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Great and frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: June 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

OK,
The good: Gameplay is practically flawless, the controls, the weapons, the options you have in each level are all brilliantly designed. The graphics are near perfection. The story is engaging and wraps up all the loose ends. There is a great mix of tactics, stealth and all out guns blazing action. The beauty is that you can choose any or all of these routes to acheive your objective, almost at any time.

The bad: CUT SCENES!! It's not so much that there are many cut scenes, but most of them are very bloated and needlessly LONG. Do we really need to see Naomi teaching Sunny how to cook eggs?? In fact you will spend more time watching cut scenes than actually playing the game. There must be about 2 hrs worth of cut scenes (if not more), which easily could have translated into 5 - 10 more levels of gameplay. It got to the point where you just want to skip them as you keep asking yourself, "When is the game going to resume?" It feels more like a movie with a video game mixed in rather than a game with an engaging story..unlike MGS3 which mixed both elements perfectly and with great balance. It's rather annoying when it takes you 10 min to complete a level or area and then having to endure a 45 min cut scene!!

Overall I recommend this game as it is beautiful and plays very well, for the short times that you are actually playing. I just wish that Kojima had toned down the cut scenes; streamlined them, and included more actual game levels...then it truly would have been one of the greatest, if not the greatest game ever across any platform

Too many cut scenes, counterintuitive controls.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 23 / 80
Date: July 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I had high hopes for MGS4. Next-gen platform - the writers probably learned from the previous games - lots of hype and lovely hi-def gameplay footage. It bode well until I put the disc in and it took 8 minutes to install the game instead of just running it off the disc. During the install, the screen is filled with preachy health-and-safety warnings like "don't play when you're tired" and "don't sit too close" and stuff like that. Oh oh. That's a really bad omen right up front.

Too many reviews are gushing over the graphics and sound and I think they've fallen somewhat for the hype, because if you analyse the game for what it is, it's just not that good. So rather than gush and fawn, I'm going to try to tell you what I found, and what I think it's faults are. If you've read any of my other reviews you'll know that I detest dark games, poor control systems and game programmers who think they're being clever. MGS4 exhibits two of these so if you don't like to read honest reviews, you should probably skip the rest of this.

So the faults in MGS4? Well - where to start?

I guess the most obvious place is the control system. It's truly the worst control system since - well - MGS2, MGS3 and Hitman. It's awful. Other reviews claim a one hour learning curve. One hour? In what gaming universe is that acceptable? First impressions last. If it takes an hour to figure out the controls (and in MGS4 it certainly does) then a lot of people, like me, are just going to switch off. How are Konami going to hook new players to the genre if the game is so difficult to get into?

MGS4 is largely a sneak-and-shoot game but once again, Konami chose to make it third-person. ie. you spend the entire time looking over the top of your own character. This makes it just impossible to move around properly because you're constantly fighting the camera and movement controls. It's like the original Tomb Raider in terms of the camera getting stuck on scenery and obliterating your view of the action at some critical moment. I've never understood third-person camera. It's a waste of time in racing games because it makes the cars uncontrollable, and it's a crime to employ it in what should be a first-person perspective game. How am I supposed to sneak, examine, explore and shoot when the camera is above and behind me?

The answer in MGS4 is supposed to be the threat ring. It's an Anime-style halo that surrounds Snake and has bumps in it where the enemy are. It is described briefly in the game manual but it's never really introduced or explained in-game, so it's just sort of there. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to for something that could have been solved by simply using first-person mode. Then you wouldn't need a threat ring - you'd be able to peek around corners, or use the audio to hear people around you.

Speaking of the camera controls; there isn't one invert-look option, but three. So if you're used to playing up-is-down on your vertical control, you have to change it in three places in MGS4. Why? Why not have a single "invert look" option?

I think one of the biggest crimes in MGS4 is the sheer amount of gameplay interruption. It's like watching TIVO and having someone else with the remote constantly pausing live TV or skipping fowards.

For example : weapon pickups happen when you run over something, but it pauses the game to give you a very nice but totally irrelevant info screen on what you just ran over. So the programmers spent the time to interfere with the flow of the game, but didn't spend the time auto-equipping the weapon. No - once you've picked something up, you have to pause, go to the inventory screen, equip or swap weapons, then back out and back into the gameplay. It ruins the flow of play.

It's. Like. Trying. To. Read. A. Game. Review. One. Word. At. A. Time.

