"You've got it all wrong. You were the Lightning in that rain. You can still Shine through the Darkness."

I wanted to open this review with my favourite quote in the entire mgs franchise. Even though game have too many damn fanservicey moments to the point it becomes bothersome, I really admire it's dedication to go with a bang for solid snake's last journey.

This sentence is actually enough to convey what I think about this game, but of course I will add more detailed thoughts.

this game's trailer is actually the first time I had met with mgs when watching a game show at tv. I already told this on my mgs1 review but I wanted to rephrase here again. I also thought this game franchise related to something like xmen somehow because they were showing a cutscene about a old man that manages to down entire army without doing anything while doing a finger gun pose on a boat. Now, knowing the context, it's actually funny to look back on it.

Anyway, years later when I was searching about best ps1 games then I came across to mgs name again and then got the mgs legacy edition for ps3 immediately and started from there to here. So what did I think?

Gameplay
Gameplay feels smooth as a butter, you have millions of moves, easier camouflage system, better cqc system, lots of new weapons, even a remote robot to control. Heck Yeah! To the point I can confidently say that this game is the better than mgs3 in gameplay.

Also level design is peak mgs. You have lots of alternate routes now! More than any past mgs games! Use ladders to get from the rooftops or use ventilation pipes to slip past everyone, or use buildings in the environment to stay away from open areas etc.

It's too bad that this is the least punishing mgs game tho. I understand that it's about infiltration at war. But still, alert status is so generous in this game that, you can play the entire game like a call of duty game, like just run and gun no one can stop you(at least for the normal difficulty). To the point you can lead the resistance army if you play your cards right and can become a pmc leader somehow. Because of that I am pretty sure lots of people that played this game didn't take advantage of alternate routes and thought this game is just a bland cod copycat and that's just sad. Not just that, this game have 3 times more setpiece action moments then mgs3. This also doesn't help for it's reputation either.

I am not the biggest fan of cutsceney setpiece moments. But I still enjoyed really a lot with exploring every level to their last corner and had a great time myself, so I think gameplay is on the positive side.

Story(Warning I put Some spoilers)
Story is both emotional, hearbreaking and exciting. Also both confusing, unnecessarily too twist heavy and too much fanservicey.

This game's story is about teaming everyone we can find to learn about what Ocelot is trying to do and stop him once and for all while solid fights his biggest opponent. His deteriorating health.
It looks simple at surface, but mini stories adding onto it is what makes it slowly goes haywire to the point super confusing

When the first screen came in and when I saw the old snake. I felt sad and emotional but also praised Kojima. Not all writers have the decency to actually age their million years old characters. Also I loved this incarnation even more to the point for me: He is the best Snake.

In mgs1 he is nothing more than a confused soldier, in mgs2 he is a cool looking hero that saves the day. In this one he is a mentor to everyone. He knows his time is limited so he does his best to wake up everyone from their messy life problems and motivates to take the gun and continue fighting.

I also loved the returning mgs1 cast a lot. Everyone aged now and learned The reality. They learned what it means to just get thrown to the wayside after their mission done. Meryl, Colonel, Naomi, Mei Ling. Not just that they are thrown in this never ending Ocelot's war with each passing day. While they are fighting both Ocelot's soldiers and the reality, we are the one that pushes them for one last mission to get them up to their feet and for me this the greatest strength of this tile. One. Last. Push.

Get. Back. On. Your. Feet. One. More. Time.

Another thing I loved is ongoing comradery between Hal and Snake. Also Snake and Raiden. Watching them motivate each other to continue on is nothing but pure heartwarming.

Also I love Sunny. I love Sunny. I love Sunny. She is just a pure kid between all the grumpy old guys and her struggle with them to communicate is really fun to watch.

But I didn't enjoy how Raiden's relationship with Rose went to fire after mgs2 or how the ai fight affected his mental health not shown. I assume they were hiding this for planned mgs rising's first planned version. But unfortunely that thing turned into a straight kill the bad guys kinda storyline somehow. So... I am not happy about this situation.

