Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was released in 2008 and takes place in 2014. It places the player character in substantially different circumstances than previous games: instead of Storming the Castle (or rather infiltrating it in disguise), the game's different levels take place in various war-torn nations, with soldiers from multiple sides coming into (automated) conflict with each other. While I Work Alone is always an option, the player now has the opportunity to side with one force, gaining allies as well as enemies. The game replaces the previous game's Stamina meter with a "Psyche" meter, roughly corresponding to the player character's confidence and self-esteem; it causes "stress" to go up or down, and can also affect aim and the speed at which your (rather slow to begin with) Regenerating Health works.
In the years between the Big Shell Incident and today, the Patriots have expanded their control over the world, primarily by way of nanomachines. Nanos now regulate the physical and emotional responses of all soldiers on the battlefield, through a system called "SOP" (Sons of The Patriots). This system not only gives soldiers enhanced senses, reflexes, and the ability to better coordinate in teams, it includes ID locks that prevent a soldier from even firing a weapon that they are not authorized to use. As an added bonus, it also suppresses all the combat stress and trauma a soldier would otherwise accrue as s/he is exposed to more battles. Private Military Contractors have become the driving military forces of the day, and a "war economy" has sprung up around the constant proxy conflicts being fought throughout the world, which in turn make up a huge percentage of the revenues for most world economies. And the one thing a war always needs is reserves, resulting in a somewhat dismal state of affairs as the game opens.
Chapter 1 - Liquid Sun
Solid Snake is 42 years old, but looks 70 due to Rapid Aging (much like Solidus Snake, he had a genetic failsafe installed during the cloning process to prevent him from becoming a threat in case he should become too independent for his creators' taste). He and Otacon have adopted Olga Gurlukovich's daughter and named her Sunny. Nonetheless, Col. Campbell hoists him out of retirement under orders from the United Nations Security Council for one last campaign. Liquid Ocelot, as he now calls himself, has poised himself to take over five of the biggest PMCs and consolidate them into one. The UNSC fears he is planning an insurrection to take advantage of the War Economy. Snake is commissioned to kill him before he can do so. Since his body is deteriorating, he is outfitted with a muscle suit that augments his physique and also contains "OctoCamo," a context-sensitive color-shifting system that will automatically adopt the visual texture of anything Snake chooses to stand near, as well as an eyepatch, the "Solid Eye," that acts as a Heads Up Display. Supported primarily by Otacon, who drives a small, Invisibility Cloaked robot called the Metal Gear Mark II, Snake is dropped into the Middle East where Ocelot is making his play.Snake is ordered to meet up with Rat Patrol 01, a special forces team already on the ground who have been surveilling Ocelot for months. The four-person fire team consists of Ed, sniper and radioman; Jonathan, the heavy-weapons guy; Johnny "Akiba" Sasaki, a clumsy and uncoordinated tech expert and Ascended Extra from Metal Gear Solid; and their leader, none other than Meryl Silverburgh. Snake also encounters a gun launderer, Drebin 893, who injects him with nanomachines that will allow him to bypass ID locks and use any weapon acquired on the battlefield, be it from the PMCs or the rebels he can befriend and ally with. This unlocks another mechanic of the game: collecting weapons will earn Snake "Drebin Points," which can later be used to gain access to new gear. Drebin's first gift becomes Snake's primary weapon: while Otacon has already gifted him with a tranquilizer pistol and a Springfield Operator (a version of the Colt M1911 .45 favored by his father, and indeed by many professional soldiers in Real Life), Snake now gets his hands on a M4 Carbine which can be modified with a variety of Gun Accessories, turning into into a custom platform that suits the player's needs. Snake continues to wield this M4 throughout most Cut Scenes.
In addition to soldiers from both sides of the proxy conflict, Snake must also contend with "GEKKO", NATO allied codename "IRVING", cyborg mecha which imitate animals, and the "FROGs," Liquid's private army of Action Girls, so named because they can Wall Crawl. He is also introduced to the BB Corps, the Beauty and the Beast Unit—traumatized women who have become cyborg war machines as their only means of coping with PTSD. Each embodies a trait from one member of the Quirky Miniboss Squads of previous games: Crying Wolf combines The Sorrow's emotion, Sniper Wolf's job and Fortune's railgun; Raging Raven has Vulcan Raven's name, The Fury's emotion and Fatman's explosives; Laughing Octopus has Decoy Octopus's name, The Boss's emotion (remember, her original codename was The Joy) and Solidus's tentacles and FN P90; and Screaming Mantis has Vamp's throwing knives, The Fear and The Pain, and Psycho Mantis's name. After Snake defeats each one, Drebin will typically call over CODEC and give an Info Dump on the woman's Back Story, thanking Snake for helping her find peace. (Why Drebin cares about them is left unexplained, though their Stripperiffic costumes might have something to do with it.)
