Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

 PlayStation 3
  • Publisher: Konami
  • Release Date: Jun 12, 2008
User Score
8.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4356 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,750 out of 4356
  2. Mixed: 239 out of 4356
  3. Negative: 367 out of 4356
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  1. GregO.
    Sep 30, 2008
    0
    not a fan of this game at all, its the slowest paced game you will ever play in your life, online mode is not fun at all - slow paced and the weapons suck, graphically it is pretty good and the cut scenes are nice as well but then the gameplay starts - worst controls i have ever used and its is too slow paced! I wouldn't buy this if i were u - I'm trading it.
  2. DanielR.
    Sep 25, 2008
    10
    Superb, beyond reproach.
  3. Rich
    Sep 22, 2008
    3
    Hours upon hours of boring (and increasingly ridiculous) interludes make this game pretty annoying... The gameplay is good but too short in comparison.
  4. ClemetW.
    Sep 22, 2008
    10
    10 years after MGS1, MGS4 comes along and pulls it off again. The best graphics seen on a console game this far, very improved gampeplay, and a story that makes up the perfect closure for one of the best series in gaming. Metal Gear Solid 4 will move any MGS fan!
  5. SuleimanM.
    Sep 19, 2008
    10
    What Hideo Kojima has done is too much to fathom, and he concluded my favorite video game series with such a conclusion that I feel like I'm in debt to him some how. To type how phenomenal this game is would take over ten pages, one page for each mark, so I'm going to keep it short, a legendary ending for a legendary soldier, and a legendary ending for a legendary series. Best What Hideo Kojima has done is too much to fathom, and he concluded my favorite video game series with such a conclusion that I feel like I'm in debt to him some how. To type how phenomenal this game is would take over ten pages, one page for each mark, so I'm going to keep it short, a legendary ending for a legendary soldier, and a legendary ending for a legendary series. Best game I've ever played and my pick for game of the year. Thank you Solid Snake for the years of entertainment you've provided me with, and most of all thank you Hideo, when your game can bring me to tears by the end of it, you know it means something, Thank you Hideo, Thank you.… Expand
  6. thebossman
    Sep 19, 2008
    9
    An excellent game, fitting of Solid Snakes last adventure, but it's hampered by far too many cut-scenes. If they were shorter, this would get a 10 from me.
  7. AaronB.
    Sep 18, 2008
    10
    Story wise, this game is perfect. Graphic wise, this game is perfect. Gameplay wise, this game is perfect. Replayability wise, this game is perfect. I don't know how else to put it, but it got me hooked from the moment I picked up the controller. I bought a ps3 for this, and am not disappointed!
  8. FireSoul
    Sep 16, 2008
    10
    With every game of metal gear 1 , 2 , 3 you just keep saying there can't be better than this well , heido kojima keeps on surprising any human who hold a video game controller Yeah once again i said it ... MGS4 a game can't be better than this ( sill waiting heido kojima answer in MGS5 ) ... a master is a master and he is the master of games creation 10/10 for onr of the best With every game of metal gear 1 , 2 , 3 you just keep saying there can't be better than this well , heido kojima keeps on surprising any human who hold a video game controller Yeah once again i said it ... MGS4 a game can't be better than this ( sill waiting heido kojima answer in MGS5 ) ... a master is a master and he is the master of games creation 10/10 for onr of the best games in the best saga of all time.… Expand
  9. AlainG.
    Sep 13, 2008
    10
    Best game I've gotten so far for my ps3 played it like 10 times which is rare for me to do trust me it is!!! Online is awesome one of the best i've played even though it needs some polishing and better maps.
  10. StephenH.
    Sep 10, 2008
    10
    Metal Gear Solid is one of (if not) the best game I ever played. I would definitely say if you are a Metal Gear Solid fan to buy this game, you will love it. If you aren't a Metal Gear fan, still give it a try, you may fall in love. The gameplay is the best out of all the Metal Gear games and the graphics and story are top notch! A Game of the Year contender for sure!
