Metal Gear Solid 4 is a bit of a mixed bag, and I can totally understand why people dislike this game as it makes so many weird decisions that could easily be removed without affecting anything at all, but instead stayed in the final game and end up ruining characters and moments from the other games to the point where it feels like I'm watching one of the outtakes from the MGS3 secret theatre. I could honestly write up a whole review just on the choices this game made that I completely disagree with, but I decided against that, as whilst there's a lot I dislike (Akiba is the lowest point of this whole series) I'd rather focus on what I loved as I don't want to end the MGS series on a sour note, with my favourite part of this game being how they handle Old Snake.

Seeing people grow old is tough, it's an inevitability which everyone faces, and games rarely allow their main protagonist become old and tired because it's tough seeing someone who's more agile than the average human become so weak and tired to the point where they have to be careful of how long they crouch for. Making Solid Snake old in such a fast and cruel way was a bold decision, but in a game of bad decisions, is one of the better ones as it really hammers home the idea of this being the end of his story as well as a metaphor for how tired everything is becoming from the non-stop war. Despite his age Snake can still fight like he used to, but it feels mean-spirited to make him fight, everyone else around him is still young except for him who still feels obligated to save the world around him. I think this is just a much more fittingly tragic end to his character than killing him during his 40s, as he loses much of his life but at least gets some moment of peace before he passes which he much deserves. His fight against Ocelot is amazing despite the fact it wasn't actually Liquid, and his final moments with Big Boss made the series feel complete, as the man who dragged him into this whole life as a soldier brings some closure and forgiveness into his final stage in life, which is much better than any last epic fight could ever give us. I just absolutely love Old Snake's story in this game as I've said many times before, and it's the the most consistently good thing in this game which in my opinion makes it rate as highly as it does.

Overall MGS4 was a game I enjoyed playing, the fan-service made this game feel like a sendoff to the series, and even though it's currently landlocked to the PS3 it's still a game every Metal Gear fan needs to play and get your own opinion on. I look forward to replaying this game in the future, hopefully due to the fact it comes with Master Collection Vol. 2, as the gameplay is a very polished and updated version of the PS2 games and honestly the long cutscenes didn't bother me anymore than the previous games did as there's a lot of fun gameplay moments.

Messy, complicated, beautiful. Truly an unwieldy experience, but a great sendoff (at least at the time of original release) for one of the most important video game franchises of all time.

The refinements to the gameplay are a generational leap. The third person camera is put to great use and makes the stealth gameplay really shine. It's honestly the best part of the game. The boss fights, while not being the most memorable characters, are fun and a great callback to fights through the series. I love that individual levels in the stages are more open and have more possibilities for routes and creativity in the combat. What I don't love as much is the linearity of the stages. I liked the backtracking in the previous games. I liked getting the familiarity of the game and being able to see something in a stage and be able to go back and get that item later when coming back with new knowledge and items to open up the paths. It's also a slight shame that the game doesn't allow you to enjoy the gameplay for more than 10 minutes at a time.

MGS4 has a similarish problem as Quantum Break. The problem being that maybe this game wants to be more of a movie than an actual videogame. Truth be told, I love walking sims and games that push the medium of what is a video game. Games like Gone Home, Before Your Eyes, and What Remains of Edith Finch are all fantastic games. They might lack the gameplay but have great stories. The difference between those games and MGS4 is that MGS has a good story and great gameplay! The hour plus cutscene at the end of the game is incredible and the final boss fight with ocelot is one of the coolest in any game, but I wish they could have included more story with gameplay instead of shelling all the big story bits to massive cutscenes like in Quantum Break (I know QB came out after MGS4). When they do mix the story and gameplay, like in the ocelot fight, it's some of the best moments in the game. If I'm being honest again, I liked the mission briefing segments. I liked controlling the mark 2 around the plane while the cutscene was playing. I wish I could explore more or had more controls for the mark 2. Very cool stuff. All of cutscenes are impressive and shot beautifully with a lot of meaning and reference to the series past. I just wish there was more of a mix like in the microwave hallway, or just more gameplay.

I don't even want to get into the story too much. It's really cool. I love how the whole series folds into itself to create this meta experience. The theme of sense is interesting. The senses being suppressed to perform tasks that the normal person would mentally and physically destroyed from is interesting and fairly poignant. We might not have nanomachines and AI as advanced (yet), but we do have constant media propaganda that desensitizes us to tragedy and war. Looking at facebook and seeing what family members share/seeing what they see is insane. MGS2 was right about internet echo chambers and this game is a great follow up to show has those memes destroy our senses.

After beating this, I really need to do a replay of the first four games again. This one and 3 most of all. 3 because the game is just so good and this to not drift off the to cutscenes again.

This one does what the three prior games could not manage: get me to stop caring. There was humor, intrigue and emotional investment to be gained from the overly lengthy scenes of the past. So much of runtime in this game is spent boring me to tears, forcing answers to questions I wasn't asking, and not letting me actually play the game. I'm already checked out by the time what many consider the most memorable moments finally do occur. I suppose this level of dissapointment is only natural considering how high the bar has been set up to this point.