Snake reaches Ocelot's encampment with the help of Rat Patrol 01, and is surprised to find Dr. Naomi Hunter in his company. However, Snake is unable to complete the hit, as Ocelot somehow incapacitates every soldier present, including Snake alongside Rat Patrol 01 and his own Praying Mantis PMC troops. The sole immune survivor is Akiba, who gradually drags everyone to safety.
Chapter 2 - Solid Sun
Naomi passes a coded message to Snake, indicating that she is being compelled to perform Ocelot's research in South America and begging for rescue. Upon rendezvous, she puts Snake through a comprehensive physical examination and determines the cause of his accelerated aging: during the cloning process, the enfants terrible were deliberately programmed with Clone Degeneration in the form of Werner syndrome
. She also discovers that the original FOXDIE virus, still lying dormant in his body, is beginning to decay, losing the careful targeting parameters she designed it with. She estimates that Snake has only about six months before it begins to kill indiscriminately, turning him into a walking plague, a biological WMD that can cause The End of the World as We Know It thanks to FOXDIE's mutation.Naomi is hustled away by Pieurve Armament PMC soldiers while Snake takes on Laughing Octopus. After defeating her, receiving the Drebin spiel, and getting an item from her—an OctoCamo balaclava that allows him to disguise his entire head—he recovers Naomi and the two begin to head towards Otacon's chopper with the help of Drebin and his Stryker ICV. However, Liquid has a few too many Gekko to send, and all looks hopeless... until a cyborg ninja drops in to provide help. It's Raiden. Though he had intended to give up the soldierly life, he and Rosemary separated after she miscarried their child; she went on to marry Campbell of all people, and is actually one of Snake's CODEC contacts (along with Otacon and Campbell himself) throughout the game. Raiden, for his part, is instantly Rescued from the Scrappy Heap when he takes on several Gekko with nothing but his sword. (His character model shows a Heckler und Koch Mk. 23 Mod 0 in a thigh holster, but he never once uses it.) Then Vamp shows up, and Raiden takes on him in a tour-de-force display of acrobatics and stabbery. The battle is inconclusive, due to Vamp's annoying Resurrective Immortality, and Raiden is forced to retreat to the chopper, badly wounded.
Chapter 3 - Third Sun
Snake and Otacon make contact with a resistance group in Eastern Europe who have the equipment to heal Raiden. They also claim to have taken custody of Big Boss's remains, which makes them a target for Liquid as he will need Big Boss's biometrics to hack into The Patriots' system. Snake sets out to infiltrate "Paradise Lost" and meet its leader, Big Mama. Meanwhile, Naomi seduces Otacon, but slips away the next morning.When Snake meets Big Mama, he is surprised to learn that she is none other than EVA, still kicking ass and taking names. He is also surprised to learn that she is his mother: though he was conceived in a test tube, The Patriots did not have the technology to replace the human uterus, and EVA volunteered to carry both him and Liquid Snake. She is also able to give the franchise's first reliable Info Dump on the Patriots — seeing as how she was once one herself.
