Litter Box

This entry is just going to be my review of Metal Gear Solid 4. It's spoilerless unless stated.

Story - ?? (if half understood, it's a B)
As much as I follow/play the MGS series for its story, ironically I still don't understand it much at all, hence I can't really rate the story as it'll be rather unfair. Most of it is my own fault, cause' I only played MGS2 and 3 but watched MGS1 on youtube. There are also only so few things/facts about the story that I can remember for certain, and that makes it harder to understand MGS4's story.

However, there are some things that happened in MGS4 and or its presentation that in my opinion weren't very agreeable/convincing. In my last blog entry, I wrote about how the cutscenes are long and that I loved it. It's true that I loved it, but whether or not I'd love it just as much when I watch it a second time or more would have to depend on how interesting its context and presentation are.

Sadly, many of the cutscenes in MGS4 are quite monotonous and overly expositional. Characters often just stand/sit around and talk to one another, one side listening, the other explaining. Mind you, explanations are good, cos' already I suck at understanding the story, and if there weren't clear enough explanations for idiots like me, it could have been worse. BUT, such cutscenes in MGS4 typically stretch anywhere from 30-60 minutes in total. For something that bland and sometimes really slow-paced/long-winded to be that long is quite an overkill, especially when it's some bloody long historical lesson by characters like Big Mama, etc. I didn't mind watching through all of it the first time, but by my second playthrough there's no way I'm gonna sit through all that again even if I should cos' I have to understand all of that to understand MGS4's story.

Of course, I shouldn't forget that Kojima did try to make those boring long 'intermission cutscenes' more interesting by enabling you to view the cutscene through a device (MK II) which you can freely control to move around the area, watching the cutscene from your very own angle, or focusing on your preferred characters. I must admit it's very fun the first time I did that cos' it's original, but I'm not sure if I'll be as interested to do it a second time considering how long the cutscene is.

Next, there are a few illogical things that happened in the story that really distract me. <START OF SPOILERS> First, there's the Naomi and Otacon love relationship. They knew each other through codec before but they've never met in person. But somehow, the moment their eyes met the first time they met on a helicopter, they fell in love. Of course, I'm aware that fiction is full of 'love at first sight' romance, and if it's just been that it'd have been fine. But, everything becomes so horribly dramatic (in a very fake fashion) when Naomi chooses to die and Otacon cries and majorly whines about it, asking why this has to happen when he's just about to fall in love (even though they've had sex before that anyway).

It's supposed to be a dramatic and sad scene, but I couldn't help but cringe at how seemingly pretentious it looked, and how I actually didn't feel sorry nor sad for Otacon's loss or Naomi's death. Instead, I felt nothing, and I simply wanted that cutscene to end, even though it had Raiden in it (not that he was saying more than 2 lines). Bottom line, I just felt that their love relationship isn't necessary in the story. It ties in with it a little, but I feel that the same conclusion could have been achieved without using romance, especially when it's so pitiably unconvincing.

Another illogical thing that happened was near the end when Snake collapsed and tried to inject himself with the syringe but it wasn't helping. He laid there struggling on the floor, entirely defenseless, when an enemy soldier saw him. He was holding a gun, and Snake was alone and fully vulnerable. Instead of shooting or capturing Snake immediately and on the spot, the enemy decided to switch to his blade and walked very catiously slow towards Snake. WHY IS THAT??

Snake is DYING. You don't need to be that cautious, and why did you purposely have to switch to your BLADE when a gun is a million times more practical?? That's because if Snake dies now there won't be an ending. Then why create such a dramatic scene which is so disbelieving? It reeks of “Escape now, Snake! Or get someone (like ZOMG Raiden???) to help in the nick of time before we slowly walk towards you after a minute even though you're only 5 feet away and attempt to cut you instead of taking a half second to shoot from here.” By that time I wasn't at all nervous or anxious. It was just about waiting for obvious Raiden to come and save his ass as usual. When you see blades, you see Raiden. You don't even have to guess. It's an unwritten law of expectation. </END OF SPOILERS>

And then, there's Snake and his 'I'm gonna die' cough scenes. Since MGS4's trailers first came out in 2006, we know that Snake's dying. Having two or three cough scenes is understandable, but to have half a dozen (or more?) of them?? He coughs so much I wonder if he's really gonna die right there and then so that I can have the chance to play as Raiden or something. You must be wondering what's that bad about a cough scene. Well, it'll be 10 seconds of Snake coughing, 10 seconds of him struggling to find his syringe, 5 seconds of injection, and 10 seconds of him getting slightly better and slowly getting up (sort of). Do I really need to see that once every few cutscenes? =_=;

Speaking of redundancy, there's this girl who cooks eggs at the beginning of practically every chapter of the game. That scene alone lasts for I dunno... a minute or so, but stretches when someone else joins the scene. It's not exciting or interesting, nor do I find it symbolic of anything. The only thing it succeeds in making me feel is hungry for eggs. There's also Drebin's monkey, who's repeatedly shown drinking soda, wanting a smoke or simply being loud. I didn't find it funny or cute, so I don't really understand what it's there for.

