Am i the only person who genuinely likes Metal Gear Solid 4?

Am i the only person who genuinely likes Metal Gear Solid 4?

I got around to finishing Peace Walker tonight and with that i have officially beaten and exhausted all the media in the series. Which naturally had me reflect on how its over and done with.

Naturally thinking how MGS5 was literally shipping unfinished it could leave a sour note for the player but there was one thing i kept coming back to: It was a cash in prequel, the Metal Gear has had its ending for years.

The strange thing when talking with friends was that most of them hadnt ever played it because of the extremely long cutscenes intersecting the gameplay. Which was understandable if you look at the game in a vaccuum and it seems more movie than game, but as a finale piece to a long series i had no problem with it.

The difference there however was the folks i know that never owned a pstripple had MGS5 as their send off. That "i am big boss and you are too" was all they got. I cant imagine a worst case of not knowing what they are missing.

-For those who dont know and i imagine most do but you never know MGS4 appears to end with a rapidly aged solid snake in the cemetery from the end of MGS3 ready to eat a bullet. After the credits however you get a long cutscene where Big Boss shows up with a braindead zero. He turns of zeros oxygen tank and lets him die then knowing snakes foxdie is going to kill him just like it did liquid he lies on his loved ones grave and gives a genuinely touching speech about how he never saw David/Snake as some cheap imitation but as a brother, and a soldier he truly respected. He says "let it go son" and dies and with the loop finally closed and debts paid so to speak David/Snake decides death isnt the answer and just because hes no longer needed as a soldier doesnt mean he has to give up on finding new reasons to live for as long as he has left.

Thats the end, bar metal gear rising of course, to the metal gear story. everything that came after like peace walker, ground zeros and the phantom pain were retcon heavy prequels that love or hate them in no way effects the actual end where the rivalrys between snake/zero/ocelott and all the different groups trying to interpret the will of The Boss were finally dealt with so the future of the world could once again find its own course rather than be manipulated and nearly annihilated time and again because of these delusional machinations.

Its not perfect, berlin is a huge letdown, the gameplay is far too action orientated but on the whole its good points are far more enjoyable than its bad points are at best points that make you want to hurry up to the good parts than quit.

The strange part is we got our end to metal gear in 2008, 8 years ago. And while i wont call it perfect i still love MGS4 as the swan song ending to the story and i wonder if the series feels way more hollow and unsatisfying to the anons that never played it because they heard too many bad things about it.

Did you play it? if not do you feel you are missing the proper conclusion?

I guess PW just makes me want to revisit it again to remind myself mgs has a solid end, which is better than silent hill will ever receive.

;_;7

yes

MGS5 was shipped unfinished and lacked virtually everything that makes a MGS game worth it, yet still was better than 4

I think the characters lower my opinion of MGS5 the most. Venom is a largely blank slate, kaz and ocelott break their own personas to be a completely transparent angel and devil on his shoulder and skull face is entertaining as fuck but hes an anime villain i dont really care about.

I liked it at the time. Of course 'at the time' I hadn't played Snake Eater, in fact the only MGS I'd played was Twin Snakes and MGS2. Now that I've played them all I'd say MGS4's a pretty weak instalment.

both MGS4 and MGSV were good video games with immensely enjoyable gameplay and setpieces

the story to each of them is a silly bonus with a fun in-universe atmosphere even though the story hasn't actually been good since 1

2 was good for other reasons which only really work if you played 1 so it doesn't really count

seriously though both 4 and 5 have stellar gameplay which is as creative as the person playing it

boring people who pay too much attention to the crap story complain about the games because they're too bad to actually play video games

both are not perfect but still better than 90% of every other game released in the last decade

opinion

I like it a lot too OP, and for similar reasons you listed. My only complaint is how sparse the gameplay is when I want to replay it without going through the story. If you play it wanting the conclusion, it's great. MGO2 helped bring some pure gameplay to compensate, but of course Konami had to fuck that up too with the insane updates and cutting down the servers.

I got pretty much everything I could've reasonably asked for with it and was content with it being the finale. I've always considered PW, GZ, and V to be icing on a cake already baked.

I agree, OP. MGS4 is not a great game, but if you're interested at all in the story of MGS it does a good job of concluding it. It's a game I am happy that I played through one time, but I will probably never replay it.

I would say now its worth replaying it to notice how kojima retroactively made sure the prequels are still tied up in its plot. Things like 'heres to you' which was the theme to ground zeroes is originally used -albeit heavily remixed- in MGS4, Big Bosses finale 'one becomes one hundred' scene which may have seemed confusing at the time makes a lot more sense with information from peace walker and TPP filling in the gaps in it.

I think the trouble with 4 gameplay wise is how easily it can be defaulted to 2008 era third person action shooter gameplay.
Things like choosing to effect the wars by picking a side or noticing things like windspeed and direction can make your gameplay very different, but so can things in TPP like how you can do spooky shit to give the russians PTSD but if the player never knows its there and never had their experience/progress hindered then it doesnt really invalidate their own gameplay experience, would make it seem lacklustre though but its not really their own fault.

