PlayStation 3 owners are a loyal bunch. There’s no doubt that despite its technological superiority (yes, it really is more powerful than the Xbox 360), it’s lagged behind the competition on the games front – especially on the exclusive games front.
This year, that’s all set to turn around, with a bunch of big exclusives in the pipeline. And without doubt, one of the biggest is the long-awaited, much-anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4. We’ve seen many tantalizing glimpses of what lies ahead in the various trailers and game show demonstrations – here’s a primer on what to expect.
The Full Story
Series creator Hideo Kojima has stated on a number of occasions that it will be the last Metal Gear Solid game. He’s also said it will be his last Metal Gear Solid game (a subtle distinction, but important nonetheless). Then again, he said MGS3 would be his last, so maybe he just likes toying with the fans. Either way, it seems that MGS4 will be Solid Snake’s last appearance; to explain why, a little Metal Gear history may be needed.
The first man to be called Snake was Naked Snake, the playable character in MGS3 (which is a prequel to both MGS and MGS2). Initially a loyal soldier, he is so disgusted with the actions of his government that he becomes Big Boss, a rogue enemy of the free world.
He is eventually defeated by Solid Snake, one of his three cloned sons and the playable character in MGS, MGS2 and MGS4. By the time of MGS4 Solid Snake is called Old Snake due to his rapid ageing, presumably due to the cloning process’s limitations – or the FoxDie virus.
His clone brothers are Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. Liquid Snake was the villain in MGS, who dies at Solid Snake’s hands. However, his right arm is grafted onto Revolver Ocelot, to replace the limb cut off by the Cyborg Ninja. In MGS2 Ocelot returns but whenever he’s in proximity to Solid Snake, Liquid’s personality takes control. In MGS4 it seems that the two personalities have completely merged. Revolver Ocelot is now Liquid Ocelot and is the game’s major villain.
(Solidus Snake is the main villain of MGS2 and dies at Raiden’s hands in the game’s final battle.)
Naked Snake/Big Boss’s other legacy (apart from his cloned sons) is the creation of the world’s first PMC (Private Military Contractor). He wanted to create a world for soldiers, a world of perpetual war, and it seems that in MGS4, he has succeeded.
“Our war is over,” Snake says, “but there’s one more thing I must do.”
That ‘one more thing’ is to break the power of the PMCs and defeat Liquid Ocelot, who is at least partially Snake’s clone brother.
“I have to erase my genes, wipe the MEME from the face of the earth.”
As he places the pistol barrel in his mouth…
Trailers have shown Snake moving through a war-torn city, possibly in the Middle East, with nanotech-enhanced PMC soldiers and Metal Gears fighting (and defeating) local soldiers. The new Metal Gears have organic-looking legs and behave not unlike animals, which makes them seem all the more menacing.
FOXHOUND – the secret special forces unit founded by Big Boss – reappears, with Snake’s one-time lover Meryl Silverburgh commanding a four-person team. Three of the team (Meryl, Ed and Jonathon) use nanotech enhancements to let them share sensory information; these make them (and the PMC soldiers) vulnerable to Liquid Ocelot’s control (how he does this remains unknown). Unaffected by nanites is the FOXHOUND team’s fourth member, electronics expert Johnny Sasaki.
Snake’s long-term ally Otacon (Hal Emmerich, creator of the original Metal Gear) also returns, along with his sometime rival Raiden, who we see taking down Metal Gears and dueling with perhaps-supernaturally-powered-or-perhaps-not enemy Vamp, another MGS2 alumni. The word is that Raiden’s not playable, but his body is falling apart and being replaced with cybernetics that give him superhuman speed, strength and stamina. Naomi Hunter and Roy Campbell also return, presumably to give sage-like advice to Snake when he needs it most.
If Snake’s going to go out, then it looks like he’s brought all his friends along for the ride. And we’re sure he’ll go down swinging.
On the next page we take you through MGS4's gameplay.
Gameplay
Metal Gear Solid 4 has had a number of public outings and apart from looking absolutely stunning, the game features a significantly revised, not to mention much improved, controls and gameplay mechanics.
