Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a game created for the PlayStation 3 in 2008 that takes place five years after the Big Shell incident.

An in-engine cutscene of the game was shown by Hideo Kojima and his colleagues at Tokyo Game Show 2005, featuring an elderly Solid Snake and a small robotic companion linked via remote control, operated by Otacon. Later, to prove that the demo was running in real-time on the PlayStation 3 development kit, the demo was rerun and manipulated by the team on a Dual Shock controller, adding and changing the effects and elaborating on the visual techniques used.

Trophies were not available upon the games original release, but it was later included in the 2.0 patch, along with the ability to install the content of every act to the PlayStation 3's internal hard drive.

Plot
The plot of this game revolves around a rapidly aging Snake, now codenamed "Old Snake", to take down Ocelot who is now fully controlled by Liquid, Snake's twin brother.

The story takes place in 2014, in a world fuelled by "the war economy". Liquid Ocelot now owns the five largest Private Military Companies (PMCs), equalling in power to the US Army and controlled by the mother company "Outer Haven" with Liquid at the helm. Snake is sent by Roy Campbell to assassinate Liquid. The game is split into seven parts. Five playable acts and two epilogue sequences.


 * Act 1 Liquid Sun
 * Act 2 Solid Sun
 * Act 3 Third Sun
 * Act 4 Twin Suns
 * Act 5 Old Sun
 * Debriefing Naked Sin
 * Debriefing Naked Son

Liquid Sun
After the Manhattan Incident, the world was slipping towards a state of total war, with restrictions on military intervention in foreign countries easing, fuelling the need for mercenaries. With the invention of OILIX in the 20th century by Dr. Kio Marv, the world's economy gradually changed from oil reliance to an eventual war reliance. Most world conflicts now rested heavily on the use of PMCs. The five largest of these PMCs were run by a single mother company, known as Outer Heaven with Liquid Ocelot at its helm. In total, these five PMCs were enough to rival the entire United States Military. Liquid was planning his insurrection, and while the UN did not want to get involved, worrying that it could collapse the world's new "war economy", Roy Campbell had taken it upon himself to ensure the world is not plunged into total, never-ending war.

Solid Snake, now suffering from inexplicable advanced ageing, had taken to living his life in solitude. During a visit to the grave of Big Boss, he was approached by Otacon, who informed him that his old friend Roy Campbell was waiting for him. Campbell, now working in the UN's security council, had found Liquid lurking somewhere in the Middle East and Snake, hesitant at first, agreed to a simple mission: to assassinate Liquid.



Gekko
Three days later, Snake made it to the centre of the Middle Eastern war zone, in the back of a truck disguised as a member of the local militia. Suddenly, however, the battle ceased, and Gekko descended from nowhere, triggering an all-out slaughter of the militias. Snake managed to escape detection and proceeded further into the camp.

Further in, Snake met up with the Metal Gear Mk. II inside a ruined building, which handed him a new device: the Solid Eye. Snake also got a Modified Mk.2 handgun that fired tranquilizer rounds and a Springfield "Operator" Handgun. Outside, battle ensued, but Snake made it through to the Militia's safe house by assisting them with the battle. Inside the house, he met gun launderer Drebin, who offered his services to Snake at a price, which they decided could be provided through the Mk. II. Drebin provided him with a M4 Custom, free of charge. At first, the gun's trigger locked on him, but Drebin injected him with more up-to-date nanomachines (at least that was all he said it was), and Snake was able to fire.

Fighting his way through the war torn Middle East, Snake eventually made it to the Advent Palace where his informants planned to rendezvous with him. He was surprised to find Meryl Silverburgh waiting for him, with her new unit, Rat Patrol Team 01. With Liquid in a camp up ahead, Meryl explained the SOP (Sons of the Patriots) system to Snake. When questioned, Snake claimed that he was there merely to assess threat of PMC activities on the United Nation's refugee programs.

