Metal Gear Solid 4: PS3 Review

This review does not include the Metal Gear Online game that comes with MGS4

Liked:

1. Best looking game ever made to date, on any console or system.  Anyone who would disagree with that must be a raving fanboy of some other game or system.

2. Good voice-acting, sound effects and music.

3. Best gameplay of any Metal Gear game.  It’s so much easier to control and fight with Snake.  A lot of the clunkiness is gone. Shooting is now fun.

4.  Nice looking female characters. Naomi in particular is smokin’ hot.

5. Octocamo is pretty cool and actually works.  I had enemy soldiers walk 2 feet away from me and they never knew I was there.

6. There are some good nostalgia bits during the game.

7. The tracking sequence is one of the cooler and more realistic things in the game.  If you’re familiar with real world tracking you can actually use that knowledge during the sequence.  I was very impressed.

8. It’s an absolute technical marvel. Everything in this game just looks amazing, and I never once saw any obvious bugs, glitches, or graphical clipping.  I never had any crashes, errors, and the framerate only slowed down slightly during intense segments.

Didn’t Like:

1. Worst story of any Metal Gear game so far. Seriously this is the most over-the-top, unbelievable, and unlikely plot of all.  To make things worse, the entire Metal Gear saga is hard to follow and confusing.

2. The attempts at humor just do not work at all.

3. Long beginning installation, followed by several more shorter ones during the game.

4. The number and length of cut scenes in MGS4 borders on the obscene. Prepare to spend 45 minutes to an hour watching certain scenes.  At least they are entertaining though.

5. The “emo” boss chicks.   You have to fight 4 female bosses throughout the game and each one is insane. You then have to sit through a crazy death speech followed by Drebin giving you their life’s history. One big long sob story that I couldn’t find myself caring one little bit about.  Some insane crazy-ass bitch just put you through a gimmicky boss battle, and you’re supposed to care why she’s loony?  Sorry, but the boss battles in Metal Gear Solid 1 had a lot more impact, especially Sniper Wolf.

6. Some characters and relationships were extremely over-the-top and/or unlikely.  The two romances in this game were so unlikely that they feel almost laughably contrived.

7. Blatant product placement that doesn’t really add to the game much.  One question that pops into my mind is, if Otacon has an Apple laptop, EVA drives a Triumph motorcycle, and Snake has an iPod, why doesn’t Drebin get to drink a branded soda? Or Snake get to smoke branded cigarettes? Ok the answer to the cigarette one is obvious. They’d get lynched by do-gooder special interest groups over it.

8. I was disappointed with Snake’s exit from the series. I expected a bang and got a fizzle.

Yay: MGS4 is more art than game. As a pure entertainment product, you can’t find anything better on the PS3.  +1

Gay: Metal Gear has always been at least a little over-the-top in places, but MGS4 takes that to the extreme.  This game feels the most contrived out of all the games in the series.  -1

Final BS Rating: 0 MEH

Closing Comments:

This is by far the hardest review I have ever done.   You might not think so from my review, but I enjoyed MGS4 and would recommend it to everyone.  Most of my negatives come from differences in personal tastes when it comes to story, characters and the more “artsy” side of the game.  If I looked past my own feelings on those parts, MGS4 would easily rank as the greatest game ever made.  In terms of technical brilliance and artistry, MGS4 definitely deserves the many perfect scores reviewers have given it.  No game even comes close to MGS4 in that regard.

Looking back, I feel like I hardly actually played the game.  It’s one big experience rather than simply a game to sit down and play for an hour or two like Halo or Call of Duty.  This is the first Metal Gear game I’ve actually really enjoyed PLAYING, and it’s a shame there wasn’t more of it.  Previous Metal Gears I’ve felt like I basically labored through to get to the next interesting cut scene.

Overall I have to say I’m disappointed with the game.  Sure it’s an amazing experience, but the game leaves me feeling flat. MGS 1 had a big impact on me, and MGS 3 did as well.  I’m torn between those two games on which story I enjoyed more.  In my opinion MGS4’s story doesn’t even come close.