Thebe Kgositstile (Earl Sweatshirt) once said "critics pretend they get it and bitches just dont fuck with him." This also applies to Kojima games, and in this case I'm the bitch. I don't quite get why this game exists other than as some pale ghost of a beta test of a beta test for how MGSV eventually played. MGS3 felt extraneous in a similar way, but where it has a zany James Bond lampooning, MGS4 has--well, its unclear. Some future gamer will one day look at the lukewarm reception of MGS4 and laugh, but I'm big fucking chilling in the meantime.

i recognize fully that this game is a goddamn mess but i love it even so. never played anything quite so dysmorphic, so hateful, so disinterested in its own legacy and in its expectant audience (at least until drakengard 3). that it nevertheless delivers unforgettable moments in spades and pseudoscientific genre kitsch in equal proportion just solidifies it as the mgs franchise writ large, a macrocosm of vestigial feelings, directorial gratuitousness, and creeping entropy. still one of the most interesting in kojimas ouevre, astonished mgsv managed to outpace it in charlatanisms

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a game.
...
I don't know what else to say about it. I think it's the ending the Metal Gear Solid series deserved. It can be rather messy, but I think all of its emotional beats hit, the gameplay is actually pretty fun, and its presentation still holds up about 12 years later. It's just really, really messy. Have fun deciphering this plot. With all that said, the game's emotional moments aim true and hit the heart. I think it's still worth playing and it shouldn't be dismissed, though. When it works, it works.

Edit: on review, likely the best game of the century. A portrait of endless, profit-driven war heightened by a hyper-capitalist plot that ties up loose ends and makes call backs to a fault. Kojima’s unintentional masterpiece
Edit 2: lmao dont even remember writing first edit game of the century a overstatement but i got a soft spot for this.


I have very mixed feelings about this game. A world of endless proxy wars fueled by the war economy is a very logical progression for the series considering the themes of the previous games. The middle east section especially hammers home this feeling.

The gameplay is mixed. It starts off pretty good with snake having to adapt his stealth to an active battlefield, which is an interesting design direction for the series. The south america section features a similar style of gameplay, making it the most enjoyable section of the game. However, the game doesn't seem to recognize that stealth is its strength. For example, the frog shootout with meryl/rat patrol turned the game into a corridor shooter, and the eastern europe section of the game turns the game into an extended asssassin's creed tracking mission, both of which were particularly egregious gameplay decisions and last pretty long. The shadow moses section is a really enjoyable callback, but it is a good example of where the gameplay deviates from previous entries. The small geckos are terribly clumped around the map, making stealth nearly impossible in a lot of sections. The final map teases you with MGS2 esque stealth on a tanker, but this only lasts for one tiny section.

The B and B Corps are the least interesting villains in the series. The fights aren't too bad, though, with crying wolf's sniper fight being the highlight. However, their backstories felt incredibly contrived, and the choice to make Drebin tell their backstories is a pretty baffling decision.

Some of the writing here is Kojima at his worst arguably. A lot of the dialogue is incredibly bloated. The relationships pushed in this game were particularly bad instances of writing. Naomi leading Otacon on while knowing she has terminal cancer makes little to no sense, as does Otacon's reaction to Naomi's death, a girl whom he had known for ostensibly one night considering they had no interaction at shadow moses in the first game. Also johnny and meryl are not a couple I care about at all. I also agree with the consensus that nanomachines were a pretty uninteresting, inconsistent way of explaining certain things in the mgs universe. The game also does feel like it ties up loose ends just for the sake of it. The identities of the patriots as the cast of snake eater being the worst example. I'm still glad this game exists, but part of me does feel like the series would have been better if it ended with 3.

The long cutscenes are as big of an issue as everyone makes it out to be. Every single cutscene in this game was much longer than it should have been.

Despite its many flaws, the game was hard not to enjoy as a fan of the series. There was so much fan service and heart here that I liked it quite a lot still. I thought the ending was touching (not the wedding scene though), but I do think that Kojima's original ending would have been a more fitting end to the series (also would have worked better with "here's to you" (why they decided to use that inferior orchestral cover instead of the original is beyond me)). Snake getting to live out the rest of his life peacefully does give a very pleasing sense of closure, though, and I think it is in total a positive end to one of the greatest series of all time.

A game I wanted to play so badly that I bought a PS3 just to play it, and it also forced me to finally play MGS 2 as well.

I had a really good time with this game, aside from a few frustrating sections--the one where you're civilian Snake trying to sneak around a locked down city comes to mind as rage-inducing.

I liked the story, the bosses, the enemies, the combat, the environments, man. It's just solid. Sorry sorry no pun intended. One thing I really marveled at is what someone pointed out in a review I read of Death Stranding. Kojima games always feature a ridiculous amount of gadgets or equipment or items that get little to no attention or use. MGS 4 is no exception, but also there's a surprising level of mechanics for moving Snake around, positioning him, rolling over, shooting from your back, laying your head down on the ground to hide when you're prone...so much stuff that I only found out about by messing with the controls. There's a frankly shocking amount going on beneath the surface of this game that you can totally miss without it affecting your experience at all.

I thought the adaptive camo choice was interesting. It takes a lot of menu hopping present in Snake Eater out of the equation, while basically accomplishing the same thing as that. And because it's not instantaneous, it doesn't feel too easy or cheap.

I also got a lot of enjoyment out of mastering the CQC system in the game, which inspired a lot of YouTube tutorial watching so I could get the most out of it.

My memory of the game is a little hazy right now, but let it be known that I whole-heartedly enjoyed it, appreciated it for the depth of its systems, and generally loved sneaking and shooting my way through its story, which also made not that much sense to me after one play through. But, I thought it was a totally great send off for the series and its characters...at least chronologically if not IRL!

Loved it, even though I think they tried too hard to explain everything in the franchise. That's this game's biggest mistake. The ending given to Solid Snake was super satisfactory though, and I think it is the high point of this narrative. The entire endgame was actually pretty amazing, having some of the best scenes I ever saw in a videogame (I'm looking at you, Microwave Corridor...)

The gameplay is awesome and I loved the level design with the super open and often chaotic areas, but the actual lack of gameplay time is actually very disappointing and it symbolizes a huge waste of potential. I believe this is what keeps me from giving it a higher rating.

This was the game that made me get a PS3 last year, just so I could play the entire MGS franchise, and despite not being as good as the previous entries, I still think it was a worthwhile and amazing experience even with it's many notable flaws.