When MGS 4's interactivity and themes collude, the effect is extraordinary. Never do they do this more thoroughly than in Act 4, which expertly explores a recurring concern with aging, obsolescence, and change. Snake, as previous acts establish, is growing old prematurely. In addition, the particulars of combat are undergoing a generational change -- as every character with a speaking part explains. Where battle hardened warriors in the 20th century, nanotech breakthroughs create readymade soldiers today in the 21st.
Snake's sense of passing time becomes our own when we play through a flashback in the form of the original Metal Gear Solid's first scene. Emulating PlayStation 1-era presentation and recreating an outdated control scheme, it demonstrates how far cameras and graphics have come. Replaying the segment revives old motor memory along with reminiscences of where we were and whatever else went on in our lives at the time. Snake, same as us, is aging at the accelerated rate of developments in videogame design and technology.
Next we enter a made-over Shadow Moses. We see once troublesome security cameras rusting off their mounts and are reminded both that MGS has abandoned an archaic game camera, and that, in its fiction, mobile bots now replace static sensors and turrets. The scenes that follow further iterate on the theme. Take, for instance, the Codec conversation in which Otacon tells us it's time to change discs, and then realizes that it's not necessary when playing on PS3. YouTube users circulated this clip as proof of Kojima's condescending attitude toward Microsoft's Xbox 360, which, rather than BluRay discs with comparably larger storage capacity, runs DVDs. In actuality, the prank serves as yet another reminder of accelerated time, same as Psycho Mantis' laughable attempts to vibrate Sony's vibration-less SixAxis controller and access a no longer extant memory card. His prime has passed, too. Consider the "oldies" tracks you unlock and whether or not you listen to them.
Another wonderful wrinkle: Old Snake and old us reunite with the equally outmoded Metal Gear Rex. In it, we conquer the more recent Ray model, just as the World War II Battleship Missouri beats Liquid's state-of-the-art Haven sub, and both Johnny "Akiba" and Snake's lack of up-to-date nanotech ultimately become a blessing.
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