Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

(Page 2 of 6)

"YOUR MISSION: CLEAR MGS4 IN ONLY THREE DAYS!"

Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton, MGS4 Producer Ken Imaizumi and Konami Japan's Aki Saito gave us the lowdown on what to expect in our three days at the Super Campus. On the first day we would play MGS4 for five hours until a welcome party dinner. We were instructed to choose a PlayStation 3 station that would be ours for the next three days, play the game on "Solid" mode (which Kojima Productions had named the main normal mode of the game) and play the game as a gamer -- not as a tester. This build of the game was almost final but still not finished, and certain things such as text and lip-sync elements were still being tweaked, along with the difficulty of the mode.

Spoiler Warning: Most of the stuff I'll be talking about in this feature is a deeper look into things that you could have learned from reading other coverage, playing the demo at E For All or the Tokyo Game Show, or watching the trailers. However, if you've stayed abreast of everything MGS4, you shouldn't be concerned -- most of what Konami has shown in the past few years takes place in the first portion of the game. I'm going to do my best to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but depending on what constitutes a spoiler for you, be advised.

We chose our spots, fired up the game, and put on our headsets, which were hooked into sound processors that allowed for Dolby Surround. MGS4 is rumble-enabled and we played the game using the new DualShock 3 controllers. Upon beginning, users can select from the following options: new game, load game, mission briefing, options, photo album, virtual range, MGO and extras. Currently there are three difficulty levels -- Liquid Easy, Naked Normal and Big Boss Hard. As Kojima Productions is still finalizing difficulty settings and naming conventions, we're not entirely sure how these will come into play, and after you complete the game the first time there may be other difficulty levels that unlock. There won't be a European Extreme difficulty, as found in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, since the game will be releasing across all territories simultaneously. However, given the popularity of that mode for the hardcore players, that's not to say something like that mode won't be in the final product.

Act 1: Liquid Sun

While I'm going to leave out discussion of the actual opening sequences of the game, if you've watched the trailers, you'll have a good idea of why Snake is heading to the Middle East. MGS4 is broken into acts, and the gameplay in Act 1 starts out in a dingy, war-torn city that the Colonel calls Ground Zero. Everything is happening in-engine, and as the credits roll, Snake arrives. As MGS fans are well aware, cut scenes can be quite lengthy and users finally have the ability to pause them. Also, much like in previous MGS titles, users can cut away at times to see a different viewpoint of the action, such as zooming in on certain areas or elements. Considering much of the game is answering many old questions, Kojima Productions has instilled a new flashback system, and in moments that old characters or events are described, with a quick press of a button you can flip through a series of pictures to better explain a situation.