This is the end.

It's the end that even the great Snake must see the irony in. A soldier who has spent most of his life as a ghost, trying to remain unseen, now with all eyes on him, analysing his every move.

Although Hideo Kojima is indeed a visionary, when he created the original game in the series back in 1987, even he can't have foreseen what lay ahead. Now the file on Metal Gear is such a thick one, covering clandestine operations over numerous decades and continents, that it can hardly hold all the words of critical acclaim. Not bad for a concept that is basically a game of hide and seek combined with a plot so dense it could be chiselled out of pure Iridium. Now, as Metal Gear debuts on the PS3 there seems to be some confusion over whether Snake's finale is meant to be innovative or commemorative, but agreement that it must be exceptional. What Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has turned out to be is an unapologetic celebration of everything that has made the Metal Gear series unique, a twenty-one-gun salute of a game that's a fitting decoration for a soldier of the stature of Solid Snake. Hideo Kojima has let us into his garden for one last bite of the apple with the serpent - and boy does it taste sweet.

Following on from the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, Guns of the Patriots fast forwards five years to 2014. Armed conflicts are now no longer about countries or creeds, they're about profit - and, as such, big business has taken over, turning mercenaries into employees and boardrooms into war rooms. Private military companies (PMCs) insert nanomachines based on S.O.P (Sons of the Patriots) technology into their soldiers and I.D. tag their weapons so that they can monitor and manage their armies for maximum performance. This free market in force is not, however, as competitive as it should be, as one corporation, Outer Haven, has gained something of a monopoly. It controls the five biggest PMCs around the globe and an army large enough to take on that of any country; and by manipulating the nanotechnology, that is exactly the plan of its leader - Liquid Ocelot. If you're new to Metal Gear then you should know that Liquid Ocelot is the body of Snake's old adversary, Revolver Ocelot, possessed by the spirit of Solid's nemesis, his twin brother, Liquid Snake - simple really. Rather than settling these issues like sensible people would on some tacky daytime TV show, Snake has only one thing in mind - to track down Outer Haven's CEO and send him and his company into liquidation. Snake's problem, however, is that the genetic engineering that created him is causing him to age at an increasing rate; so fast in fact that he didn't even have time for a mid-life crisis, and now a sports car and a quick rinse with a bottle of Just for Men won't fix things because he doesn't have much time left.

Despite his advancing years, this is one old Snake who doesn't need to pop pills to remain solid under pressure. In fact, in MGS4, he's actually more agile than ever, thanks to the changes that have been made to the control system. The X button, for example, has been tweaked so that the old anguish of Snake deciding to have a lie down when he's being shot at from point blank range is virtually a thing of the past. Now tapping X moves Snake in and out of the crouch position, in which he can perform a very useful low run, while a much longer press is needed to get Snake to lie flat, from where he can execute a new stealth crawl that looks part breakdance move part distressed seal. The triangle button deals easily with most of Snake's context sensitive interactions with the environment, such as scaling ladders and hopping over walls. It's slightly more awkward when used to press up against a surface for cover though and this mechanic is also still very much for sneaking rather than shooting, which is surprising considering the amount of gunplay available in MGS4.

One of the main things that makes the standard gameplay in Guns of the Patriots more satisfying than that of previous titles is the way you are given so much scope for choice; your options now need careful consideration, as they can affect the landscape of the battlefield. Take the risk of alerting the PMC soldiers to your presence by assisting the local militia fighters in engaging them and the rebels may well help you out in return. Try to use the fighting as a distraction to slip through as a silent observer and you're much more alone. Almost every area in the game can be navigated using either shooting or stealth and while the best moments come from the variety of switching tactics in quick succession, initial strategising is more important than ever due to the improved enemy A.I. Both the specialist FROG and Gekko squads make impressive debuts - with the latter resembling a cross between a dinosaur and the ED 209 from Robocop - but it's the actions of the standard soldiers in Alert and Caution modes that stands out. They're just so damn inquisitive and persistent in searching out your hiding place, whether it be an old haunt like a cardboard box or locker, or one of the new empty oil drums that, in moments of desperation, can be sent bowling towards enemies with Snake inside. Despite all this combat awareness, however, it is slightly laughable when, if you kill all the soldiers in one area in a massive firefight, the search for you will be called off.