After being ambushed by a squad of FROGS, which resulted in a fierce gunfight from the top of the mansion all the way to the basement, the Rat Patrol and Snake parted ways for the time being.

The B&B Corps
Snake headed north towards the enemy encampment where Liquid had been staying, but after getting involved in another heated battle, he witnessed an entire militia unit get wiped out thanks to the Beauty and The Beast Unit. Shortly afterwards, the whole unit quickly dispersed, leaving Snake to observe in awe the destructive aftermath around him.

Moving forward into the PMC Camp, he made his way closer to Liquid before spotting Meryl and her Rat Patrol nearby. She called him on his codec, and although angry that he was indeed there to kill Liquid and not threat assessment, she had to begrudgingly let him continue as she felt she was in no position to stop him.

However, before Snake could act, Liquid quietly commands into his radio, "Activate it". Suddenly, all of the soldiers in the area, the Rat Patrol team included (with the exception of Johnny) fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth and violently convulsing. Snake was also affected, but not to the degree of the other soldiers. After a moment, Naomi Hunter appeared in front of Snake, injecting him with a syringe before disappearing. Snake was then carried to safety by Johnny, the only remaining soldier on the battlefield.

Battle At Highland
Solid Snake, having been unconscious for the whole day, awoke back aboard the Nomad. Otacon told him that, whilst they had no idea what happened in the Middle East, he had received a video message from Naomi, who Snake claimed was there. The message was a plea to be rescued and included an encrypted map of Liquid's South American base. A message from Colonel Campbell confirmed it: Liquid had set up base in South America. Sunny was able to trace where the message came from, and they began the journey to South America.

Snake also discussed Liquid and the Patriots with Campbell. They concluded that, as SOP fitted nicely with their plans, they were most likely behind it, and Liquid's insurrection was most likely against the Patriots.

Having made it to Liquid's South American base, Snake suddenly witnessed chaos erupt in the clearing below. After seeing members of the rebel forces being slaughtered by B&B member Laughing Octopus, Vamp, to Snake and Otacon's shock, emerged from the building, looking for Snake. Following the massacre and failed search, the two left and Snake advanced.

After Snake made it into the heart of the battlefield, he received a call from Campbell. He introduced Snake to a member of the Combat Stress Platoon, whom he recognises as Rosemary, Raiden's ex who was in charge of his mission data during the Manhattan Incident. He quickly deduced that Campbell and Rose were a couple, something Campbell did not deny, and explained why Meryl showed such hostility towards her father.

However, upon advancing further, Snake received another codec call, this time from Raiden himself, claiming he is very close by. He also explained that he had recently been sent on a mission for Big Mama to retrieve the body of Big Boss. Snake then found Drebin yet again, who explained to him about the Beauty and the Beast unit, and revealed to Snake that the Patriots are really just a system of AIs.

Vista Mansion
Snake found Naomi in a secluded building via a secret passage. However, before they were to leave, Naomi insisted she give Snake a full medical examination. Following the tests, she was able to explain Snake's accelerated ageing and revealed the harsh truth: his ageing was incurable; it was simply the way he was designed as a clone. She also found that there was an unexpected problem with the FOXDIE virus that she had injected into Snake almost a decade ago. Since there were no more targets to attack, it had merely been circulating within him since. However, the receptors on the cells were becoming damaged, and it was only a matter of months before FOXDIE become a threat to any human being, and Snake became a walking biological weapon.

In addition, Naomi explained to Snake what actually happened in the Middle East. With Liquid attempting to disable the SOP system inside the soldiers, the sudden freedom proved too much for the soldiers to handle, and they were driven mad. She explained that Liquid was trying to control the system and overthrow the Patriots, but that he would need Big Boss' DNA in order to do that.

