So what's the deal? Are the MGS4 reviews BS or not? :|NAPK1NS
Complete BS.
EGM July 08 issue #229 info and reviews (Ouch @ Metal Gear Solid IV)
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MGS4 is a movie with brief videogame sequences.L1qu1dSword
original post
It's that time again, folks--time for my (annual? monthly?) defense of the Metal Gear Solid games, a series that for some reason or other is under constant attack here at SW (it's alright, though, defending it is fun :) ). A word of caution: the following post contains spoilers of various MGS games, so please refrain from reading on if you wish to avoid them.
In previous posts, I defended the series' system-selling power and playability.
In my defense of MGS's gameplay, I argued that the series doesn't depend on its cutscenes alone--it also has great gameplay. But this time I'm not going to shy away from the issue of cutscenes, which is a long-standing criticism of the series, and has led many to call it "Movie Gear Solid."
To quote a recent post on this issue:
The Metal Gear Solid series sucks, why do people hype MGS4 up so much? It's like 2 hours of cutscenes for every 30 seconds of gameplay, it's not fun at all.anonymous poster
The Quality of the Metal Gear Solid Series' Cutscenes
Why defend the series' cutscenes? Well, for one, they feature top-notch cinematic direction virtually unparalleled in the videogame medium. I could ramble on about the attention to filters, depth of field, camera placement and movement, mise en scene, pacing, color, lighting, and so on, but I'll just let the cutscenes speak for themselves:
The Death of Grey Fox
Opening Movie of Metal Gear Solid 2
All of this is capped off by the series' excellent voice acting and memorable scores by composer Harry Gregson Williams.
The cutscenes of Metal Gear Solid have a certain captivating quality. Series director Hideo Kojima recalls that at E3 1997 when the first Metal Gear Solid trailer was unveiled, "the same people that were there [watching the trailer] in the morning at E3 were there in the evening--they were just watching it, all day long." source
MGS's cutscenes have captured some of the defining moments in the series. Who can forget the afore-linked death of Grey Fox in the original Metal Gear Solid, or the beautifully directed sequence depicting the death of the Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3, or the first time they encountered Psycho Mantis? It's no wonder the Metal Gear series is famous for its storytelling--and cutscene direction plays an integral role in how a story unfolds.
The Impact of the MGS Series' Cutscenes
Many critics of the series' cutscenes also fail to realize that the Metal Gear series didn't just help create the stealth genre, but it also helped push cutscene direction in videogames to a whole new level with its 3-D debut on the Playstation. Game journalist Anatole Brown says that "it was basically the movie-like presentation of Metal Gear Solid that really took people aback." source
Metal Gear Solid was a revolutionary game in part because many people had never seen this level of cinematic direction in a game before.
The quality of Metal Gear Solid's cutscenes inspired fans and future game designers alike. Patrice Desilets, the Creative Director for Assassin's Creed, said on a Kojima Productions podcast that the first time he came across Psycho Mantis while playing MGS, he stood up alone in his room and gave Kojima a standing ovation. source
People who enjoy great cinematic direction in games today should recognize that Metal Gear Solid played an important role in its proliferation and artistic development.
Breaking the Unspoken Rule?
Another approach critics take in attacking the series' cutscenes is to argue that games are meant to played, not watched. A recent poster put it eloquently:
Literature is better geared towards story-telling than videogames, and if you are to tell a story in a videogame, you should do it in-game, as otherwise it is, for all intents and purposes, a movie with lots of gameplay thrown in.anonymous poster
Let's suppose the poster is right in characterizing Metal Gear Solid (or any game featuring cutscenes) a movie with lots of gameplay thrown in. Implicit in his argument is the idea that there is something inherently wrong, or sub-standard, about mixing film with videogames. This is the "unspoken rule" that is often invoked in arguments criticizing MGS's cutscenes.
Yet is this so? Is there really anything wrong with enjoying gameplay and cinema in one package? I would argue no--and most of the six million others who purchased the original Metal Gear Solid would likely argue the same way.
As someone who enjoys gaming and enjoys film, I have no qualms about experiencing the two mediums combined into one. In fact, mixing cinema and gaming is what makes the Metal Gear Solid series distinctive--and its relative heaviness in the cinematic aspect as compared to most other games is not something that worries me, but rather excites me. The fact that both the gameplay and cinematic direction are done so well is a quality of the series, not a defect.
David Hayter, film writer and voice actor for Solid Snake, describes it well: "Kojima's work is entirely visionary in that he doesn't follow the rules of what videogames are supposed to be. And when he takes a game and turns it into a so-called cinematic experience, he doesn't turn it into what a movie should be either. I think he creates a perfect sort of hybrid." source
Former site director for gamespot, Greg Kasavin, reinforces this point in his review of Metal Gear Solid 2: "A lot of Metal Gear Solid 2 is spent watching the story, not actually playing the game. That does open up Metal Gear Solid 2 to some criticism, I suppose. Some would argue that you're supposed to play a game, not just sit there and watch it. Why not just go to the movies or watch TV or something like that? Well, it's because Metal Gear Solid 2 is better than what's playing in the movies or what's on TV." source
If rules were made to be broken, then Metal Gear Solid was made to shatter the unspoken rule that games and cinema should remain separate entities.
The Future of the MGS Series' Cutscenes
And for the next entry in the series, Kojima looks to be holding nothing back in the cutscene department.
The debut trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: the Guns of the Patriots at TGS 2005 held the industry at a standstill with the series' trademark cinematic flair, graphical impressiveness, and quirky humor:
Metal Gear Solid 4 TGS 2005 Trailer
This time around, users will have the opportunity to trigger "flashback sequences" at certain points during cutscenes, for those who have never played the previous games or series fans who wish to refresh their memory. These flashback sequences will feature the original graphics from the Playstation and Playstation 2 MGS games to mirror the nostalgiac recollection of the game player himself.
Codec sequences will also display cutscenes rather than still images, and players will be able to pause or fast-forward these sequences:
MGS4 Codec Sequence
Metal Gear Solid 4 takes place in a future dystopia where war has become the pillar of the global economy and genetic, informational, and emotional control has placed the world in a choke hold. As such, the game will feature cutscenes with a darker tone than previous iterations, and in keeping with the series' discussion of philosophical issues such as existentialism and meme theory, will raise such problems as the evolution of war and the morality of eugenics.
In short, the cutscenes in MGS4 will include the same unique mix of philosophical discussion, quirky humor, and fantastic action sequences that have defined the series since the beginning.
Metal Gear Solid 4 E3 2006
But fear not, those of you who enjoy tactical espionage action gameplay, for MGS4 will have plenty of that too:
MGS4 2007 Gameplay Demonstration
All in all, the future looks bright: Metal Gear Solid 4 looks to bring the same great combination of compelling cutscenes and thrilling gameplay that series fans have come to expect.
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