Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Oct 19, 2007

During its first two days, the E for All expo has been a largely muted affair. The show has attracted a number of cosplayers and young console fanboys, but certainly hasn't packed the South Hall of the LA Convention Center on the scale that E3 used to. Nevertheless, it's fair to say that Konami stole the spotlight with its demo of Metal Gear Solid 4. Only the lines for Super Smash Bros. Brawl came close to matching the snaking row of players around Konami's booth, all desperate to be among the first to play MGS4 on American soil. After a quick overview of the game's Dual Shock 3-based controls, gamers were unleashed on the prototype for brief, five-minute sessions. We were among those gamers. Twice, actually.

The sequence we played is similar to the one shown during Tokyo Game Show, aside from English localization and a few very slight gameplay adjustments. The action starts roughly thirty minutes into the storyline of the game, and Snake's gotten some cues that Liquid Ocelot is encamped in a Middle Eastern country. It's Snake's job to make his way to a rendezvous point on the map while avoiding the AT Corporation's tanks, which are code-named "Irving." Snake calls them "lizards." Speculate as you will. He gets a beep on his codec, which loads up the new video chat-like Codec system. As in Snake Eater, you can fast-forward through the cutscene, or skip it entirely.

You'll still stand, crouch, and crawl with X, but there have been additional gameplay tweaks. For instance, the Square button now modifies your aiming. The game defaults to an auto-aim in the vein of the first MGS on PlayStation, or you can hit Square, and in a dose of irony, the camera reverts to the Splinter Cell-style over-the-shoulder camera. Triangle acts as a context-sensitive button for picking up enemies, interacting with the environment, and also for attaching to walls and blending into them. You'll still pick items with the secondary shoulder buttons, so your new oil barrel and trusty rations can still be found on the left side, while your armaments are on the right side.

The new Octo-Camo system functions as something of an evolution from MGS3's camouflage implementation. In the PS2 game, you had to pause the action, go into a menu, and pull up the most appropriate concealment for your environment. Now, Snake just leans against a wall or lies down on the floor, and his stealth suit takes on the qualities of what he's pressed against. We've learned from Assistant Producer Ryan Payton that you'll also be able to save some of the camos, which have yet to be named, for future use. The camouflage meter from MGS 3 is still intact, so if you lie still on the ground, you won't have to worry as much about the game's "nowhere to hide" tagline. The floor should be good enough. We put it to the test as we lay on the ground near an unsuspecting guard, who came up, expressed some shock at finding a "corpse" on the ground, and went back about his business.

MGS4 has also done away with the radar system. Instead, there's a threat indicator around Snake at all times. You'll see this white ring of light rise and fall like an EKG reader depending on what danger is in the vicinity. Bigger waves, such as tanks, will register in a huge way, and you'll be able to detect soldier movement, since the wave will move with your potential enemies. When you're detected, it will turn red. We figured that out firsthand after we ran head-on into a guard. This time, it's also significantly tougher to get away from guards once you're spotted. They band together in large groups and attack in swarms. Even if you lie on the floor and play dead, it's no guarantee that someone won't pop a few shots into you to ensure that you're really a goner. Snake probably isn't as fragile as Sam Fisher has been in some of his stealthy endeavors, but these new soldiers will put him to the test.

Since we had roughly five minutes more than the general public to explore the level's terrain, we discovered an area similar to the one that Kojima showed off during his demo a few months ago in Japan. There are weapons to be found in the terrain that you likely haven't seen in MGS titles before, such as the Sleep Gas Mine, which non-lethally takes down large groups of soldiers. During this exploration time, some of the issues with the game became apparent. For example, at times the auto-aiming lacks polish and precision; Snake aims a bit wildly off-camera, and it's hard to tell if he's even got a target locked-on.

Also, the CQC (Close Quarters Combat) looks great on video, but in execution it feels like a work in progress, especially if you're embroiled in a hand-to-hand fight with a pursuing soldier. The much-touted Stun Knife works well only if you're sneaking up on someone; in combat, it still doesn't feel like as trusty of a weapon as the stuff we wielded in MGS3. The team over at Kojima Productions still has a few months to work on these problems, and even though they need addressing, they don't break the demo by any means.

If you're in the LA area this weekend, and you're planning to hit E for All, Metal Gear Solid 4 is absolutely worth enduring a long line, deafening music, and Parliament-rivaling funk to play, even if it's just a five-minute sliver. The Octo-Camo dovetails nicely into the gameplay experience, and although the threat meter takes a little getting used to, it's already a fairly handy substitute for the classic radar. Both the auto-aim and CQC feel like they need some more attention, but the game's still got a few months before it will wrap. The chatter in gaming circles is that the PS3 truly needs a system-selling blockbuster. Snake's (likely) final chapter could well be that game.