I also didn't enjoy the Beauty and the beast unit. I liked the premise, I don't have a problem with that. They are supposed to be puppets of war that lost their emotions in the way just to get used for this meaningless war. But why they are just a meaningless versions of the previous mgs bosses? Why they are not their own characters? I don't get this. This feels like really unneccessary pandering to fans and feels like a missed oppurtunity to make them their own strong characters. Also why the heck it's implied that Psycho mantis is also with them? I really really disliked that. Why do you resurrect your character for no damn reason? To take them less seriously with more fanservice??

Also why Johnny the fart guy is back? Like seriously why? Also Kojima expected us to take him seriously while half of the cutscenes he is in, he is busy with just stumbling while everyone do their job. If you want us to take a dumb character seriously then you make him slowly more intelligent rather than suddenly doing that in the end in my opinion.

Also there is the infamous retcon of course. The mgs3 cast behind the ai work. I feel like this is a last minute addition rather than a considered one. Because mgs3 ended with the call with the Cia director just like the first mgs's end where Ocelot talks with the president. So that means first consideration was cia director to become the force behind the ai work. But I guess mgs portable ops wasted that oppurtunity so Kojima did a last minute addition because of that. Of course it's not a good twist and just like Raiden's sudden turn, this comes from nowhere because there is no build up to go on with. But also I always felt like people take this point a bit too much. All mgs games have retcons in their own way tbh. Mgs1 had the sudden unlogical clone conspiracy, mgs2 had the sudden impossible perfect brother thingy, mgs3 change the snake's villainy. Not just that, we don't know anything about the mgs3 cast other than they like movies and also they care about the mission. So that means they probably maybe changed after that. My problem isn't with the twist. It's with again, not showing why that happened. But even if I disliked the twist I don't think it suddenly "destroyed the whole mgs franchise" just because this twist exists like most of you.

But I loved, I loved, I loved everything with Ocelot. He brings everything full circle and finishes the mgs right there and there. The perfect finale. The ending point. It's just perfect ending. So because of this even tho this game have it's downs, it's ups are more on the positive side for me.

I would want to have less in your face fanservicey moments and less sudden twists but all in all I liked this game. Because of it's downs I don't think this is the best mgs. But ups are really strong that this make this game a perfect mgs ending. Nothing more and nothing less.

It's sad that this franchise didn't end here tho.

Manages to be an incredibly uneven experience with themes of progression, regression, and alienation, but is somehow not annoyingly self-aware about these issues being so ironically fitting. There are many games in the series I like more than this, but as a showcase of pure excess and indulgence this is fascinating. I love and hate this in about equal measure, but the thing that really frustrates me is my inability to feel strongly about its actual narrative goings-on.

Sure, I shouted and yelled at the stupid overexplained plot twists that make it worse, and I was excited at the setpieces, but it’s scattershot and incapable of selling emotional plot beats or conveying the interesting parts of its themes past expositing about them. Similarly, the underlying mechanics and control scheme are a series best (yes, better than V, fight me) but the dearth of stealth is made more painful when almost nothing is actually tested. Guards are rarely in interesting compositions or threatening patrols, and they’re so spread out that you can get in straight-up gunfights at times and not draw any ire. The few occasions that they break from this (the first part of Act 1, the second half of the final portion of Act 2, the climactic sneaking section in Act 5) are exhilarating and offer the same ass-clenching excitement and complex movement as the very best this series has to offer - as long as you do something other than tranq headshotting, because they decided to give you the MGS2 tranq pistol again except with effectively infinite ammo and a faster tranq time, for some fucking reason.

The narrative has a similar tendency to actively undercut its best elements, and once again you kind of have to go against what it itself is trying to guide you towards to actually fuck with what it’s putting down. MGS’ tonal variety, uncompromising quirkiness, and deeply human immaturity are all important parts of the series, but there’s a usual command of tone that is not present here. The sense of indulgence harms pacing a lot, giving emotional beats plenty of time to go stale before they’re followed up on or just outright ruining moments that the direction is trying to play as something you feel strongly about.

