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Metal Gear Solid 4 Review
mikesd81 brings us a detailed IGN review of the recently released Metal Gear Solid 4, which notes:
"Fans familiar with previous Metal Gear Solid games are aware that each title has introduced new gameplay mechanics for Snake to take advantage of. The incredible part about Metal Gear Solid 4 is there are tons of additional features added to this title, and even when you run into a system or mechanic that you wouldn't think would fit in the Metal Gear Universe, Kojima and his team have figured out a way to make it blend seamlessly with the gameplay, which easily allays any fears or concerns you have.""
Well... I played the first 5 or so hours of this today. I'm still not sure that I know what to make of it.
I suspect that at least half of my play-time so far (possibly a little more) has been watching cutscenes. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of non-game-engine cutscenes. By and large, I find most game-endine cutscenes needlessly ugly and often badly thought through. However, I do think it's possible to have to much of a good thing. And that's definitely the case here. Between the end of Act 1 and the Start of Act 2, there are more than 30 minutes of cutscenes. Sure, the plot is interesting (more on this in a couple of paragraphs). But it'd be nice to let at least a bit of gameplay intrude.
The gameplay itself is fun. It's not actually what I would expect from a Metal Gear Solid title. In a nutshell, it feels much closer to Call of Duty 4 than to Splinter Cell. Combat is a much, much bigger part of this than in any previous installment and, happily, the combat mechanics have been tweaked to the point where they are actually damned good. You can still sneak through the game if you want, but you can also just grab the biggest gun you can and blast away (indeed, the game seems to reward this approach more). The weapons-shop system is a little immersion-breaking, but from a gameplay point of view it's highly useful and encourages experimentation with different weapon setups.
To be honest, if there's one other game that this reminds me of, it's Resident Evil 4 (which is a nice game to be compared to). The pace of the combat and the control system feel very similar. The weapons are deeply satisfying to use, in the same way as RE4's. The AI here is noticably more significant than RE4's, but I count that as a good thing.
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And now... the plot. More than any other game around (barring perhaps the Final Fantasy games and Persona 3), MGS depends upon its plot. This isn't your average paint-by-numbers Tom Clancy plot, to put it mildly. To get the most out of this, you will need to have played all of the previous installments of the series. Even if you have, you might find yourself struggling to remember some of the more obscure subplots referenced here. More or less every significant character from the previous installments makes an appearance here (including several thought dead), along with a bunch of new characters.
The effectiveness of the plot varies wildly. There's a good war-story being told here. While I personally disagree profoundly with its strong anti-war message, there's no denying that it's both shocking and effective in its execution when the game focusses on this. This isn't your average George-Clooney brain-dead Bush-bashing fest. It's something both more visceral and more sophisticated. Unfortunately, the plot also suffers from being deeply silly at times, when it strays from its core war-story plot. The reintroduction of Vamp, and the introduction of these strange new robot-women-things makes for a few good shock-horror moments, but it's hard to take them seriously, in the context of what's otherwise quite a dark, bleak piece of social commentary. Ultimately, what you end up with is a story that swings wildly between the sublime and the ridiculous. At least, unlike MGS2, it hasn't gone all End of Evangelion on me... yet.
I'd find it really, really hard to put a score on this game, based on what I've seen so far. IGN love it. Penny Arcade hate it. I can actually sympathise with both points of view. Ultimately, I think it's best to treat it as a game which is both fantastic and dreadful at the same time. If you can find a state of mind where you can appreciate the truly great elements, while regarding the rest as "so bad its funny", you'll enjoy this game hugely. If you can't, you'll hate it.
On Perspective
If you are like... to lazy to click the link on the slashdot front page.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I always value these types infinitely more than someone who is paid to write them.
Of course, I know nothing about who signs your checks...
thank you!
I've been playing this game for the last 8 hours, and from what I've seen so far 10/10 sums it up nicely. I'd write more but I have to get back to playing.
Practicing those stealth skills picked up while playing MGS are we?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"Dude, this game kicks so much ass. Don't you wish you weren't so poor so you could get it? Haha, this is so aweso--oh shit, what was that thing?!! Later *click*"
mod parent troll.. don't know why all the bashing against the game (oh wait... is not running on xbox). I certainly have not played it... but your points are just lame.. AFAIK This game has an option to play it as FPS (all the game if You want).. and I have seen the first 30 seconds of the game and does not happen anything you're talking about. [I wanted to post a video from youtube but it says I have JavaScript blocked, since I don't have NoScript don't know whats happening.. anyway you can search for "MGS4 game play demo"]
I feel like this game is designed very much for the people who've been following the series since the beginning. It's strange, considering that with MGS3 it seemed like they were trying to tailor it in such a way that new players could get into without knowing the history of the series.
Where MGS3 succeeded in making the plot work for new players, it failed at doing so for the controls. Even some veteran players had problems with the controller layout, most of which were due to multiple actions using a single button, but at different pressure levels. The top down camera as well was difficult to use for most players with the loss of the radar.
