Was anybody else here let down with MGS4?

Yeah, TC, we were all let down with MGS4....

when the game ended we all cried, as the amazing-ness was OVER.

The rest of the posts are Fanboy's/Hardcore Lemmings hating on it.(There may be one exception that's real)

Yeah, TC, we were all let down with MGS4....

when the game ended we all cried, as the amazing-ness was OVER.

The rest of the posts are Fanboy's/Hardcore Lemmings hating on it.(There may be one exception that's real)

SolidTy

you know, that's my main reason I really can't play the SP campaign anymore...

The ending it's so sad, and everything it's over.

It is just so depressive for me :(

Best game i ever played, so no, it wasn't a let down.

I wouldn't say I was "let down" by MGS4 but it didn't meet the expectations I had been hoping for and I'm stunned this game received a perfect 10 with the flaws in it. And I'm sure it'll be getting nominated for GOTY and might even win which will even further baffle me.

You can't really complain about the long cutscenes in MGS4. Picking up a MGS game and not expecting long cutscenes is like buying a brand new car and expecting the salesman to give you a perfectly fair deal. Or expecting a good performance from Sandra Bullock. The odds aren't too good.

But my main complaint isn't the length of the cutscenes, but how freakin boring they are in most places. Why are their moments that serve no purpose at all except to dramatize everything (Mei Ling having to cuddle some random scared soldier, the "shoot the girl walking mindlessly at you" scenes after almost every boss fight, Mei Ling randomly asking Otakon where his glasses went in the middle of a mission briefing)? Why are there so many dramatic pauses in the game that'll put a soap opera to shame? And what's up with splitting the screen in half with me playing as Snake on one half while a badass cutscene (which I thought served the purpose for watching) is on the right? It all just seemed very unnecessary and didn't strengthen the story at all or make it any more meaningful.

And I'm sorry to have to say this, but the writing is atrocious. While I enjoyed the story, it could've been written so much better. The first two MGS games didn't have this problem, and in fact, I'd rate it as some of the best storytelling I've heard in a video game. But Kojima seemed to think he could take all the dramatic and meaningful moments in the past games and then multiply it by 1000 and putting it in almost every cutscene, making the whole game seem ultra corny.

Again, the game was enjoyable for me, but by no means is it the greatest gaming experience everyone has been hyping it.

To me it was personally a flop (Yet I still think its one of the best games of the generation). I am just going to talk about the story/characters and not even touch on the gameplay. The story had some awful writing.

The cutscene gameplay ratio needed to be balanced out more. More importantly is that there were a lot of contradictions between the previous games and MGS4. The plot twists and story just became plain silly in the end.

Many of the contradictions were in the characterization department.

*SPOILER*

Paramedic being Dr. Clark is an example of a contradiction. In the original Metal Gear Solid Paramedic is a man.

Naomi directly stating Dr. Clark is a man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x9H8vTSpgc&feature=related

redCloudJ7

actually in the JPN version of the game Dr.Clark isnt given a gender so no contradiction

actually in the JPN version of the game Dr.Clark isnt given a gender so no contradiction.vitonemesis

*Looks at avatar* You have any proof?

To me it was personally a flop (Yet I still think its one of the best games of the generation). I am just going to talk about the story/characters and not even touch on the gameplay. The story had some awful writing.

The cutscene gameplay ratio needed to be balanced out more. More importantly is that there were a lot of contradictions between the previous games and MGS4. The plot twists and story just became plain silly in the end.

Many of the contradictions were in the characterization department.

*SPOILER*

Paramedic being Dr. Clark is an example of a contradiction. In the original Metal Gear Solid Paramedic is a man.

Naomi directly stating Dr. Clark is a man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x9H8vTSpgc&feature=related

The load times are what kind of killed it for me. GTA can do a whole city without load times but MGS can't render more than a block without having to load. Not to mention the installs. Still a good game though, but it is NOT perfect.MacaroniMoses

No one ever said it was Perfect.

You know, a "10" doesn't mean perfect.

It was a big let down for me. Too much videos and very little gameplay. The game can be beaten in under 5 hours without even trying if you pass all the videos. MP was very average.

Best game this generation so far.

[QUOTE="azad_champ"][QUOTE="CreepyBacon"]

Started ok, rose to greatest on chapter 3, went down hill from there.

Honestly, those saying it's the greatest gaming experiance ever need to play more games, I'm not bashing your opinion so much but..it had like 3-5 top hours of gameplay, total. Was an OK game, amazing if you enjoy watching cut scenes.

Nagidar

It has 10 hours of gameplay and and 10 hours of cutscene. MGS4 has more gameplay than most games nowadays. Do your research before stating stuff.