Not long after Operation Snake Eater, the six living members of the mission with ties to the West — Naked Snake (Big Boss), Ocelot, EVA, Zero, SIGINT and Para-Medic — gathered. With the help of the Philosophers' Legacy, they decided to fulfill The Boss's last wish: to create a world where nations would not discard soldiers for political expediency. Zero's method for accomplishing this was to rule the world from behind the scenes; after all, there would be no wars if the whole world was unified. In pursuit of this goal, Zero began to inflate Big Boss's reputation. Big Boss began to chafe under this agenda, having more interest in his own dream of a world where soldiers were free to choose their own fates and causes. The Les Enfants Terribles project, initiated without Big Boss's consent, was the final straw, and Big Boss left the cabal for good. EVA went with him, but Ocelot, clearly adept at playing the Double Reverse Quadruple Agent, agreed to remain as their spy in the ranks. The three of them watched as Zero's "Patriots" exploded in size and scope over the years, gradually becoming the colossal monster of Solid Snake's time—all driven by a tragic misunderstanding of what The Boss wanted. Although Big Boss attempted to put a stop to these machinations at Outer Heaven and Zanzibar Land, Solid Snake defeated him both times and rendered him comatose in the latter incident. Zero, not wanting to lose an icon and still bitter over the betrayal from someone he deemed a friend, then injected Big Boss's body with nanomachines to prevent him from ever waking up and to act as the biometric key to their system. EVA has now gained possession of that Empty Shell.
The exposition is interrupted by "Dwarf Gekko", or "Scarabs", little metal balls with one eye and three arms, who have found EVA's hideout and report it to Ocelot, who dispatches Raven Sword PMC troops, FROGs, and Gekko to take out the Paradise Lost forces. As Paradise Lost deploys a number of vans and decoys to attempt to get Big Boss's remains out of the city, EVA herself takes to the streets on her motorcycle, with Snake riding shotgun. The opposition is led by Raging Raven, whose air forces prove to have the decisive edge. Snake shoots Raven down, gaining her Milkor MGL grenade launcher, but not before EVA takes a debilitating wound to the abdomen. The two limp their way to the Volta River, where Big Boss's actual corpse is waiting... but, alas, Liquid Ocelot has already found it. Even worse, he doesn't need it, having already found a backdoor into SOP. He sets Big Boss's remains alight, and Snake is burned across the face trying (unsuccessfully) to save it. Outnumbered by US Army and Marine Corps reinforcements brought in by the also-present Rat Patrol 01, Ocelot then demonstrates his mastery of SOP by disabling men, tanks, boats and even helicopters solely by shutting down their nanomachines; his Haven Trooper bodyguards massacre most of them. Akiba is once again the only person to withstand his influence. Snake cradles his mother as she apparently dies from the combination of exhaustion and the wounds she sustained. Fortunately, all of Rat Patrol survives (along with a handful of troops from the accompanying task force), and Drebin soon arrives to take Snake to safety.
Chapter 4 - Twin Suns
The nerds are having their day: besides Akiba, the only person who managed to keep his head was Otacon. He snuck the Mark II onto Liquid's boat as it sailed away down the Volta. Though it is caught and destroyed, it is first able to catch Ocelot, Vamp and Naomi discussing the remainder of the plan: to destroy a satellite which contains JD, the Patriot AI in charge of everything. Its loss will cause the Number Two AI, GW, to step up—and, since Ocelot already controls it, put him in charge of the world. To accomplish this, though, he needs a weapon system that can get things into orbit but predates ID locks. The only thing that fits the criteria is the railgun aboard Metal Gear REX. Consequently, Chapter 4 is a Whole Episode Flashback to Metal Gear Solid 1, as Snake returns to Shadow Moses, the place where, for most of us, it all began (Metal Gear 1 and 2 were not released in America until being bundled in an Updated Re-release of Snake Eater), including a comment from Otacon about how Snake needs to switch to the game's second CD... Oh wait, the PlayStation 3 runs on Blu-Ray now, ha-ha, that won't be necessary.Snake finds Vamp and Naomi at Shadow Moses, but is delayed in pursuing them by having to fight Crying Wolf in the same snowfield where he put an end to Sniper Wolf nine years earlier. He then descends into the hangar and finds REX basically where he left it. Unfortunately, its railgun is already gone. Even worse, Vamp wants a fight, and while Snake can totally kill him — some Sniper Rifles deal a One-Hit Kill, for instance — he persists in his habit of not remaining dead. Snake, having learned from Naomi in Chapter 2 that Vamp's Regenerating Health comes from nanomachines, injects him with the same suppressor shot he (Snake) has been using to quell his own aging-related symptoms. This turns off Vamp's Resurrective Immortality: the next time he dies, he's going to stay dead. So Raiden pops in to finish the job. As Otacon uses the Metal Gear Mark III (replacing the destroyed older model) to boot REX back up, Raiden takes Vamp in a Knife Fight atop REX's back; Snake protects them in Split Screen, fending off flocks of Suicide GEKKO, backed up by regular GEKKO to protect them, with the help of Wolf's railgun. After Vamp is finally killed, Naomi, admitting she has cancer and is basically alive only because of nanomachines, injects herself with the same suppressors and expires on the spot, to Otacon's sorrow.
