War has changed. With Solid Snake battling the mysterious advances of massively accelerated aging, the re-emergence of his nefarious twin brother Liquid Snake (Liquid Ocelot) in the Middle East sees the greying hero called back into one final time. As Solid progresses in his efforts to stop Liquid from gaining complete control of SOP, a battlefield mind and weaponry-control system, he travels through the foothills of South America, the misty streets of Eastern Europe, and even back to eerie snowbound installation Shadow Moses, on a path of destiny that will see demons exercised, foes vanquished, heroes return, and personal truths uncovered.

When it comes to videogame reviewing, critics should exercise a degree of professional subjectivity by not appraising games for the sake of peer conformity; nor should they review games while focusing only on appeasing the demands of hardcore franchise fanatics. However, by that token, reviewers should also resist the temptation to unfairly kneecap a high-profile release just for the sake of standing out from the critical crowd.

It's not an easy line to walk at the best of times.

In short, videogame reviewers should be reviewing for all gamers, providing unbiased evaluations based solely on what is put before them while striving to avoid the often weighted influence of popular opinion. Which leaves this particular reviewer somewhat aghast at the current flood of rampant praise that is being heaped at the feet of Konami's 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Now, before disgruntled fanboys and/or critics look to vent spleen via their poison keyboards, understand this:

Guns of the Patriots is a beautiful game in an aesthetic sense, and it provides a fabulous showcase of the PlayStation 3's visual and aural attributes. Level environments are both varied and stunning to look at, character animation is unfailingly fluid and weighty, and atmospheric and elemental effects often pepper proceedings with added real-world authenticity.

The overall quality of voice acting is also excellent, with returning central protagonist David Hayter (here depicted as 'Old Snake') offering satisfyingly hammy Eastwood-esque throat growls at every available opportunity, while his supporting cast walks the tightrope of delivering performances on the right side of cheesy-clichéd melodrama. The game's musical score is similarly noteworthy in its execution, ebbing and flowing perfectly to unfolding events yet never overpowering the game's well-oiled visual prowess.

Gameplay, which has clearly been designed to please both fans and lovers alike, consists of exhilarating bullet-heavy confrontations before gradually shifting into the more familiar tension-friendly stealth territory that Metal Gear Solid is renowned for. In-game weaponry and equipment options are pleasingly vast in terms of variety and certainly hard to resist when on the battlefield, especially considering that any item picked up is instantly added to the player's expansive and fully customisable armoury. Of course, the ability to sneak past enemies or hand them their unsuspecting asses via CQC (close quarter combat) is core to the player's progression in Guns of the Patriots - yet it's often difficult to ignore the lure conjured up by a multitude of versatile weapons and explosives that lie only a tantalising button-press away.

At this point, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is fully deserving of the drooling adoration it's presently bathing in. And, in terms of graphics, audio, music, gameplay, options, variety, action and suspense, you'd be right. So, if all those contributing elements have been locked firmly in place by publisher and series developer Kojima Productions, where's the problem with the series swansong?

Gameplay is king and, in that sense, Guns of the Patriots undoubtedly rules with an iron fist of longstanding expertise thanks to its thrilling gun fights, suspenseful sneaking, a gamut of enthralling gadgetry, and a depth of in-game immersion that most software titles can only dream of achieving. Yet, for all its impact and subtlety, its violent finesse and battlefield nuance, Guns of the Patriots is ruined, yes, that word is ruined, by a flagrantly over-indulgent director intent on losing the player in a near incessant stream of tedious techno-babble narrative that will mean absolutely nothing to those gamers not heavily invested in the ongoing Metal Gear series.

Such a destructive statement of dissatisfaction rightly requires concrete justification based on the sheer weight of positive praise carved by the game in other areas; and yet that justification arrives without struggle in the form of beautifully presented in-game narrative cut sequences that drag on, and on, and on, and on before, during and at the end of the game's five main missions (and don't even get me started on the software installation delays).