Whilst talking weapons, it's worth talking about the targetting / aiming system. Third person mode is once again totally useless. You might as well have a nerf gun for all the good it does. So you have to go into first-person mode to aim, but this requires two controls to be activated - R1 to "activate" the weapon, then triangle to go into first person mode. Why? Why not just go into first-person mode when you activate the weapon?

Once in first-person mode it's impossible to move around, and your turn speed is like having your feet nailed to the ground. I timed it - it takes a good 35 seconds to do a 360. So there's no quickly turning around to pick off the bad guy behind you - you'll be dead long before you can even see him. Plus, if you waiver even slightly on the R1 button, it flicks back out into third-person view where the turn speed is much quicker. So you end up popping out of first person into third person mode, the turn accelerates and then you've overshot where you wanted to aim. (Sigh). Why? What purpose does this meddlesome control system serve? This is another place the camera control just fails miserably. Someone is behind you so you need to turn around to shoot at them. Snake spins around, the camera tries to follow, but gets stuck on scenery and is now facing Snake from the front. Now you're facing the enemy but you can't see him because the camera is stuck.

Then there's the rest of the interference problems.

I'd hoped with MGS4 that they would have gone away from the 75% story/cut-scene, 25% gameplay split, but sadly not. In the opening 30 minutes of "gameplay", I must have spent 25 minutes watching cut scenes, and having control taken away from me for a Bruckheimer-esque slow-motion shot of something completely irrelevant. Once again - stuff designed to destroy the flow of playing the game. You're just getting into the swing of things when *pow* - control taken away, arty shot of tank approaching - *pow* control given back. I could see the darned tank without the cut scene - it was right in front of me! Or worse, you'll be running towards an objective and *pow* - you drop out of game mode for a cut scene of someone making you eggs for breakfast. Jeez. It made me throw the controller at one point and just stand up and shout "Oh come on!". Hideo Kojima - the game's inventor and chief designer - has understood that videogames are a great medium, but he does concentrate too much on the 'video' and not enough on the 'game'. For example : put MGS4 in, start a new game and a stopwatch and time it; you won't be able to actually engage an enemy for over 20 minutes.

Speaking of "what the....?" moments, when you start the game, you'll sit through a weird TV game show clip where a woman chooses the wrong answer, followed by an advert (I think for women's perfume) advertised by gun-laden women squirming underwater with an octopus with a skull for a head. In pink water. I kid you not. I have absolutely no clue what that was all about. I seriously thought I might have had the wrong game disc in at that point - I ejected it and checked.

Oh and speaking of loading - if the game is installed on the hard drive, shouldn't there be zero load screens? After all, Drake's Fortune, Paradise City and GTA4 manage to let you free-roam massive environments with no load screens. Not in MGS4 though. Every time you get into a tight crawlspace or have to open a door, you drop out of the game into a loading screen. Worse, you then need to hit 'start' to get back into the game. It's bad enough they have load screens on a next-gen game but to make you have to hit a button to get back in-game is just criminal. Again - interrupting the flow of the game.

Then there's your assistant Otacon. He just will not shut up. He yaps and complains and - my god - the boy has verbal diarrhea. You can probably ignore 99% of what he says - it has no relevance to your gameplay. Problem is that a lot of the time - you guessed it - you'll drop out of gameplay to hear him blather on about something. It's like the programmers didn't know the PS3 supports bluetooth headsets. You know what - if Otacon is talking into your earpiece in the game (which he clearly does because Snake always stops, squats and jams a finger in one ear), why not have him talk into *your* headset whilst you're playing? That would have been a good idea, and so much more intuitive.

Other things that are problematic? Well - the you're-not-quite-dead problem. When you get hit sufficiently hard (which you will because the control system will fight you all the way to the ground), you lie there with the breeze wafting your cape around - or your hair - or something else. For all intents and purposes, the game would have you believe you're dead. Only you're not - you're still alive but there's no prompt to tell you this. The programmers filled the game with meddlesome icons, popups, info screens and pauses for everything from picking up an iPod to changing weapons, but they didn't have the courtesy to tell you that you aren't actually dead. Of course by the time you figure this out, you actually will be dead because someone will have found you and shot you.