Suddenly, the pair were ambushed by a group of FROGS, who quickly took Naomi away. Before he could follow them, Snake had to get through Laughing Octopus, who also put in an appearance, but managed to defeat her. With the help of some scouting tips from Raiden, Snake tracked Naomi to a helipad where she was being loaded onto a helicopter under Vamp's supervision. Just as she appeared lost, who should show up but Drebin, who managed to rescue her and Snake in his tank. With Drebin at the wheel and Snake manning the gun turret on top, the group proceeded to escape.

They made it to a small village where civilians were running for cover. Unable to proceed, they were ambushed by several Gekkos. However, Raiden, now a cyborg ninja, appeared and destroyed every last Gekko, before fighting Vamp. Snake and Naomi escaped with the Mk. II onto Otacon's helicopter, picking up a heavily injured Raiden as they escaped.

Midnight Shadow
Back in the Nomad, Raiden's condition was becoming steadily worse, him badly needing an infusion of artificial White Blood, according to Naomi. Nevertheless, he was able to deliver an instruction to Snake before passing out entirely: "Find Big Mama".

Snake headed to an undisclosed town in Eastern Europe where Big Mama, a name Snake recognized as the leader of the Paradise Lost resistance army, was supposedly hiding. Knowing he would be shot on sight if out in public, Snake used the Facecamo he acquired from Laughing Octopus to make himself appear younger, as well as civilian clothes. However, upon refusing to pass through an ID point, which would have exposed his cover, he is saved by an intervening Meryl, there with Rat Patrol. After conversing about Snake's motive, the two departed on a solemn note.

Snake and Otacon decided that the easiest way to find the resistance member's hideout would be to simply follow a member of the resistance. After trailing a resistance member to an old church, he easily forced his way in and finally met Big Mama, who, as it turned out, was actually EVA. Big Mama was able to explain everything she knew about Big Boss and the Patriots. She explained how the Patriots had originally consisted of her, Major Zero, Sigint (who was also Donald Anderson), Para-Medic (who was also Dr. Clark, the scientist behind Gray Fox's transformation and the Les Enfants Terribles project), Big Boss and Ocelot, and how Zero and Ocelot had started the Patriots using the Philosophers' Legacy with Big Boss as a god-like idol, with the intention of realizing the dream of a unified world, as envisioned by The Boss.

Big Mama then revealed to Snake the shocking truth that Big Boss was still alive, his corpse kept alive through technology, his conscience "locked away" by nanomachines. The body, in fact, was in her possession after being recovered by Raiden, and was kept in the back of a van.

Suddenly, when the unexpected appearance of Dwarf Gekkos compromised their security, Big Mama, Snake and the "children" were forced to move (taking with them the van containing Big Boss' body), a daring motorcycle chase ensuing. With Big Mama driving, Snake managed to blast their way through the dozens of Gekkos and FROGS which blocked their way, but was stopped by Beauty and the Beast unit member Raging Raven. After defeating Raven, Snake helped Big Mama, who was badly injured in the motorcycle crash, to a nearby river where, according to her, Big Boss' body was being transported via boat. Violent Ceasefire

Once there, however, Liquid Ocelot blocked their path. After besting Snake at CQC, he escaped on his boat, accompanied by Vamp and an apparently re-defected Naomi. Snake and Big Mama were, however, also rescued by Rat Patrol, who had with them their own defensive army.

Liquid, however, retrieved Big Boss' corpse from the boat and, using his DNA, was able to finally tap into the SOP system, and Rat Patrol (along with their entire army) found they were unable to even fire a weapon. Liquid's FROGS were obviously not affected as such, and a massacre quickly ensued, resulting in the deaths of every last soldier there, save for Snake and Rat Patrol. Big Mama survived at first, though still badly injured, but was apparently burnt to death after leaping onto a fire to retrieve Big Boss' body, where Vamp had carelessly discarded

Following the horrifying massacre, Johnny was able to save Meryl from drowning, and two embraced in a passionate kiss. Snake, however, was obviously unable to do the same for Big Mama, left with bad burns from trying. Otacon, merely an observer, managed to stow the Mk. II away on Liquid's boat with Naomi.

