Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Member Review for the PS3

There's just too much about this game that screams perfection. It's polished, it's balanced, it's creative and it's a lot of fun. One could argue that it's about 35% gameplay, 55% cut-scenes, 10% codec conversations. But it's all in the name of an epic conclusion to an epic storyline.

I can't help but thinking that the game's developer, Hideo Kojima, was not too excited about directing another Metal Gear game this time around, and it shows within the story. I was happy about how some things turned out, but there are just too many ridiculousness in some areas that you might as well picture Kojima giving you the finger and shouting: "Stop playing my damn game thinking I'm a genious so I can finally have some closure and focus on my other project... A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden."

Even with the gameplay elements that were updated, one feels that Kojima made it so he could please his crowd, but not himself. Now this is more a third person stealth action shooter with some horror moments in a platforming world. But it's so well made, a story so well told that I can only bow in front of a true artist and enjoy the ride.

Metal Gear fans will react the same way they've been reacting to earlier games: They will be shocked at first, cry in fury later with denial, laugh at the "stupidnesses" of the story twists, have panic attacks, then they will sit still and watch the cut-scenes in a catatonic-esque state, and finally, after some game therapy and some awesome and rather easy boss fights, they will accept their fate and the fate of their beloved franchise. We Metal Gear fans are very much bipolar psychopaths.

But that's what we expect from this game. Something to torture our intellect and our emotions. And Kojima delivers entirely and elegantly. We go out with a bang. We go out fighting. Now that this is over, bring on that Hitler musical!