Speaking of the Patriots, they go here as well, they were trippy and poorly explained in MGS2, coming across as some weird omniscient force of nature, but MGS4 kind of does away with all that ann makes them feel more like a background force that's never directly confronted. Again, just kind of felt hollow.
Doesn't really help their case that instead of a hundred year old shadow organization it turns they're just some buddies of yours that gained total power because reasons and had that power usurped by a computer program. Plus most of them die off screen before MGS2 even happens due to bulltrout retcons and the only one still alive during 4 is a guy so old and enfeebled he's basically a vegetable.