  11. CyrilS.
    Sep 10, 2008
    1
    This is the first MGS game I've played and I must say it's a game for geeks, I don't need to mention the misery of hours of boring story (even skipping it all takes at least 10 minutes to actually play the game!) then obviously you don't really know what the hell your doing. Who wants to play a decrepid old man with a bad back who can't jump and moves about as This is the first MGS game I've played and I must say it's a game for geeks, I don't need to mention the misery of hours of boring story (even skipping it all takes at least 10 minutes to actually play the game!) then obviously you don't really know what the hell your doing. Who wants to play a decrepid old man with a bad back who can't jump and moves about as fast as a disabled snail. The 1 is for the fit birds in the cut scenes.… Expand
  12. ErrolD.
    Sep 8, 2008
    0
    Plain horrible, the controls were bad enough. They had to make it even worse. This is not a game, its a movie... 90 minutes of mindless story that does not make any sense. Do yourself a favor and never buy this game, save your money. Not to mention that the japanese version was better, and once you finish it, there is online, which felt boring and less than what you can expect on Plain horrible, the controls were bad enough. They had to make it even worse. This is not a game, its a movie... 90 minutes of mindless story that does not make any sense. Do yourself a favor and never buy this game, save your money. Not to mention that the japanese version was better, and once you finish it, there is online, which felt boring and less than what you can expect on multiplayer games. Disappointing.… Expand
  13. joeg.
    Sep 7, 2008
    2
    Way too many cut scenes, crappy story, lame combat, bad frame rate, horrible textures. Just a sup par game in every way.
  14. MarkD
    Sep 4, 2008
    8
    Snake goes out with bang, yet as a big fan of the series i still feel slightly let down. The gameplay is perhaps the most non linier in the history of games; Play it stealthily or as an action shoot em up, take people out with a sniper rifle, use a distraction technique, utilize your items in all sorts of different ways. The graphics are stunning, perhaps the best the PS3 has seen yet and Snake goes out with bang, yet as a big fan of the series i still feel slightly let down. The gameplay is perhaps the most non linier in the history of games; Play it stealthily or as an action shoot em up, take people out with a sniper rifle, use a distraction technique, utilize your items in all sorts of different ways. The graphics are stunning, perhaps the best the PS3 has seen yet and the music wouldn't be out of place on a Hollywood blockbuster. When it's good it's close to genius and there are moments that will blow your mind. As a self confessed fanboy i really wanted to give it 10/10. However it's not perfect so i can't!!! One of the main problems is (you guessed it) the plot and cut scenes. I don't have a problem with long cut scenes or a deep plot in a game but if that's the way you want to go give us something less muddled Kojima; When those looooooooooong cut scenes are filled with pointless, droning monologues about genetics or preechy guff about war i do have a problem! Not to mention the plot holes and the fact that half of the plot doesn't make sense. The other problem is the steep learning curve. You're expected to be using Snakes subtler stealth techniques virtually from the start and the camera isn't perfect. I can see how a number of people (especially MGS virgins) could be put before they've really got into the game. So, MGS4 although brilliant in many ways is best described as a flawed masterpiece!… Expand
  15. JamesConvery
    Sep 4, 2008
    9
    If there is one game the PS3 has been sorely missing since it's release, it
  16. AndrewM
    Aug 30, 2008
    10
    A amazing experience that blow away most games on the market today, including the less stellar Halo 3 and with graphics better than Gears of War, its the reason to own a PS3. Don't listen to the negative reviews, those are just jealous 360 owners.
