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The final chapter in the Metal Gear saga requires you pay a heavy price so it may achieve its incredibly ambitious vision. But does it deliver?
How crucial is storyline to a game? Does it need to enhance the gameplay? Should it follow or lead the gameplay? Should it replace the gameplay?!?!?!? MGS4 had me pondering all of these questions during the course of this review.
There is no doubt you have not played a game like this before. There are two sides to this game that are contrasting as night and day itself. I felt it only fitting that the review follow a similar format. We’ll firstly discuss setting, gameplay and presentation. Then there is something else that needs to be explored.
The story is set in the near future where corporations fight wars for profit and the war economy has its own global price much like oil. Our protagonist Snake now has the appearance of an old man, his condition has caused his body to age at an advanced rate and time is running out. The reality is the amount of smokes this guy burns through would have killed a normal man decades ago. There’s no need to delve any deeper into the plot or characters, you are either into this universe or not. If you haven’t played the previous instalments of this franchise don’t expect to come out the other side with a complete understanding.
This brings us to the gameplay experience. Firstly let me say this is the best looking game on a console ever! Explosions and impacting bullet effects are hands down the best I’ve ever seen. There is considerable daylight between these and the next best going around. Whenever an explosion occurs nearby the entire display shakes and is accompanied by a motion blur effect both of which last only for a split second. Combine that with bullets constantly impacting the ground and structures around you causing clouds of dust to fly up in all directions makes for a very intense combat experience.
As in the other games you control Snake in third person view with the option of switching to first person when firing weapons. The control scheme takes a little getting used to but once you are in the groove it allows a wide range of options, it wouldn’t work well with run and gun FPS style play but in this steady deliberate stealth action setting it is very effective. The ability to hug an object for cover, lean out to let off a couple of rounds either in third or first person view and then duck back is very enjoyable and easy to execute. Overall the level of interactivity with your environment is very impressive. The attention to detail throughout the entire gameplay experience is of the highest order, there is no doubt this game was made with a lot of love. It was cared for, read stories and tucked safely in its bed every night.
Previously stealth action games have struggled to hold my interest, after a few hours they always feel so tired and the gameplay comes down to pure trial and error. “Oh no! One guard spotted me. Now I have to start again.” Yes I’m looking at you Splinter Cell. This is rarely if ever an issue in MGS4, in fact the setting makes you for the most part want to complete your missions in as quiet a manner as possible. Never has a game made me want to use a non-lethal weapon so much, your tranquilizer pistol just gets the job done quicker and quieter. I developed a taste during the game for putting the elite soldiers to sleep and whilst unconscious double tapping them in the head with my silenced .45 pistol. Cold blooded I know, but that’s how I roll! The other thing that makes the stealth aspect so enjoyable is your Octocamo suit. Whenever you pause in the prone position or crouch next to an object your suit adjusts its appearance to be the same camo pattern as the object or terrain you are in contact with much like the skin of a chameleon. It is immensely rewarding when patrolling guards walk by only a couple of feet away from your prone position unaware of your presence allowing you to continue on without having to raise a hand in anger. The stealth setting never feels contrived like you’ve just walked into a game level like other franchises. You do get the feeling you are infiltrating an enemy stronghold. The paths you take are extremely linear but you still have a lot of choice in the execution.
The gunplay is very good for a stealth game as well. Automatic weapons have nice recoil and the muzzle flashes are absolutely gorgeous. You’ll find yourself time and again shooting an enemy only a few feet away with a burst of auto fire just to watch the eye candy of the impacting rounds on your assailant. The best part of this is there isn’t massive penalties to deciding to “go loud.” There were a couple of times where taking this course of action caused a never ending spawn of angry soldiers but in most scenarios after doing the deed you can go hide, make like a rock, then continue on your merry stealthy way. One particularly enjoyable moment was in the 2nd Act’s South American setting. The area was on alert with numerous guards at a heightened state and a helicopter gunship hovering overhead. At the time I was camouflaged and knew I could sneak by all and sundry but would have to be mindful of the chopper. This sounded very time consuming and besides, I had an RPG in my possession. I promptly rose to a crouch behind a rock where the guards couldn’t see me and took out the chopper with one rocket then returned to a more concealed position. The ability to create these awesome moments yourself is one of the game’s strongest features.
It wouldn’t be a Metal Gear game without boss battles and this one has plenty. The early ones are particularly enjoyable; they are not ridiculously difficult but are of considerable length. Their strength lies in them feeling very cinematic and they will have you constantly scanning all around and even above as you try to determine where they will strike from next. In the game’s later levels they evolve into a more traditional trial and error mode where you may need to die repeatedly whilst you figure out the weak point or wait for a scripted clue from your allies. These later bosses felt like you were playing the original Metal Gear again with better graphics. They lost their movie showdown feel and were disappointing for me.