No it doesn't, it took me 14 hours my first play through and my actual gameplay time was around 4 hours, the rest was cut scenes.

You are playing it like a mindless killing shooter, thats why it ended quick for you.

Very disappointing. Most disappointing game of the last 10 years, right beside Too Human. BioShockOwnz

I hope you are joking.

To me it was personally a flop (Yet I still think its one of the best games of the generation). I am just going to talk about the story/characters and not even touch on the gameplay. The story had some awful writing.

The cutscene gameplay ratio needed to be balanced out more. More importantly is that there were a lot of contradictions between the previous games and MGS4. The plot twists and story just became plain silly in the end.

Many of the contradictions were in the characterization department.

*SPOILER*

Paramedic being Dr. Clark is an example of a contradiction. In the original Metal Gear Solid Paramedic is a man.

Naomi directly stating Dr. Clark is a man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x9H8vTSpgc&feature=related

redCloudJ7

[QUOTE="danjammer69"]

Not me man. I was completely blown away.

Probably the best game I have ever experienced.

jarediswicked92

Blown away by what? it definitely has one of the best gfx on consoles this gen (just behind uncharted and gears imo) but there was probably about 4 hours gameplay in the whole thing which i was really disappointed with.

How true. Cutscenes shoudl be used sparingly in games, they dont define the gameplay, they only transition from one place to another in most games, and over use equates to boredom, and shortened gameplay.

I was somewhat disappointed with MGS4.

The gameplay largely met my expectations. It was really incredible, especially in the first two acts. But the story disappointed me.

My first Metal Gear Solid game was MGS3. It had a very straightforward story, but I found it powerful and affecting. Despite a lot of geopolitical background and such, the thrust of the tale was straightforward, and the message was clear. Metal Gear Solid 2's story was difficult, but upon playing it again, I could see the intention and purpose behind the manifold twists and machinations. They served the purpose of the game's themes of manipulation and control of the legacies people leave behind.

Metal Gear Solid 4 has no such theme. Because the story exists primarily for the purpose of placating fan requests to wrap up every plot thread in the series, there is no real internal thread that ties the game together. The massive amount of cutscenes (close to 10 hours) instead is filled with exposition, recaps, and plot points, which are reiterated on repeatedly in order to keep every aspect of the tale closed. Yet these tales don't matter to each other. Raiden's struggle for identity, Naomi's guilt, the Beast Unit's attempts to exorcise their internal demons through war, these sideplots are wholly disconnected from each other except as methods of plot closure. And since they aren't especially compelling in and of themselves, they fail to cohere as a whole.

The game attempts to create an overall theme in its final, mammoth cutscene, but such methods make their existence within a game irrelevant, especially when they are delivered as didactically as they are, in a manner that might have been better served by an essay. Without a game to truly support them, what is their worth within the title?

I think there was a huge amount of potential within the game's existing story structures to create something special that was more self-contained. The commoditization of war through closely-monitored PMCs had the potential to provide a much more interesting microcosm of the Patriots, had that been explored more thoroughly. And the rebels who fight the PMCs exist outside of Patriot control. Why do they fight? The game dismisses the actual skirmishes as 'existing political conflicts', but it throws away what could have been a very interesting issue. These seem to me as if they would better compliment the themes mentioned in the game's final scenes. Instead, they are marginalized in favor of putting every character living and dead back into the series' lore in some way, and the tale loses the focus that had been one of the high points of the series' plots, in my view.

I could have forgiven the cutscene excess if it served a better tale, but it failed for me. Fortunately, it was attatched to an exceptional game that shines despite the amount of non-interactive content it is buried under.

[QUOTE="Nagidar"][QUOTE="azad_champ"][QUOTE="CreepyBacon"]

Started ok, rose to greatest on chapter 3, went down hill from there.

Honestly, those saying it's the greatest gaming experiance ever need to play more games, I'm not bashing your opinion so much but..it had like 3-5 top hours of gameplay, total. Was an OK game, amazing if you enjoy watching cut scenes.

HAZE-Unit

It has 10 hours of gameplay and and 10 hours of cutscene. MGS4 has more gameplay than most games nowadays. Do your research before stating stuff.

No it doesn't, it took me 14 hours my first play through and my actual gameplay time was around 4 hours, the rest was cut scenes.

You are playing it like a mindless killing shooter, thats why it ended quick for you.

Yes, because you sat there right next to me and watched me play it...

