Metal Gear Solid 4: Very First Thoughts
Although I don’t really have a particularly fully-formed opinion yet, I did get a chance to play MGS4: Guns of the Patriots over the weekend. First, everyone should keep in mind that I have never played another Metal Gear game. I’ve watched people play, and had absolutely no desire to cultivate an interest in that particular series. This is mostly because, from what I remember, it was people having to follow very particular steps in order to sneak around random characters to accomplish their goals. The trial-and-error feeling to the game always made me feel like it would be terribly boring.
Obviously the first thing that caught my eye were the “commercials”. This was actually particularly exciting for me because I am a HUGE fan of mixed-media sorts of art especially in video games. It was done very well in Myst and its sequels, and then ignored henceforth. Anyway, it was really exciting.
The game itself caught my attention fairly quickly because of the portrayal of war, that is, rather than being idealized and glorified, it was seen as particularly gruesome and unpleasant. I compared it to Gears of War in my head, which is, in my opinion, a glorification of war.
The sneaking around is okay, and I was pleased to find that I don’t necessarily have to have an exact map of the area in my head and where exactly to go next to play the game. I really prefer to run in guns blazing (once again, compare it to GoW, other than maybe the flanking).
However, once you are caught by someone, the system seems to completely fall apart and you have to helplessly button mash, which really only makes him have a seizure and get killed. I never really figured out how to use the stun knife, but maybe this is my own fault. I am of the opinion that some melee weapon should to attached to ONE of the keys, anyway, but I’m assuming there had to be some equipping and then using going on which didn’t really coincide with my frantic buttonmashing.
This really is nothing like a review, honestly, since I hardly played through it at all, but I think it’s enough of a compliment for me to say that despite not really liking the genre, I would like to give MGS4 some more playtime.
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[...] maclooker wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptFirst, everyone should keep in mind that I have never played another Metal Gear game. I’ve watched people play, and had absolutely no desire to cultivate an interest in that particular series. This is mostly because, … [...]