Twin Suns
Through the Mk. II, Snake and Otacon were able to hear everything said on Liquid's boat. Although the Mk. II was discovered and destroyed by Vamp, they were able to hear enough to figure out Liquid's true plan: to take down The Patriots himself by destroying the main satellite of JD, the head AI. Of course, to do that, he needed a weapon that was powerful enough to fire a missile into space, but was not governed by SOP. The answer was simple: the rail gun from Metal Gear REX.

Deducing that Liquid was planning to revisit Shadow Moses Island, Snake followed him to Alaska, and to the one place he never thought he would return, re-navigating the route he took almost a decade earlier to reach Metal Gear REX's Underground Base.

After a series of haunting flashbacks, Snake emerged into the Snowfield where he fought and killed Sniper Wolf, encountering, to his shock, her doppelganger, B&B member Crying Wolf. After engaging in a lengthy sniper duel, Snake defeated her and continued to the Underground Base. Once there, Otacon used the new Metal Gear Mk. III to reactivate the elevator, taking them up to where REX was still laying unmoved, exactly where Snake had left it. Unfortunately, also waiting for him were Vamp and Naomi. Snake fought Vamp, and as he was already well aware of Vamps regenerative capabilities, managed to subdue him with a CQC administered nanomachine-suppressor injection. Vamp was now mortal, but still just as deadly. Suddenly, Raiden, fully recovered after a White Blood infusion, appeared to fight Vamp while Snake fended off the Suicide Gekko swarming the base. Snake destroyed all the Gekko, and after receiving many wounds, Raiden managed to pull off a devastating swipe to Vamp very much in the way he had killed Solidus. Vamp, now having mortal wounds for the first time, was euthanized by Naomi by a full dose of nano-suppressant.

Vamp defeated, Naomi apologized to Snake and Otacon, before revealing that she had cancer, and injected herself with the syringe, effectively committing suicide. They mourned for their loss, accepting that they would never know where Naomi's true allegiance lied.

One More Reboot
With more Suicide Gekkos on their way, Otacon used the Mk. III to reactivate REX, which now possesses an upgraded operating system, making it faster and more agile than before.

With Raiden hanging on, Snake used REX to escape from the base, but, outside, is ambushed by Metal Gear RAY, being piloted by Liquid. Using an array of weapons built-in to REX, and fully appreciating for the first time what a magnificent weapon it was, Snake destroyed RAY.

Liquid, however, escaped, emerging from the ocean moments later at the helm of his own Arsenal Gear, Outer Haven. Haven, with REX's rail gun now connected to it, rammed itself into the port, almost killing a weak Snake. Luckily, Raiden managed to stop it moving, and was seemingly crushed in the process.

Everything Ends
With Liquid in possession of Metal Gear REX's rail gun and capable of destroying The Patriots' main AI JD, Mei Ling, aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, hatched a plan to infiltrate Outer Haven, which Solid Snake referred to as "Liquid's Own Personal Death Star". Snake happily volunteered for the mission (making no secret of his blatant disregard for his own life), along with Meryl and Johnny.

When the three were preparing to be catapulted onto Haven, Snake ran into catapult provider Drebin, who explained to him the collapse of the war economy that came with Liquid's takeover of the SOP system. The three were then catapulted, but due to a miscalculation, the catapults were all badly off course. Meryl landed on a completely different part of the ship than planned, and Johnny landed in the ocean and had to swim the rest of the way. Snake was the only one who made it to roughly the right area, and had to continue the infiltration alone.

