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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.
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.