Zero Punctuation: Metal Gear Solid 4
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Recommended Videos
To those that argue for the cutscenes being skippable, I just have to say that that rings a little bit oddly to me. A cutscene should not be something you have to trudge through with your finger twitching for the button to end your torture. If a cutscene makes you start wondering when you'll actually get to play the game, something has gone tragically wrong. Ideally, such a scene should be an engaging (usually brief) storytelling aspect that pulls you in and gets you interested in the characters and their motivations. Now if you really liked the Metal Gear Solid cutscenes, then the creator has done something right for you, but a game as a movie (oh god Dirge of Cerberus) is almost never a winning formula.
And I haven't played the game, but that storyline sounds batshit crazy. Maybe in a good way, but probably not.
And I haven't played the game, but that storyline sounds batshit crazy. Maybe in a good way, but probably not.
I was confused at why he said you needed to hold triangle :|fortedash said:
I don't think Yahtzee understood the controls very well, thus the complaints.
On the other hand, perhaps its the game's fault for not guiding your hand with a tutorial on how to play the game. I mean, honestly, this the best controlling MGS game in the entire series. Its an evolution of what MGS3 tried to do, and it perfected it. No longer are you holding down 3 buttons to try and shoot someone as you use a human shield. No longer are you holding down multiple buttons just to peek shoot. And for god's sake, you can actually move while shooting in first person.
Great review as always and having finshed the game once i can pretty much agree with all the points. After a hour pretty much 2 cutsences and 20-25 miuntes of playing i was brought back to the feeling i was playing zone of the enders. I love a good story and all but jeezus do we really need to know the story of the sotry of the story. There's just to much plot thats got nothing to do with the plot XD. And the action controls have to be the most annoying contorls ever and dont work for action there really for sleath...
Good To see Yathzee with his eye of trye melting away all fanboyism to get a soild A++ review ^^ keep them coming.
Good To see Yathzee with his eye of trye melting away all fanboyism to get a soild A++ review ^^ keep them coming.
It really pains me to say this, but I agree with Yahtzee on just about everything.
I always called BS on Metal Gear being a '99% movie/1% game' series, but MGS4 is pretty much that. I didn't realize it until the very end of the game, but if you play through the whole thing while skipping each and every cutscene, each act will last you somewhere around twenty to thirty minutes, resulting in a game that will only take about 2-3 hours to complete.
I really wish I was kidding. I loved MGS1 and 3, and I'm playing through 2 right now and I'm very much enjoying it, but MGS4 is just completely unbalanced. You'll play the game for just a few minutes and then get cutscenes that last somewhere around fifteen minutes shoved down your throat. You'll be saving more often than not because once it's all over you just need to take a break from sitting down. I know! You actually have to take a break from a GAME! It honestly puts my balls into a twist.
Worst of all, the story. Normally, I love Metal Gear Solid stories, because it incorporates real world politics, character development, and interaction down to the nail. To me, it's just fun to see characters go from one standpoint to another in a very coherent fashion from beginning to end.
However, MGS4 is nothing but a celebration of the past games in the same vein as Umbrella Chronicles. You'll have more references to MGS1, 2, and 3 than you will actually have original plot details. Even then, the original plot is as uninspiring and dull as it can get. Characters barely develop, everything politically related in the game is entirely fictional instead of having actual facts with small fictional icing... it just goes against everything Metal Gear Solid was originally capable of doing.
And as I've said before, MGS4 does nothing for you in the gameplay department. Each gameplay segment is ungodly short, the controls are stiff as hell, and even though the team tried pathetically hard to make controls that rival TPS/FPS games of today, you rarely get to actually use them. Some segments peg you against enemies like the Geckos that are completely immune to just about everything you have as well as enemies that that travel in tight-knit groups, so killing one sets off everyone else. You'll just find yourself ducking in a corner waiting until you can just walk by everyone.
Lastly, the design results in 0 immersion. At one point, you're in the middle east. Then bam, you're in South America. Oh wait, now you're in Europe. Hold on, Alaska! Now we're in the ocean! The settings change with each passing minute, making you feel that instead of one definite plotline you're trying to conclude, you're just killing time. A new scenario is dropped on your head like an anvil on top of the Wile E. Coyote, allowing no immersion like the past Metal Gear games whatsoever.
