MGS4 has smashed "the bar" to bits and is now dancing on it.
Finishing Metal Gear Solid 4 was an overwhelming experience for me. It's flawless in meshing story and game-play together – something that the series had been superb at doing, but has now perfected. This game should not be passed up. Unless you hate good games of course.
Graphics – 10/10:
Just because this game looked good in previews YEARS ago, doesn't mean that it's good to today's standards, right? You couldn't be more wrong. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a landmark in visual presentation. There are almost NO pop-ins, barely any blurry textures, and all at a consistent frame-rate. I was playing on an SDTV, and it still looked stunning. I was in constant fear that my PS3 would EXPLODE from the amount of things it was rendering, but it held together very nicely.
Game-play – 9.5/10:
Metal Gear Solid used to be (in my eyes) about 75% stealth, 25% action. In MGS4, I would say it's now 60% stealth, 40% action. Of course, you could go a hundred percent stealth, save for some action and boss sequences, but given the number of options for weapons, battle moves, and such, it's hard to avoid stealth.
Stealth is still the primal focus of the game, as you are urged to avoid conflict against an almost unlimited number of baddies. The controls are also tweaked to allow slighter movements in order to achieve the stealth you want.
A new game-play mechanic is the octo-camo. On default settings, your suit will blend into the ground/wall you are pressed up against. This means easy camouflage for patient people.
If you're not the stealthy type, there's always the option to gun everything in sight. A weapons wholesaler named Drebin will supply you with a huge barrage of weapons, ammo, and customizations for the price of what's called "Drebin Points." Any doubles of guns you find automatically get cashed in as Drebin points. Essentially, you get Drebin points for each kill because almost every enemy will drop a valuable weapon. Unfortunately, the weapons you find will be "ID Tagged". This means that since the gun doesn't belong to you, it will lock and not work. This is also where Drebin comes in to "launder" the guns to be useful to you.
The shooting mechanics are very well tuned, and the draw distance is so great, you could actually pick off enemies from afar with a pistol if your aim is good enough. There is an optional lock on system, but the game seems more "free" without it.
You may have heard of the "psyche" and "stress meters". Essentially, when your stress meter goes up from firing your gun a lot, being near explosions, etc, your psyche will go down. You end up ignoring these meters for the lower difficulties, as they are nothing more than a nuisance next to your always-viewed life meter. Nothing in MGS4 stays constant, which brings about a perfect pace. Just when you start to have the SLIGHTEST feeling of "jeez, I wish I'd do something else", the game changes pace with other game styles which I shouldn't spoil here.
Since I can't definitively talk about the battles you will have due to the changing pace of things, I can however tell you that the boss fights are EPIC. I cannot stress how awesome the game is.
Any negatives? Well, the triangle button is used for most
of your actions, which leads to accidentally pressing it for something you didn't want to do. But mainly, it's the players' fault for not paying attention. The difficulty is perfect with amazing environments. Rolling sideways while reloading would have been awesome too.
Not enough can be said. It's just too hard to describe all of the joys of MGS4.
One note: Try to play with a DualShock 3. The game really takes advantage of the feature.
Sound – 10/10:
I don't have a sound system, but the game still sounded like heaven. Every explosion is crazy. Every line of dialogue is solid gold. The voice acting actually matches with the mouth synching (a first for MGS games) and the music is top notch. You will have access to an iPod which will enable you to find and pick up old MGS music to listen on the go. This brings back many nostalgic memories which will bring forth many emotions.
I look for sound-effects, voice acting, and music when it comes to sound. Metal Gear Solid 4 surpasses my expectations for those categories.
Value – 10/10:
Why the hell wouldn't you want to play this? (unless you don't have a PS3) When you finish the incredibly lengthy main story, you can play it again for the hundreds of easter-eggs and secrets. Finished with that? There's a full fledged multiplayer game called Metal Gear Online which is (pun intended) solid. The game is pretty balanced and would do great even without being packaged with MGS4. You should be paying Konami more for this game, but for 60 bucks, what are you waiting for?
Story – "an amazing conclusion to this amazing series"
Every character, every opened piece of plot, every theme is revisited in this game. Kojima may have said that you would understand the game without prior knowledge, but it's clear that this game's plot was mainly for the fans of the series. There are so many magical moments of nostalgia that it will haunt you for days to come.
Story too complicated? SUCK IT UP. I don't think this counts as a negative at all. More like a positive thing if you ask me. I love Metal Gear Solid as the melodramatic piece of art it is. I love how the story gives you every emotion it has. It is a truly magical story, but honestly better for fans.
CONCLUSION:
We are beasts created by man. Unless the light is put out, the shadows cannot be erased. So long as there is light, erasing shadows will do no good.
