I personally love the Drebin shop because it adds a lot of customization. You could play the game as a straight up shooter, maybe play it like a sniper based game, or play it as classic Metal Gear Solid. I love the depth and sheer customization. I'm sure some people disagree and think that it takes away from the stealth experience, but I think that it is the perfect addition to the series.

So whats your view on the shop? Whats your favorite play style?

I think they balanced it out better in Peace Walker where you would have to equip yourself for the mission at hand, and there were limits to what you could carry, and you had to manually initiate drops for ammo and health. In MGS 4 it felt a little cheap because every boss encounter I could just equip 5 different rocket launchers and cycle through them all before I have to reload.

I honestly didn't use it at all when I played through the game. Just used whatever weapons were given to me.

To me it is useless because I always play stealth, non-lethal. And no guns at all when possible.

I pretty much just used tranquilizer darts unless I was forced to use something else.

I think it's bullshit that that shotgun costs 1 million Drebin Points.

I honestly didn't use it at all when I played through the game. Just used whatever weapons were given to me.

I think they balanced it out better in Peace Walker where you would have to equip yourself for the mission at hand, and there were limits to what you could carry, and you had to manually initiate drops for ammo and health. In MGS 4 it felt a little cheap because every boss encounter I could just equip 5 different rocket launchers and cycle through them all before I have to reload.

@MikkaQ said:

I think they balanced it out better in Peace Walker where you would have to equip yourself for the mission at hand, and there were limits to what you could carry, and you had to manually initiate drops for ammo and health. In MGS 4 it felt a little cheap because every boss encounter I could just equip 5 different rocket launchers and cycle through them all before I have to reload.

Pretty much this. You gain so much money in a single playthrough that a few chapters in I could buy max ammo for the tranquillizer and other weapons. Although in its defense, I would say that I have never ever run out of ammunition of any kind in any other Metal Gear Game, safe for Peace Walker. With that said, I guess MGS4 isn't that different from its predecessor.

I thought the Drebin Shop was really dumb. It ruined the flow of the gameplay. Metal Gear Solid has always been very slow-paced, thoughtful, and tactically-oriented, so the long cutscenes weren't at-odds with how the actual game felt. Crawling along a floor for twenty minutes and then watching a fifteen minute cutscene felt natural. However, by making the gunplay so simple and accessible, I felt encouraged to gun everyone down and move through an area in 1/4 the time it would take me if I were being sneaky, and I could re-stock on ammo literally whenever. money was so plentiful, you never had to worry about limits, and the 15 talking cutscene became a brick wall in the face of progress. It made me very bored with the story, in turn making me not care about the gameplay, and then I didn't finish the game. I thought the Drebin Shop, pretty simply, ruined the experience for me.