The Metal Gear Solid franchise is a one of those where you either love it, or it simply is not really your thing. Considering it's "my thing", I'll now review it, comparing this one with the previous releases.
Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4 from now on) can be defined from the start as a "private joke". That is to say that it is close to impossible to fully appreciate the game unless you've experienced the past masterpieces from Hideo Kojima.
And when I say "fully appreciate", I mean "appreciate it the way it should be appreciated". So, for starters, I wouldn't advise anyone who hasn't played the prequels (MGS, MGS2, and MGS3) to try MGS4. The game is undoubtably good, and it will feel like a good experience, but still extremely confusing.
It's the exact same thing as watching the last movie from the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars franchises, without watching the other ones beforehand. It's not about admitting that the game is good in terms of gameplay, or graphically. It's about being unable to fully understand why the game IS the way it IS.
With that out of the way.. I'll proceed with the review for those who have indeed played the other MGS games.
Metal Gear Solid 4 is a good game. You can usually tell that without even playing it. But why is it a good game?
For starters, it shares the exact same type of gameplay as it's predecessors, and that is: "It's a really long and well done movie, which tells an amazing story, and whom you are part of, by playing Snake". Not the RPG-esque type, but the linear type, where the story is simply told, while you get to experience it.
That's a good way to put it. But as a game, how good is it? In terms of gameplay, presentation, soundwise?
The gameplay has been different since the last iteration of Metal Gear (MGS3:S), which allowed the players to play in a 3rd person view instead of the usual Overhead view which we all knew and love from the first Metal Gear.
I'll consider that a good move by Hideo and his team. In terms of game design, it's the best approach, since it allows players to watch what's in front of them without having to use the 1st Person View button every 5 seconds to "re-check" what's in front of you.
Also, they managed to compensate the lack of overall awareness around the character, by creating the new "Spidey Senses" Ring. Basically, everytime you're not standing up (when you crouch or prone), this ring shows up around snake, and it works a bit like a soundwave. It basically detects threats. The closer they are to Snake, or how much of a threat they represent to you, the higher the wave. It'll also change color depending on their state of awareness (Caution or Alert).
It's a good tool that'll basically save you the trouble of having to peek around corners or rotate your camera every second to check your surroundings. It'll also save your bottom more often than not when you least expect it.
The other important introduction is the Octocamo. Basically, the theme from MGS3 was kept, where camouflage is indeed important to succeed on the sneaking mission, but this time around, you don't have to pause the game every time you get out of the grass, or when you get against a wall. Why? Because snake's camo automatically changes it's texture to look similar to what you're leaned against.
Although a good gameplay choice, it's obviously extremely irrealistic. But then again, if you're used to playing MGS, then you already know it's always a blend between realism, and other silly things (like hiding under cardboard boxes). Again, a matter of taste. Take this game as a good Hide and Seek game, and not a "Representation of a how a Real Sneaking Mission actually works". It's a game with a certain intent/goal, and it succeeds at that.
I won't get into the Drebin Point system, but I can tell you that the game has a huge amount of weapons, all extremely well represented, and somewhat fun to use. It has one major flaw though, that it's predecessors had too. And that is that the game never rewards you for using them. Sure, it makes sense that ending the game without killing anyone promotes a non-violent way of completing the mission. Yet, this also makes it so that everyone that actually uses the weapons (or goes through the trouble of buying them) will feel like a fool.
It's like Kojima's right next to you whispering: "Hey, you're the Big Boss if you finish this game quickly and without alerting anyone nor killing a single person. Oh, but here's all these awesome weapons for you to buy and use".
This bothers me for this simple reason: Snake's never seen wielding one of the non-lethal weapons in the cutscenes. Either the Operator or the M4 are in his hands during the cutscenes, and it obviously bothers anyone who's trying to play the game in a "sympathetic" way towards the virtual enemies.
Although I enjoy turning my opponents to gibs with rockets in games like Unreal Tournament, I also love sneaking behind soldiers and putting them to sleep (literally) while playing Metal Gear Solid. I just feel bad when I do it, because it apparentely doesn't seem like Snake cares.