So what about the graphics? Well, on my 120-inch screen through a full HD projector, it looks nice and polished. It runs in 1080p full HD as best I can gather. (correction from earlier assertion that it ran at 720p)

The graphics are good enough, but they're not really next-gen. More like warmed-over PS2 graphics with some neat touches. There's a fair amount of aliasing ("jaggies") especially when the game engine tries to render lines - power lines, ropes, that sort of thing. This sort of stuff just shouldn't be present. Draw distance is good, but not brilliant. There's a fair amount of popup and fade-in for smaller items. For example when you get the inevitable cut scene of a tank rolling up, watch the flare launchers on it's flanks. They wink in at a ridiculously short range.
There are other problems too - it's all in the details. The enemy soldier's feet are about 8 sizes too small for the rest of their body. The specular highlights change badly on some of the vehicles when they transition from low to high detail models. The dust and smoke effects, whilst clever, seem to use only three texture maps so the repeat in them is very noticable. One neat feature that is done well though is the Octocamo - where you can lie on the floor or press up against a wall and your suit behaves like a chameleon suit and takes on the texture of whatever you're next to. It's quite entertaining to see Snake running around the battlefield wearing a chintzy wall covering.

The motion capture isn't up to much though, with jerks and pops between the various character's predefined routines. Stand up. Pop. Aim. Judder. Fire. Pop. Squat down. It's really very irritating. The enemy troops 'patrolling' motion capture makes it look like they're walking on tiptoes, and there's another obvious pop in the motion capture loop after each left-right step. Tiptoe left. Tiptoe right. Pop. Tiptoe left etc etc. It's one of those things you won't notice at first, but once you've seen it, your eye will be drawn to it all the time.
In fact - it looks like they didn't do any new motion capture for a lot of MGS4 but re-used the stuff from MGS3. I put MGS3 in to check it out, and sure enough, the enemy troop movements are identical to the point where you can't tell them apart. So - four and half years to wait for the new game and they re-used the old motion capture? Classy.

As I said above, the dust and dirt effects are nice, and the modelling of the environments has been really well done, but you'll come away from it feeling somehow empty. Occasionally you'll walk around a corner to see the culling routines pop a whole street in. Why? Why are these problems in this game? Did they just not do any QA on it?

It's not that it isn't impressive to look at - it is - but it just doesn't have that X-factor. So I would consider the graphics somewhat below par for a next gen platform.

Let's go with the audio then. Weeellll let's not. There's a lovely Dolby Digital logo at the beginning of the game but the audio separation isn't up to much. The soundstage is mostly middle speaker with the occasional left-to-right effect. Barely anything comes out of the side or rear speakers. I'm so used to playing games where I can locate enemies by sound alone, that MGS4 was once again a total let-down in the audio department. Again - the threat ring seems to be compensation for something that wasn't done right the first time around. The weapons sound effects are pretty weak - hardly any bass content. So firing the M4 is like firing a child's pop gun. Mortar rounds landing close to you shake the camera, but not your room - they should be full-bass, well-stereo-separated sound effects, but they're not. The best audio in the game is all the speech, but there's just too much of it.

So - MGS4. You can tell I'm not impressed. It's basically MGS2 and MGS3 in terms of playability and longevity sprinkled with sort-of-next-gen graphics and 1990's audio. I suppose if you're a MGS fan, then this game will leave you shaking with joy but for everyone who's not in that club, this seems to be addressing a very niche market.

Personally I just couldn't handle the sheer amount of irrelevant story and gameplay interruption. It's so unintuitive and meddlesome compared to Resistance:Fall Of Man or Call Of Duty 4 that you will just end up screaming at your PS3.

Add to this the curious lack of of save points. You'll spend a lot of time carefully working your way towards an objective only to have the controls and camera ambush you at some inopportune moment, resulting in your death. (Incidentally, Otacon still has his lisp when you die - "Thnake? Thnake? Noooooo!") At this point you'll be transported back a good 45 minutes of gameplay and cut scenes for a do-over. Really really bad design.

I really wanted to like this game. I thought with as much hype as it's had, and the glowing reviews in everything from Playstation Magazine to EDGE that it would be a game of the year contender. After the first bunch of failures (it took me 6 attempts to get out of the intro scene because of the movement and camera controls), I walked away to cool my anger. I came back after a couple of hours to give it a second go but then things were even worse. I managed to progress beyond the opening scene (at last) into what appeared to be a bombed-out middle eastern town. At that point, the sheer volume of cut scenes, control and Otacon interruption just made my blood boil. Then I was presented with a cut scene of a soldier defacating into a barrel (oddly with some of the finest sound effects in the game) followed by a cut-scene of his naked buttocks running away. That pushed me over the edge. Game over for me. What relevance is that to the game?
That brings up an interesting point. Didn't we do away with the "infinite pockets" syndrome in the 90's? You know - where you can carry a seemingly endless number of guns and ammo? Apparently Snake can carry this barrel with him everywhere, along with all his guns, but you never see any of them. They just appear in his hands by magic. Shouldn't you only be able to carry a couple of weapons? Drake's Fortune, for example - two guns - a pistol in a holster and a larger gun on your back. That's an example of a problem with the previous games that I would have expected to have been addressed by now.

