Metal Gear Solid 4 walkthrough: complete guide and tips for every Act and Boss Battle

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Guide Solid Snake through Kojima's epic journey with our complete walkthrough of every mission and boss fight

Act One: Liquid Sun

General Strategy

Snake enters the Middle East on the back of a local militia troop transport and is immediately pitched into the middle of a running street battle between the militia and the technologically superior forces of the Praying Mantis private military company (PMC). Snake’s ultimate goal in this act is to make his way through the war-torn city safely to reach the Praying Mantis base of operations where his target, Liquid Snake is located.

There are two ways of doing this. The first involves avoiding confrontation with either side using Snake’s impeccable stealth abilities. However, with plenty of opportunities for old-skool sneaking in the rest of the game, the better (and more enjoyable) strategy for this first act is to ally Snake with the local militia. Doing this is as simple as killing a PMC mercenary and reaps instant rewards: you won’t have two armies shooting at you on sight; you can navigate the militia safe house’s subterranean tunnels quickly and with impunity; you can use the militia’s mortars to take down enemy vehicles; and you can give and receive valuable items to and from grateful militia soldiers.

But best of all, when things get very shooty, you’re still free to switch on the OctoCamo, melt away and use the ensuing chaos to slip past both armies and ever closer to your real objective. There is no boss battle in this first act, although the set-piece fight against Liquid’s elite, all-female Haven Troopers in the palace is a fantastic test of your combat skills.

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Iain Wilson
Iain Wilson
Guides Editor

Iain originally joined Future in 2012 to write guides for CVG, PSM3, and Xbox World, before moving on to join GamesRadar in 2013 as Guides Editor. His words have also appeared in OPM, OXM, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, and SFX. He is better known to many as ‘Mr Trophy’, due to his slightly unhealthy obsession with amassing intangible PlayStation silverware, and he now has over 1,000 Platinum pots weighing down the shelves of his virtual award cabinet. He does not care for Xbox Achievements.