Ocelot floods the hangar with Suicide GEKKO, so Snake, Raiden and Otacon escape in REX. Outside, though, they find Ocelot waiting... in RAY. It's the fight every player never realized they wanted: REX vs RAY, Humongous Mecha smashing each other to pieces. It should be a Curb-Stomp Battle, since RAY was designed specifically to exploit weaknesses in the REX design... but REX is piloted by the Player Character, so it wins. Annoyingly, this doesn't stop Ocelot, who simply dashes down a pier and jumps onto his flagship: Outer Haven, an Arsenal Gear, hosting GW and now featuring REX's railgun. Ocelot gives orders to ram the pier, intending to simply squish Snake to death. However, in for his Taking the Bullet moment is Raiden. He—somehow—pushes Outer Haven back, slowing its rush long enough for Snake to scramble away. As his body sinks into the frigid waters, we are treated to flashbacks of the day he first met Rosemary.
Outer Haven retreats under fire from the newly-arrived USS Missouri; the latter is a WWII-era Iowa-class battleship, now used for training and not outfitted with SOP, modern naval weaponry, or tracking/radar systems, under the command of Captain Mei Ling. Snake and Otacon retreat to it whilst Raiden's body is fished from the water.
Chapter 5 - Old Sun
The situation is grim. Outer Haven will be in position to fire on JD before long. The only hope for the world is for a small strike team to infiltrate Outer Haven and upload a virus, programmed by Naomi, into GW. In addition to sneaking through a giant submarine crawling with enemy soldiers, the person attempting to reach GW will need to make it through a hallway that literally microwaves everything inside it. Meryl, Akiba and Snake, the only able-bodied soldiers left, volunteer. Their plan calls for insertion of the strike team onto Outer Haven via catapults while the latter ship is above water to conduct the nuclear strike against JD, which, owing to Earth's gravitational field, unstable seas, and the accuracy and blast radius limitations of REX's railgun, can only be done when the satellite reaches its perigee 494 nautical miles (915 km) from the Bering Strait. The remaining sailors and Marines of the Missouri are meanwhile tasked with fending off the inevitable counterattack from Liquid Ocelot's FROGs, Dwarf Gekko and automated Metal Gear RAYs. Drebin is also present to provide last-minute assistance by selling discounted "naked" weaponry and equipment to both the strike team and the Missouri crew. Our heroes are now the only thing standing between Liquid Ocelot and the total subjugation of the human race. As Colonel Campbell puts it...- "Failure will spell doom for the human race."
The infiltration begins poorly, with Meryl landing in the wrong part of the ship and Akiba missing entirely, plunging into the ocean. Snake continues alone, eventually reaching a central computer room. Here, Screaming Mantis, the leader and only surviving member of the BBs, makes her play, once again turning Meryl's weapons against her. Even worse, switching the controller port (or rather, switching which player the controller is assigned to) doesn't work. Snake has to shoot one of her mind-control dolls (shaped like Psycho Mantis and The Sorrow) out of her hands and use it against her. Afterwards, the spirit of Psycho Mantis appears and declares that he has been controlling Screaming Mantis, and through her the entire BB Corps, the entire time. He prepares to attack, but is banished by, of all people, The Sorrow, allowing Snake to progress.
Meryl offers to make a Last Stand holding the computer room. She is on the verge of being overwhelmed until Akiba shows up. He explains that he is, and always has been, free of the control of Mantises and Ocelots everywhere because he has no nanomachines, making him a muggle in a World of Badass. It's also why he's never coordinated with Rat Patrol 01, who receive information from each other through the nanos. But when it's just him and Meryl, it's Battle Couple time. As the Back-to-Back Badasses Hold the Line, He reveals that he has loved her ever since that moment they first laid eyes on each other at Shadow Moses, and begs her to marry him. She refuses... preferring that she ask him instead.