Other games have these issues at times (I’m sorry, Kojima, but I laughed at Otacon shouting “E-E!” when I was twelve and I’ll laugh at it when I’m ninety) but there’s a sense of cohesion and clarity granted by their commitment to a specific narrative and tone. The B&B Unit is the lowest point of mainline MGS because of its failure to do the same. I think what he was going for is conceptually cool; discussing the effects of endless war and using it to convey dehumanization both through literal war machines as well as overt fetishization is not an inherently bad idea, but the final execution fails to evoke any sense of real dissonance or horror because of the comical levels of ogling its blocking and camerawork indulge in. Shoving a woman’s pussy in the player’s face while she cries and vomits doesn’t really make me reflect on much, it just makes me want to fire Kojima out of a cannon into the sun.

The general inability to write women as something knowable or as people the male cast are capable of empathizing with is especially dire when motherhood is another one of the game’s main motifs alongside sensation, alienation, progression, regression, aligning the series timeline, misanthrophy, late capitalism, finding confidence in new technology and new people even as the world goes to hell, and, and, and...

As a whole, MGS4 is incapable of combining those threads, as its thematics are sidelined for plot-driven exertion as it attempts the unification of PS1 Tom Clancy theatrics with a cold Baudrillardian cyberpunk thriller, a sixties Bond homage, and Portable Ops into a single aesthetically, tonally, and narratively coherent series. The Metal Gear Solid Timeline was never a major point of consideration prior to this and the desperate attempt to connect it all is mostly accomplished via the majority of the cast being completely different characters with new designs, motivations, voices, and intentions.

Romance in this game is also handled awkwardly. I’m not touching “a man who shits himself for a living negs a woman into marriage” with a ten-foot pole, but it’s worth noting that Otacon’s grief over losing another love interest isn’t really as much about her loss but more because he’s frustrated that he had another woman die before he could fuck them. I think character assassination is cool, sometimes, and I think even Otacon’s plot beat here is something probably with degrees of intentionality, but it is intensely difficult to read charitably when this work is so unempathetic and afraid of its women.

You know a character whose shift for the worse is handled awesomely? Snake! I fucking LOVE Old Snake. His regression from his MGS2 personality into his frostier, more dick-ass MGS1 characterization makes total sense and the Psyche Gauge is a fantastic way to illustrate his insecurity and fragility. His circumstances are horrific, but the reaction to a joke of his bombing is almost as emotionally devastating as discovering he has six months to live and three months before he turns into a WMD. He combines the parallel threads of MGS and remains narratively engaging, aesthetically satisfying, genuinely hilarious, and emotionally-driven throughout.

The sections that connect most strongly to him and his struggle are generally my favorite parts of the game. Act 1 is really cool for how alienated he is from the conflict, being hot-dropped into “the middle east” (where? go fuck yourself, it’s terrorist country and it’s all indistinguishable to an american like you!) and given zero context for the war. The game incentivizes you to make huge shifts in this battle and tip the scales purely out of convenience to your unrelated efforts, and asking myself what I was really doing there was genuinely cool. The aesthetic language of seventh-gen modern military shooters is used to near-parody levels here and is then completely flipped with the insertion of psychotic MGS shenanigans and the protagonist’s frailty. His relationship with Raiden is the most consistently well-written, well-directed, well-blocked, and well-acted shit in the entire game, on top of Raiden’s stuff in this game being the coolest action in fiction. Act 4’s first few minutes got me genuinely wistful and misty-eyed even as I’d only played MGS1 for the first time earlier in the week*, and the final boss is deserving of its hype.

Basically everything to do with Big Boss and his former friends is a swing and a miss. The retcon introduced with Portable Ops is basically what ruined the plot of literally every single game in the entire franchise from that point onwards and I really wish that Kojima just treated it as non-canon and did his own fucking thing. The Christ and Eden symbolism in Act 3 makes me retroactively dislike similar elements in MGS3, even though that was a good deal less annoying about it. The ending’s emotionality is ruined so fucking hard by 25 minutes of exposition about its connection to MGS3 that I genuinely kind of think it should’ve ended at the expected point for the credits.