The other moments that need to be noted were some on-rail shooter sequences. These are all enjoyable and work well with the setting and story. One involving riding on the back of a motorcycle through the streets of Europe is the best I’ve ever seen. It was sensational and would be worth replaying just for the spectacle. Another one late in the game involving escaping a military installation is top notch also. This is followed by a vehicular combat scene. The setting, scale and graphical fidelity on display during this confrontation just screams next generation. The mechanic of the gameplay is straightforward but the presentation is truly unforgettable and is the most memorable moment of the game for me.
But MGS4 has a dark side. Much was written of numerous review sites having to sign agreements before they were granted access to pre-release copies of the game. It was stipulated that they could not mention the length of cut scenes in the game or words to that effect. It is now obvious why that was the case. In MGS4 you will spend more time watching movies than actually playing the game.
That also doesn’t include the final cut scene which is longer than some feature length movies. No, I am not exaggerating. I’ll give you two examples that highlight this.
Firstly, the game doesn’t prompt you to save after checkpoints only after the completion of one of its five acts. I was blissfully unaware of this on my first play through and as such lost 3 hours+ of play. When I restarted and skipped all of the cut scenes already viewed I was able to catch up in one and half hours flat. Secondly, after the third act I decided to perform some data capturing using a stopwatch. Now all 5 Acts in the game appear to be similar in length, no one Act appeared to be significantly shorter or longer than any other. The actual time taken to play the game portions of these 2 Acts which approximately comprises 40% of the game was a touch under 3 hours. Do the math from there; you are paying a lot of money for CGI movies.
Another major issue is the price you pay for the jaw dropping graphics; you have to perform a lengthy install at the start of the game as well as a smaller one at the start of each Act. Then throughout each Act you are constantly loading new levels or areas as well. The constant load screens and cut scenes really degrade the experience. You are constantly being sucked out of the game to watch another movie or wait for a load screen. Apart from boss battles, most of these gameplay sequences are not very long. Some were as short as 1-2 mins, not many were longer than half an hour. One particular sequence had me watching 3 separate cut scenes back to back followed by a load screen followed by wait for it, another cut scene. The effect of it all is you start to feel you are playing a collection of scenarios that still need to be strung together before a fully fleshed game is realised. Instead they just gave us a bunch of movies.
“Oh my God this game is pretentious! It takes itself way too seriously.” This is the thought I had only a couple of minutes into the game. In fact before the first cut scene was finished. But this was a recurring sentiment throughout my experience. I won’t criticise the plot or the characters, you either love this type of thing or not. But the makers clearly have an inflated view of their storytelling ability. You can break the cut scenes into three categories. First, there are ones that are very exciting action sequences that are enjoyable and propel the story. Secondly, action moments where all I could think was “Why aren’t I playing through this sequence?!” Third, the majority of cut scenes feature very lengthy dialogue which surely could have benefited from some serious editing. The dialogue is constantly delivered in a slow and deliberate manner with a lengthy pause before each character speaks like you should be hanging on every word. The beautiful piece of irony in all this is the aforementioned 2 on-rail shooter sequences and vehicle combat showdown are 10 times more cinematic than anything the cut scenes can muster.
Now it may seem I am being overly harsh. But if you want us to pay $100 for a game, then I want a game not a CGI movie. I can pay $15 and go see a quality movie with real actors. If you are going to serve up this type of experience then the story had better be mind blowing. It needs to change the way I look at the world. It will let me suddenly understand how women think and have presented the skills necessary to get my kids to listen to me. Instead we get a story that makes Universal Soldier look like Saving Private Ryan. And diarrhoea gags; are you kidding me?
I’m sure Metal Gear fanboys will be hunting me to down to deliver a slow and painful death after reading this, but I would be very surprised if anyone feels this is what they want from a game in future when they slap down one hundred of their hard earned.
The Metal Gear experience felt like a girlfriend that is so incredibly annoying you would wonder what you are doing with this person if it wasn’t for the fact the bedroom action is so out of this world. What you’re supposed to do for the other 23hrs 45mins I’ve got no idea. But oh, that fifteen minutes!
In summary, if you love Metal Gear then no doubt you’ve already beaten it and what do you care what I think? For other regular PS3 action gamers, you do need to play this once. There are some thrilling moments that will make that HDTV look like your greatest purchase ever (not like it ever didn’t). But I can’t recommend it at $100. Wait till it’s part of the Platinum Collection.
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