Playboy Magazine and energy drink to Apple iPods (not to mention Macbook Pro's, Apple screens and PowerMacs… clearly Kojima likes Apple!).
Let's quickly talk about sound. The music is fantastic and masterfully used (especially towards the end of the game). The voice-acting is mostly great; there are a few characters who just couldn't pull off some of the drama they went for, but most of the cast did a fine job. The weapons, explosions and environmental sounds were all top notch and the best were the creepy sounds during some of the boss fights. Yes, Metal Gear Solid returns with its great boss fights. It's amazing how much fun these are even though they are usually quite long, not very challenging and occasionally have some pretty cheap shots. They are still mostly clever and the characters for the bosses are some of the most memorable ones for the series.
There is also Metal Gear Online attached to this game. It plays almost exactly like the single-player just with much less focus on stealth. There are a variety of play modes and about five maps. Its fun, and after playing the single-player, fairly easy to pick up. You have to login and go through a pretty complicated signup process, and I was thrown out of a few games due to PSN (which seems to be a bit of a hindrance here). I don't think it will be replacing Call Of Duty 4 any time soon, but it's certainly a welcome addition to the fantastic single-player game.
Truth is there is a lot I could talk about with this game, but it doesn't matter really. This is a great blend of a very typical and classic video game in many ways, blended with Hollywood cinema. Many games have had both stealth and action in them, but you often feel like you are switching from one to the other. Metal Gear Solid 4 manages to have these two separate games (action and stealth) meld into each other so perfectly. Pardon the pun but the gameplay is just solid.
You may at this point be asking why, if score is irrelevant, did I not just give it a perfect one and be done with it?
Like Pac-Man, this is a classic. A great game that cannot be put up against other games for comparison... but it is not for everyone. For many, this series has always had a love-it-or-hate-it vibe and these opposing feelings are usually for the same reasons.
If you do not know Snake's story you will be lost. The cutscenes are amazing, but they're long; those with short attention spans may find them tedious. The story is deep and complicated, some people will not care for this. The levels - while open for options - are still quite linear, some people will hate this. So by regular standards I wouldn't give it a perfect score.
But really, Metal Gear Solid 4 doesn't deserve a score at all. It shouldn't be rated among other games, as it can generate emotions and experiences rarely had in video games. A lot of games will look bad when put next to Metal Gear Solid 4.
Whether this is the last Metal Gear game or not, who knows? (I doubt it.) But it may be Solid Snake's last one so, in the end, all I can really do is salute and say "Snake… Mission Accomplished."
