MGS4 IMPRESSIONS: ACTS 1-3
Yes, yes, I know I'm over a year late to the party. That's why I'm not bothering with a spoiler-cut. Also, half of this has already been spoiled to me at some point in the past.
ACT 1 (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):
Oh jesus I hate "modern warfare" games. More specifically, I hate modern-day Middle East settings in games. Old-style ones, like in Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia are fine, but if it's Iraq War-era ones, it's just terrible. Rubble and dust, angry locals, explosions, dust, sand, dust, rubble, what may have been some nice buildings once upon a time, chaos, dust, rubble, and no fucking plants. These settings bore and annoy me.
I miss the radar.
Navigating a city just doesn't feel right after the settings of the previous games. Neither does constant warfare between everyone around me. Neither does having so many people around.
AAAAUGH I HATE THE NEW CONTROL SCHEME PASSIONATELY. I am going to go skin Ryan Payton and turn him into a rug for what he's done.
Drebin has the best voice ever .<3 He is also generally a classy gentleman. <3
Meryl! Yes! I'm so happy to see her, big muscular arms and all. They're all the better for punching Johnny in the face. I also adore the Rat Patrol.
I cannot bring myself to believe that that is really Liquid. He doesn't have Cam Clarke's voice.
Okay, I'm really not going to say too much about Act 1, since I got to watch the whole thing the first time I ever encountered MGS4. Soyeah.
ACT 2:
This part consists of me making fun of Raiden, making faces at Rose, not being remotely surprised by Vamp, generally disapproving of Naomi, and loving Octopus.
I like this setting. It's like a microcosm of MGS3's settings, but with more guinea pigs.
I actually have no real input about Rose. I never call her, since I don't need to save my game with her now. <3
OH GOD RAIDEN YOU ARE SUCH A DORK NOW. HOW CAN YOU EVEN. LIKE, SERIOUSLY. YOU THINK YOU'RE SO COOL. BUT YOU'RE NOT. REALLY. Seriously, I guess my opinion is the inverse of the general fandom one. I took Raiden (somewhat) seriously back in 2, but now that he's Robo-Raiden the Ninja, I can't take him seriously at all. The high heels and long nails don't help. Neither do the homoerotic sword duels with Vamp. Actually, I'm just happy that Kojima had the balls to do that.
Urrgh, Naomi. I didn't like her much in MGS1, and she's clearly worse now. At least she was an interesting villain back then. Now... she's kinda skanky. I mean, I don't want to be SEXIST DOUBLE STANDARD or anything, but she's really kinda skanky, isn't she?
LAUGHING OCTOPUS <3 Oh my god I love this boss battle SO MUCH. And Octopus in general. <3 (I of course say this as somebody who appreciates the fanservice.)
I'm irritated by the Otacon/Naomi subplot. It seems PASTED ON and forced. And kinda manipulative? Kinda? Urgh. (I SWEAR IT'S NOT BECAUSE IT BREAKS UP MY OTP OR ANYTHING)
I forgot to say it earlier, but I find Sunny charming.
ACT 3:
I'm going to add more to this as time goes by, since I'm running out of time. Act 3 got the most emotional reactions out of me out of the acts so far.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH TRENCHCOAT HANDFOOT ROBOTS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH
That was the first thing in a Metal Gear game that genuinely scared me. It was so bizarre and disconcerting and Uncanny Valley and AAAAUGH THREE-ARMED ROBOTS. I'm going to hate dealing with them, I can tell.
Also:
THAT WAS SOLIDUS, I SAW HIS RIGHT EYE ffffff I can't believe I caught a split-second detail like that. BIG BOSS DIDN'T BURN YEAH