After avoiding the most dense force of Gekkos and FROGS Snake had yet encountered, he made it to the elevator on the far side of the ship, which he was able to use to descend into the heart of Haven. Once the elevator opened, he came face to face with a wave of FROGS, which he quickly (but not easily) dispatched. Then, however, final B&B member Screaming Mantis made an appearance, but Snake was able to overcome her apparent psychic abilities by suppressing his nanomachines with the syringe, and then stealing Mantis' mind-control puppet which hung from her arm. Following her defeat, however, the ghost of Psycho Mantis appeared in her place and, after making several psychic predictions, revealed himself to be the one controlling all of the B&B members, through the body of Screaming Mantis. Although he prepared to attack, another spirit, that of The Sorrow appeared, and banished Mantis forever.

No Place To Hide
The Beauty and the Beast unit was defeated, but Snake's mission was far from over. Continuing through towards the central control room, Meryl and Johnny appeared just in time to save Snake from another wave of FROGS. Meryl and Johnny fended off the seemingly endless supply of soldiers, but things began to look grim when they began to run low on ammunition. In the height of battle, Johnny proposed to Meryl, claiming he had always loved her, and she accepted after some convincing.

Snake was then further outnumbered by a knife-only unit which ambushed him directly outside of the server room. A still armless Raiden then appeared to protect him, and allowed Snake to pass safely. Unfortunately, the battle was still heavily one-sided, and Raiden, although doing well as first, was quickly swarmed and outnumbered.

Snake then faced his next enemy: a collection of microwaves strong enough to cook a human being alive. With no other choice, he began to run, then walk, then crawl through, every second growing weaker from the waves, his OctoCamo being stripped from his skin and his Solid Eye exploding from the heat. However, against all odds, he made it to the server room, and the Mk. II was able to upload the virus, just as Snake, now too weak to fight, was swarmed by an army of Dwarf Gekko.

Full Circle
With the upload of the virus, however, the battle quickly turned. The FROGS ambushing Raiden, Meryl and Johnny went into hysterics when their nanomachines shut down, the Dwarf Gekko surrounding Snake simply switched off, and even the unmanned Metal Gear RAY units attacking the U.S.S. Missouri went limp and slid into the ocean.

However, the virus did more than that. At that moment, a video of Naomi hidden in the virus appeared on the server room computer screens. She explained that she had to pretend that she was kidnapped (and engineer her rescue from South America by Snake) so that she could give the virus she had developed to Sunny to finish. Sunny had not only finished the virus, but modified it to spread to the other AIs that made up the Patriots, eliminating them entirely.

The Patriots were no more, but Liquid made a final appearance. Dragging Snake to the top of Outer Haven, he challenged him to a hand-to-hand duel. During the fight, however, Ocelot's old memories began to show through. Upon being defeated by Snake, Ocelot explained that he was in fact not Liquid at all, but simply pretending to be him in order to fool the Patriots. With the Patriots destroyed, he could give up the act, and became Ocelot once again, exclaiming "You're pretty good", before finally expiring due to the new FOXDIE virus inside Snake.

Otacon explained during the aftermath how Sunny had re-worked the virus Naomi gave her to "destroy the brain, but [leave] the brain stem intact." Whereas simply eliminating the Patriots would have plunged the world into a chaos, Sunny made it so that everything that they had regulated (everything vital to society) would remain as-is, and the world could truly live free for the first time in many years.

Naked Sin
After destroying the Patriots' AI constructs, Meryl Silverburgh and Johnny Sasaki had their wedding at an undisclosed location. Roy Campbell finally returned to bury the hatchet with his daughter, and give her away to her new husband. Also attending were Otacon, Sunny, Jonathan, and Ed, who acted as the master of ceremonies and officially wed the couple. However, before the wedding could be completed, one final guest, Drebin, made an appearance providing the happy couple with a shower of flowers.

Drebin, drunk due to the nanomachines not metabolizing the alcohol for him any more, filled in the gaps for Otacon. He revealed that all of the Drebins were, in actuality, Patriot agents, which is why they were able to hack SOP so easily, and he was under orders from the Patriots to assist Snake and Rat Pt. 01 in their mission to exterminate Liquid. In fact, Rat Pt. 01 being an anagram for "PatR10t" (Patriot), finally left no doubt as to the team's true benefactors.

