solid metal gear 4

Rating: 6.0

System: PS3

Genre: Action, Stealth movie
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Kojima Productions
Release Date: 06/12/08
Duration: 25 hours
difficulty: 5

advantages
– Creative and varied sections including stealth, rail shooter and close combat
– Excellent graphics, sound and production values.
– All movies and codecs are skippable

Cons
– Almost half of the disc (I can’t even call it a game anymore) involves sitting down and watching movies and codec conversations
– Repetitive gameplay is not a challenge
– Multi-minute setup sections littered throughout the game.

Before I start, I think it’s necessary to mention that I love stealth games. There’s a great sense of satisfaction in sneaking up behind a large force and taking them down individually while the rest of the company is unaware of your existence. I really loved the first Metal Gear Solid, which was a landmark title on the PS1. The Splinter Cell series has been exposed in the stealth series in its own vision and is probably the most direct comparison to the Meta Gear Solid series. Ok, let’s move on to the review.

The Patriots are a conspiracy theory junkie’s wet dream for a group that controls private armies, waging war to support weapons-building corporations. Liquid is trying to destroy the Patriots to create chaos around the world. Premature aging causes Solid Snake to be terminally ill as he hunts down and attempts to stop his nemesis Liquid Snake one last time.

The real million dollar question is if there are any games on the drive. About half of the game’s 25 hours are spent watching movies and listening to the codec. John Carmack, lead programmer of many famous identification games, summed it up best when he said, “The story in a game is like the story in a porno movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important.” If games are meant to involve controller interaction, why aren’t we allowed to use them for such long sections? The answer? Hideo Kojima really likes movies. He should be making them for Hollywood to be seen in theaters instead of working in interactive media.

Their stories are too egotistical and detailed. She wastes time discussing people’s relationships, who is married to whom, and how they have dealt with cancer. You start to wonder if you are watching “The Young and the Restless” or playing a game. There are too many details and dialogues to explain a plot that isn’t really that complex. While the story is somewhat interesting, funny, and tries to pull your emotional strings, it’s too selfish. Get over yourself, Kojima!

His work would better serve the movie audience. Unfortunately, he has found a way to mind control a sizable portion of gamers into continually buying his games just to sit on their butts and watch movies. The CIA and FBI should really look into how he was able to pull it off. I think the irony is that their conspiracy theory stories are true. Little by little he is gaining control over everyone through subliminal messages in his movies. We need someone to finish it soon!

Many movie sections are like watching the end of a football game. “Just 2 more minutes and I’ll take the trash out, honey!” slowly and inevitably it becomes 30 minutes, 1 hour, etc. It’s so ridiculous that the game creators know about it and enjoy. One character actually asks you to lower your controller while he’s giving his speech. They have the audacity to show that they know they are not making a game anymore. Why do people live with this gut?!? In exchange for pre-release review copies on larger sites, even Konami acknowledged problematic cutscene lengths by requiring pre-release reviews that didn’t mention these issues.

Fortunately, you can skip all sections of the movie and get straight to the action. You will miss the story, but after watching all the movies I cannot recommend it to anyone who values ​​their time. The only commendable movies are at the bottom of the top five settings.

What about the little action left for the players? The actual sections that involve gameplay aren’t too bad. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of variety with stealth, railshooting sections, and updated melee combat. There are cool weapons to customize and trade. The OctoCamo remote drone and Metal Gear MKII provide alternative ways to get through some tedious stealthy sections.

The main problem is that there is not enough gameplay and it is not much different from the previous games in the series. You can play the game as a first-person shooter, but there are already too many of those types of games. The stealth aspects of the game haven’t changed much since the first MGS. Melee combat is new but not too different from many other games already out there. Even if you skip the movies, you still get a sub-par game.

This final entry in the series also introduces the psyche and stress meters. I applaud the new innovations, but I just didn’t fully understand these features. The stress meter seems to increase when you are not well covered or in combat. Snake is supposed to be more prone to mistakes with a high stress meter, but I never saw a difference. Lower mental level is supposed to be an issue, but it never affected gameplay. Perhaps these gauges are needed on higher difficulties. I was able to get through the game without paying attention to them by taking advantage of the AI ​​and simple game patterns.