...

I actually attempted replaying it before TPP came out. My plan was to play through every MGS right before TPP was released. I started 4 and just could not be bothered. It's a huge slog if you already know the story since the gameplay is so sparse. For me it's a one and done.

That's more than I can say for Peacewalker, though. I couldn't be bothered to finish that game even once. Same goes for TPP.

The one in the series my thoughts go back to is MGS2. The reason is because that fucking intro HNNNNNNNG

I liked it too, especially all those guns and MGO 2. The gameplay was the best because it was fluid but still rigid and the areas were fun to play in. The cutscenes bog this game down the most and I'd like to see it redone with some things simpled out. Also it starts off from nowhere and is convoluted.

I would love to play it but I only have a PC?

Its one of my favorite games actually, regardless of whatever anyone may think

2 had the best story and writing on the series though.

Yes, many people still do like MGS4 because even though it was executed poorly, it's still better than most of the garbage out there, and it's still executed far better as an MGS game than shit like MGSV or PW.

Are you retarded? MGS2 was the first one I played and I had no problem getting with the program. The main focus wasn't the whole "recreating snake" shit, it was about this. The fact that it was a nod towards MGS1 is just extra.
Good gameplay, except 4 had very little of it, with an even bigger emphasis on combat to the point where stealth is never really viable, and both 4 and V have god awful level design.
is this bait, or….?

Not really, it didn't need to be concluded. MGS2 was a fine place to leave off. There were plenty of ways to make MGS4 a sort of "alternate timeline" game, but they chose to make it canon, which forced unnecessary amounts of shit to clog up the story AND gameplay.

It's true, GZ found the perfect balance but TPP fucked it up.

One thing I've noticed in particular is that even if some Metal Gear endings aren't as good as others, they ALL have the best openings I've ever seen in vidya.

I enjoy the first half of the game immensely. It's tight, controls incredibly well, has the most options for stealth in comparison to every game in the series, and the emotion effects allows you to pull some hilarious shit with the guards.

The second half is when the game drops the ball. The levels get really restrictive and the setpieces, despite being pretty rad, go on for a little too long and interrupt the regular gameplay too often. The story completely shits the bed the further you get, and the cutscenes get unbearably long.

So, half of the game is the best MGS ever got, the other half is the worst it ever got. So I have a love/hate relationship with the game.

God I love that intro

How to spot a retard/special snowflake.

MGS4 has genuinely great gameplay with a lot of cool shit you can do. The problem is that the cool shit is so extensive and deep that you never actually get to really play it and figure it out inbetween the gigantic cutscenes. I've never seen a game give the player so many options and features in the gunplay but you just never get to really use it inbetween the cutscenes, bosses that force certain tactics, forced stealth sections, and etc. It's a really great game, I just wish there was more GAME to play. I'm all for story but MGS4 was just a bit much.

MGS4 greatest contribution to the series was evolving Solid Snake as a character as a badass old man that realized war is shit and became the wisest character in the entire series and basically everyone but him is fucking dumb.
BB is a fucking manchild compared to SS by MGS4.

No, you are not.
I like it too.

There's a big difference from "too much vs too little" and "too much story, chopped in half and never finished".

He gave us half of too much story. That's a arguably worse than regular old too much story.

It was the best ending any series could ever get,it was bittersweet and quite touching,ending the game with Big Boss and Solid Snake talking always makes me cry like a little girl,Its quite good I like it.

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MGS4 was another MGS2. It shat on the memory of Solid Snake and the first game. At least it had better environments than MGS2 but it was still too linear but MGS4 was well polished as far as presentation I guess.

Didn't like the (((Holywood))) atmosphere and how everyone looked different and Dues Ex Human Revolution instead of the original style.

At least it gave us FROGs

MGS4 is such a gigantic pile of dog shit. Possibly two or three areas with sneaking. Everything else is shitty set pieces, like the two horrible chase sequences, or padding. The writing is easily Kojima's worst also.

It was disappointing sure, but it was much better than MGSV

Yes user. Out of 8 billion people on this planet you're the devilishly handsome rogue who dared to like this game.

Brazzers

Also I want to say if you legitimately prefer 4 to 5 you are a retard that is playing games for the wrong reasons. The only reason you don't like Uncharted or David Cage bullshit is because Holla Forums told you not to.

I liked it. Should have been the end of the series. We got some good games since, but they all felt very unnecessary.

I thought the gameplay of 4 worked, though I am inclined to joke that is it "one of the best movies I have ever seen". The ratio of game to pure story is very off. The level of sneaking through the streets was very tedious though.

5's unfinished state really does make me sour over it, not sure what you are going on about them being retcons though. They just fill in info and let us see some of the reasons for characters actions.

Personally I am very happy we got peace walker and MGS5. I really liked seeing Big Boss's side of things.

It's my favorite in the series. I thought it was a perfect ending to a series I practically grew up with. Couldn't have been better.