MGS4 offers an attempt to conclude a series while trying to build sequel hooks for a new generation of designers to take the reins, using the game’s increasing fascination with the PS3’s hardware and gimmicks as a genuine metaphor for learning to accept the present and future for what they are. It’s agonizing that these few moments of optimism go unrequited. This wasn’t the finale, none of the seeds sown here bore fruit, and instead of entering a new era, the same man made games trapped in their own stifling shadows. Instead of facing the future, the tides of the 2010s subsumed another and made alienated, nostalgic, and ultimately desolate attempts at a follow-up.

*Yes, I played every other mainline before starting 1 and 4. I didn’t grow up with a playstation and only recently could emulate MGS4, please understand :meowcry:

speaking as someone who doesn't have any sort of nostalgic connection to metal gear (i only just started playing the series) i really think this is the perfect conclusion to the series as a whole

i loved the gameplay in this one so much, the level design was on point, especially some of those boss fights!! i just wish there was more of it between all the cutscenes (i don't really mind, they were very fun to watch)

it's super neat seeing how far the graphics have come, as well! but honestly i think this game is a bit ugly, especially compared to the past games. it's meant to be realistic, of course, but it doesn't have that same stylistic charm that the other solid games have. it's just a bit...bland looking

my main gripe has to be how forced/rushed some parts of the story felt, but ultimately it's not something i really mind. the rest of the game and all the homages to the past more than made up for it, in my opinion

Metal Gear Solid 4 is Kojima's grand mess. A conclusion that was never meant to be, filled with many moments of shallowness, alongside moments of greatness, a confusing rollercoaster of an entry.

To talk about all of Metal Gear Solid 4 in detail would be to talk about all of Metal Gear again while contrasting it with every individual moment of Metal Gear Solid 4. The DNA of the series is key here, the dedicated flashback button proves as much, but it goes beyond that. It follows up on every theme, but in ways that highlight what Kojima feels is a failure on his part, the failure to communicate his "Will", or rather, his "Sense".

Metal Gear Solid 4 is about Old Snake, a product of war, perhaps a manifestation of war itself, seeing the after effects of his life. He failed to pass on his meme to Meryl and Jack, ruining their lives in the process. Philanthropy's actions at the Big Shell only led to the current war economy, spearheaded by Liquid. Even his existence is deemed a failure ("We aren't copies of our father after all!"), just as Kojima failed to properly communicate his ideas.

The demand for Metal Gear to continue, for the Patriots to be revealed, is at odds with what Metal Gear Solid 2 communicated. The Patriots were already dead, just a continuation of a past government ensuring that the future generations continued, but never actually prospered. A world of complete stagnation, that could be broken out of by not following the will of some action movie hero, but by forming your own. That's what Jack was supposed to find, but Snake's words only led him to ruin. Jack wanted to keep fighting, and by becoming a target of the Patriots in following Snake, Rose had to leave him.

Similarly, Meryl too is a failure of Snake's. The Shadow Moses incident was supposed to show her the truth of a legendary soldier, that they're just a hired gun, without ideals. An expert killer is no one to look up to, but in 4 she returns, more idealistic than ever.

Snake has even failed himself, Philanthropy losing their core ideals ("To Let The World Be") and his own age catching up to him. Snake's age makes him look the part, as a man as old as modern war itself, and he's dying as war becomes a series of endless proxy battles. It's up to him to either help this generation, cleanse it of the sins of his and his father's generation, to "Wipe this meme from the face of this Earth", or to "Let The World Be".

While Snake does invariably save the world, it is not through his will alone. The combined efforts of Naomi, Sunny, and Emma are what shut down the war economy completely. Raiden finds himself saved not by Snake, but through reconnecting with himself, despite his grief he still desperately wants to love Rose. His presumed last words in Act 4 aren't the pitiful "I'm not afraid of death" he gives in Act 2, but a literal cry for Rose, followed by a bittersweet memory of their romance from five years ago. Meryl as well, finds nothing in Old Snake. What causes her to look inside and realize what she really wants is an imitation of Snake, one who is ready to open up to her and relate to her, that being Johnny (or, Akiba).

Meryl admitting that what she truly wanted was to be a bride is an overt way of spelling out much of the imagery of the game's main enemies. The Frogs all have female screams, and the GEKKO are feminine legs carrying the head of REX. The feminine, the love, is constrained and turned into machines of war, and this is most overtly demonstrated in the Beauty & Beast Corps.

