Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

• 1. One Last Mission

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  Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots reached shops on the 12th of June 2008. According to Konami, more than three million units shipped worldwide that day.

  Kojima Productions built the game for the PlayStation 3, and it was the sixth Metal Gear game directed by Hideo Kojima. Its hero, Solid Snake, no longer has the body he once did. His final assignment is to stop an old enemy from seizing a system that controls soldiers around the globe.

  Three questions run through this documentary. Why did a series that was meant to end come back for another chapter? What does a stealth game do with a hero whose strength is fading? And why did critics who adored it also complain about how much of it they could not play?

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• 2. A Series That Would Not End

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  Hideo Kojima had announced that Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater would be his last game as director of the series. Snake Eater was meant to close the story. Fans did not agree. They wanted a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and they wanted answers to mysteries Kojima had preferred to leave to the players' own interpretation. That pressure produced Metal Gear Solid 4.

  As a joke, the new director was first announced as Alan Smithee. The real name appeared in R, a 400-page book bundled with the Japanese Premium Package of Metal Gear Solid 3. It was Shuyo Murata, who co-wrote Snake Eater and directed Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. Murata had also hidden easter eggs in Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. Fan reaction was sharply negative and included death threats. Kojima then agreed to co-direct the game with Murata.

  Kojima wanted to put the player inside a full-scale war. He also wanted to keep the stealth of earlier entries, so the team abandoned its first concept, called "No Place to Hide." The only war zone confirmed before release was the Middle East. Using several locations was meant to show a world in armed conflict.

  Snake was aged on purpose. The team wanted his body to express the game's overarching theme, SENSE. They also wanted a character whose task was to pass moral values to future generations. Kojima's first ending had Snake and Otacon turn themselves in for breaking the law, then be convicted and executed. The development team reacted badly, and the idea was dropped. Snake's long experience also made fresh enemies hard to invent, so the staff created groups of non-human enemies to rival him.

  The game was first shown at E3 2005, in a humorous and slightly abstract piece of machinima featuring characters from Snake Eater. Its slogan was "No Place to Hide." By January 2008 the game was described as essentially finished and went through extensive beta testing. On the 26th of February 2008, at Destination PlayStation, Sony announced the worldwide release date along with a themed PlayStation 3 bundle.

  The budget has been estimated at between 50 and 70 million US dollars. Kenichiro Imaizumi of Kojima Productions denied this. He argued that a game that expensive would have been released on multiple platforms. One of the main aims of the budget, he said, was research into the environments the game would feature.

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• 3. Stress and Camouflage

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  Extreme temperatures, foul smells and the pressure of being hunted all wear Snake down in Guns of the Patriots. The game tracks this with the Psyche Meter. Psyche also drops from non-lethal attacks and is shaped by battlefield psychology. A low meter makes aiming harder, brings on more frequent back pain, and can make Snake pass out when he takes damage.

  Killing too many enemies in a short time has its own penalty. Snake has a vision of Liquid and vomits, which sharply cuts his Psyche. To recover, he can eat, drink, smoke, or read an adult magazine.

  The overhead camera of earlier games gave way to a streamlined view. An over-the-shoulder camera handles aiming, and a button toggles an optional first-person view like that of a shooter.

  The OctoCamo suit copies the look and texture of any surface, the way an octopus does, which lowers the chance that Snake is noticed. After defeating Laughing Octopus, players receive FaceCamo. It can work alongside OctoCamo or imitate the face of another character in the game. Certain faces require players to meet in-game conditions first. Under ideal conditions, the two systems together push Snake's stealth quotient to 100%.

  The Solid Eye highlights items and enemies and offers night vision and binocular modes. It also supplies a baseline map of nearby units. The Threat Ring does similar work as a visualization of Snake's senses. It deforms according to how close nearby units are.

  A small robot called Metal Gear Mk.II, later replaced by Mk.III, follows Snake for much of the mission. It provides codec functions and access to the menu. It can be steered remotely to stun enemies, scout, and interact with the environment. Its design comes from the robot in Snatcher, another game designed by Kojima. At the start of each Act the player controls it, though without its abilities.

  Whenever the Drebin menu is available, Snake can buy weapons, attachments and ammunition with Drebin Points. Points come from on-site procurement of weapons already in his inventory, from scripted events, and from destroying Unmanned Vehicles. Prices follow current battlefield conditions, so fiercer fighting means higher prices. Drebin also buys items from the player at a discount, particularly at certain story moments and on certain days in real life. The whole game can be finished without killing anyone by using non-lethal weapons. For practice, the Virtual Range works as a test facility for weapon performance and controls.