The controls in particular have been streamlined. L1 is used to aim and R1 to fire; R1 also initiates a CQC (Close Quarters Combat) move if an enemy is in hand-to-hand range. Every weapon in the game, from knives to machineguns, have CQC moves and advanced players will be able to pull off combos and special moves, including the dreaded crotch grab.
Weapons are customizable, meaning you can add flashlights, grenade launchers and the like to Snake’s guns. Indeed, there’s a predictably large array of guns, grenades, mines, missile launchers and the like to play with.
The camera is an evolution of MGS3: Subsistence’s third-person perspective and the game can also be played entirely from a first-person view if desired. Instead of radar or sonar Snake now has the ‘Threat Ring’, a circle that uses different waveforms to indicate the type and direction of inbound threats.
Snake has one other way of keeping tabs on the battlefield around him: the Solid Eye. This eyepatch device offers three vision modes: thermal imaging, equipment detector (to reveal enemies’ weapons) and zoom.
He also has two new meters: Stress and Psyche. These monitor Snake’s mental health and they can both help (when Snake enters a ‘Combat High’, gaining increased accuracy and taking less damage) and hinder (when Snake suffers from stress his accuracy is reduced, but it can be restored by finding and examining a girlie magazine…).
In some sections of the game you’ll take control of Otacon’s Metal Gear Mk II, a miniature robot (powered by the Cell processor!) that can deliver small quantities of supplies, engage a stealth mode and even use its reserves of electricity to stun organic opponents.
But perhaps the most striking gameplay innovation of all is the one that’s ironically the most visible: Snake’s ‘Octo-Cam’. This new stealth suit takes the camouflage system introduced in MGS3 a step further and allows Snake to mimic both the colour and texture of his surrounds by pressing up against a wall or floor, or even by remaining stationary, as demonstrated by his ability to hide among statues by taking on their colour and texture.
This is a significant addition to Snake’s stealth arsenal and we can’t wait to try it out. All the ingredients are in place – characters, setting, stealth, guns, gadgets and Kojima’s freaked-out approach to storytelling – for another classic Metal Gear Solid experience.
Quite simply, it’s going to be an agonizing wait to somewhere in Q2, 2008
This year, that’s all set to turn around, with a bunch of big exclusives in the pipeline. And without doubt, one of the biggest is the long-awaited, much-anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4. We’ve seen many tantalizing glimpses of what lies ahead in the various trailers and game show demonstrations – here’s a primer on what to expect.
The Full Story
Series creator Hideo Kojima has stated on a number of occasions that it will be the last Metal Gear Solid game. He’s also said it will be his last Metal Gear Solid game (a subtle distinction, but important nonetheless). Then again, he said MGS3 would be his last, so maybe he just likes toying with the fans. Either way, it seems that MGS4 will be Solid Snake’s last appearance; to explain why, a little Metal Gear history may be needed.
The first man to be called Snake was Naked Snake, the playable character in MGS3 (which is a prequel to both MGS and MGS2). Initially a loyal soldier, he is so disgusted with the actions of his government that he becomes Big Boss, a rogue enemy of the free world.
He is eventually defeated by Solid Snake, one of his three cloned sons and the playable character in MGS, MGS2 and MGS4. By the time of MGS4 Solid Snake is called Old Snake due to his rapid ageing, presumably due to the cloning process’s limitations – or the FoxDie virus.
His clone brothers are Liquid Snake and Solidus Snake. Liquid Snake was the villain in MGS, who dies at Solid Snake’s hands. However, his right arm is grafted onto Revolver Ocelot, to replace the limb cut off by the Cyborg Ninja. In MGS2 Ocelot returns but whenever he’s in proximity to Solid Snake, Liquid’s personality takes control. In MGS4 it seems that the two personalities have completely merged. Revolver Ocelot is now Liquid Ocelot and is the game’s major villain.
(Solidus Snake is the main villain of MGS2 and dies at Raiden’s hands in the game’s final battle.)
Naked Snake/Big Boss’s other legacy (apart from his cloned sons) is the creation of the world’s first PMC (Private Military Contractor). He wanted to create a world for soldiers, a world of perpetual war, and it seems that in MGS4, he has succeeded.
