Originally posted by: EricMartello
- I did not have any preconceived notions as to what MGS4 would be, having only played MGS2 briefly and not long enough to form an opinion on it.
We know - you started the review by comparing it to a FPS!
- MGS4 is "all about sneaking, not about combat so who cares if the combat sucks". That's an invalid sentiment floating about in here. It IS very much a combat game, with many parts relying on combat to progress. You cannot "sneak" by the bosses - you have to fight them. I do not like FPS on consoles much in the first place, but there are some good implementations and there are some bad. Mass Effect has a good FPS implementation...and you could say that Mass Effect is also not a 'combat game'. Why does MGS4 fail so bad at combat? I don't know...but it does.
But the combat doesn't suck. I really liked the combat, and so do a lot of people. I still don't understand your complaint. You haven't pinned down any single reason for disliking the combat, you've simply stated that it sucks. Why does it suck? What didn't you like about it? How could it be improved? Simply stating that something sucks does not make it so.
I liked being able to quickly switch between some very cool and highly customizable weapons. I liked all of the heavy options as well (ie heavy artillery). This game had one of the easiest to use grenade systems that I've ever seen; I thought Gears of War took a step in the right direction, but ultimately the grenades in that game rarely followed the trajectory that was shown to the player. In MGS4 this is fixed; you see how the grenade will land, and you have a good idea of where you should be after throwing it.
And who doesn't love tranq dart sniper rifles? So awesome
- I suck at video games because I took 29 hours to complete? hahaha Ok, if it was any less than that I'd feel even more ripped off. A story-driven game should be in the 40 hours range to complete.
Yeah, that is kind of a long time for this game. I think I beat it in 18 and felt that I had seen a TON of content. For comparison, it took me about 12 to beat MGS3.
Since you like comparing MGS4 to FPS games, let's run with that. Each Halo game is a 6-8 hour game. The campaign mode is "story-driven." Are all Halo games ripoffs?
I think it took me about 20 hours to beat FF7 with most of the side quests completed (with a few of the more ridiculous ones taking a long, long time). I didn't feel ripped off there, either...
- "Snake is not an old man". Yes he is. I don't care if his actual age is 29 or 30, his body is that of a 85 year old and the game plays as such. He moves slowly, he has to take a break after doing a dodge maneuver and the hand-to-hand combat is even worse than FPS. Oh yeah, and it even says "Old Snake" above his health bar - the game agrees.
He is an old man, but how do you figure that he moves slowly? He ran faster than some of the soldiers! If you paid attention, he's wearing a suit that allows him to move like a young man still. Very rarely he will do this sort of "oh my back" thing, which is avoidable if you're sneaking through the game (ie not doing a ton of action all the time)
- Eeezee you are craptastic. Come punch me b1tch.
And you are a moron. Seriously, it sounds like you haven't finished middle school yet.
- It's all about the story, as the MGS series has always been...this game's story is weak at best. Remember the original Metal Gear story line? I don't...something about some guy making a mech called metal gear to take over the world or some crap. Anyway, the story isn't very compelling. This game constantly tried to be all dramatic and emotional, but it just didn't work. It's not a good story like FF7 where you actually cared about the chars and felt something. The original story was so thin that trying to make it deeper without actually changing it results in what amounts to story-telling diarrhea - hence many excessively long cut scenes.
If you don't like the story, you don't like the story. I loved the story. The original MGS storyline is pretty deep if you pay attention (or you can go through the entire game ignoring codec calls and turning off your TV during dialogue), and things just get deeper throughout the series, especially MGS3. The problem I feel is that you really have to play MGS1, 2, and 3 in order to fully appreciate the MGS4 story. Yeah, that sucks, but even standalone the MGS4 story is pretty good.
A few things that could have made the game better:
- Combat mechanics that match the pace of enemies within the game.
- Play as Raiden instead of Snake (assuming improved combat system).
- "Steal" Metal Gear Rex, since it's just sitting there, and use it to complete most of the outdoor missions.
- Ability to spy on Naomi Hunter with MG MkIII when she's in the shower. =)
- Flamethrower
- The combat mechanics were awesome. Please be more specific. So what if frogs can climb on the walls? It's not like that prevents you from shooting them. If anything, it just removes them from cover and they are even easier targets.
- You're possibly the only person on the planet who likes Raiden better than Snake.
- What, just drive around in a metal gear all day? That's not what this game is. There are giant meccha games out there already. Go play one of them! You shouldn't go into a sneaking expecting to be driving around in a meccha for most of the missions.
- Yeah, you're definitely not out of middle school yet
- Flamethrower could be cool