Another pointlessly repetitive thing would the the scene after the defeat of every single B&B boss fight (Beauty and the Beast). At first it was kind of cool, scary and WTF at the same time when it happens with the first boss, but it got old by the second time it happened, and I was hoping that each of them would be uniquely different. All it does is drag the cutscene and perhaps fan-service the male fans with these female bosses' 'dangerously sexy' ass-waving poses even though it makes no sense why they do that. I should have guessed fan service requires no logic.

Lastly, this is not exactly a bad thing, but I still find it sad that there's less humor this time round (especially considering that most of the humor revolves around just one specific character). I'm aware that Kojima only started incorporating humor into its story/gameplay starting MGS2, and that humor is never originally a default characteristic of MGS. But still it was nice to have lots of funny moments (not to mention the additional parodies!) like in MGS3, not that there aren't any at all in MGS4, cos' it still made me laugh several times and they don't even have to be story related:

Graphics - A++
As mentioned before, it's awesome. Period.

Gameplay – A
I already talked about a few things in my previous blog entry about some of the aspects of gameplay, so I'm just gonna add a little more.

Ninja sneaking vs Rambo blasting
MGS had always been about 'tactical espionage action'. Although it's not game over if you're caught/discovered by enemies, the game always advises/recommends that you sneak around and get past enemies unseen. However in MGS4 it seems that going on a shooting spree is almost more advantageous cos' killing more people gives you more points, and the rambo-tempting over-the-shoulder (camera angle) shooting screams madly of rampage. Some people seem to find this to be a bad thing. Personally, I think it plays just fine.

It's true that MSG4 sort of no longer encourages you to be all-sneaky throughout the game, but in the end it really depends on the individual player's preference. I can choose to rambo if I want to, but I don't want to. I've played MGS the sneaky way (though I fail at it) in the previous games and I will continue to do so for any MGS game, cos' it's the only way I can play that won't get me killed 500 times.
Little gameplay
In short, MGS4 is prolly 60% cutscenes and 40% gameplay. It took me a while to finish the game during my first playthrough cos' I get lost and stuff but now that I know exactly where to go and what to do, I realize how truly short this game is, especially if you skip ALL the cutscenes. A pro speedrun would prolly be at most like what? An hour plus?
Being able to buy ammo for any gun at anytime

Personally I find this feature to be friendly towards noobs like me. Of course it takes out the challenge, if any for certain players, of conserving good ammo for good weapons. But if players really want to keep that challenge, they can simply continue to just pick up weapons and ammo without buying. All this feature does is that it gives us lousy (or beginner) players a chance to not suffer horribly.
Self recharging battery
This is awesome. I was worried if I have to crawl around looking for glowing mushrooms again and I'm glad the answer's no! LOL. But this also means that when the battery is low, you have no choice but to stop using the solid-eye for a while, which can be hard for those who over-rely on it like me.

Music - A-
To be honest I don't remember any of the tracks from MGS4 except for Old Snake's theme. I went back and listened to the bosses' BGMs on the OST and I still don't have much of an impression on them. But I do know that none of the tracks annoyed or distracted me, which in other words mean they aren't that bad despite not leaving much of an impression. And so I decided to give it an A-.

Replay value – A+ <unlockables spoiler>
It's bloody annoying that there's no video/cutscene gallery in MGS4 despite having it in MGS3: Subsistence (prolly cos they're planning to release another MGS4 version in a year or so to make moar mahney, and no, the mission briefing section does NOT count as a full cutscene gallery), but becos' Kojima's smart enough to enable the unlocking of several different face masks for Snake to wear (these masks are really more like heads, cos they literally replace Snake's head and show expressions, blink and talk), most players are most likely tempted to replay the game just to watch the cutscenes again with Snake looking like the selected face mask.

For example, in my case, I keep equipping Raiden's mask so that I get to see Raiden in the cutscenes, even though it's not him. (Also, different characters have different personalities and show different kinds of facial expressions when in-character, so when for example Snake puts on Raiden's mask, you get to see Raiden making facial expressions that he normally wouldn't, making it extra fun to watch!) </unlockables spoiler>

There are also 5 difficulty modes, as usual, and players can continue to play a harder mode each time they finish the game. There're no new weapons to unlock every single time you beat the game (unless you earn an emblem; read next paragraph), but you can replay again and again to save up enough points to unlock two very expensive items that most players would love to get their hands on if they aren't good enough to unlock them the traditional way (zero kill zero alert) – unlimited ammo + stealth (invisible) camo.

Furthermore, there are a total of 40 achievement emblems that you can earn through various set criterias ranging from lame easy to ultra hard. Some of them unlock new weapons (which you can't buy from Drebin) and face camos, but most of them are just there for OCD-sake (obsessive-compulsive disorder). You'll be surprised at how OCD players can get though, sometimes.. =P

Overall:
Without story – 9.5/10
With half-understood story – 8.8/10