To counter this opposing intelligence, both your stealth and shooting skills are noticeably easier to use than before. In the case of sneaking this is because of the new toys that Otacon has provided you with. Your Solid Eye gives you binocular and night vision functions, as well as a very accurate radar, which is much better than the new threat ring for detecting enemies, while your Octocamo suit comes with chameleonic properties and your miniature remote control Metal Gear Mk II robot is very useful for scouting ahead and electrocuting enemies. On the combat side the improvements come from a tidying up of the close quarters combat system, the choice of two revised firing positions, one an over the shoulder with a crosshair for easier aiming, and the other a first person view down the sights of the gun, and the sheer amount of weapons available. From handguns to sniper rifles, smoke grenades to rocket launchers, weaponry litters the battlefields, ready for collection and sorting in your well-designed inventory. Even those guns that you can't use because they're ID locked still have an important part to play, as you can trade them with Drebin, the too-cool-for-school arms dealer and part time Wesley Snipes impersonator, for points that you can use to purchase new weapons and enhancements for the ones you already have.

To emphasise the fact that Snake is not the young animal he used to be, there are two extra gauges present onscreen, as well as the standard health bar. The first of these shows the amount of stress that Snake is under, while the second shows the state of his psyche. There are various factors through the game that affect the levels of both emotions but they really only come into play when Snake's stress gets so high that he gets an adrenaline spike, allowing him to shoot more accurately and take less damage, or when either or both drop completely, making it more difficult to carry out normal functions like aiming. A much greater determining factor on your success is arguably your own stress levels; there's no doubt that these are raised above normal levels during some of the stunning, on-rails, shooting sections, and reach their height with the boss battles against the members of the Beauty and the Beast Unit. These fights see Snake face off against four women who have who have been scarred so deeply by war that they have transformed into alternative, ultra-violent personas, such as Laughing Octopus and Raging Raven. In true Metal Gear tradition they are epic wars of attrition, memorable for their locations and reliance on tactical skill rather than brute force.

As Snake roams across the world in pursuit of Liquid from the Middle East to South America, to Eastern Europe and on into the shadow of his past, the plot coils around your mind. Old friends such as Raiden, Vamp and Meryl return as the storyline twists one way then the other, tying up loose ends as it unravels your mind. It's unbelievable and engrossing in equal measures, shot through with a hit and miss mixture of emotions, warnings for the future, base humour and high level self-awareness - but it's always compelling. The whole affair is told through some of the most decadent cut scenes ever created. They truly deserve to be referred to as cinematic and help MGS4 blur the line between game and film for all the right and wrong reasons. Of the fifteen to twenty hours that the single player game takes to complete, about half of this time is taken up with the controller put down, watching Hideo's virtual actors deliver their lines with his invisible hand always pulling their strings. Some of these scenes go on for an unbelievable amount of time, and while they can be paused, this isn't much use if you need to turn off your machine during one that's still going strong after twenty-five minutes with no indication of how much longer it has left. It's perfectly understandable that the developers are very keen to build relationships and plot, but you really feel that the duration of some of these cut scenes could have been reigned in.

For a videogame the script is a grand affair but by movie standards it's still patchy and the quality of the voice acting seems to rise and fall with that of the lines, although David Hayter's delivery as Old Snake is so gravelly that it sounds as though he's been gargling with quarry water. The whole thing is, however, undeniably sumptuous to look at, with textures, lighting and character models of the highest order, while the score is both delicate and dramatic, and, as usual for a Metal Gear game, would not be out of place in a motion picture.

Unfortunately, while MGS4 has designs on being something worthy of being watched on the silver screen, it has ended up closer to a movie on TV. Rather than pauses for commercials, the delays here are for the short but frequent loading and install times that fracture the narrative and, as it turns out, Guns of the Patriots doesn't need breaks to fit in its adverts. There are a number of products placed throughout the game such as a Regain energy drink and an IPod for Snake to collect music on. All of these do have their uses but on every occasion they seem like rather uncomfortable attempts at an old guy still trying to be down with the kids. (Besides which the most appropriate track - Here I Go Again by Whitesnake, hasn't been included)

With a very generously sized taster for Metal Gear Online also included, along with the flashbacks to previous games and the movement away from the sneak-or-die rules of the past, it would seem that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots promises something for those who were not that enamoured with the series before. The fact is, however, that this is one Snake that has not shed its old skin. The Metal Gear series has always been unique and the features that have made it so are also the ones that polarise opinion. For a series that is all about identity and duty, Hideo Kojima seems very certain about those of himself and his game. As a result, he will have to be content with the fact that he hasn't created the ultimate videogame, just the ultimate Metal Gear Solid videogame, an accolade that in itself will be more than enough to please the huge fanbase that has awaited Snake's final journey for so long.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).