It ended quick because there was 10 hours of cut scenes, is it that hard to understand? Its a great game, I loved it, but its a fact, it has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

[QUOTE="XaeroGravity"][QUOTE="IvyCassandra"]

That's why Xbox360 kids like you shouldn't play mature games like MGS4 that are too complicated for your simple minds.

Your attention span is not long enough to hold as story thats why you like the shallow action that is Halo. Leave the awesome story driven game for the older crowd.IvyCassandra

Hey, he gave me the reasons why he was dissapionted with it. To me, it seems like he couldn't pay attention to the cut-scenes. That is a sign of a ADD child, like most children who can't stand watching a good movie, he always needs something to occupy his mind.

And i gave a rebuttal to the reason why he doesn't like the cut-scenes. To not like a game because a story is being told is obviously because you don't have a good attention span. The cut-scenes in MGS4 are nowhere bad, infact they were really action packed and interesting.

Same thing with GTA4, they move the story along. If you can't wait through the story, then those aren't the games for you. You're better of playing some mindless FPS with no story.

Not me man. I was completely blown away.

Probably the best game I have ever experienced.

danjammer69

You were blown away because you wanted to be blown away.

[QUOTE="XaeroGravity"][QUOTE="IvyCassandra"]

That's why Xbox360 kids like you shouldn't play mature games like MGS4 that are too complicated for your simple minds.

Your attention span is not long enough to hold as story thats why you like the shallow action that is Halo. Leave the awesome story driven game for the older crowd.IvyCassandra

Hey, he gave me the reasons why he was dissapionted with it. To me, it seems like he couldn't pay attention to the cut-scenes. That is a sign of a ADD child, like most children who can't stand watching a good movie, he always needs something to occupy his mind.

And i gave a rebuttal to the reason why he doesn't like the cut-scenes. To not like a game because a story is being told is obviously because you don't have a good attention span. The cut-scenes in MGS4 are nowhere bad, infact they were really action packed and interesting.

Same thing with GTA4, they move the story along. If you can't wait through the story, then those aren't the games for you. You're better of playing some mindless FPS with no story.

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="Nagidar"][QUOTE="azad_champ"][QUOTE="CreepyBacon"]

Started ok, rose to greatest on chapter 3, went down hill from there.

Honestly, those saying it's the greatest gaming experiance ever need to play more games, I'm not bashing your opinion so much but..it had like 3-5 top hours of gameplay, total. Was an OK game, amazing if you enjoy watching cut scenes.

Nagidar

It has 10 hours of gameplay and and 10 hours of cutscene. MGS4 has more gameplay than most games nowadays. Do your research before stating stuff.

No it doesn't, it took me 14 hours my first play through and my actual gameplay time was around 4 hours, the rest was cut scenes.

You are playing it like a mindless killing shooter, thats why it ended quick for you.

Yes, because you sat there right next to me and watched me play it...

It ended quick because there was 10 hours of cut scenes, is it that hard to understand? Its a great game, I loved it, but its a fact, it has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

[QUOTE="IvyCassandra"][QUOTE="XaeroGravity"][QUOTE="IvyCassandra"]

That's why Xbox360 kids like you shouldn't play mature games like MGS4 that are too complicated for your simple minds.

Your attention span is not long enough to hold as story thats why you like the shallow action that is Halo. Leave the awesome story driven game for the older crowd.darkIink

Hey, he gave me the reasons why he was dissapionted with it. To me, it seems like he couldn't pay attention to the cut-scenes. That is a sign of a ADD child, like most children who can't stand watching a good movie, he always needs something to occupy his mind.

And i gave a rebuttal to the reason why he doesn't like the cut-scenes. To not like a game because a story is being told is obviously because you don't have a good attention span. The cut-scenes in MGS4 are nowhere bad, infact they were really action packed and interesting.

Same thing with GTA4, they move the story along. If you can't wait through the story, then those aren't the games for you. You're better of playing some mindless FPS with no story.

Or even better, maybe they can:

-strip away some of the repetitive dialog: "Metal Gear..." "METAL GEAR?1?"

-strip away poop jokes

-retool the poorly-paced emotional scenes...do we really need to pause on a boob-shot again?

-condense some of the overly verbose explanations to one summary line...Meryl, I'm looking at you. You too, Drebin, those Beast monologues are horrendous.

-Keep the good cutscenes intact!

I'm sure once the cuts are done, it can fit on a single 360 DVD ;-)

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="Nagidar"][QUOTE="azad_champ"][QUOTE="CreepyBacon"]

Started ok, rose to greatest on chapter 3, went down hill from there.

Honestly, those saying it's the greatest gaming experiance ever need to play more games, I'm not bashing your opinion so much but..it had like 3-5 top hours of gameplay, total. Was an OK game, amazing if you enjoy watching cut scenes.