-Ocelot
Graphics - 10/10
Game-play - 9.5/10
Sound - 10/10
Value - 10/10
Story - "an amazing conclusion to this amazing series"
OVERALL – 5 STARS
Graphics – 10/10:
Just because this game looked good in previews YEARS ago, doesn't mean that it's good to today's standards, right? You couldn't be more wrong. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a landmark in visual presentation. There are almost NO pop-ins, barely any blurry textures, and all at a consistent frame-rate. I was playing on an SDTV, and it still looked stunning. I was in constant fear that my PS3 would EXPLODE from the amount of things it was rendering, but it held together very nicely.
Game-play – 9.5/10:
Metal Gear Solid used to be (in my eyes) about 75% stealth, 25% action. In MGS4, I would say it's now 60% stealth, 40% action. Of course, you could go a hundred percent stealth, save for some action and boss sequences, but given the number of options for weapons, battle moves, and such, it's hard to avoid stealth.
Stealth is still the primal focus of the game, as you are urged to avoid conflict against an almost unlimited number of baddies. The controls are also tweaked to allow slighter movements in order to achieve the stealth you want.
A new game-play mechanic is the octo-camo. On default settings, your suit will blend into the ground/wall you are pressed up against. This means easy camouflage for patient people.
If you're not the stealthy type, there's always the option to gun everything in sight. A weapons wholesaler named Drebin will supply you with a huge barrage of weapons, ammo, and customizations for the price of what's called "Drebin Points." Any doubles of guns you find automatically get cashed in as Drebin points. Essentially, you get Drebin points for each kill because almost every enemy will drop a valuable weapon. Unfortunately, the weapons you find will be "ID Tagged". This means that since the gun doesn't belong to you, it will lock and not work. This is also where Drebin comes in to "launder" the guns to be useful to you.
The shooting mechanics are very well tuned, and the draw distance is so great, you could actually pick off enemies from afar with a pistol if your aim is good enough. There is an optional lock on system, but the game seems more "free" without it.
You may have heard of the "psyche" and "stress meters". Essentially, when your stress meter goes up from firing your gun a lot, being near explosions, etc, your psyche will go down. You end up ignoring these meters for the lower difficulties, as they are nothing more than a nuisance next to your always-viewed life meter. Nothing in MGS4 stays constant, which brings about a perfect pace. Just when you start to have the SLIGHTEST feeling of "jeez, I wish I'd do something else", the game changes pace with other game styles which I shouldn't spoil here.
Since I can't definitively talk about the battles you will have due to the changing pace of things, I can however tell you that the boss fights are EPIC. I cannot stress how awesome the game is.
Any negatives? Well, the triangle button is used for most
of your actions, which leads to accidentally pressing it for something you didn't want to do. But mainly, it's the players' fault for not paying attention. The difficulty is perfect with amazing environments. Rolling sideways while reloading would have been awesome too.
Not enough can be said. It's just too hard to describe all of the joys of MGS4.
One note: Try to play with a DualShock 3. The game really takes advantage of the feature.
Sound – 10/10:
I don't have a sound system, but the game still sounded like heaven. Every explosion is crazy. Every line of dialogue is solid gold. The voice acting actually matches with the mouth synching (a first for MGS games) and the music is top notch. You will have access to an iPod which will enable you to find and pick up old MGS music to listen on the go. This brings back many nostalgic memories which will bring forth many emotions.
I look for sound-effects, voice acting, and music when it comes to sound. Metal Gear Solid 4 surpasses my expectations for those categories.
Value – 10/10:
Why the hell wouldn't you want to play this? (unless you don't have a PS3) When you finish the incredibly lengthy main story, you can play it again for the hundreds of easter-eggs and secrets. Finished with that? There's a full fledged multiplayer game called Metal Gear Online which is (pun intended) solid. The game is pretty balanced and would do great even without being packaged with MGS4. You should be paying Konami more for this game, but for 60 bucks, what are you waiting for?
Story – "an amazing conclusion to this amazing series"
Every character, every opened piece of plot, every theme is revisited in this game. Kojima may have said that you would understand the game without prior knowledge, but it's clear that this game's plot was mainly for the fans of the series. There are so many magical moments of nostalgia that it will haunt you for days to come.
Story too complicated? SUCK IT UP. I don't think this counts as a negative at all. More like a positive thing if you ask me. I love Metal Gear Solid as the melodramatic piece of art it is. I love how the story gives you every emotion it has. It is a truly magical story, but honestly better for fans.
CONCLUSION:
We are beasts created by man. Unless the light is put out, the shadows cannot be erased. So long as there is light, erasing shadows will do no good.
-Ocelot
Graphics - 10/10
Game-play - 9.5/10
Sound - 10/10
Value - 10/10
Story - "an amazing conclusion to this amazing series"
OVERALL – 5 STARS
