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.""

Comments

My thoughts after a few hours with the game

[RogueyWon]

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.

Re:My thoughts after a few hours with the game

[RogueyWon]

To some extent I see your point. But ultimately, I disagree.

They're not trying to create a video game in the classic 1980s sense of the word here. This is a deliberate attempt to fuse a movie and a video game. And it works, to some degree. The interactive element allows a whole emotional level that isn't available in a movie... as Snake breaks down over the course of the game, the player actually feels his pain. If games were going to be just about shooting aliens or jumping on turtles, I'd have grown out of them 10 years ago.

The problem with MGS4 isn't the concept, it's the execution. I've now finished the game. There are two main problems with it. The first is that it uses non-interactive cutscenes for some sequences that feel like they'd be a lot of fun to play. There's a good example of this right at the start. In a cutscene, Snake runs from a pair of mecha through a city, fights them hand-to-hand inside a house then loses them using his camoflage suit. Gee guys... I'd quite have liked to have played that myself.

The other problem is that the general plot just isn't quite strong enough. There are some fantastic scenes here and there, but after 4 main installments in the series and a number of side-stories, the overall feeling of this game, which tries to wrap them all up, is of an over-complicated mess.

The great reviews are justified

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:A Game for the 'Fans'

[CTM87]

I agree. And I loved it. After recently seeing Indy 4 and being horribly disappointed, I was more than overjoyed to find a director who, for their final installment, were loyal first to the fans. It was truly an experience to play through the game, one with a surprising bit of emotion for someone who has closely followed the series since it's inception. I'll even go further and say if I never got a MGS movie after this, I would be happy, the cutscenes were that good. Which, in my opinion, is the one black mark against this game. There's no theatre option to unlock. You can't go back and watch the cutscenes on their own. And there are two instances where you can't actually watch the cutscenes, and they're some of the best in the game. I'm talking Raiden's fight against Vamp, when it's split screen and Snake has to fight off the Gecko, and the final bit of interactivity. While I understand the Vamp fight (it's there to distract you), I would have loved to be able to go back and watch it later.

Nanomachines

[pieisgood]

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?

Re:A Game for the 'Fans'

[filterban]

I'd like to politely disagree on your point that this is only for longtime fans. I'm in the middle of this group - I beat Metal Gear Solid several times, but I never owned a PS2, so I never played MGS2/MGS3/Metal Gear Acid/Metal Gear Portable Ops/etc.

I had never seen about half of the main characters in MGS4. (To avoid spoilers, I won't name specifics.) I just finished the game yesterday, and honestly I was completely blown away. The game has many references back to previous MGS games, and I thought they did a wonderful job explaining the back story for many of the key plot points. I'd bet that a first timer would pick up the plot just fine, although most likely they would miss some of the inside jokes and references.

I bought MGS4 and was expecting a good game, but still, I was totally blown away. Absolutely everything in this game is wonderful. In my mind, the only downside is the Michael Bay-esque product placement (Apple iMacs & iPods, Triumph motorcycles, Regain energy drinks, etc). It stood out in a bad way.

Quite simply, this is a must-buy for everyone who owns a PS3, not just long time fans. You might miss some of the inside jokes and references, but the central themes of the story - age, war, technology, morality, individuality, freedom - are universally appealing and are told in a brilliant manner.

MGS4 is one of the best games of all time, and I can honestly say that a new player would think that, too.