The B&B are all women born from the horrors of war. War orphans who were tortured or made to experience war firsthand as an outsider. Their stories aren't meant to make you sympathize with them, but to recognize that they are the after effects of this system. They can never be at peace, so they seek to at least kill Snake, a man who is like war itself. They're an absurd parody of real life victims of war, these unapproachable beats that encase the "Beauty", that being cute idols, but they're not approachable either. Approaching them results in them "sharing" their pain, draining your life. Being around them at all is a drag on the player mentally, as the constant sounds of their trauma is there, ever present and overpowering. They echo prior games, because these wars will only create more Operation Snake Eaters, more Shadow Moses Incidents, more S3 Plans. The most harrowing part about them is their complete lack of resolution, being introduced and dropped as they go on, the only solace being in Drebin's stories. The final word on the group is Drebin telling Snake "GW is waiting… and this time, you get to make up the ending." The ending here refers to the fact that should the initial plan succeed, the war economy would continue and the B&B would begin again, new people in the same roles, a ghost of 1964. But, thanks to Sunny, Emma, and Naomi, the JD AI is shut down, and the war economy is no more.

What is left for a man of war in a world without war, though? Snake has become a "walking weapon of mass destruction", and even after Liquid dies that remains true. While Sunny becomes friends with someone despite not speaking the same language, Snake is left in front of the grave of Big Boss. He can't be a part of this new generation, for he has only caused issues for it, and his "fate" is to only cause more.

This idea of "fate" is an extension of the theme of "SENSE" or "Will". Fate and Will are the major pillars of Metal Gear Solid 4, and the ending reveals that the entirety of the series was based on The Boss' will being taken the wrong way. This conclusion is one that leaves Snake alive, being told that he should live his life peacefully.

The usual after-credits section echoes this. Snake is free, free to live and see the new generation prosper before he dies.

I find this game very difficult to actually speak on. Trying to format all of my thoughts together in this manner leaves me feeling like I've said very little on the subject, but that's because this game is a mess. Ideas are everywhere, many of them almost lamentations on Kojima's failures or on Metal Gear as a series. You can feel that a fan once told Kojima that Metal Gear inspired him to join the army of the JSDF when looking at some scenes in Act 3, you can see the the complete desolation of Shadow Moses as either a sign of how stale the script has gotten or as a way of showing that these battles were never glorious. The Shadow Moses Incident was one of the largest mass murders on American soil, and it was swept under the rug and forgotten, leaving behind only what it birthed- GEKKO. A perversion of humanity's innate love into a machine of war.

But, this mess is still beautiful. It's about hammering in the themes of prior entries, laying on their ideas thick. Meryl finds her love in the complete antithesis of Snake (yet somehow also his double), while Raiden picks up the pieces on his own, and the SCENE is that of a modern war. We don't get to go to some flashy place in America or Russia, it's where our modern wars are happening. "Unknown in the Middle East", "Unknown in South America", "Unknown in Eastern Europe".

The SENSE of all of this is what comes when you put it all together. Maintaining composure and regaining that lost sense in a world that desperately wants to crush it down. For all of its many faults, I can't bring myself to really hate any one aspect of Metal Gear Solid 4. It's a game of great love, a game that loves itself but also recognizes the necessity to show stuff that is painful. It's painful to see the characters we know like this, at the absolute bottom. But, the only way that the game that shouldn't have been made could exist, is by doing that.

Kojima Unleashed! (But It's Not a Good Thing)

In this game, Kojima's vices outweigh his qualities, especially his obsession with narrative and cutscenes. The duration and quantity of cutscenes in this game is ridiculous, and it's a truly unpleasant experience. It's surprising that this happened, since Kojima is a movie fan and should understand the importance of cutting and editing cinematic moments to keep the story moving forward without losing momentum.

As for the gameplay, there's not much to say. You basically just need to progress forward in order to watch the next cutscene. The new features and environmental camo have few opportunities to shine, since every situation is dictated by the narrative, not by your skill or creativity as a player.

This game is where Kojima lost himself in his own fame. It provides an excellent ending to the series in terms of writing, but as a video game, it fails on the most basic levels of structure. Don't play it. Bookmark the full cutscenes in your favorites and watch the story little by little. There's no game here to play.