Nagidar

It has 10 hours of gameplay and and 10 hours of cutscene. MGS4 has more gameplay than most games nowadays. Do your research before stating stuff.

No it doesn't, it took me 14 hours my first play through and my actual gameplay time was around 4 hours, the rest was cut scenes.

You are playing it like a mindless killing shooter, thats why it ended quick for you.

Yes, because you sat there right next to me and watched me play it...

It ended quick because there was 10 hours of cut scenes, is it that hard to understand? Its a great game, I loved it, but its a fact, it has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

I guarantee you that you can't finish the game the first playthrough sneaking all the time under 20 hours.

You are the first person I know who finished the first playthrough under 18-20 hours.

[QUOTE="Nagidar"][QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="Nagidar"][QUOTE="azad_champ"]

It has 10 hours of gameplay and and 10 hours of cutscene. MGS4 has more gameplay than most games nowadays. Do your research before stating stuff.

HAZE-Unit

No it doesn't, it took me 14 hours my first play through and my actual gameplay time was around 4 hours, the rest was cut scenes.

You are playing it like a mindless killing shooter, thats why it ended quick for you.

Yes, because you sat there right next to me and watched me play it...

It ended quick because there was 10 hours of cut scenes, is it that hard to understand? Its a great game, I loved it, but its a fact, it has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

I guarantee you that you can't finish the game the first playthrough sneaking all the time under 20 hours.

You are the first person I know who finished the first playthrough under 18-20 hours.

I snuck through some parts and fought through others, but thats besides the point, saying "Well, if you play the game this way, it will be longer..." is completely stupid, thats like saying, "If you just sit there for 20 hours it will be longer", people play different games in different ways.

Which still doesn't take away my main point, MGS4 has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

Or even better, maybe they can:

-strip away some of the repetitive dialog: "Metal Gear..." "METAL GEAR?1?"

-condense some of the overly verbose explanations to one summary line...Meryl, I'm looking at you. You too, Drebin, those Beast monologues are horrendous.

phatrawk

Agree with 100%.

And did anyone else just find that marriage proposal between Meryl and Johnny odd? I know it was meant to be funny, but it just didn't strike with me and I was left the whole time quirking my eyebrow with a "WTF" on the edge of my lips.

[QUOTE="phatrawk"]

Or even better, maybe they can:

-strip away some of the repetitive dialog: "Metal Gear..." "METAL GEAR?1?"

-condense some of the overly verbose explanations to one summary line...Meryl, I'm looking at you. You too, Drebin, those Beast monologues are horrendous.

vdastampede

Agree with 100%.

And did anyone else just find that marriage proposal between Meryl and Johnny odd? I know it was meant to be funny, but it just didn't strike with me and I was left the whole time quirking my eyebrow with a "WTF" on the edge of my lips.

Agreed, that was an odd moment in the game, not to mention it was like, he went from this whiny little ***** who poops himself to über soldier.

[QUOTE="phatrawk"]

Or even better, maybe they can:

-strip away some of the repetitive dialog: "Metal Gear..." "METAL GEAR?1?"

-condense some of the overly verbose explanations to one summary line...Meryl, I'm looking at you. You too, Drebin, those Beast monologues are horrendous.

vdastampede

Agree with 100%.

And did anyone else just find that marriage proposal between Meryl and Johnny odd? I know it was meant to be funny, but it just didn't strike with me and I was left the whole time quirking my eyebrow with a "WTF" on the edge of my lips.

Actually, during that scene, I was thinking more along the lines of "Did Kojima really just rip-off Mr. & Mrs. Smith"? Well, at least he did a better job than Hollywood...

[QUOTE="vdastampede"]

[QUOTE="phatrawk"]

Or even better, maybe they can:

-strip away some of the repetitive dialog: "Metal Gear..." "METAL GEAR?1?"

-condense some of the overly verbose explanations to one summary line...Meryl, I'm looking at you. You too, Drebin, those Beast monologues are horrendous.

phatrawk

Agree with 100%.

And did anyone else just find that marriage proposal between Meryl and Johnny odd? I know it was meant to be funny, but it just didn't strike with me and I was left the whole time quirking my eyebrow with a "WTF" on the edge of my lips.

Actually, during that scene, I was thinking more along the lines of "Did Kojima really just rip-off Mr. & Mrs. Smith"? Well, at least he did a better job than Hollywood...

rofl, thats funny, I didn't even think of that, makes perfect sense too. :lol:

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"]

I guarantee you that you can't finish the game the first playthrough sneaking all the time under 20 hours.

