Metal Gear Solid 4 Super Replay returns for FaceCamo chaos
Game Informer’s weekly Super Replay revisits Metal Gear Solid 4 with FaceCamo, first-time reactions and plenty of classic Kojima weirdness.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is back in the spotlight as Game Informer continues its Super Replay run through Hideo Kojima’s famously overstuffed stealth epic. The latest instalment, titled Catfishing With FaceCamo, puts the focus on the game’s strange mix of military melodrama, camouflage technology and deeply silly surprises. 1
The series follows an ageing Solid Snake as he races to stop Liquid Snake, while the wider story pulls in Ocelot, Otacon, Raiden and the rest of a cast built across several generations of Metal Gear. Guns of the Patriots was originally released in 2008, and its OctoCamo system remains one of the clearest examples of the series turning a practical stealth mechanic into a running visual joke.
What is happening in Super Replay
Game Informer says Charles Harte is playing Guns of the Patriots for the first time, with long-time series fan Marcus Stewart providing the experienced perspective. The show is running as a weekly livestream, with each episode scheduled for two hours and later episodes available through Game Informer’s YouTube channel. 1
The format gives the revisit a useful angle: this is not simply a retrospective from a distance. It is a live contrast between someone discovering the game’s elaborate systems and someone returning to a story they have not played in more than a decade. The second episode’s official video description teases a hi-tech eyepatch, a remote-controlled robot and a battered oil drum, which is about as faithful to Metal Gear Solid 4’s particular brand of nonsense as a synopsis can get. 2
Why it still stands out
The appeal of revisiting Guns of the Patriots is not just nostalgia. Its stealth systems, cinematic presentation and attempts to tie together decades of plot make it a useful snapshot of what blockbuster game design looked like in the late 2000s. The game is also now easier to revisit through the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, avoiding the need to dust off a PlayStation 3. 1
That combination makes the Super Replay more than a routine playthrough. New viewers can watch a first-time player navigate the game’s oddities, while returning fans get to see whether its big swings still land when separated from the excitement of its original release.
Our opinion
Game Informer’s Metal Gear Solid 4 Super Replay is a strong fit for anyone curious about how the game feels to a modern first-time player. The FaceCamo episode’s subject is knowingly ridiculous, but that is also the point: few major stealth games have ever been this committed to making their systems, story and comedy collide in the same corridor. The series’ weekly structure should give the replay enough room to explore both the spectacle and the awkward bits rather than rushing to a verdict.