“Our war is over,” Snake says, “but there’s one more thing I must do.”
That ‘one more thing’ is to break the power of the PMCs and defeat Liquid Ocelot, who is at least partially Snake’s clone brother.
“I have to erase my genes, wipe the MEME from the face of the earth.”
As he places the pistol barrel in his mouth…
Trailers have shown Snake moving through a war-torn city, possibly in the Middle East, with nanotech-enhanced PMC soldiers and Metal Gears fighting (and defeating) local soldiers. The new Metal Gears have organic-looking legs and behave not unlike animals, which makes them seem all the more menacing.
FOXHOUND – the secret special forces unit founded by Big Boss – reappears, with Snake’s one-time lover Meryl Silverburgh commanding a four-person team. Three of the team (Meryl, Ed and Jonathon) use nanotech enhancements to let them share sensory information; these make them (and the PMC soldiers) vulnerable to Liquid Ocelot’s control (how he does this remains unknown). Unaffected by nanites is the FOXHOUND team’s fourth member, electronics expert Johnny Sasaki.
Snake’s long-term ally Otacon (Hal Emmerich, creator of the original Metal Gear) also returns, along with his sometime rival Raiden, who we see taking down Metal Gears and dueling with perhaps-supernaturally-powered-or-perhaps-not enemy Vamp, another MGS2 alumni. The word is that Raiden’s not playable, but his body is falling apart and being replaced with cybernetics that give him superhuman speed, strength and stamina. Naomi Hunter and Roy Campbell also return, presumably to give sage-like advice to Snake when he needs it most.
If Snake’s going to go out, then it looks like he’s brought all his friends along for the ride. And we’re sure he’ll go down swinging.
On the next page we take you through MGS4's gameplay.
Gameplay
Metal Gear Solid 4 has had a number of public outings and apart from looking absolutely stunning, the game features a significantly revised, not to mention much improved, controls and gameplay mechanics.
The controls in particular have been streamlined. L1 is used to aim and R1 to fire; R1 also initiates a CQC (Close Quarters Combat) move if an enemy is in hand-to-hand range. Every weapon in the game, from knives to machineguns, have CQC moves and advanced players will be able to pull off combos and special moves, including the dreaded crotch grab.
Weapons are customizable, meaning you can add flashlights, grenade launchers and the like to Snake’s guns. Indeed, there’s a predictably large array of guns, grenades, mines, missile launchers and the like to play with.
The camera is an evolution of MGS3: Subsistence’s third-person perspective and the game can also be played entirely from a first-person view if desired. Instead of radar or sonar Snake now has the ‘Threat Ring’, a circle that uses different waveforms to indicate the type and direction of inbound threats.
Snake has one other way of keeping tabs on the battlefield around him: the Solid Eye. This eyepatch device offers three vision modes: thermal imaging, equipment detector (to reveal enemies’ weapons) and zoom.
He also has two new meters: Stress and Psyche. These monitor Snake’s mental health and they can both help (when Snake enters a ‘Combat High’, gaining increased accuracy and taking less damage) and hinder (when Snake suffers from stress his accuracy is reduced, but it can be restored by finding and examining a girlie magazine…).
In some sections of the game you’ll take control of Otacon’s Metal Gear Mk II, a miniature robot (powered by the Cell processor!) that can deliver small quantities of supplies, engage a stealth mode and even use its reserves of electricity to stun organic opponents.
But perhaps the most striking gameplay innovation of all is the one that’s ironically the most visible: Snake’s ‘Octo-Cam’. This new stealth suit takes the camouflage system introduced in MGS3 a step further and allows Snake to mimic both the colour and texture of his surrounds by pressing up against a wall or floor, or even by remaining stationary, as demonstrated by his ability to hide among statues by taking on their colour and texture.
This is a significant addition to Snake’s stealth arsenal and we can’t wait to try it out. All the ingredients are in place – characters, setting, stealth, guns, gadgets and Kojima’s freaked-out approach to storytelling – for another classic Metal Gear Solid experience.
Quite simply, it’s going to be an agonizing wait to somewhere in Q2, 2008