Chave de Ouro.

Hypei demais por não poder jogar antes, RPCS3 ainda não estava pronto, e quando fui jogar, fiquei surpreso de saber que esse é um jogo controverso e divisivo. Isso aqui é puro suco de MGS

Endereçando o maior dos "problemas", as tais cutscenes longas: eu não sei como alguém pode em sã consciencia reclamar disso numa franquia onde o forte sempre foi a história. Não é como se ter cutscenes grandes fosse piorar a qualidade da escrita, são duas grandezas não relacionadas. Pra quem amava e realmente gostava da franquia até aqui, as cutscenes são um deleite, tu fica mais tempo com os personagens que já gostamos faz tempo e alguns novos, tem mais tempo pra explicar tudo de relevante, worldbuilding e etc, e também mais tempo pra melhorar tua relação com tais personagens. Quando chegava a hora das cutscenes, eu ficava animado pras coisas que iam acontecer nela, e quando acabava, ficava ansioso pela próxima, porque, pra surpresa de 0 pessoas, elas são bem escritas e dirigidas

Outro ponto de destaque do game é a guinada fortissima pra ação no lugar do stealth. Infiltração e sneaking ainda tão disponíveis, mas vários foram os momentos em que eu vi que era melhor só meter o loco e aproveitar o FODASTICO gunplay do game, coisa que praticamente nunca acontecia nos outros títulos até agora. Não nego que senti um pouco de saudade do modo antigo, mas me diverti demais com a moda moderna. Alguns podem argumentar que a alma dos MGS anteriores estava no stealth, mas eu ainda me senti jogando um jogo da franquia, mesmo que o foco do gameplay fosse diferente

A única critica relevante que eu tenho pro jogo, é a escolha artística do visual dele. Os gráficos técnicos são bons, mas a decisão de usar aqueles filtros característicos da época e também usar umas cores meio apagadas durante o jogo todo me incomodou um pouco, não posso mentir. Não é um fator decisivo mas se faz bastante notório. Talvez tenha sido proposital? pra retratar melhor os cenários de guerra? não sei, só sei que não gostei

Sobre a história... não vou partir pro spoiler, mas é simplesmente tudo que se esperava e o que precisavamos, lindo e emocionante de doer, dá um desfecho digno pra quase todo personagem que importa. Falo quase, pq deve ter um ou outro que ficou de fora, mas não senti falta de ninguém, ao menos de cabeça... enfim, bem a moda MGS, traz várias reflexões, dessa vez sobre propósito, guerra e indiretamente, essa que foi a que mais me intrigou, iminencia da morte.

Esse é, sem a menor sombra de dúvidas, top 5 jogos do PS3 e também da sua geração, estar preso naquela plataforma é um crime contra a humanidade
Também acho que seja um dos 2 melhores da franquia, até agora. Decidir entre ele e o 3 tem se provado dificil, mas isso é papo pra outro dia

In Metal Gear Solid 4 you play as an 80 year old man who is actually a 40 year old man, and tank the economy with the help of a man and his pet monkey. Also, you fight the cowboy again, except this time he's actually the dead blond twin brother, except he actually isn't because he used nanomachines and hypnotherapy to make himself think that he was the dead blond twin brother when really he's still just the wannabe cowboy. In the end, the plot for the entire series boils down to two men tearing the world apart because they misunderstood their idol figure saying that nationalism was kinda lame.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is the most beautiful trainwreck I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

Esse jogo é uma celebração, é um abraço bem forte de um amigo que vc ama, mas não vê há muito tempo.
Vocês estão velhos, não são mais crianças e cada um viveu separadamente uma história e deixou um legado.
mas agora vocês se encontram e é como se ainda tivessem 10 anos.
Esse jogo é coração. Termino ele com o coração cheio de emoção e segurando para não chorar.
mais uma vez, Metal Gear mostra a maestria em utilizar as formas de jogos.
Peace Walker e MGS5 não deveriam existir.

One of the greatest games I've ever played, hands down.

