The end of Metal Gear

[auriond]

Ok, I've been totally missing from life in general since I returned from the trip (thanks for your well-wishes, those who commented on my previous posts - I appreciate them muchly, I just haven't been online much at all

Comments

[auriond]

MGS4 is Metal Gear Solid 4, and it's the fourth (and supposedly last) of a series. It calls itself "tactical epsionage". It's sort of a shooter, but not really, because the aim of the game is to sneak, not kill. You get sent on missions to do stuff without being seen by the enemy, so you crawl on the ground, hide behind walls, try to camouflage yourself and occasionally even disguise yourself in cardboard boxes or masks. It's really fun and challenging.

Of course, since the central theme is war and the first 3 games are set in the context of the Cold War, this is not to say that there's no violence. There is, but you can keep it to a minimum by not shedding any blood yourself. The game sure encourages you to kill though, by making a gazillion tempting weapons available. But the best secrets are usually obtained by not killing, and not being seen, of course.

To give you a better idea, here's a screenshot gallery of my favourite from the series, MGS3:
http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/536/536086/imgs_27.html

And MGS4: http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/metalgearsolid4/images.html

[auriond]

:) If you do, let me know what you think! Like Silent Hill, the game has a cult following, so you either love it or hate it. This one's a little hard to "get" because it's so quirky, and the storyline is even more convoluted than SH, but it's so different from other action games that it's quite refreshing for the gameplay alone.

[auriond]

o.O How do you set them on fire?? I didn't even know you could do that!

I love the Mark II too! though I don't electrocute people with him :P

You're starting with MGS4? The storyline is gonna fry your brain. :P

[auriond]

Oh, thanks for the info. I never used any of the grenades that set people on fire... too messy. I use the anesthetic gun to plough my way through.

Without the storyline, the game won't be enjoyable, because it's like 70% cutscenes. We treat it like an interactive movie that just happens to have very innovative gameplay too. I'm in love with the characters actually.

But to follow the storyline, I think you have to start from the beginning, all the way from 1998. I was going to make a post about game walkthroughs you can watch on Youtube. I'll add MGS1 to it in case you have a few hours to kill and you're curious enough.