After barely an hour of wrestling with it I just had to give up. As a gamer I just don't have the time of day for things designed this poorly. I've returned the game for store credit.

I wish I could tell you I was an Xbox360 fanboy who was bashing this game just for the sake of it, but I'm not. I hate the Xbox360 - I'm a total PS3 devotee so it's difficult for me when I come across quality problems like those I find in MGS4. I so hoped the games for the PS3 would be better than this.

I don't understand how people can proclaim this game a 'masterpiece' or 'awesome' or any of the other accolades bestowed upon it. Look at it in the cold harsh light of day and you'll find a so-so game riddled with problems.

I've been gaming since Elite came out on the BBC Micro computer in 1984 so I'm no stranger to any type of game, but it's not often that one comes out that just leaves me thinking "what the hell?".

My advice - don't fall for the advertising hype. If you're not into the previous MGS titles then you're just not welcome at this party (as the comments at the end of this review will attest where fervent MGS fans will no doubt proclaim me to be the Antichrist for not liking their game.)

Pick up Call Of Duty 4 instead - you'll actually enjoy playing that instead of wanting to throw your PS3 through a window. If you must play MGS4, then rent it first to see if it's your cup of tea. Because if it's not, you'll feel totally robbed.

One last thing : for all those who think that this wraps up the MGS storyline, think again. MGS5 is being talked about now, possibly as a prequel. If they don't fix these problems in that game, I'm sure I'll be reviewing it just the same in 5 years time.

A mesmerising experience

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

MGS4 is a stunning game,this is the most impressive title in next gen gaming.

this is definetly a must buy for any gamer

simply a masterpeice!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

this game is so great,everything is sumed up in this metal gear,leading from events from the very 1st metal gear!masterpeice!the story,voice work,controls,new gameplay elements,make this game a simple masterpeice!

MGS4,A GAME YOU WOULD LIKE TO PLAY...WHY?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First off,i want to say that i have never played a Metal gear Solid game before.So i bought it because all the hype and the initial reviews.I have to say that i had trouble figuring the gameplay at first.Is difficult to reprogram yourself to hide and not to shoot everyone you see.The pacing of this game is different from any other game.IS NOT COD4,IS NOT GEARS OF WAR,IS NOT RESIDENT EVIL,have that in mind,even though is not like those great games,i must say that is better.Why?,because it makes you think,it doesnt make you a better killer,it makes you a better thinker.
What do i mean?,that to go through this game,you will have to be smarter than the enemy,and hiding and keeping it silent is waaaay more difficult than blasting a gun everywhere,and is more challenging,plus,the possibilities of such strategy are much more than jumping around and killing people.You will never go through a mission the same way,and that is a great value to a game.But,dont get me wrong,theres a LOT of action going on,and as you advance,the adrenaline starts to flow more and more and it becomes addictive.You truly become and think and breath as a secret agent,you will need to put ahead your senses (and even a sixth) through the game,and the atmospheres of each mission are a thrill!,you really feel you are there.

The graphics are amazing,even though i cannot say they are far better than COD4 or GTA4,they are top notch period.
The cut scenes are long,yes they are,but you can skip them,and is not true that theres more cutscenes than gameplay.
Music is alright,the gameplay fits perfectly to the challenges.No such things like jumping or running-cover.

Conclusion,if you like games that makes you think,then this is for you,the feeling of beating a boss outsmarting him is great.Is an extraodinary game that keeps you wishing there where new MGS releases every six months.Overalll is an extraodnary experience.

10/10

Awesome!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This was the first game I pre-ordered. The critics gave it rave reviews and we were a little nervous if the rumors were true. They are!! Slow start, but you can't help but get into it and keep playing. Great purchase. Highly recommended.

If you own a PS3 its worth buying

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: June 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

For those of us who've been playing MGS4 its brings answers a lot of unanswered questions! now I'm just going to skip to the pros and cons.

Pros: Graphics Best I've seen on a console, Good controls, Great Story! Cut scenes as expected are in real time so if a PMC is hanging off the side of your truck they're hanging on the side of your truck during the cut scene making you more emerged with whats going on because it just feels real.

cons: Online account setup is really a pain and annoying, the cut scenes are far to often in this then they really should be how ever still worth buying!

other thoughts: while I didn't mind, others might get annoyed with the fact that it installs a few different times and not all at once but the install times aren't that bad. 8 mins for the first and 2-4 mins for each time after and its a while between each time (aka hours of game play before you'll see it again).