Everything about this game was remarkable to me. This final outing for Solid Snake is expertly written, voice acted and directed, and although the game put a lot of emphasis on its cutscenes, the quality of those cutscenes made it all worth it to me. The emotional weight of MGS4, particularly its ending, was something that hit me hard. The jump in graphical quality between MGS3 and this is absurd; I couldn't believe a game from 2008 running on a PS3 could look this good (the tears on faces when characters were crying shook me to my core, how could they look like that??). The gameplay was refined to a T - I loved that you could take a more action-oriented approach, and the wider variety of weapons to use this time around was something I personally enjoyed a lot. I did have some technical issues on the used PS3 I played this on, but that's a minor gripe compared to everything that this game did exceptionally well.

This review feels scattered; I'm writing it right after finishing and I have so many thoughts swirling around my brain. I found this game to be so so good in so many ways. I know people have their issues with it, but it was such a unique and powerful gaming experience for me. I've grown very attached to these characters and this series over the last few months, and I know I have a few more games to play before I'm finished, but this was the pinnacle of the Solid Snake story for me. It's hard to believe this game exists, but I'm damn glad it does.

Titled "The Argument Against Porting Metal Gear Solid 4"

Written by a fan of Metal Gear Solid 4

Let's just get this out of the way. Porting games is good! Games are good! Fun, even. Games are works of art, etc. etc., all the things your parents said they weren't, you get it? I believe in porting games or remastering them, whatever.

So, of course I would be interested in the continually reoccuring topic of the Metal Gear Solid 4 plight. A game in one of the largest video game franchises ever made, what is technically the conclusion to said franchise and its leading character, in an IP owned by a still mostly-breathing publisher that loves to cash in on this IP... and it has been locked to the least popular platform of its generation for over fifteen years. Sounds tragic, right?

Honestly, I both find myself a bit miffed by the yearning desire people have for Metal Gear Solid 4 (especially so after recent events), and a bit worried. Worried in the sense that people are slowly construing a version of the game in their heads that isn't true to reality, a version of the game that isn't over 50% cutscenes and filled with purposefully awkward character beats or outright antagonistic (to the audience) narrative developments. A version of the game that's just "Woah it's Old Snake, war has changed, now he fights Liquid and Zero dies LOL" rather than the very heartfelt but also very tired soliloquy on the state of video games as a medium, the state of Metal Gear and Kojima's own ambitions, as well as the state of the fans surrounding Metal Gear.

Obviously, what I described isn't actually accurate to everyone. There's obviously people that still really don't like Metal Gear Solid 4 for perfectly valid reasons that I would never make fun of on the internet. Similarly, there's also people that fully understand what Metal Gear Solid 4 is. But, with the distance created between it and the current culture, it has achieved a status I see only in other games like it, games like Resident Evil Code Veronica.

Code Veronica has somehow succeeded into deluding people it's this integral part of the franchise. That despite Capcom already erasing it from ever happening in its current remakes, people act as if it's the very earth the rest of the franchise was built upon, when really, its most notable contribution to the core narrative was the return of Wesker (which most people accepted as a fact of life anyways). It's all headcanon and fanfiction subverting the actual significance of the game. It's a mirage, a layer of smoke that allows people to really see what they want to see.

That's the state Metal Gear Solid 4 has arrived in within the popular consensus. Now, I know, this doesn't actually address the title of the post, but I'm getting there. Metal Gear Solid 4, for a lot of people I see online, has become something it isn't. It has almost become what one would fantasize a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 2 as being, albeit with a cheat sheet laid out.

Is that a bad thing? I really don't think it is, unlike with my Code Veronica assessment, I think it's great honestly. Because it means people dedicated enough to seek out the fabled conclusion to Solid Snake and the rest of the crew will get all the bitter disappointment that was completely intended. Raiden's character moment at the end of 2 getting completely walked back, Meryl just becoming another soldier like the legendary war hero, Snake being a perverted old man, the church of Metal Gear... it's all great. And it would all be stunningly disappointing for a new fan, gaslighting themselves on what this game could be, to fully experience.

