This review has been meticulously purged of all spoilers. EXTERMINATUS!

Listen, I love the Metal Gear franchise. I wuv it THISSSSSS MUCH. I even went to a midnight launch event at my local GameStop, SAT IN THE COLD FOR A GOOD 3-4 HOURS BECAUSE "We can't have you all in our store, you'll make a mess lol," AND THEN PAID $90 AMERICAN FOR THE SPECIAL EDITION. Not to mention the fact I bought a PSTripple just to play it.

To put it bluntly, I love this game more than any of you ever will. And even I am disappointed.

Negatives first...

The biggest flaw in the design of MGS4 is the total lack of stealth. Now, yes you can sneak around. In fact, the stealth system has been improved dramatically. However, the game throws so many weapons and clips of ammo at you, its pretty much pointless. There's no resource management, easily my favorite aspect of the MGS series. You don't even need to shake dead bodies for those precious rations. You can literally run and gun your way through hard mode, and still have an overabundance of supplies.

MGS4 is also a lot more linear than previous entries in the series. While previous games gave you a single base or area to explore freely, challenging you to gather keycards and weapons to open new paths, MGS4 simply expects the player to be able to head in one direction, fight a boss, then go in another direction. No guided missile puzzles, no "Use C4 to open up a wall" puzzles, nothing.

Now, lets take a trip down memory lane, shall we? Remember how in MGS3, you could equip an item, and call up every Codec contact you had and each would give you a different opinion on the item. Remember how in-depth some of those random Codec conversations were? Every MGS had them. MGS4, however, only has 2 Codec contacts, neither of which have anything interesting to say, ever. Why even give me a Codec? There's TONS of characters you meet in the game, most of which you cooperate with in one way or another, but I can only call two of them?

But, the game is still far from a total flop. For starters, it has a fairly decent story, assuming you've played every single MGS game to date, and dedicated damn near every line of dialog to memory. Otherwise, the game just answers a bunch of questions you never asked. And yes, MGS4 really does tie up every loose end. In addition, it provides some pretty fantastic twists, one of which actually surprised me.

Also, despite the fact that the game encourages combat more than stealth, the combat is actually really fun. Tons of weapons, many of which can be customized, will all see use in the numerous firefights you're bound to get in. The combat really shines, however, during the numerous boss encounters. Easily the best boss fights the series has seen yet, while the bosses themselves are second only to the former Foxhound unit encountered in MGS1.

The Audio and Visual aspects of the game are nothing short of astonishing. I feel they are the only parts of the game that were really fleshed out, if not the only parts that make use of the PS3 hardware. They're easily the saving grace of MGS4.

Easter Egg's are pretty common in the MGS series, and they're definitely present here. While only one or two of them are related to Codec conversations, many Easter Eggs are found while either exploring the various environments, paying close attention the cut scenes, inspecting weapons and items, and occasionally while watching the enemy's behavior. Lots of really fun, interesting, stuff to be had if you care enough to look for it.

Finally, there's the AI. Only once or twice in the game did I notice an enemy doing something that was clearly scripted. The AI not only responds to certain situations with a pretty impressive range of emotions, but they also provide covering fire for their squad mates in addition to numerous other maneuvers. For once, I wasn't playing against an army of drones that simply "RUSH THE PC WHEN YOU SEE HIM."

Ultimately, I feel MGS4 is a good game. It's not the greatest. Hell, it's not even great. But, it does what it set out to do, which is to close the MGS story once and for all.

7/10, simply because they included the fantastic MGO in the whole package, which has replaced COD4 as my Online Shooter of choice.