In the end if you own a PS3 its worth buying!

Metal Gear Solid IV:Guns Of The Patriots

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 33
Date: May 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been a fan of Metal Gear ever since i bought MGS2 last summer to see what was so great about it,and boy I loved it,I managed to complete it 100%,which means i complted the game on every difficulty(starting with Medium),i discovered every secret and easter eggs and overall finished the game 22 times.I bought MGS3:Snake Eater with some of my birthday money in November 2005 and i loved that game even more,so to complete my understanding of the story i bought The Twin Snakes for my GameCube,finshed that although it dissapointed me a little as teh cutscenes was overdone and the game was so short,but i manged to complete it 100% like the otehr two games.The conclusion was that MGS3 was teh best in the series yet,for me.
Now roll on Metal Gear Solid 4:Guns Of The Patriots(MGS4:GOTP) a PS3 game which is going to be the conclusion of teh series(or so they say).It is said that its release date is 7/7/07 seeing as thats Metal Gear`s 20th Annerversery.
MGS4 will be set 6 years after the events of MGS2 and Solid Snake is yet again finding himself in combat against terrorist teams and METAL GEAR robots or more primarily the Patriots have set up a plan.
Solid Snake will be old in this game,but the game only takes place 6 years after MGS2,it is because Snake is a clone made out of 1970`s technology and is also infected with the FOXDIE virus which will give him pains and increased fear rate.He only has 6 months to live as told by Naomi Hunter.
I am not buying a PS3 just for this game,i want plenty of others-But when i do get my PS3 this will be a game i will definately get.
I have seen all MGS4 screenshots,seen all trailers and teasers and also have seen the Famitsu poster which features Snake,big Boss,Meryl,Vamp and Naomi Hunter,not to mention have read all teh info about it off interviews and Kojima`s Blogs.So i`ll keep up to date about the game.
So anyone who is buying a PS3 and likes stealth combat,all i can say is buy MGS4 when it comes out! Surely it will get good reviews such as 8`s and 9`s seeing as the rest of the series did.
Not to mention MGS4 is one of PS3`s highly anticipated games,you can`t go wrong with a successful series unless you are not a fan of the genre.
MGS4 WILL ROCK!

The Truth (NON-SPOILER)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This IS the game of the year. But a few things do hold it back. I have played all other Metal Gears like a religion, and loved them all. To me they are all classics and the ultimate video game experience. But without the other games in the series, "Metal Gear Solid 4" loses it's value considerably. If you never played a metal gear game I suggest you do before you play MGS4. The cut-scenes are heavy, but they mean a lot if you've played all the other games. To me, and most Metal Gear fans, this game's value is in the plotline. And It does a great job of tying up all loose ends before the finale. And you will see many familiar faces (and voices) and even visit some familiar places. But With all the hype about the PS3's graphics I was a little disappointed. It looks a lot better than any PS2 game, but it does not look as good as CGI I've seen in some major films. But The coreography is mindblowing and the cinematography is stunning, and the Extras are bountiful. The controls have changed slightly. There are many new features that add to the game-play and replay value. Although, it was challenging through many parts, I personally found the game a little too easy on "normal" for a first run play-through (but I consider myself an expert player).

This is what it boils down to:
-If you've never played any Metal Gear game, please do yourself a favor, before you play MGS4, first play "Metal Gear Solid" (PS) and "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty" (PS2). The Prequel to the series "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater" (PS2) is also one of the best games ever.
-If you played 1 other Metal Gear Solid game, and enjoyed it, Rent this game.
-If you beaten at least 2 other Metal Gear Solids and enjoyed it, Buy this game.
-If you've beaten every Metal Gear Game many times, It's worth buying a PS3 to play this game.
-If you Hate the Metal Gear Series, why are you even reading this?

My final (bias) score for this game "9.8" It's Near Perfection.

Wish I would have waited

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: June 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is kind of confusing for me and I do not mean the plot but itrying to figure out how to go to a certain place. But other than that I am really impressed with this game. Though I wish I would have gotten the MGS PS3 bundle but I couldn't to get a PS3. The graphics are amazing and the gameplay is great as well. Cutscenes are my favorite part and are really enteraining. What is this 40-90 cutscene at the beginning of the game I dont reacall seeing this when I started the game.

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