Metal Gear Misconception
“Reloading like this.. its a revolution!”
There was once a time that even us Sony fanboys had to admit that the only real big title we had was Metal Gear Solid 4 against Xbox 360’s roster of games. Sure there was Resistance, MotorStorm, Ratchet and Clank along with some others (cough, Genji: Days of the Blade), but for some reason they just didn’t have the impact of dropping the MGS bomb. Its hard to believe that our once holy grail of PlayStation 3 went through quite its share of controversy, and isn’t so high held by a lot of gamers to this day.
If your familiar with the online arguments or reviews you already know what the argument was mostly about. For the most part the real issue
was of course that the game had to many cut scenes and was overall boring. I say “For the most part” because there’s also a large number of people who disagree completely, including myself.
I think what we have here is a misconception (Ha!). I feel like, as being a fan of the series, people that played through the games from Metal Gear Solid 1 all the way up to 4 enjoy the cut scene’s quite a lot. Although there were times when even I was tapping my foot a little during the cut scene’s. I think for the most part this is an issue for players whom picked it up because it was the big PS3 title that year, and being disappointed on a half done story. Not that Kojima made a bad storyline for 4, but in the sense that they had never seen one or all of the first 3 chapters of the Solid series. Its like watching the last episode of a television series, you don’t get all the sudden gratification of seeing characters from earlier games and the pieces of the Metal Gear Solid puzzle being put into place.
For me, there was only one big problem with Metal Gear Solid 4— they broke the formula. I remember the end of Snake Eater, after watching one of 
the most moving ending cut scenes I’ve ever witnessed, looking back at the entire game and thinking “I just survived 3 days just out in the jungle… Badass.”. You know, back when Metal Gear was about one big awesome mission, in one area? Kojima took that from me. I’m sure a lot of people enjoyed the new act based formula they had, but I wanted a good old fashion Metal Gear Solid mission. Instead I purchased a game with a formula more fit to its competitor, Splinter Cell, which I’ve never really enjoyed. I’m on the Metal Gear Solid 3 train, it still holds as my favorite Metal Gear.
Although this is an argument that isn’t seen as much anymore, I’ve always wanted to give my piece about it, so there it is. Metal Gear Solid
is an amazing cinematic experience, and experiencing the final chapter before the first isn’t going to cut it. The best, and the worst, quality of Metal Gear Solid 4 is that it was made for the fans, and the fans rejoiced.
I feel like I’ve typed “Metal Gear Solid” 100 times.
10 Comments
Plus the overlooked amazing multiplayer.. just sayin'..
A little late don't you think? Oh well.. better late than never. What sucked about MGS4 wasn't the long cunt-scenes (that was to be expected). What really turned me off was just how absurd and overly-complicated the storyline got by the end of it. The reason why MGS1 and MGS3 were such classic games was because they were simple: infiltrate the enemy base, meet crazy ass characters and bosses, survive the mission, and get your ass out of there in one piece. With MGS4, it felt like everything was just thrown in there for the sake of giving the series a sense of closure (SPOILER: from Big mama, to vamp's naomi and vamp's stupid explanation of immortality, to Major Zero being the main bad guy, to Meryl's sudden marriage to a complete idiot aka Johnny, to Raiden's unnecessarily long 'family'scene).
I dunno…It just seems like Kojima was running out of ideas and started throwing things in there just to end the series. PLUS I think the story would have been WAY more powerful if Snake had just killed himself at the end. He would have been a hero who's time was at an end. But now, he's just gonna be an old man with nothing to do in life. Same with Raiden, he should have just died (during the scene where he rescues snake from that giant submarine). That way he would have been remembered as a hero who sacrifices himself for the greater good. Now he's gonna be some weirdo with mechanical arms who has a wife and a kid he's never met.
That's my 2 cents.
The funny part is, the 360 doesn't have anything close to MGS4. The PS3 just got a trillion incredible exclusives, and all the 360 has is Halo SD, Halo ODLC, Halo RTS, Halo: Halo, and Halo 9… yup, nothing.
Sucks to be an xbot.
Being a long time MGS fan I seriously got disappointed really soon back from MGS 2. I do agree MGS 1&3 are the best and that Kojima has lost it at this point. I don't think I will ever spend more than 25 usd on any of his developments again. MGS4 turned out to be such a boring experience for me, it all seemed to be running in slowmo.
I love the Metal Gear series, played the originals from subsistance etc, and I agree for someone who jumps into the series for the first time with this installment isn't the best choice, story wise.
however, your grammar is horrible.
Plus you can go through Big Boss Hard with an M4 with the masterkey equipped. it's a joke.
I guess we all have our opinions ^_^
I personally feel like MGS4 was something really special, even more so than any previous installment in the series. I think it performs fantastically well as a stand-alone game/story, but as the closure of such a long going story, of Solid Snake's saga, it is a mastepiece, with a [possibly] unprecedented, sense of self-awareness and nostalgia, making it the most poignant narrative in recent memory.
Dammit, I read through it so many times trying to weed out all the errors, my apologies I'm still working on getting into some courses in journalism.
I agree, I felt like the game only really fit into the series story wise more then game play and feel wise, which I state in my rant half way through on MGS3. Its true they did just try to tie up all the loose ends, which was also necessary to end the series really, or else we'd have a lot of pissed off fans. The game did lack a lot of the mystery and finesse the other titles carried so heavily. Maybe another game would've helped tie it up a little better, but who could really tell.
As for being late, I know, but this is a topic I've wanted to express my opinion on FOREVER, before I was even into writing, and just stopped myself because it was late. More just wanted to get it out there for myself than anything.
Ah, but there was a time it sucked to be a Sony guy. Ive said it before, but I think the reason Xbox was doing so well comparatively beforehand was because it had year on us. Although I do still wish we had Mass Effect (and BioShock at one point).
You guys also get Xbox Live though, which our online really has nothing on (but were working our way up to you guys:))
I agree, I think MGS4 is an amazing game, but it just doesn't hold the same caliber as the rest, most notably my high held Snake Eater, which for me was the defining moment for the series and even the PS2 (although i bought a PS2 for MGS2, which is amazing as well.)