MGS4, on the other, made strides in the playability of the game (although they don't bother to explain all of the different CQC moves in-game, I think most new players can get by without them), but I feel that a new player would be completely lost as far as the story is concerned. It was obviously a difficult job considering how many loose ends the game needed to tie up. It's apparent that they at the very least tried to help newer players out a little by reducing the amount of codec calls you receive, the length of each one and making some of the calls happen in real-time while you're still in full control of the character. However, when it comes to the cutscenes they clearly felt it was better to give the fans of the series what they were used too rather than trying to make them appeal to a broader set.
Having finished the game last night I thought it was great. They tie up just about every loose end in the entire series and the large majority of them in a satisfying way. The final scene (after the initial credits) I thought was a great concept, but it went on much longer than it needed to, I felt. There wasn't as much humor in this game as the others and what was there wasn't as good as past games, but given the somber tone of Snake's dilemma I can understand why. There are a few parts where the weight of the situation can bear down on you; one scene in the last level is sure to go down as one of the most emotional moments in gameplay history.
As far as the gameplay is concerned I mostly knew what to expect since I played in the Metal Gear Online beta. I was surprised that there was one level where you were forced to be stealthy. In the levels before it you were given the option of how you wanted to play (though generally rewarded more for being stealthy), but in this one going guns akimbo didn't work. I could see how that could turn some people off.
I didn't feel the bosses were up to par with MGS3, but I don't see any game living up to the enemies in that one, especially 'The End.' With a few exceptions all of the bosses in MGS4 were new characters and you didn't find out their stories until AFTER you defeated them. To make things worse their background is revealed through (relatively) lengthy and boring codec conversations. This is one place where I felt MGS4 dropped the ball, but it seems to be a side effect of not wanting to introduce any new major characters.
Graphically and cinematically this game is ridiculously great. The character models are easily the best I've ever seen in a game(note: I'm mainly a console gamer). Most of the background textures are good, though a few are pretty low-res, but it seems to be a trade off for having such detailed character models. The cutscenes are enthralling and rival the work of some of the best directors in film (though some of the dialog is really, truly awful). What's great is that, for the most part, they blend seamlessly back into the gameplay.
Overall, I'd say the game is fantastic if you're familiar with the story, and an interesting, though flawed, ride for those who aren't but are patient enough to sit through the long cinematics.
I was once a horse.
First 30 seconds of actual game play is in an Arab town (subtle, huh?) and dumps you in control after a long speech by some guy about how war has changed. Then some guy tells you that R3 centers the camera (it doesn't, by the way), and that's as far as I got before being killed by an offscreen enemy.
Sorry, that's really how the game starts. But you wouldn't know, because you haven't played it.
I don't play games that allow you to be killed by enemies you can't see. So I'm not playing this one. If the opening cinematic is anything to go by, I'm not missing a thing.
Except the money I paid for the worthless thing.
I am yet to see this addressed yet, but since this game is evidently half game, half movie, are there movie controls for the cutscenes (fast forward, pause, rewind, skip, etc)? Is there, at the very least, a pause? I mean, sometimes I just really have to use the restroom, or take a call, and I don't want to wait 15 minutes just to see the rest of the cutscene.
Hey Kojima, why is this character alive/dead? Nanomachines of course!! Nanomachines help stop cancer, make you almost immortal, and they can kill you! Can anyone say plot crutch?
Eat sleep die
Congrats on being a fucking idiot. All that shit has been known since the console was introduced.
-- toolie
I'm still waiting on Snake Eater to come out on the PC... That's the only way I ever managed to play Sons of Liberty. I had played the original Metal Gear Solid on the PSX, PC, and the GameCube (as the Twin Snakes remake). Come to think of it, it's kind of a shame that the Wii hasn't seen some kind of Metal Gear game yet, considering Snake is in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It'd be nifty to see Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 (localized, of course), and Snake's Revenge hit the Virtual Console!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
If you can't make it through the first 30 seconds without dying... I Pity you as a gamer... The camera is adjustable. And FYI... Tutorial - Practice Mode fool...
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
I tried the tutorial. It dumped you in the middle of this gray thing with no instructions on anything at all.
Fat lot of good that did.
A good game contains the tutorial in the gameplay and allows you to start without looking up cheats online. A crappy game (like this one) dumps in nowhere with no objective and allows you to get instantly killed by enemies you can't see.
My point stands. Fuck this game and all the reviewers sucking Sony cock with their reviews.
Your point fails. I've played through this game 3 times now with NO PROBLEM. you just fail at Metal Gear Solid. EPIC fail
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
No. Fuck this game. It's pure crap. I can't figure out the opening cutscene (it changes every time or something?!) and you still get dumped in nowhere and get killed in 30 seconds while running around. Apparently Snake is so senile he can't figure out how to fire again because the fire button makes him do something weird with the gun. Then you get killed by something you can't see while trying to spin Snake around to ineffectively punch back in that direction.
I've given this game more chances that it deserves. It sucks ass. Apparently the only way to play it is to have already played every single previous game, because they sure as fuck don't feel like explaining a damned thing to you. (What do walking tank things have to do with tactical espionage action?! How do you do anything?!)
If Kojima can't be assed to design his game right, I won't bother playing it. Period.