You are the first person I know who finished the first playthrough under 18-20 hours.

Nagidar

I snuck through some parts and fought through others, but thats besides the point, saying "Well, if you play the game this way, it will be longer..." is completely stupid, thats like saying, "If you just sit there for 20 hours it will be longer", people play different games in different ways.

Which still doesn't take away my main point, MGS4 has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

thats was my point smart guy.

Saying "people play different games in different ways." is completely stupid especially after saying what you just said.

The game had alot of depth in it, some people played it old school like me which is sneaking, some other people played it run and gun for the incentive of shooting and weapons the game gives the player ( Btw even the fastest run and gunner didn't finish the game under the 18 hours ) and some guys like you did some sneaking and shoot, so for me and alot of other people it was a long experience and it had the longest gameplay portion in the series so just stop pulling some BS.

Did you play any of the past MGS games? because they all had Massive cutscenes and 10 hours is exaggerating.

[QUOTE="phatrawk"]

Or even better, maybe they can:

-strip away some of the repetitive dialog: "Metal Gear..." "METAL GEAR?1?"

-condense some of the overly verbose explanations to one summary line...Meryl, I'm looking at you. You too, Drebin, those Beast monologues are horrendous.

vdastampede

Agree with 100%.

And did anyone else just find that marriage proposal between Meryl and Johnny odd? I know it was meant to be funny, but it just didn't strike with me and I was left the whole time quirking my eyebrow with a "WTF" on the edge of my lips.

yeah, i thought that was stupid. I don't know how you go from a dude who pooped himself to a heartthrob.

But on topic though, being someone who wasn't a fan of the series or games of that genre in general, i bought all the games from the series to see what all the fuss was about. And i can tell you that while, each game held its own, i was blown away by MGS4. There were definitely some cons but the game is far from your average game. It has to be one of my best experiences i had with a game, right next to Sotc!

[QUOTE="Nagidar"][QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"]

I guarantee you that you can't finish the game the first playthrough sneaking all the time under 20 hours.

You are the first person I know who finished the first playthrough under 18-20 hours.

HAZE-Unit

I snuck through some parts and fought through others, but thats besides the point, saying "Well, if you play the game this way, it will be longer..." is completely stupid, thats like saying, "If you just sit there for 20 hours it will be longer", people play different games in different ways.

Which still doesn't take away my main point, MGS4 has a MASSIVE amount of cut scenes.

thats was my point smart guy.

Saying "people play different games in different ways." is completely stupid especially after saying what you just said.

The game had alot of depth in it, some people played it old school like me which is sneaking, some other people played it run and gun for the incentive of shooting and weapons the game gives the player ( Btw even the fastest run and gunner didn't finish the game under the 18 hours ) and some guys like you did some sneaking and shoot, so for me and alot of other people it was a long experience and it had the longest gameplay portion in the series so just stop pulling some BS.

Did you play any of the past MGS games? because they all had Massive cutscenes and 10 hours is exaggerating.

That was not your point, now your backtracking to save your ***, and you still don't get it, my whole point through all of this was there is an excessive amount of cut scenes in the game, alot of the crap that was in the cut scenes didn't even need to be in it, like someone else pointed out.

Yes, I did finish it in about 14 hours, I remember because I bought it one night, the game reminded me I had played it for 4ish hours, I went to bed, jumped back on it the next day and right around the end, durring the Snake smoking load screen, it once again reminded me how long I had played it, the Act 5 load screen said I had played for 9 hours, at the start of act 5.

EDIT: MGS4 has 9 hours and 50 minutes of cut scenes. Link.

"The torrent just finished, and the total length of MGS4's cutscenes are 9 hours and 50 minutes. That is 10 minutes short of 10 HOURS! WOW! This will be interesting when I play through it. This question is answered."

This guy downloaded a torrent of all of MGS4's cut scenes. They totaled 9 hours and 50 minutes.

Yeah, TC, we were all let down with MGS4....

when the game ended we all cried, as the amazing-ness was OVER.

The rest of the posts are Fanboy's/Hardcore Lemmings hating on it.(There may be one exception that's real)

SolidTy

I guarantee you that you can't finish the game the first playthrough sneaking all the time under 20 hours.

You are the first person I know who finished the first playthrough under 18-20 hours.

HAZE-Unit

I finished my first playthrough at about 18 hours, with a Scorpion emblem. I had a strategy guide (came free with my PS3 bundle with the game), but I rarely used it.

My Fox emblem run of MGS4 took under five hours, while my 0 alert 0 kill run in MGS3 took around seven.

It's very doable.