Just porting the game as is and letting it be available would completely sap that. The world would once more know- Metal Gear Solid 4 is not the grand sweeping conclusion, it was a messy game with a messy history that gives the expected in exchange for understanding. There's a blissful period where Metal Gear Solid 4 did cause people to understand Metal Gear Solid 2, to appreciate that game more because of how much 4 changed, and letting 4 remain as the mythical conclusion to 2's cliffhanger would continue that.

Or maybe I'm just coping about my five copies of the game and my three (3) PlayStation 3 systems. Honestly though, would you play Metal Gear Solid 4 without the disc swap scene?

(Konami wasn't going to port it anyways, and if they did the port would probably be RE4 Sourcenext tier lmao)

The gameplay sucks, the new characters are not very good, but I can't deny that this game has touched my heart in ways that other games never could. From start to finish, Snake has been substantiated further and further, building on the idea of The Boss's legacy, a theme that has been prevalent in the entire series.
While the new characters introduced into this game are lackluster and don't get enough characterization or presentation to make them interesting, every recurring character has their story expanded upon in such a meaningful way that I barely care about the things the game doesn't do well.
It's hard to put into words how I truly feel about this game, but I can comfortable say it's a strong, but complicated love.

If you asked me my thoughts on this game a year ago, I think the score would honestly be lower. I've come around to this game a lot over time, but its still pretty heavily flawed.

The gameplay is honestly pretty good, but my main issue with this game is just the plot. Despite my love for MGS2, it left the franchise in a bit of a rough spot because of its purposeful ambiguity. It works for that game very well, but makes it a pretty hard point to continue off of. The way this game handles it, through its numerous retcons and reveals, is mostly kind of stupid. Between making the MGS3 crew the people behind the Patriots, to the way it explained away a lot of the supernatural aspects of Metal Gear with the infamous "nanomachines" excuse, its not the greatest. It doesn't help that the cutscenes this time around, aspects I've never actually minded despite others complaints about them, are very noticeable when they go on and on with exposition. Not all cutscenes are bad though. The Raiden vs Vamp fight was excellent, for example.

Metal Gear has a pretty big problem with misogyny in general , but its really rough in this game. The Beauty and Beast unit are almost comedic levels of terrible and the way it handles Naomi's character turns an intriguing character from the original MGS into another fridged woman to traumatize Otacon. EVA's also used as a tool for exposition before also dying to make Solid Snake sad, but at least that served more of a narrative purpose along with Ocelot and Big Boss' deaths. I do enjoy how Meryl is potrayed in this game though, as well as seeing Mei Ling again. No idea why she got paired off with the gag character who shits himself.

I've been pretty negative to this game so far without mentioning the fact that I actually genuinely like the way they end Solid Snake's character arc in this game. While the way it resurrects Big Boss is a bit stupid, getting that closure between the two of them is bittersweet and feels like the most appropriate send off for both of these characters. Ocelot was also handled excellently in this game, the final fight between you and him is amazing and features great callbacks to every game. I have some issues with the way they handle Raiden, but I overall think they handled the character well, as well as the dynamic they had with Solid Snake in this game being honestly a highlight to the writing.

So yeah, overall a pretty mixed bag. I think it concludes the series well enough for me not to hate it, but its definitely the most rough game in the series.

I was so so so excited for this game to come out, but my parents wouldn't take me to the store the day it came out. Luckily my friend from up the road was going to Walmart that day, so I gave him the money to grab it. I waited for an hour or two (it felt like 10 years), and he finally got back, but he said "they didnt have it". Crushing my little 15 year old dreams of playing it that day. In retrospect all it did was build my hype for the game. Luckily the hype was met when I finally got it (the next day lol), and I absolutely adored this game, even if a lot of it did confuse me. At the time I didn't have a full grasp on the Metal Gear story, and still don't really today. But with that said I still thought the characters were amazing and the boss fights were epic especially the Beauty and the Beast unit. I would love for this game to be remade or remastered for current consoles. The only problem now would be finding time to sit down and watch the insanely long cutscenes.

foxlive

has the lowest of the lows but the highest of the highs if that makes sense. Kojima knows how to make this shit peak and it was still amazing, especially that finale.

“I never thought of you as a son, but I always respected you as a soldier... and as a man.“

“This is good... isn't it?“