Snake continues onward but is ultimately trapped by FROGs just outside the microwave corridor. Things look grim—the Mark III prepares to enter open combat, something it is clearly not equipped to do—until Raiden appears. Though he is armless, he can still hold his sword in his teeth... and electrocute people on command. He offers to travel to the server room, but Snake insists on doing it himself, in atonement for how The Patriots, Big Boss, and the Les Enfants Terribles clones have ultimately ruined the world as well as Raiden's life. So Raiden makes a Last Stand with only his sword, his teeth and his legs to defend him.
Snake enters the microwave hallway. It's a Button Mashing minigame where Snake has to walk—crawl—drag himself—down the hallway, as his equipment overheats, as rounds from his weapons cook off, as the water in his body begins to boil and evaporate, as the artificial fibers of his muscle suit begin to glow white hot. In Split Screen, the travails of the battle—Johnny and Meryl becoming overwhelmed and running out of ammunition; Raiden being repeatedly subdued and knocked down by machete-wielding FROGs; the defenders on the USS Missouri under heavy fire and gradually taking casualties; Otacon dodging enemies and trying to hang onto his laptop (with which he is controlling the Mk. III) while Mei Ling prepares to defend herself with a pistol; Campbell and Rosemary pacing their office in helpless frustration—are displayed, underscored by a One-Woman Wail soundtrack that leaves most players hammering away at their controllers in agony. Once Snake gets through, the Mark III (apparently made of microwave-proof materials and totally unscathed) does all the work, leaving players with the nagging question of why Snake had to Escort Mission it at all. It's also one of the most powerful emotional beats of the franchise, and possibly in all of Video Games history.
The virus does far more than intended: it not only destroys GW, but also deletes JD and the remaining Patriot A.I.s as well. A video from Naomi then plays, explaining that Sunny helped her write the virus—or rather, that she helped Sunny. Using her knowledge of FOXDIE, Sunny crafted a virus which Naomi has dubbed FOXALIVE. It will wipe out the controlling elements of SOP and the entire Patriot AI network while leaving behind the code which helps keep the infrastructure of the world running. Outside, Ocelot's soldiers begin to collapse in emotional breakdowns as their feelings and regrets, previously suppressed by SOP, come screaming back to them. The AI-controlled war machines, like the RAYs and three-armed Dwarf Gekko, are all disabled en masse, with some even tumbling into the ocean. Mei Ling calls for a surrender. The world is saved, and our heroes have seemingly prevailed.
But Ocelot is not done. He drags Snake to the sail of Outer Haven for one last fistfight. It's the Final Battle of the franchise (or, at least, was thought to be, until Phantom Pain came out), and each of the four phases of the Duel Boss fight uses the play controls, GUI, mechanics and audiovisual cues of each numbered game in the series released to that point. Finally, Snake wins, and Liquid Ocelot, who has now reverted to his original persona in his death throes as Revolver Ocelot AKA ADAM (70 years old), is defeated once and for all. Before he passes, he manages to tell Snake that "I am Liquid's doppleganger, and you are his. Just like your father. You're pretty good.", even managing to perform his trademark hand gestures as a final "salute" of sorts for Snake. It's clear that in his final moments, Ocelot sees Snake as being equal to or better than Big Boss. Otacon then arrives via helicopter and airlifts a convalescing (and asleep) Snake to safety, privately wondering what the world lost and what it gained now that the Patriots were finally destroyed, heralding the start of a new and hopefully brighter future.
Epilogue - Naked Sin
As Meryl dresses for her wedding, she and Campbell finally reconcile, and she asks him to walk her down the aisle. The other half of Rat Patrol 01 have recovered from their ordeals on the Volta: Jonathan stands for Johnny, while Ed officiates. Otacon and Sunny attend, as does Drebin, who reveals a number of secrets. First off, the Drebins are all Patriot agents, and he was ordered to help Snake eliminate Liquid, whom the Patriots viewed as their worst threat; likewise, Rat Pt. 01 were PatR10t agents. Meanwhile, Raiden recuperates in a hospital, having been restored to a very human-looking cyborg body. He is visited by Rosemary and her son by Campbell. Jack refuses to speak to them at first, but Rosemary has a confession to make: the whole thing was faked. She never had a miscarriage; the son she conceived with Jack just before the Big Shell Incident stands before them. And while she did marry Campbell, it was an elaborate hoax so that he could protect her and their son from the Patriots using them as leverage against Raiden. Overwhelmed, Raiden reunites with his family. Finally, Sunny begins to make friends her own age. She asks where Snake is, and Otacon, struggling against emotion, says only that Snake is ill and needs time to rest.Solid Snake is in Arlington, standing before his father's grave. He has one last mission to carry out: to commit suicide to prevent a worldwide FOXDIE outbreak. He puts aside his last cigarette and brings his weapon (the Springfield Operator that he originally procured in Act 1) to bear. A shot rings out.