Solid Snake needs more moves to deal with such advanced enemies. As noted, the game most comparable to Metal Gear is Splinter Cell. Each new addition to the Splinter Cell series adds new moves to Sam’s repertoire. He can climb upside down poles and snap an enemy’s neck. He can hang from a railing below an enemy and knock them to death. Swimming underwater, he cuts a hole in the ice and knocks down enemies. Whistle to attract a guard’s attention, then dispatch guards one by one. What happens when Sam sees the shadow of an enemy in a tent? She cuts a hole with his knife, sneaks up behind him and knocks him down.

Snake may be an old dog, but he’s picked up a few new tricks for his final bow. He has new melee moves to throw, kill, and knock out guards. Snake can also take a guard hostage and search them for items (thankfully no anal probes). There is a wide range of weapons available along with several ways to customize them. It is puzzling why more has not been implemented in the last decade.

While these new moves are appreciated, players are expecting more advancements over a decade within a series. Why can’t Snake make better use of his environment? Why aren’t we captivated by a wider variety of ways to dispatch enemies? Why aren’t there more than 4 or 5 basic enemy types (except bosses)? Why hasn’t Kojima done this? He spends all his time on his absurd movies and plot twists are the answer. This is a game. Add new ways to interact instead of watching all the good stuff that happens during movies. I’d like to depict some of the incredible action during those cinematics. The more action I saw that I couldn’t affect, the more frustrated I became.

The game takes place in five main stages. The movies begin in a battle-torn war zone in the Middle East. You are in the middle of large combat zones where multiple forces are fighting each other. If you are patient, you can take advantage of the subsequent weaknesses of each side. The setting is refreshing compared to the typical one-man army Solid Snake against a squad of guards and vision cones, for which the series has become known. However, the combat environment is not unique, having been replicated many times since the inaugural Half-Life.

The second stage is set in the typical South American jungle that we have all seen countless times. We understand. The producers liked Rambo 2. Please, get over the motive of hiding in the jungle. The mid and later sections of the game provide welcome variety in gameplay. Various sections of the game make it clear that Kojima and his team are very talented. If they just spent it filling games with more gameplay sections instead of mundane movies, the world would be a better place.

No action game would be complete without boss battles. Snake will defeat numerous bosses that are unique, varied, and set in cool environments. However, none of them will challenge you much. The main problem is that you’ll spend a good deal of your time manipulating your inventory and weapons in the middle of combat instead of fighting. It actually fits the theme of the game. The game wants to get you as far away from any interaction as possible. Even the actual interactive sections involve many non-interactive parts.

Of course, this is the PS3, so you have to endure a multi-minute setup section before the game loads. But wait, there is more. Take action now and we’ll add several multi-minute setup sections before each stage. Unfortunately, there is no money back guarantee in this case. It all comes to a slow and hopefully final conclusion with an even more open slap in the face. The game ends with a ninety minute movie to conclude the series. Ok, you like your characters and the story. We understand.

It’s not that I don’t like a good compelling story. I just think it could have been better executed with voiceovers that allowed for simultaneous play, like in Bioshock or Splinter Cell. Games should always strive to include as much interaction as possible. Just put us away from playing for a few minutes and make it worth it. I’m not against a game that includes a short intense movie after every few levels to “reward” you for beating a tense and difficult section. If the excellent movies at the end of each main level had been the only non-game sections of the game, the final product would be much better.

The graphics during the game and the movies are magnificent. The only problem is the overt use of browns and grays. I know Solid Snake is gray now, but does the world need to be gray too?

The music is moving during the dramatic sequences and energetic during the action sequences. Stuff that should boom, boom loud with satisfying bass. The surround sound is executed very well to envelop you in the frenetic war zone and the cautious and tense stealth sections. The very realistic bullet stings remind me of the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. Yes, they are that good.

It’s clear that the biggest sites praise Metal Gear Solid and other advertised games because their reviews are bought by the publisher’s big ad budgets. “Give us a perfect rating or we’ll remove our ads!” We know that we are not alone in recognizing these problems. Well, PoweredUpGamers is not a biased site. Our review may differ from other sites, but we don’t work with their positively biased scale which rarely falls below a 7. If we don’t enjoy a game, it scores low despite the hype.

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