Last night, I finished a rigorous one week campaign through Playstation 3's newest hit, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots (MGS4). After completing this enthralling experience, I must say that MGS4 was easily the best movie I've seen this summer.
Hideo Kojima's tactical espionage action epic follows the adventures of covert ops legendary badass, Solid Snake. A journey which began in 1987 with the Nintendo classic Metal Gear culminates with this year's release. What began as a humble, yet innovative, action game evolved into a gaming experience of epic proportions (yes, I'm overusing epic, but the franchise deserves the distinction.) In 1998, Kojima revolutionized action gaming with for Playstation. Metal Gear Solid. Metal Gear Solid, while not the first chapter of Kojima's opus, initiated the franchise that concludes with MGS4.
As many online game mags have proclaimed, MGS4 is a masterpiece of gameplay and storytelling. The game seamlessly weaves near-flawless CGI cutscenes into white knuckle stealth action gameplay. While the gameplay keeps gamers on the edge of their nerves, the amazing storyline is what pushes gamers to engage in marathon sessions just to see what's next. Culminating twenty years of storytelling into one neat package is no easy task, but Kojima has achieved this masterfully. MGS4 tells the tale of Solid Snake's final mission as he races to prevent his evil brother from achieving world domination. wraps a storyline the traces from the end of WWII to the future or Global Warfare. The plot involves seemingly absurd twists and turns, including cloning, possession, superhumans, and computer-controlled societies. Themes in MGS4 range from the dangers of technology to the conflict between man and machine to post traumatic stress to the price of war to the price of freedom, and even discussions on the concepts of fate and destiny. Heavy stuff for a video game, but maybe it's not. While fans of MGS4 are used to the depth of Kojima's games, gamers and the general public is becoming increasingly aware that video games are viable storytelling medium, easily on par with feature films. Indeed, Kojima has proven the point in one masterful stroke with this game.
What really makes this game a better movie than most of this summer's fare is the combination of depth and extravaganza. In MGS4, we have deep three dimensional characters with passions, pet peeves and problems (some of whom have been developed for over twenty years.). We also have amazing action set pieces--some interactive, some not--that rival the best action scenes from the biggest blockbusters. The battles in MGS4 (especially Acts 2 and 4) are easily on par with , if not better than, the best action scenes in the Bourne Ultimatum, Black Hawk Down, and Transformers, respectively. And most importantly, the plot is simple at its core, man's struggle for freedom, but contains clever, and occasionally obtuse, plot twists that reinforce the themes of the story while constantly raising the emotional and physical stakes for the characters.
So far this summer we've seen a man don an iron suit to fight terrorists, an aging adventurer battle communists, child knights fight mythological beasts, a daring candy colored racer outwit a domineering corporation, and a big green man fight the military. While each film has its merits and flaws, none come close to achieving the storytelling magic of MGS4. MGS4 moves you and thrills you. It makes you think beyond making it to the next save point. It makes you question the very act of playing a military simulation, while playing a military simulation. MGS4 is a masterpiece on so many levels it's ridiculous. If this game is ever translated to film (which, according to the rumor mill, it will), I hope the translation can retain even a fraction of the quality of this masterpiece. Way to go Snake. Way to go Kojima.
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