When it comes to the graphics, I have to admit I enjoy them, but then again I'm used to PC graphics. That means I play games at much higher frames per second, and with much finer detail. Metal Gear Solid 4 looks good, but unfortunately it suffers from two major issues:
1) The facial animations are extremely weak (and just so you have an idea, Half-Life 2's facial animations beat it by FAR), which is only compensated by the incredible voice actors behind the faces;
2) It has slowdowns throughout the whole game. Most of them you won't notice, simply because you'll be "enjoying" one constant slowdown along the whole experience. To play the game at 60fps (to suit with the 60hz from the typical TV), just get go up some stairs befor meeting up with Rat Patrol 01, and turn the camera to the wall and floor. Now move Snake a little bit. That's the real game speed. As soon as you turn the camera back, it'll turn into a choppy experience again. When you play computer games for 15 years, you happen to notice these things very easily. The common casual player won't notice a thing, probably, and even if he does, he definitely won't care. Basically, the slowdowns don't affect the experience. It's just something I personally dislike.
When it comes to the Sound, it's extremely rich and well done. Music, sound effects, everything. The game feels alive, and that's what matters. Obviously you'll need a decent audio setup to feel "in the zone", but for what it's worth, they did a fantastic job on it (just like they have been doing since the first game).
The Voice Acting is a world of its own in the MGS franchise. I personally lost interest in David Hayter since MGS1 (his best piece was the "now considered" alternate ending where Meryl dies and he was absolutely amazing). But the rest of the voice actors do their job very well, considering they're not japanese (who tend to be geniuses when it comes down to VA, from the Anime to Videogames; they feel right at home).
Otacon's voice actor, whose name I can't recall, hasn't really attracted me either since MGS2. Something about him doesn't sound right in this last release, and I might not be alone in this. I guess after watching him suffer from a certain someone's death in MGS2, he didn't quite do the job on this one.
I still believe that the Japanese Voice Actor for Old Snake would fit him perfectly compared to David Hayter, but I guess there's nothing that can be done about it. David sounds exactly the same as if Snake was younger, and to me that doesn't make any sense. And no, "Snake's vocal cords didn't change" is not a plausible excuse.
Overall, and before this reviews turns from big to herculean, the game is a good purchase to those have experienced the past games, but to all those who haven't, I can only advise you on experiencing the previous ones, and then getting MGS4.
It's definitely one of those franchises that even if you tried, you couldn't forget. It's a touching story, not because it's necessirely sad, but because it really makes you think even after you turn the console off. Much more than certain great flicks on the big screen.
Thank you for the reading, raj |
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, AKA MGS4 is the 4th game in the popular Stealth action franchise, and the first of the series to appear on the Playstation 3. I traded in some old Xbox 360 games to pick up this gem for a grand total of 80cents at my local Gamestop. As soon as I got home I decided to try it out, and as is the case with most of the PS3 games I've played it had to be installed, this game took longer than other games roughly ten to fifteen minutes and the fact that Snake the main character of the series is a chain smoker was firmly planted into my head as the game installs there is a beautiful looking closeup of him smoking cigarette after cigarette.
So the install finally over it was now time to play some Metal Gear. In this 4th game of the series you play as a much older looking Solid Snake as he has some kind of aging disorder. Anyone who has played the Metal Gear games in recent years will not be surprised by how this game works, you watch lengthy cutscenes then get put into environments where you have to sneak or fight (which is usually the more difficult way) your way into the next area where another cutscene will begin, rinse repeat. That said this game takes that formula adds some new things, and does it so well, yes some of the cutscenes are a bit on the long side but never boring, at least the first time through, I don't know if I would watch or skip them on a second play through. I haven't played a Metal Gear game since MGS2 and I forgot how difficult it can be if you try to rush things, I have been playing on the next to easiest level and can't even count the times I died especially in the beginning. As the game goes on and you gain access to more guns and gadgets and I have found it to get easier. The ammo supply seems to be a lot better than in past games where it was more wise to conserve, and like recent Resident evil games this game has included a way to purchase weapons and ammo by earning money from extra weapons you find and sell automatically to an arms dealer Drebin.
There is an online mode which took me about two hours to install due to updates, and then you have to go to a portal website of Konami and create two different ID's and Passwords, and then confirm your e-mail address, this has to be the hardest game to get online with I have ever played, and to tell you the truth I played a few matches and didn't even really enjoy it that much though it might appeal to a more hardcore gamer. If you have an interest in getting this game for it's single player you'll be in for a treat, it has some of the best looking graphics I have ever seen on a console game, and as always a great story that concludes the saga, maybe? At the used price of about $25 at this point you can't go wrong with this game and I would highly recommend it, I'm going to give it a 4 out of 5. I would have scored it a 5 out of 5 had the online multiplayer not been such a hassle to set up.
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