Textual Analysis of MGS4 Opening scene

In the opening sequence to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots. We first hear middle eastern music before the camera give us a shot of the sky before tracking left to reveal a small middle eastern town in ruins. This is a generic convention of the stealth action genre of video games. The city, we assume has been ravaged by war. The theme of war is a key theme in this genre of video game and is often used as a key plot device.
As the camera tracks further and further left. We see a discarded gun on the floor directly in front of us, this again is another connotation of violence and war. However as we see a mid shot of the gun from a different angle, we see a pair of legs on the floor next to it. The legs obviously belong to someone who has died as we hear flies and see a crow pecking at them. It is important to note at this point that the camera is made to look like we're looking at the scene from the point of view of someone who is there, the dead body, guns and ruined town signify that the person's POV that we are looking through is a survivor of a battle that took place.

  The camera then focuses on a convoy or trucks moving into the town, we see the trucks approach closer through the dusty landscape. The landscape itself, looks barren and totally devoid of life adding to the tense and almost melancholy atmosphere created by the scene.
After this we are treated to another POV shot of the trucks passing by. However it no longer looks like our POV is the same as a survivor of a battle, it looks more like we're spying on the trucks, due to our POV being partially obstructed by a wall. We should note at this point that almost the entire sequence is shot through POV shots. After this we are then positioned inside of the truck, almost as if we're now one of the soldiers waiting to be delivered to war. All of the men in the truck have their faces covered. This visual code connotes that soldiers in a war are seen as a faceless mass, with no definable personality or look. It also connotes hostility due to the fact that no one is talking, and they all appear to be staring at the ground, as if they're nervous or in anticipation of something.

As this is going on, we then begin to hear the voiceover of a man who states "War. War has changed". This single line meets the audience expectation of the game being set in a hostile war environment. The voice itself, is stereotypical of the hardened veteran soldier typical of 80's action films, with a dark husky voice that sounds like its seen one too many cigars.