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• 4. The Patriots' War

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  In the world of Guns of the Patriots, the Cold War ran on through the 1990s and ended before the turn of the century. The events take place in 2014 and form the final chapter of Solid Snake's storyline.

  The global economy depends on constant civil wars fought by private military companies, which outnumber government armies. Soldiers carry nanomachines that monitor and enhance their performance. A vast network called the Sons of the Patriots controls them. Liquid Ocelot emerges from hiding to rise against the Patriots, a secret cabal that steers world affairs from the shadows.

  Snake, meanwhile, is aging fast and has little time left. He lives aboard the airplane Nomad with Dr. Hal Emmerich, known as Otacon, and with Sunny, the daughter of Olga Gurlukovich and a child prodigy in computer programming. Raiden has drifted from Rose since the Big Shell incident and has become a cyborg ninja fighting the Patriots. Meryl Silverburgh commands a PMC inspection unit that includes Johnny Sasaki.

  Five years after the Big Shell incident, Otacon tells Snake he has only a year to live. Colonel Roy Campbell, now working with the United Nations Security Council, tells him that Revolver Ocelot has been found in the Middle East. Ocelot is possessed by the will of Liquid Snake. Snake's task is to assassinate him.

  In a Middle Eastern war zone, Snake meets the arms dealer Drebin, who injects him with nanomachines so he can use the latest weapons. He also meets Meryl, who resents Campbell for being her biological father. When Snake reaches Liquid, a transmitted signal incapacitates everyone nearby. Dr. Naomi Hunter helps Snake through it and then leaves with Liquid.

  In South America, Snake finds Naomi, held prisoner to do research. She explains that his rapid aging comes from intentional genetic mutations, because he is a human clone of Big Boss. The FOXDIE virus she placed in him will mutate within months and could cause a deadly pandemic. Liquid, she adds, wants Big Boss's biometrics to take command of the Patriots' firearms control system.

  An Eastern European resistance group led by Big Mama supplies the history. She is revealed to be EVA, surrogate mother to both Snake and Liquid. After Operation Snake Eater, Major Zero formed the Patriots to fulfill The Boss's will. The group later split, Big Boss opposed Zero, and the Patriots came to be run by a set of AIs.

  Liquid's plan is a nuclear strike meant to destroy the Patriots' master AI so that GW can take control. Snake and Raiden use Metal Gear REX at Shadow Moses in Alaska. Naomi, dying of cancer and guilty over her mistakes, disables the nanomachines keeping her alive. Liquid then reveals Outer Haven, a modified Arsenal Gear.

  At the core of Haven, Snake installs a computer virus coded by Naomi and Sunny. It destroys the core AI and the whole Patriot network, though the necessities of civilization keep running. Liquid admits he allowed the installation. The two men fight, Snake wins, and Liquid becomes Ocelot again before dying.

  Meryl reconciles with Campbell and marries Johnny. Raiden learns that Rose never lost their child and that her marriage to Campbell was a ruse. At the grave of The Boss in Arlington National Cemetery, Snake attempts suicide but hesitates at the last moment.

  Big Boss then appears with a vegetative Zero. He explains that the Patriots were meant to carry out The Boss's will, and that differing interpretations split them into two factions. Zero's side favored government control of society to prevent conflict. Big Boss's side wanted soldiers to fight for personal beliefs, free of governments. Big Boss ends Zero's life by cutting his life support. He also tells Snake that the Drebin nanomachines carried a new FOXDIE strain, which means Snake will not become a biological weapon. Big Boss dies beside The Boss's grave, and Snake chooses to spend his remaining time peacefully with Otacon and Sunny.

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• 5. Ninety Minutes, Fifteen Used

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  Ninety minutes of music were written for the cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid 4, and only fifteen minutes of it reached the official soundtrack. Norihiko Hibino revealed this in an interview. He directed the music team.

  Harry Gregson-Williams, in his third Metal Gear Solid soundtrack, led the score with Nobuko Toda, who had written music for Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2. Konami employees Shuichi Kobori, Kazuma Jinnouchi, Akihiro Honda and Sota Fujimori also contributed. Late in production, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Takahiro Izutani of GEM Impact added compositions.

