MSG 4 - I finally got around to playing through it
*** SPOILER ALERT - I will try not to spoil any major plot points of MGS4, just the game length.
I bought Metal Gear Solid 4 before summer vacation, but wasn't in the mood to play through it. I played through MGS 1-3 and was a bit tired of the series so I had to take a little break before starting 4. I thought I would play it slowly, but I wound up beating in a frantic three day MGS marathon.
The MGS storyline is long and complicated. Gametrailers.com has an excellent 6 part series explaining the story and some behind the scenes stuff about the games. If you want the story of MGS 1-3 and don't want to play the games, this 20 minute plot synopsis is great: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35094.html Even after playing the games there were some plot points I forgot about that helped me understand the story a bit better.
There are two things that make MGS4 better than the games before it. The first is the control, Kojima productions took the good parts of the Gears of War control and used it. The camera acts like a 3rd person action game and the R and L buttons aim and shoot. The control works so well. I tried to go back to MGS3 after playing 4 and I just couldn't deal with the complicated button presses.
The second thing that makes MGS4 better is the incredible boss fights. MGS3 had some amazing cinematic boss fights, but nothing compared to 4. The boss designs are so amazing. The bosses are hot women in crazy power armor. It sounds really corny, but it works really well. I would explain more, but I don't want to spoil anything. It's much better to go into the game completely blind not knowing what to expect. I purposely avoided all spoilers before playing it and I'm glad I did.
The cut scenes, while cool to watch, are way too long. About an hour could have been cut out of the cut scenes and no story would have been lost. The ending of the game is an hour and half long! I started checking my email and doing other stuff during the last scene, that's not good.
Usually I don't like 1 player action games, especially games with long complicated stories. Yesterday the game sucked me in so bad I played for about 8 hours straight completely gripped by the story and action sequences. When I was done I was completely satisfied with the ending and immediately wanted to play the game through again. This was the first MGS game to make me feel that way since Metal Gear Solid on the first playstation.
I played the game on Naked Normal, which is the easier option of the two normal difficulties. I thought this difficulty level was perfect. I breezed through the beginning and then it gradually got harder towards the end, but never overly frustratingly difficult.
I also played the English version of this game. I love David Hayter's Snake. His voice is corny in an 80s action movie way. David Hayter looks corny too, check out his site http://www.david-hayter.com/
I had a lot of fun with MGS4 and highly recommend it.
My favorite commentary of the game is on the last half of a GFW podcast done on June 13th, 2008. They spend the last half of the podcast going over the major boss fights, cut scenes and overall impressions of the game. Their podcast can be found here: http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3148397
I bought Metal Gear Solid 4 before summer vacation, but wasn't in the mood to play through it. I played through MGS 1-3 and was a bit tired of the series so I had to take a little break before starting 4. I thought I would play it slowly, but I wound up beating in a frantic three day MGS marathon.
The MGS storyline is long and complicated. Gametrailers.com has an excellent 6 part series explaining the story and some behind the scenes stuff about the games. If you want the story of MGS 1-3 and don't want to play the games, this 20 minute plot synopsis is great: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35094.html Even after playing the games there were some plot points I forgot about that helped me understand the story a bit better.
There are two things that make MGS4 better than the games before it. The first is the control, Kojima productions took the good parts of the Gears of War control and used it. The camera acts like a 3rd person action game and the R and L buttons aim and shoot. The control works so well. I tried to go back to MGS3 after playing 4 and I just couldn't deal with the complicated button presses.
The second thing that makes MGS4 better is the incredible boss fights. MGS3 had some amazing cinematic boss fights, but nothing compared to 4. The boss designs are so amazing. The bosses are hot women in crazy power armor. It sounds really corny, but it works really well. I would explain more, but I don't want to spoil anything. It's much better to go into the game completely blind not knowing what to expect. I purposely avoided all spoilers before playing it and I'm glad I did.
The cut scenes, while cool to watch, are way too long. About an hour could have been cut out of the cut scenes and no story would have been lost. The ending of the game is an hour and half long! I started checking my email and doing other stuff during the last scene, that's not good.
Usually I don't like 1 player action games, especially games with long complicated stories. Yesterday the game sucked me in so bad I played for about 8 hours straight completely gripped by the story and action sequences. When I was done I was completely satisfied with the ending and immediately wanted to play the game through again. This was the first MGS game to make me feel that way since Metal Gear Solid on the first playstation.
I played the game on Naked Normal, which is the easier option of the two normal difficulties. I thought this difficulty level was perfect. I breezed through the beginning and then it gradually got harder towards the end, but never overly frustratingly difficult.
I also played the English version of this game. I love David Hayter's Snake. His voice is corny in an 80s action movie way. David Hayter looks corny too, check out his site http://www.david-hayter.com/
I had a lot of fun with MGS4 and highly recommend it.
My favorite commentary of the game is on the last half of a GFW podcast done on June 13th, 2008. They spend the last half of the podcast going over the major boss fights, cut scenes and overall impressions of the game. Their podcast can be found here: http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3148397