The credits roll. The expected list of voice actors appears, including someone playing... Big Boss???
Debriefing - Naked Son
Snake couldn't go through with his plan and actually diverted his shot at the last second. He pants before the grave, overcome with exhaustion, frustration, and sweat. To his surprise, Big Boss suddenly appears and effortlessly dismantles Snake's gun, only to hug him and tell him to put the weapon down, as he didn't come to fight. Rather, it's time for them to talk.When EVA left the story off, she, Big Boss and Ocelot had split from the Patriots in protest of the Les Enfants Terrible project, Big Boss had been defeated at the end of Metal Gear 2, and he was now being kept prisoner by Zero. Both EVA and Ocelot were infuriated by this turn of events, and thus they hatched a long-term plan to rescue Big Boss and destroy the Patriots. Once it was time to act after the Shadow Moses incident, Ocelot, in order to fool the AIs, hypnotized himself into believing that the (recently-deceased) Liquid Snake could and would take over his personality via his arm. In particular, his actions, from as far back as the Shadow Moses incident to his role in maintaining and expanding the war economy to his ultimate death, were all meant to serve as a massive smoke screen for Solid Snake and his efforts to take down the Patriots. In fact, he even masterminded both of Naomi's "defections" throughout this incident specifically to get the FOXALIVE code to Sunny and Otacon in a way that wouldn't rouse the suspicious of the Patriot AIs. Big Boss's body, meanwhile, was gradually repaired using transplants from the corpses of both Liquid and Solidus. When FOXALIVE woke him up, he was able to locate Zero. The other two founding members of the Patriots are already dead; Para-Medic, known in civilian life as Dr. Clark, was the scientist who revived Gray Fox as a cyborg ninja, and was killed when Naomi helped him escape; SIGINT, real name Donald Anderson, became the head of DARPA and died at Shadow Moses under Ocelot's torture (supposedly an "accident"; by now, who knows). Big Boss has thus taken it upon himself to end the story by sending Zero "back to nothing." He has brought with him a wheelchair-bound (and comatose) Major Zero, plugged into catheters and breathing machines and all but a human vegetable at this point, and in front of Snake he disconnects the 105 year-old major's air supply. Not with a bang but a whimper, the mastermind of the Patriots ends.
Finally, Big Boss reveals that Snake carries a modified FOXDIE virus, injected into him by Drebin (by order of the Patriots) back in the first chapter. It is the real reason that EVA and Ocelot died, and it will shortly kill Big Boss as well. More importantly, though, it also displaced the starting-to-mutate original-FOXDIE that Snake still carried. Snake no longer needs to worry about becoming a walking plague carrier. Big Boss's only wish is for his son to spend what remains of his life in peace, telling him that "it's time to see the outside world with your own eyes."
Snake helps Big Boss over to The Boss's grave, and John salutes his mentor one last time. As father and son share a final cigar, Big Boss admits that he too misinterpreted The Boss's will: she wanted not to change the world, but rather "to leave the world the way it is." Big Boss passes away at the grave of a patriot who saved the world... and whose legacy changed it forever. His last words are, "This is good, isn't it?" Finally, and for all time, the Patriots are gone.
After the second set of credits, the last conversation of the game plays from Otacon to Snake. Snake declares that he will not only quit smoking, but also that he wants to "see this age off, see what the future brings" before his inevitable death in a year at most. Otacon (and by extension Sunny) in turn declares his intention to stand by him until the end and eventually pass on his story, and also that he still needs a partner to suffer through Sunny's eggs with in the meantime. After some hesitation, Snake agrees.
The game ultimately ends with a shot of Sunny successfully cooking a batch of sunny-side up eggs (having learned how to do so correctly from Naomi while she was the group during Acts 2 and 3), declaring that they're "sorta like the sun. It's rising again."