  The game has two vocal themes. The opening theme, "Love Theme," is sung by Jackie Presti and composed by Nobuko Toda. The ending theme, "Here's to You," is sung by Lisbeth Scott. Before release, a Smash Bros. Brawl version of the Theme of Love was supplied for the Shadow Moses Island level of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

  One piece is conspicuously missing. The "Metal Gear Solid Main Theme," composed by Tappi "Tappy" Iwase, was left off this soundtrack and off the soundtrack of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Hibino told Electronic Gaming Monthly why. A group of Russian games journalists had presented Kojima with a composition by Georgy Sviridov and claimed the theme had plagiarised it. Hibino said "they didn't actually," but the company was "too sensitive about the situation" and dropped the theme.

  Konami Digital Entertainment released the official soundtrack on the 28th of May 2008 under catalog number GFCA-98/9. It spans two discs and 47 tracks.

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• 6. Product Placement and Packaging

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  At a press conference on the 13th of May 2008, Hideo Kojima announced a marketing campaign and agreements with several companies. Apple computers and monitors appear in the game. An Apple iPod is an item Snake can use to change the background music, hear in-game podcasts and collect hidden songs. ReGain Energy Drinks serve as a Psyche booster, and Naomi and Vamp use Sony Ericsson phones. The motorcycles are a Triumph Bonneville and a Speed Triple.

  Konami and Ubisoft added a costume that turns Snake into Altaïr from the stealth game Assassin's Creed. It was first revealed on April Fool's Day 2008, and Kojima later confirmed it was real. Players earn it by doing "something special." They need the Assassin Emblem, a nod to the title of Ubisoft's game, or a password entered in the Extras section.

  Konami had planned grand launch events in Tokyo. Some were cancelled with the "safety of participants in mind" after the Akihabara massacre on the 8th of June 2008.

  The Limited Edition arrived alongside the standard release. It held the game, a box with artwork by Yoji Shinkawa, a Blu-ray Disc with two "making of" documentaries, and a partial soundtrack of Harry Gregson-Williams songs. In the United States it was exclusive to GameStop, and in Canada to EB Games. Play.com in the United Kingdom sold a version with a 6-inch Olive Drab Old Snake figurine.

  In North America, a bundle of an 80GB PlayStation 3, a DualShock 3 controller, a download coupon for Pain and the game sold for 499 US dollars on release day. Japan received the Guns of the Patriots Welcome Box, with a 40GB PlayStation 3 in black, white or silver.

  The rarest hardware was a pre-order bundle with the Limited Edition and a matte grey 40GB PlayStation 3 titled Gunmetal Grey. It was announced in Japan on the 18th of March 2008 at JPY 51,800, and it sold out by the 25th of March 2008. North America got a "very limited" version for 600 US dollars on the 19th of May 2008. A similar European bundle was announced by David Reeves but never released.

  On the 15th of June 2009, a year after release, Konami re-released the game in the Sony Greatest Hits range. Related products followed. Media Molecule released a Guns of the Patriots expansion for LittleBigPlanet on the 23rd of December 2008. Konami and Hasbro made a themed edition of Risk in October 2011, with a battle map based on Outer Haven. Project Itoh wrote a novelization that Kadokawa Shoten published on release day in Japan. Its English translation reached North America in June 2012.

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• 7. Life After Launch

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  A starter pack for Metal Gear Online 2 came inside the game. It supported online tactical battles for up to 16 players and borrowed the SOP system, which shows teammates' positions and battle status. Players could take part in sneaking missions, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and several special modes. Expansion packs added maps and playable characters, including Mei Ling, Meryl, Liquid Ocelot, Raiden and Vamp. Metal Gear Online 2 shut down completely on the 13th of June 2012.

  On the 19th of June 2008, Konami put the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database on the PlayStation Store in North America and Japan. Europe received it a week later. This downloadable application catalogs the lore of every canonical Metal Gear entry up to that point. It offers an alphabetical reference, a timeline and character relationship diagrams. To protect against spoilers, it locks anything tied to the game until the user has a completed save from the same console and region.

  Between 2008 and 2009, the game received 49 free add-ons over PlayStation Network. They included 12 additional OctoCamo patterns, 12 podcasts, and 25 iPod songs. A twenty-sixth song, "Chair Race," was removed for copyright reasons in 2011. Japan's version received 18 radio podcasts instead of the 12 podcasts. On the 16th of July 2014, the Japanese site announced that downloads would end on the 31st of July. A workaround appeared in January 2015.