I really wanted some playtime from my PS3... but it looks like MGS4 isn't that anymore. So far, I'm enjoying MGS2 more than 4, and I'm only about two hours into it.
I always called BS on Metal Gear being a '99% movie/1% game' series, but MGS4 is pretty much that. I didn't realize it until the very end of the game, but if you play through the whole thing while skipping each and every cutscene, each act will last you somewhere around twenty to thirty minutes, resulting in a game that will only take about 2-3 hours to complete.
I really wish I was kidding. I loved MGS1 and 3, and I'm playing through 2 right now and I'm very much enjoying it, but MGS4 is just completely unbalanced. You'll play the game for just a few minutes and then get cutscenes that last somewhere around fifteen minutes shoved down your throat. You'll be saving more often than not because once it's all over you just need to take a break from sitting down. I know! You actually have to take a break from a GAME! It honestly puts my balls into a twist.
Worst of all, the story. Normally, I love Metal Gear Solid stories, because it incorporates real world politics, character development, and interaction down to the nail. To me, it's just fun to see characters go from one standpoint to another in a very coherent fashion from beginning to end.
However, MGS4 is nothing but a celebration of the past games in the same vein as Umbrella Chronicles. You'll have more references to MGS1, 2, and 3 than you will actually have original plot details. Even then, the original plot is as uninspiring and dull as it can get. Characters barely develop, everything politically related in the game is entirely fictional instead of having actual facts with small fictional icing... it just goes against everything Metal Gear Solid was originally capable of doing.
And as I've said before, MGS4 does nothing for you in the gameplay department. Each gameplay segment is ungodly short, the controls are stiff as hell, and even though the team tried pathetically hard to make controls that rival TPS/FPS games of today, you rarely get to actually use them. Some segments peg you against enemies like the Geckos that are completely immune to just about everything you have as well as enemies that that travel in tight-knit groups, so killing one sets off everyone else. You'll just find yourself ducking in a corner waiting until you can just walk by everyone.
Lastly, the design results in 0 immersion. At one point, you're in the middle east. Then bam, you're in South America. Oh wait, now you're in Europe. Hold on, Alaska! Now we're in the ocean! The settings change with each passing minute, making you feel that instead of one definite plotline you're trying to conclude, you're just killing time. A new scenario is dropped on your head like an anvil on top of the Wile E. Coyote, allowing no immersion like the past Metal Gear games whatsoever.
I really wanted some playtime from my PS3... but it looks like MGS4 isn't that anymore. So far, I'm enjoying MGS2 more than 4, and I'm only about two hours into it.
Overlong, filled with incomprehensible dialogue, some good tunes, very little humour, silly in the extreme, badly in need of someone to tell the creator/s that what they're doing makes no sense, looking for a good (and tough) editor, and the first one is far and away the best as they totally cocked up the sequels by taking themselves way way too seriously?brazuca said:
MGS fan-service. That's what the games sounds-like now. Kinda like L: Change The WorLd, I presumed it would be an awesome cat-and-mouse thriller when I got a shit load of fan-service and 1000's of the actors cheezy-skills (like the "Oh man I'm dead SYKE Now I'm dead" skill).
Yeah, I'm just crying from the inside because I payed 12 bucks to see that piece of bull. Also I've never played an MGS game and I just needed something to complain about...damn I'm bored.
Yeah, I'm just crying from the inside because I payed 12 bucks to see that piece of bull. Also I've never played an MGS game and I just needed something to complain about...damn I'm bored.
You're going to piss off a lot of people not saying this game is 10/10 perfect etc. Still, I haven't played it and never will (Don't own a ps3), but a fun review none the less. The opening song was awesome, and fitting.
I'm also a fan of the MGS saga and as a such, I do admit the "mental state" of Kojima's screenplays. Nevertheless, why so concise, the actual scale for discussion is a much ample. Yahtzee rushed over everything, no troll, a slight criticism; the jokes were dumb. Got the impression, if he has actually played the game?
No, seriously guys. There's a special surprise at the end of the video. Right after the credits. Just like at the movies. Honest. I'm pretty sure you'll all love it.