Sunny, meanwhile, had made her first outside friend, and asked Otacon if she could give him the Mk. III. Otacon obliged, and also told her that she could leave the Nomad if she wanted to. Sunny, however, only had one thing on her mind: Snake. Asking where Snake was, Otacon choked back tears, only able to explain to her that Snake was "sick" and needed some time to get better.

Meanwhile, at a hospital, Raiden was recovering from his operation, which had replaced his cyborg implants with ones more closely resembling a human body. As he rested, Rosemary entered with a mysterious young boy, but Raiden, at first, refused to speak to her. In tears, Rosemary revealed that both the marriage and her miscarriage were lies to protect them and Raiden from the Patriots, a cover for which Campbell had to sacrifice his own family. She also revealed that the boy she was with was Raiden's son, Little John. After one look at the boy, all the hostility and doubt in Raiden's mind was extinguished, and all three of them embraced, Rosemary promising to never let him go again.

Father & Son
Meanwhile, Solid Snake was, in actuality, visiting the grave of Big Boss once again. Collapsing in front of the grave, he vowed that the last thing for him to do - his final mission - was to take his own life, thereby erasing his genes and memes from the Earth, and removing the threat of the mutated FOXDIE strain. Finishing his last cigarette, he put his gun in his mouth and fired.

However, he could not do it, and had fired up into the air at the last moment. In that moment, like a guardian angel, appeared Big Boss, alive and unscathed. He explained that his body had been reassembled (using pieces of Liquid and Solidus) by EVA and Raiden rather than simply kept alive on a machine, and that the body in EVA's van that was burnt to ashes by Ocelot in Eastern Europe was in fact the body of Solidus. Ocelot was able to use the genetic code from this body to access the SOP system, because Solidus, unlike Liquid or Solid, was a perfect clone of Big Boss.

Big Boss then explained to Snake how Ocelot, in order to fool the system, used a mixture of nanomachines and psychotherapy to turn him into Liquid's mental doppelganger, as well as fully explaining the history of the Patriots from his point of view. Once the virus opened the gateway from GW to the Patriots, Big Boss was able to finally determine to location of Zero. He then showed Snake an ancient, wheelchair-bound Zero on a life support machine, and claimed that the Patriots would not be completely destroyed until he "takes everything back to zero". With that, Big Boss pulled the plug from Zero's air supply, euthanizing him.

With Major Zero dead, Big Boss was the last Patriot. When Snake asked if he would kill himself, Big Boss replied that he did not need to. The FOXDIE virus injected into Snake by Drebin that killed Ocelot was also set to kill Big Boss. Big Boss explains that this FOXDIE virus would replace the original, mutated strain in Snake's system, and therefore there was no threat of him becoming a biological weapon. Before dying, Snake's father embraced his son in a fatherly hug, making Snake promise to cast off his role as a snake, and to spend his few remaining days as a man. Cigar in his mouth, hand raised in the salute he gave fifty years earlier, Big Boss passed away on the grave of The Boss, the woman that taught him everything.

Sometime later, Otacon caught up with Snake and asked him where he was going. Snake, who had decided to quit smoking, responded that "there's one thing [he] still needs to do", that was to "see this age off [and] see what the future brings."

Otacon insisted that he and Sunny accompany him to document the final days of his hero and friend and, after some persuasion, Snake agreed. Sunny, however, was not there to hear this; she was still cooking eggs in the Nomad, finally getting it right. Proudly, she exclaimed:

"They look yummy. Sorta like the sun. It's Rising again!"

- Sunny

Criticism

 * Zero Punctuation

Related Games

 * Metal Gear Solid
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Unofficial Websites

 * Metal Gear Solid 4 Page at Gamepro
 * MGS4 at IGN

de:Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots