I am... very surprised with this game?? How do I put it... for the longest time MGS4 had that mythical aura about it, as in something unattainable, which i mean being stuck on PS3 does that to a fella. Brief tangent PS3 was my only Sony console I've had, and this was waaaay back when I was kid. Later on in life my dad sold it and that went to bite me in the ass when really really wanted to play MGS4.
For context I've played almost all the big big Metal Gear games (sorry PO ;—;) so MGS4 was my last stop and I was DYING to play it. You can imagine my excitement when I FINALLY managed to get it running on an emulator without crashing LET'S GOOOO. I intentionally avoided as many spoilers as I could so I could play this the way kojimbo and the co intended. The way kojimbo intended....................
Well I mean it's not BAD, but it's absolutely polarizing for me. Let's get the big one outta the way—THEY WEREN'T LYING, THIS IS DEADASS A MOVIEEEEE. Like they MEANT it. And the funny part is I was totally prepared for it, I handled the garbles of codecs in MGS2, and yet it STILL caught me off guard here. Bruv I am actually baffled and befuddled at how little gameplay there actually is. Act 1 is fine, Act 2 is good, Act 3 SUCKS, Act 4 is whatev, Act 5 just gives up. Ok let me rephrase that—what I mean is stealth gameplay. I don't know if this is some kojumbo 5D chess callback to how MGS1 had like 15 guards through its entire runtime, but MGS4 also has the same problem.
This is made weirder by the fact it both improves and worsens MGS3's gameplay?? There's a waaaay heavier emphasis on weapons and combat, but it's mostly qol changes, with some changes like over the shoulder shooting and the big winner here octocamo my beloved, but i mean, is it just me or is the level design here considerably weaker than MGS3?? Like when your gameplay peak is Act 2 I struggle to find how it's any better than stuff like Groznyj Grad.
This all mostly comes back to how little game time there really is, which limits just how much a player can experiment and utilize all the mechanics provided. Ah, but you might say this is where replayability comes in and saves the day! Bro I'd love to play more MGS4 but this game is paced like it wants to reach the gates of hell in both red and gold splits. It's veeery frontloaded since it starts fine enough with Act 1 and 2, nosedives in 3, tries to recover in 4, and flatlines in 5.
And the fact that the gameplay had to be sacrificed like a goat so that kojango can spend 9 hours overly explaining both details that didn't need to be clarified and details that that do with unsatisfying resolutions is just kinda tragic. This game is sooo pretending like the last 3 games were aaallllll leading up to THIS which is like iuhseuihriseuefesiubiuesbf NO. Trying to tie MGS2 into MGS3 is quite literally mission impossible cuz that's exactly why MGS3 was a prequel—so it didn't have to obey MGS2's rules. But then MGS4 is like aahhh shit we gotta wrap this up somehow, so how about we backtrack on our original intention and just say that it was always like this? Problem solved!(????)
And you know I come from the very distant future... where kojimballs ended up making more MGS games. Where he was like hey, let's at least try, try and explain some of the lunacy I introduced in 4 with a few more Big Boss prequels, ey? but it's like MAN when you look at MGS4 at how it was MEANT to be, well, it's the MGS4 we got.
And hey I don't totally hate this game, I really love that it tries to tie in all the previous characters onto one final mission, the environments are stunning, the little gameplay that is here is still worthwhile, it has some awesome and iconic moments (Snake and Ocelot's fight is PERFECT), and when it nails the nostalgia pandering—it ABSOLUTELY nails it. but it goes from feeling like 10 to 1 to an 11 so many times that I just can't really decide how to feel. It's a beautiful little mess we got here <3
For context I've played almost all the big big Metal Gear games (sorry PO ;—;) so MGS4 was my last stop and I was DYING to play it. You can imagine my excitement when I FINALLY managed to get it running on an emulator without crashing LET'S GOOOO. I intentionally avoided as many spoilers as I could so I could play this the way kojimbo and the co intended. The way kojimbo intended....................
Well I mean it's not BAD, but it's absolutely polarizing for me. Let's get the big one outta the way—THEY WEREN'T LYING, THIS IS DEADASS A MOVIEEEEE. Like they MEANT it. And the funny part is I was totally prepared for it, I handled the garbles of codecs in MGS2, and yet it STILL caught me off guard here. Bruv I am actually baffled and befuddled at how little gameplay there actually is. Act 1 is fine, Act 2 is good, Act 3 SUCKS, Act 4 is whatev, Act 5 just gives up. Ok let me rephrase that—what I mean is stealth gameplay. I don't know if this is some kojumbo 5D chess callback to how MGS1 had like 15 guards through its entire runtime, but MGS4 also has the same problem.
This is made weirder by the fact it both improves and worsens MGS3's gameplay?? There's a waaaay heavier emphasis on weapons and combat, but it's mostly qol changes, with some changes like over the shoulder shooting and the big winner here octocamo my beloved, but i mean, is it just me or is the level design here considerably weaker than MGS3?? Like when your gameplay peak is Act 2 I struggle to find how it's any better than stuff like Groznyj Grad.
This all mostly comes back to how little game time there really is, which limits just how much a player can experiment and utilize all the mechanics provided. Ah, but you might say this is where replayability comes in and saves the day! Bro I'd love to play more MGS4 but this game is paced like it wants to reach the gates of hell in both red and gold splits. It's veeery frontloaded since it starts fine enough with Act 1 and 2, nosedives in 3, tries to recover in 4, and flatlines in 5.
And the fact that the gameplay had to be sacrificed like a goat so that kojango can spend 9 hours overly explaining both details that didn't need to be clarified and details that that do with unsatisfying resolutions is just kinda tragic. This game is sooo pretending like the last 3 games were aaallllll leading up to THIS which is like iuhseuihriseuefesiubiuesbf NO. Trying to tie MGS2 into MGS3 is quite literally mission impossible cuz that's exactly why MGS3 was a prequel—so it didn't have to obey MGS2's rules. But then MGS4 is like aahhh shit we gotta wrap this up somehow, so how about we backtrack on our original intention and just say that it was always like this? Problem solved!(????)
And you know I come from the very distant future... where kojimballs ended up making more MGS games. Where he was like hey, let's at least try, try and explain some of the lunacy I introduced in 4 with a few more Big Boss prequels, ey? but it's like MAN when you look at MGS4 at how it was MEANT to be, well, it's the MGS4 we got.
And hey I don't totally hate this game, I really love that it tries to tie in all the previous characters onto one final mission, the environments are stunning, the little gameplay that is here is still worthwhile, it has some awesome and iconic moments (Snake and Ocelot's fight is PERFECT), and when it nails the nostalgia pandering—it ABSOLUTELY nails it. but it goes from feeling like 10 to 1 to an 11 so many times that I just can't really decide how to feel. It's a beautiful little mess we got here <3