Granted, but I haven't heard a lot of praise for the length of the cutscenes even from hardcore fans. That leads me to believe that they've overstretched themselves and makes me wonder if they couldn't have put in a little more gameplay and spread out the scenes. It smells funny to me when people are saying they're watching a game rather than playing it and even fanboys don't find much to dispute it.exiges said:
Good opinion on MGS 4 from Yahtzee, here is mine (posted on Eurogamer.net first) which reflects this opinion and tries to refute it by looking at the grander scheme of things:
I've completed the game a day ago and I have to admit that in "classic" video gaming terms, Kojima is guilty of the "very small game/cutscene ratio" syndrome: for every minute of actual gaming in there, you're being served five minutes worth of cut scene. Or more - certainly not less
.
Now I know that the cut scenes can be skipped but I do not think anyone will do that on the first play - it's part of what you paid for, right? Because of this, a lot of gamers will probably be turned off by Metal Gear Solid 4 because they will soon get the feeling that there's very little game and lots of movie exposition. Personally, I often had the feeling, "Wow, those are some pretty cool moves; now may I press buttons and do these moves myself please thank you very much"? On other occasions, I had to collect my jaw from the floor because I couldn't believe Kojima slipped in something *that* ridiculous. You think the monkey is mildly irritating comic relief? You'd be right, but trust me when I say that the chimp's just the tip of the iceberg. And boy, it's a slippery place.
Looking at the big picture though, once you've passed "Kojima's Torture Test Mk. IV" and completed the game once watching all the cutscenes, you can then finally skip them (with probably the same feeling of relief I had after completing Devil May Cry) and savour the actual game on increased difficulty levels, unlocking all the secrets and/or buying all weapons. Looking forward to it, because there's a good 2-3 hours worth of core game in there I think. Resident Evil 4 is a mere 2 hours worth of core gameplay so relatively speaking, things are not as bad as the MGS4 cut scenes would make it seem - don't be fooled.
I've completed the game a day ago and I have to admit that in "classic" video gaming terms, Kojima is guilty of the "very small game/cutscene ratio" syndrome: for every minute of actual gaming in there, you're being served five minutes worth of cut scene. Or more - certainly not less
. Now I know that the cut scenes can be skipped but I do not think anyone will do that on the first play - it's part of what you paid for, right? Because of this, a lot of gamers will probably be turned off by Metal Gear Solid 4 because they will soon get the feeling that there's very little game and lots of movie exposition. Personally, I often had the feeling, "Wow, those are some pretty cool moves; now may I press buttons and do these moves myself please thank you very much"? On other occasions, I had to collect my jaw from the floor because I couldn't believe Kojima slipped in something *that* ridiculous. You think the monkey is mildly irritating comic relief? You'd be right, but trust me when I say that the chimp's just the tip of the iceberg. And boy, it's a slippery place.
Looking at the big picture though, once you've passed "Kojima's Torture Test Mk. IV" and completed the game once watching all the cutscenes, you can then finally skip them (with probably the same feeling of relief I had after completing Devil May Cry) and savour the actual game on increased difficulty levels, unlocking all the secrets and/or buying all weapons. Looking forward to it, because there's a good 2-3 hours worth of core game in there I think. Resident Evil 4 is a mere 2 hours worth of core gameplay so relatively speaking, things are not as bad as the MGS4 cut scenes would make it seem - don't be fooled
.Followed up by a complaint about Yahtzee fanbois. Good lord, someone get this man 120cc of irony-be-gone. D:rebochan said:
Let's see how long that lasts. Good gameplay, but have fun while you're trying to save. And the big revelation about the Patriots seemed like a mindscrew when I first played it, but in retrospect I think he pretty much argued that 4chan secretly rules America.Kenkaku said:
I agree with Yahtzee on most points. In fact he is completely right. The problem is: The cutscenes may be long, but except for the ending and the totality of the last act, I found them to be pretty enjoyable, because their presentation is close to flawless.
Skipping the cutscenes is possible, but pointless. Why play the game then?
I've heard that "argument" a few times before. But, please tell me: What's the point in playing a game that's supposedly about the story when you skip the whole story? The gameplay on its own isn't that awesome that it would hold its own, mostly thanks to the totally moronic AI and respawning. In fact, the only thing that pulled me through the whole thing was the story and the cutscenes, although I never played the first three MGSs, not counting giving them a short try.conqueror Kenny said:
Skipping the cutscenes is possible, but pointless. Why play the game then?
