Jump to content

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 85.81.45.10 (talk) at 08:45, 25 June 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Future game You must add a |reason= parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|June 2006|reason=<Fill reason here>}}, or remove the Cleanup template.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The official MGS4 logotype on E3 2006 stand.
Developer(s)Kojima Productions
Publisher(s)Konami
Designer(s)Hideo Kojima (producer, director)
Shuyo Murata (director)
Kenichiro Imaizumi (producer)
Yoji Shinkawa (character designer)
Composer(s)
  • Kazuma Jinnouchi Edit this on Wikidata
Platform(s)PlayStation 3
ReleaseTBA 2007
Genre(s)Stealth-action
Mode(s)Single player, online multiplayer

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (commonly abbreviated MGS4) will be the last iteration in the Metal Gear Solid series of stealth-based games, as announced by Konami in March 2005. Using the motto "No place to hide" and the theme of "Senses", the game is being produced by Kenichiro Imaizumi, with series creator Hideo Kojima co-directing the game with Shuyo Murata. It is being developed by Kojima Productions for the PlayStation 3.

Director Discussion

Initially, Hideo Kojima announced that he would be retiring as director of the Metal Gear series after Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and would leave his position open to another person for Metal Gear Solid 4. As a joke, the new director was announced as "Alan Smithee", the pseudonym often used by Hollywood film directors who do not wish to be credited for their work. An early trailer for the game also displayed the words "No place to hide", and then the slightly-altered "No place for Hideo?"

In R, a 400-page book bundled with Metal Gear Solid 3's Japanese "Premium Package", the director was revealed to be Shuyo Murata, co-writer of MGS3 and director of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner. He has also contributed humorous easter eggs to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear: Ghost Babel.

However, on May 17 2005, it was announced on Kojima Productions' official website that Kojima will be co-directing the game with Murata, due to substantial negative fan reaction and even death threats. [1]

Plot

Set sometime after the Manhattan incident (the events of Metal Gear Solid 2), restriction of military intervention on foreign soil has eased, leading to demands on mercenaries to fight proxy battles for business purposes, thus fueling the need for private military contractors and automated weapons. However, the five largest PMCs are revealed to be owned by a single mother company, Outer Heaven (the name of Big Boss' mercenary company and fortified nation in the original Metal Gear), operated by Liquid Snake. It is revealed that Outer Heaven has amassed a military equivalent in power to the United States' own, as well as the rest of the world. Moreover, it is also revealed that the ArmsTech Corporation (the original manufacturer of Metal Gear REX) is supplying their weapons to both Outer Heaven and the U.S. military. With the world in crisis, Solid Snake is deployed by the United Nations to infiltrate Outer Heaven's headquarters, located in the Middle East.[1]

Also at E³ 2006, Hideo Kojima revealed that Solid Snake's age in Metal Gear Solid 4 is 43 years old, which implies that the game takes place in 2015, six years after Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. [2]

Returning Characters

Hideo Kojima has stated that unlike in MGS2 and MGS3, Solid Snake will indeed be the primary playable character.

Visually confirmed in the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo trailer are:

During one of Kojima's Hideochan Radio blogs, Houko Kuwashima also confirmed she will reprise her role as Mei Ling. The E3 2005 preview poster for the game also features Big Boss's body, but it is not yet known what role he will play, along with Vamp from MGS2.

As of yet, no new characters have been introduced, save a single child in the E3 poster; odd, given that all past series entries have brought in complex webs of new antagonists and relationships.

Gameplay

Kojima has stated the main new concept for MGS4 will be "No Place To Hide!" This theme does not imply that the trademark stealth gameplay of the Metal Gear series will be abandoned; instead, he suggests that many traditional ways of sneaking and hiding will change and that players will have to find new ways of using stealth. Walls may be destroyed, exposing Snake to the enemy, or elements such as trucks and crates may move. While the Tokyo Game Show 2005 and E3 2006 trailers were rendered in realtime, it has yet to be revealed what the actual in-game gameplay will be like. Hideo Kojima has declined to discuss much about the gameplay, but it is speculated that it will be unveiled during either the Tokyo Game Show 2006 or E3 2007.

Sense

Kojima has stated that with the PlayStation 3, he will be able to focus on the things we can't see. In an interview, he explained that the things we can't see will be things like sound, and how they affect the environment. As such, if a building is severely damaged, the resulting sound from a nearby explosion could cause the building to crumble and fall. He also stressed what he referred to as "sense," which is also a branch of the "things we can't see" tag. As such, sound, touch, vision, and all the senses will help make up the game.

Furthermore, he is planning to consult psychiatrists on how to emphasize a "mental battle" between Snake and his enemies, so that "who controls the fear can decide the outcome". The game's trailer hints that the tactical Metal Gears featured in the game are designed to play with Snake's emotions: one unit paws the ground and growls like a bull while hunting for Snake, while another makes cicada noise to create a false sense of security.

Continuing with this theme, the soldiers Snake will encounter are not specifically friends or enemies at first - rather, the player's actions towards them will influence how they respond to Snake. In an interview in Edge, Kojima stated that he plans to allow players to have a greater effect on the enemy than just fighting them, allowing alliances and agressions to form and change between Snake and the other parties on the battlefield.

Metal Gear Mk.II

Snake will also be partnered with a robotic navigator. Kojima has gone on record that there is no relation between a near-identical robot in his previous game Snatcher and the one Otacon manipulates. It is controlled remotely by Otacon. Snake uses the Mk. II to communicate with him, which serves as a substitute to the nanomachine-based communication system (CODEC) from previous games. Kojima commented that the development team will experiment with the idea of controlling the Mk. II via remote control for reconnaissance using the Playstation Portable, although the feature might not be in the final game if it's not considered practical.

Continuing the Bloodline

The game is planned to utilize a new 360-degree third-person camera system in addition to the top-down camera used in the previous three Metal Gear Solid games. An experimental version of this camera system is included in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Another feature that debuted in Subsistence, an online battle mode, will also be featured in MGS4.

Continuing but simplifying the camoflage system seen in MGS3, Snake will wear "Octocamo" (named after octopuses' camouflage ability), which will be mimetic and will imitate the appearance of the environment it's in.

In a landmark turn for the series, the graphics will emphasize natural movement in actions such as an enemy's discovery of Snake, thus eliminating the need of exclamation marks as an indicator.

Japanese cast

Character Voice
Solid Snake Akio Otsuka
Hal "Otacon" Emmerich Hideyuki Tanaka
Naomi Hunter Hiromi Tsuru
Colonel Roy Campbell Takeshi Aono
Liquid Snake/Ocelot Banjo Ginga
Meryl Silverburgh Kyoko Terase
Raiden Kenyu Horiuchi
Mei Ling Houko Kuwashima

References

  1. ^ Show Maybe, promotional pamphlet distributed at E3 2006.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Metal_Gear_Solid_4:_Guns_of_the_Patriots&oldid=60466115"