  17. ChrisK.
    Aug 27, 2008
    7
    There are just too many cutscenes in MGS4, way way way too many and they're too long. When you sit down and watch all of them in a playthrough you aren't so much playing a game as you are watching a really long and fairly confusing movie that sometimes requires you to play a videogame in order to get to the next part. The truly irritating thing though is most of them are long in There are just too many cutscenes in MGS4, way way way too many and they're too long. When you sit down and watch all of them in a playthrough you aren't so much playing a game as you are watching a really long and fairly confusing movie that sometimes requires you to play a videogame in order to get to the next part. The truly irritating thing though is most of them are long in stupid ways, there's a hell of a lot of information being conveyed but excruciatingly slowly and redundantly, most cutscenes are just two people talking and despite the fact that they're usually talking in a warzone and talking about how urgent various things are they're talking with all the speed and urgency of two guys sitting out in a fishing boat drinking beer on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Then every two or three lines someone pauses so they can pace back and forth, strike a pose, smoke a cig or hand a can of cola to a shaved monkey. You ever seen a Japanese Samurai movie? You know how you were excited going in because there would be sword fights? Then when you watched it the vast majority of it's running time consisted of people sitting around flapping their jaws for twenty minutes at a time? Yeah MGS4 is exactly like that, and while the series has always been kind of like that Hideo has seriously gone over the line here. It's called a videogame, as in a form of entertainment which is supposed to be primarily interactive and for far too much of the time MGS4 just is not interactive. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, the Japanese are just really into long winded story lines packed with melodrama whereas over the years. Americans, However, have been moving more toward brief concise cutscenes or none at all. Hideo Kojima is simply not a great writer, director, or storyteller; and never has been. He has his moments, certainly, I'm not saying he is completely without talent, but he lacks consistency. Personally, I would have given the story a 6/10. The gameplay has not changed much since Metal Gear Solid for the PS1. They added first person aiming in MGS2, they added camouflage and CQC martial arts in MGS3 and added a basic 3D camera in the re release of MGS3, and here they add the most basic elements of an over the shoulder third person shooter.... Sam Fisher easily had as many abilities as Solid Snake in the first Splinter Cell and it was easier to deal with then in the last gen. This is just a matter of a control scheme that has outlasted it's time regardless of being tweaked here and there and just feels kind of crappy nowadays. My problem with MGS4 isn't that the gameplay is poor. It's actually the best in the series. Nor is my problem entirely about the lack of gameplay, as there are about seven or eight good hours of gameplay on the first playthrough. No, the biggest problem with MGS4 is its decidedly uneven structure. The vast majority of high quality gameplay is stuffed into the first two Acts of the game, while the last three Acts feel like diminutive, brief interludes between cutscenes. Most games gradually build to a climax, while MGS4 begins with a climax, and then goes flaccid, limping its way to the finish line. To be fair, there is a decent amount of replay value here, for those who care to get all of the Emblems, Face Camos, secret weapons and items, iPod tracks, etc. It's fun to do a No Kill/No Alert run through of the game, but skipping cutscenes the second time through only makes it more obvious that Acts 3-5 were an afterthought, gameplay-wise, compared to Acts 1 and 2. It's a shame, indeed. Ultimately MGS has always been as flawed as it is brilliant, but it's the only damn thing out there that's got whatever the hell special unnameable quality this series has that has kept me playing it. If you have played this series and are into it and like it and care about it then go out and play this one because you owe it to yourself to do so and see ihe series through to it's end, if you've never played this series before I strongly suggest you go buy a couple of the earlier ones first at a used game shop for cheap and after you've played them if you want to keep going then do so and play this one, if not then don't. I think the most telling thing however is even as someone who has been a fan of the series I only bothered to complete MGS4 once, it's not that it's worse than the earlier ones it's more that it just isn't any better than them and my tastes have changed alot since 1998 when I was 14 or 15 or whatever.… Expand
  18. YeahRight
    Aug 24, 2008
    10
    Beats halo, beats Gears of war. Mgs4 was really a beautiful game. Shame its the last one.
  19. CMP.
    Aug 23, 2008
    10
    This game has raised the bar so high that all games pale by comparison. It is like playing the greatest movie I've ever seen in my life. Masterpiece doesn't do it justice.
  20. ClaytonC.
    Aug 22, 2008
    10
    This is the first Metal Gear game I have played. I was a little unsure about buying it, but it turns out it was one of the best decisions i have ever made. The gameplay is smooth, the cutscenes are top-notch, and it's one of the few games that i could feel emotion from. The story is complicated, but amazing. It raises the bar for story-telling in games because it didn't get This is the first Metal Gear game I have played. I was a little unsure about buying it, but it turns out it was one of the best decisions i have ever made. The gameplay is smooth, the cutscenes are top-notch, and it's one of the few games that i could feel emotion from. The story is complicated, but amazing. It raises the bar for story-telling in games because it didn't get dumbed down because some people wouldn't like it, it went all out and it worked beautifully. Definitly one of the greatest games of all time.… Expand
  21. NickS.
    Aug 21, 2008
    10
    I am truly addicted to this games style of game play. Instead of trying to shoot and kill people (which results in them out numbering and over powering you.) You are trying to sneak past them and, or take them out silently. The online portion of the game puts you up against millions of other stealthy assassins to test your skill.
  22. MattC.
    Aug 21, 2008
    10
    Ignore low scores, the Xbox Fanboys (Xbots) can't get this game and this is the best videogame ever made. So if people complain because they sucked with a Xbox 360.
  23. DanM
    Aug 21, 2008
    10
    How do you make a game that transcends traditional gameplay? You make an incredible story that is completely interwoven into the game; not to mention you put in amazing graphics and super fun gameplay. If the opening theme in the main menu doesn't get you in the mood, you don't know good taste!
  24. PeterD.
    Aug 20, 2008
    10
    It is fair to say that MGS4 is one of the best games of all time. My only complain is that you need to have some background knowledge of the Metal Gear Saga to fully appreciate the story. But all-in-al dont miss out on this one.
  25. FahdR.
    Aug 20, 2008
    10
    A near perfect game. Embarasses every other game released this generation.
  26. VictorM.
    Aug 17, 2008
    10
    An amazing game and truly the best game of all time. The story was top-notch, multiplayer, as some say rivals COD4, gameplay was amazing, graphics got close to Uncharted and sound... superb! Still, the big twist at the end, revealed by an unexpected character, is kinda stupid, you will know it when you see it and after you get every weapon, FACE-CAMO and emblem, you can still play it but An amazing game and truly the best game of all time. The story was top-notch, multiplayer, as some say rivals COD4, gameplay was amazing, graphics got close to Uncharted and sound... superb! Still, the big twist at the end, revealed by an unexpected character, is kinda stupid, you will know it when you see it and after you get every weapon, FACE-CAMO and emblem, you can still play it but it will be quite boring. For all it's shortcomings, MGS4 is an absolute MUST-BUY. Do not hesitate to buy a PS3 for this.… Expand
  27. PeteW.
    Aug 14, 2008
    8
    First off: outstanding gameplay, as usual for the series. There's nothing quite like sneaking through the middle of a firefight, or slipping up behind a guard and cutting his throat before he even knows you're there. And the boss battles are lots of fun as always. Also, the graphics were simply some of the best ever in a game, and the music, while not the best in the series, was First off: outstanding gameplay, as usual for the series. There's nothing quite like sneaking through the middle of a firefight, or slipping up behind a guard and cutting his throat before he even knows you're there. And the boss battles are lots of fun as always. Also, the graphics were simply some of the best ever in a game, and the music, while not the best in the series, was duly cinematic and epic. Now, The Cutscenes. I have one gripe with them, and one alone. I don't mind that they represent easily half of the total play time. I don't mind that some of the best action sequences in the game are things you just sit back and watch. But what I DO mind is when the plot of the game is hammered into my skull by having characters repeat the same few points over, and over, and over, and over. Kojima could easily have cut at least 1/3rd of the running time without losing any substance. Also, while I give the series credit for trying to have a more involved story than games usually do, let's not pretend that this is any deeper than a Tom Clancy novel, people. I get that war is bad, that the military-industrial complex is a threat, that genetic engineering is potentially dangerous, and all the rest. I wish the creators could have avoided pretending like this stuff is pivotal social commentary and kept things a bit snappier. Overall I'd still say that MGS3: Subsistence is the best in the series, but this is certainly a worthy new entry and good for a couple dozen hours of high-grade entertainment.… Expand
  28. ToddK
    Aug 14, 2008
    10
    Most excellent game. Graphics are spectacular, my one and only gripe is the final battle with Liquid where it is all CQC.
  29. DavidF.
    Aug 12, 2008
    5
    Don't look at it as a game, because it isn't. Splendid graphics, boring cinematics, poor story, null gameplay.
  30. RodgerM.
    Aug 12, 2008
    10
    Emotional, supremely playable, highly stylized and graphics that are simply head and shoulders above any other console game. Perhaps the best thing to happen to gaming in the last decade.
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Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best PS3 Game of 2008
2
#2 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2008
2
#2 Most Shared PS3 Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 82 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 82 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 82
  3. Negative: 0 out of 82
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    100
    Guns of the Patriots is almost intimidating in the consistent quality of its ideas, invention, and execution...Even by the series' stratospheric standards, MGS4 is a remarkable high point. [June 2008]
  2. IGN UK
    99
    If you've ever loved any one of the Metal Gear games, or any moments from the series, there will come a moment when MGS 4 will send your spirits soaring. If you've loved them all, well then there'll be many, many more. It’s a masterpiece.
    Read full review
  3. Eurogamer
    80
    Guns of the Patriots is a frustrating, fractured game that turns Metal Gear Solid's world upside down several times over, but never changes it.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »