Umm I played MGS 4 through to the end, but it is far from the best game I've ever played. It is by no means anywhere near "perfect". I'd give the game at best a 9 out of 10. If you ask me MGS 4 is more like a 8.5 and I'll explain why.
*Warning Spoilers!*
1) It's repititive.
You fight the same generic PMC goons all the time. All of which are physically the same and scream exactly the same way when they die. Seriously everyone in the game always screams "AAAGGGGHHH!!!" when they die. They couldn't bother to make a few different cries? Even the older MGS games had different death cries.
There's also the FROGS, which you apparently have to murder in untold numbers. Where did all these identical female soldiers come from anyways? There's also the GECKO too. How the heck are there more GECKO than Tanks? It's like 2014 and you want me to believe Metal Gear Cows will rule the battlefield? Okay...
Anyways essentially you kill PMC guys, kill some FROGS, some GECKO, help the Rebels, and defeat the boss.
2) Short linear levels.
This really made me sad. I expected with the advent of MGS 4 on the PS3 you'd finally get to explore more open environments. Nope, basically you just go down a set path and either kill or sneak your way past the enemy. I never ever once felt like I was in a city or the jungle, because there's really only one way to go. I had really hoped for something like actually being able to choose how you would get to sneak through an entire city or jungle, not just one or two paths.
The absolute worst thing however is in some locations enemies will just keep respawning infinitely. Seriously I got on a mortar once and kept killing enemies wondering when I'd finally have killed them all. After nearly 15 minutes they were still coming. What the hell is this? Not even CoD 4 had unlimited enemy spawns. Why do they even give you things like mortars if you can't kill off the enemies? It's dumb game design period.
3) Poor AI.
The AI in the older MGS games were pretty good for its time. Actually the AI is still pretty smart, the only real complaint is they are all very near-sighted. However considering the old games camera perspective it made sense. In MGS 4 however the AI is apparently blind and stupid. You're telling me they can't see a guy lying in the middle of the street, just because of some fancy camo? Right... Nevermind the fact you have no camo for your head when you start the game.
4) Long Cut-Scenes + Long Load Times
What turned me most off from the game were the cut-scenes. You spend more time watching the game, then you doing playing it. If they're going to do that why not just make a 12 hour long movie? I play video games to play them, not watch them. Sure the old MGS games had some long cut-scenes, but MGS 4 takes it too far. A casual gamer with only an hour or two to play a day would be lucky to get through some parts of the game.
Sure the old MGS games were a bit heavy with the Codec at time, and MGS 4 tried to correct that. Not sure why they even bothered with it really since the game is all explained via cut-scenes.
Also the load times for each act were really long. Look I get levels take some time to load, but waiting at a screen for 2 minutes is just not fun.
5) Poor Interaction
While the shooting mechanics were much improved in MGS 4, basically all the other controls became wack. Using the Triangle button to perform every action just slows down the game and made using cover frustrating. In the old MGS games getting into cover is easy just walk up to the wall. I also liked how you could peak around and over cover. Doing so in MGS 4 always seemed like a chore.
In essence I really felt the game became too much of a third person shooter, and less of the old tactical stealth game the series is known for.
6) Story/Plotholes
The Story in MGS 4 was good, but really doesn't make any sense. I mean what was the point of Ocelot pretending to be Liquid? Why didn't everyone just simply team up and destroy the Patroits AI? Did they really need to create a whole false conflict? I guess I was baffled by the fact how in MGS 4 everything was essentially explained to you by Big Boss at the very end. That and how apparently everyone has nanomachines in them.
Like why did Eva kill herself? Why didn't Ocelot just upload GW with the virus if he already controlled the ship? Also how are the remains of Big Boss actually Solidus? Didn't Solidus lose his left eye? Didn't the remains still have a left eye?
Still the worst thing is the whole Patroits AI business. How exactly do a few super computers control the world? I mean how does that work? It doesn't because the Patroit AI would still need people to actually physically enforce their will, and who in their right mind is going to take orders from a computer?
Sadly I have to say MGS 2 and MGS 4 both suffer from this stupid story element. A secret organization controlling events is one thing, but a bunch of computers doing it? Yeah that's just not really possible no matter how you spin it. I think it's for this reason MGS: The Twin Snakes/MGS 1 will always be my favorite game of the series. Because even though it was fictional it still had a fairly convincing story. The problem I guess with MGS 2 and MGS 4 for me is they try to take it too far, and it just ends up seeming all very absurd.
Look MGS 4 is a good game. It is one of the best looking games out there. It has some cool moments, lots of weapons, and interesting characters. But it is not the greatest game I've ever played. GTA IV on the other hand is easily one of the greatest games I've had the chance to play. It actually has a deep story for what you would expect to be a shallow game. Very few games present you with moral choices like GTA IV. Not only that but it'll take you a good 50 hours to play thru, which is practically unheard of these day with most games taking 12 hours at best. Not only that, but GTA IV manages to have created what really does seem like an actual city. And if all else fails it's just plain fun to drive around like a maniac with cops chasing after you. GTA IV earns its 10 out of 10, MGS 4 on the other hand just seems more like all hype to me.
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