  Trophy support took years. In August 2009, Sean Eyestone of Kojima Productions asked people to "stay patient." In November 2010, updated Greatest Hits box art advertised Trophies, but this was later reported as a typo and removed from later printings. False reports of an incoming patch kept circulating, and some forums posted mock-up Trophy lists. In July 2012 a patch was finally announced, and it arrived on the 6th of August 2012. It also allowed a full install to the hard drive, which removed the installs between acts.

  The question of other consoles dogged the game from its announcement. Kojima repeatedly confirmed exclusivity. Around the release of Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection, he said an Xbox 360 version would not appear because "the amount of data in MGS4 is just too enormous." The numbers back him up. The game uses a 50 GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc, and the digital version is 30 GB. The Xbox 360 relied on DVDs that hold 8.5 GB.

  The 25th Anniversary edition of late 2012 stayed on the PlayStation 3. A downloadable version reached the PlayStation Store at the end of 2014. It was briefly a PlayStation Now rental in North America, then was delisted by Konami for undisclosed reasons, and it returned in March 2019. After more than 18 years of exclusivity, ports for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S are dated the 27th of August 2026. They will also appear in Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, without Metal Gear Online.

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• 8. Verdicts and Numbers

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  "MGS4 shifts gears constantly, innovating again and again." That was the verdict of PlayStation Official Magazine - UK, which published the first review and gave a 10/10. Game Informer also gave 10/10, and GamePro, Famitsu and Empire awarded perfect marks. Famitsu's score was 40/40. IGN gave 10/10 in the United States, 9.9/10 in the United Kingdom and 9.5/10 in Australia. Edge and Eurogamer both gave 8/10.

  GameSpot also gave 10/10 and called it the most technically stunning video game ever made. That made it one of only five games to receive a perfect 10 from both IGN and GameSpot. Reviewers praised how the game closes the series. Eurogamer called it a conclusion that could not be funnier, cleverer or more ambitious. IGN UK called it "the ultimate Metal Gear game." Kotaku described it as an interactive tragedy, a rare game that asks players to be interested in a march toward defeat.

  Reviewers singled out the control scheme, the camouflage system, and the freer, more replayable play, especially the Drebin Points system. Edge called Otacon "the real star" and judged the score superior to many Hollywood offerings.

  The complaints centered on the story, which reviewers found confusing or poorly executed at times. IGN UK advised players to revisit the earlier titles for clarity. Cutscenes were another sore point, with one estimate putting them at "about half of the content of the game." Reviewers still accepted that style as fitting for the series, and a new pause function for story sequences won universal welcome. Edge and Eurogamer judged that the game is the peak of the series style but would not win over new fans.

  The press embargo became its own story. Reviewers received limits on discussing cutscene length and the size of the PlayStation 3 installation. Electronic Gaming Monthly delayed its review and printed a roundtable discussion instead. Ryan Payton of Kojima Productions explained that the limits were meant to prevent spoilers revealed during installs. GameSpot said Konami had withheld review code from it, and Jeremy Parish of Electronic Gaming Monthly published his review soon after the restrictions lifted.

  In Japan, Enterbrain recorded 476,334 copies sold in the first four days, bundles included. The PlayStation 3 normally sold about 10,000 units a week there. In the game's debut week it sold 77,208. The game finished 2008 as the 11th best-selling title in Japan at 686,254 copies.

  In the United Kingdom, Chart-Track ranked it the second fastest-selling PlayStation 3 title after Grand Theft Auto IV, trailing the opening weekend of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty by 14,000 copies. The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association gave it a Platinum award for at least 300,000 sales. Konami reported more than one million copies in Europe in its first week. In the United States, it was the best-selling game of June 2008 at 774,600 copies, and the NPD Group said console sales doubled over the previous month. It remained the best-selling PlayStation 3 exclusive until Gran Turismo 5. On the 21st of May 2014, Ryan Payton stated that it had sold 6 million copies.

  Game of the Year awards came from GameSpot, PALGN, 1UP.com, PC World, Playfire, Gamezine, 4PLAYER.de, NeoGAF and the Portuguese edition of Eurogamer. IGN named it Best PS3 Game of 2008. At Tokyo Game Show 2009 it received the Grand Award alongside Mario Kart Wii. At the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, it won Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. It was also nominated for Overall Game of the Year and for Character Performance, an honor aimed at its Old Snake.

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