As the two people who read my blog know, I was without a computer monitor for about 4 or 5 days. Now I've got a shiny new Samsung (that's getting traded in tomorrow because of a stuck pixel, by the way) and I feel more complete. So what's happened in the week or two of silence?
The first thing I did was beat Metal Gear Solid 4. I will say that, yes, it is a tremendous game, but after completing it for the third time just about an hour or two ago, I have to say... It's not the best MGS. A lot of people would say that honor belongs to MGS3, and I have to agree. There are things I love about all of the Solid series (I never got into the MSX games), but I would say that overall, MGS3: Subsistence (the Subsistence part is important) is the best of the four, leaving MGS4 in the bottom half with MGS2.
If I had to express my complaints with MGS4 while avoiding spoilers, I would say that there's really not much game there. After you skip all the cutscenes, you realize that the environments are pretty small and pretty linear. I never felt like I had a ton of options for tackling an objective or sneaking past enemy units. To be sure, it's nice that the controls are slightly better and you don't have a cumbersome camo or ailment menu, but I feel that the main purpose of MGS4 was to tie up all these plot lines from past games in a neat little package. As far as that goes, I do feel it is a massive success. I heard Shane Bettenhausen of EGM/1UP remark that the player would feel completely satisfied with the way things are wrapped up, and I have to agree with him.
As such, with further iterations of the franchise, I would like to see something that's more of a game. I could see the series going in two seperate ways in this regard. You could have "Metal Gear Raiden" be the more gameplay intensive title while "Metal Gear Big Boss" would fill in the backstory of Big Boss/Naked Snake more. As long as they're not on the PSP, I would love to play both of these games.
Moving on to more seemingly minute complaints for MGS4, I hate that each time you start a boss fight, the game automatically equips you with another weapon that's not of your choosing. If you're going for a no kill game, this is especially infuriating as the weapon that you're equipped with is always of the lethal variety. It's small, but an annoyance nonetheless. (Also, what's the point of having 60+ weapons if only a handful are non-lethal?)
I also hate that you can't skip the credits and that cinematics and the pause screen count as playtime. MGS4's credits are possibly the longest I've ever seen in any movie or game. Yes, there were a lot of people who worked on this game who deserve praise and recognition, but if I've already beat the game before, why do you feel compelled to waste my time?
Speaking of a waste of time... The game does have a dreaded PS3 install, but this is by far the worst offender I've found. It's nice that they split up the install time based on what act you're on, but once you play through the game once, you realize that you have to install everything all over again because it doesn't store the complete install on your hard drive, only the current act you're on. For those of us with space to spare, why can't I just install the complete game and never have to worry about this crap again?
So there you go. My vague review of Metal Gear Solid 4. If I were to give it a score, I'd give it a A- as compared to the A+ I would give Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. There's a lot I would like to go into concerning my favorite aspects of each of the four games, but I'll save that for another day.
I have other things I'd like to talk about as well, such as my experience with Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and the PS3 in general, but I think I'll put those in a seperate post.
The first thing I did was beat Metal Gear Solid 4. I will say that, yes, it is a tremendous game, but after completing it for the third time just about an hour or two ago, I have to say... It's not the best MGS. A lot of people would say that honor belongs to MGS3, and I have to agree. There are things I love about all of the Solid series (I never got into the MSX games), but I would say that overall, MGS3: Subsistence (the Subsistence part is important) is the best of the four, leaving MGS4 in the bottom half with MGS2.
If I had to express my complaints with MGS4 while avoiding spoilers, I would say that there's really not much game there. After you skip all the cutscenes, you realize that the environments are pretty small and pretty linear. I never felt like I had a ton of options for tackling an objective or sneaking past enemy units. To be sure, it's nice that the controls are slightly better and you don't have a cumbersome camo or ailment menu, but I feel that the main purpose of MGS4 was to tie up all these plot lines from past games in a neat little package. As far as that goes, I do feel it is a massive success. I heard Shane Bettenhausen of EGM/1UP remark that the player would feel completely satisfied with the way things are wrapped up, and I have to agree with him.
As such, with further iterations of the franchise, I would like to see something that's more of a game. I could see the series going in two seperate ways in this regard. You could have "Metal Gear Raiden" be the more gameplay intensive title while "Metal Gear Big Boss" would fill in the backstory of Big Boss/Naked Snake more. As long as they're not on the PSP, I would love to play both of these games.
Moving on to more seemingly minute complaints for MGS4, I hate that each time you start a boss fight, the game automatically equips you with another weapon that's not of your choosing. If you're going for a no kill game, this is especially infuriating as the weapon that you're equipped with is always of the lethal variety. It's small, but an annoyance nonetheless. (Also, what's the point of having 60+ weapons if only a handful are non-lethal?)
I also hate that you can't skip the credits and that cinematics and the pause screen count as playtime. MGS4's credits are possibly the longest I've ever seen in any movie or game. Yes, there were a lot of people who worked on this game who deserve praise and recognition, but if I've already beat the game before, why do you feel compelled to waste my time?
Speaking of a waste of time... The game does have a dreaded PS3 install, but this is by far the worst offender I've found. It's nice that they split up the install time based on what act you're on, but once you play through the game once, you realize that you have to install everything all over again because it doesn't store the complete install on your hard drive, only the current act you're on. For those of us with space to spare, why can't I just install the complete game and never have to worry about this crap again?
So there you go. My vague review of Metal Gear Solid 4. If I were to give it a score, I'd give it a A- as compared to the A+ I would give Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. There's a lot I would like to go into concerning my favorite aspects of each of the four games, but I'll save that for another day.
I have other things I'd like to talk about as well, such as my experience with Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and the PS3 in general, but I think I'll put those in a seperate post.
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