Metal Gear Solid 4: Wait for the movie to come out
“Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots”
Genre: Stealth action
Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Platform: PlayStation 3
Price: $59.99
ESRB rating: M (mature)
Grade: B-
According to Webster’s dictionary, the term “sequel” is defined as “that which follows; a succeeding part; continuation.”
To which Hollywood has added “an attempt to recapture past glory” and more often than not fails to achieve it.
More unfortunate though, now game makers are falling into the same rut, taking successful titles and creating iterations that don’t advance the story so much as show off the latest graphics technology. What results is like adding more frosting to a cake: Slather on too much and the cake, while pretty, can lose appeal.
“Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” unfortunately gags on its frosting. The game, while a visual tour de force, suffers from too much “watch” and not enough “play,” making Game Guy wonder where the line between movie and game was drawn.
MGS 4, a stealth action first-person shooter, supposedly completes a story arc from director Hideo Kojima dating back nearly 20 years to the first “Metal Gear” game released for the old Nintendo Entertainment System. This latest chapter also stars the character Solid Snake, a mercenary bent on bringing down arch enemy Liquid Snake, Solid’s clone twin. Factoring into the battle is the super-weapon Metal Gear, a walking tank with nuclear launch capabilities.
That simplifies the plot quite a bit. MGS 4 contains a wealth of characters and a winding story line that could be difficult for gamers new to the franchise to follow. It’s set in the near future but incorporates numerous references to past battles in the franchise as well as actual military engagements, so it pays for “Metal Gear” newbies to hit the library and do a little advance reading of history.
MGS 4, despite being a shooter title, also awards points for avoiding conflict through covert activity. Implied, too, is the notion that having a nuclear launch platform walking around freely is somehow, you know, a bad thing. So even though this is a “war” game, there are lessons showing how holding down the trigger isn’t always the best course of action.
But as shooter games go, this one doesn’t have much button-pressing at all. The linear course of the story affords little deviation, and whole blocks of minutes can pass — especially during the initial load sequence — before MGS 4 asks gamers to take action. (Fortunately, the online play demands more action, particularly against trigger-happy opponents.) What ensues then is a long tale filled with beautiful graphics that is more a treat for the eyes than the mind — or the thumbs.
Not that this game won’t have a big audience. The “Metal Gear” franchise has been a best seller over two decades, and devout Gearheads no doubt will embrace MGS 4’s lovingly detailed attempt to tie up plot twists and loose ends strewn back as far as the Reagan administration.
Sequels are like that; they evoke a following regardless of quality. MGS 4 is a beautiful piece of work as games go, but given the price Game Guy kind of wishes he had waited for the movie to come out and paid only $8.50.
I found this article particularly ignorant, in fact it seems you don’t know much about the game at all. First, MGS4, like all the MGS’ before it, has never been a “First-person” Shooter. don’t even for a second lump those two together. HALO 3, COD4, those are FPS. Metal Gear is a game series which created the stealth action genre in 1987(MSX2,the NES is a false version), by introducing stealth over the run and gun staple of that time. MGS4 is a 3rd person stealth game which only offers the FPS mode as part of the immense diverse freedom the game allows. “Implied, too, is the notion that having a nuclear launch platform walking around freely is somehow, you know, a bad thing.” Oh no, having a giant tool of destruction armed with radioactive weapons of mass destruction, capable of ending the world as we know it, is TOTALLY a good thing. MGS is a war game, but unlike other war games, it does not glorify war, it shows the ugly side of war. Its funny how short people’s attention-spans are, and how trigger happy they are, to enjoy a game such as this. the diversity is immense. run and gun,sneak through entirely,ally with the rebels,kill everyone,non-lethally dispatch everyone,save hostages,watch hostages die/ignore them,sneak through areas with multiple choices of paths,3rd person shooting,First person shooting,Melee combat,grapple and subduing combat,blending with your environment, and ,much more. its a stealth game,shooting game,fighting game,Mech game,it has car chases, all tied into an amazing story. Every thing from the visual presentation, to sound, to gameplay mechanics, this game raises the bar.