kojima mad with power. a total fucking mess but a fascinating one. cant with good conscience say its better than snake eater but i will say this: the first two acts are very easy for me to defend and showcase how mechanically mgs4 pretty handily surpasses its predecessor. it fixes almost every major issue with snake eater’s core gameplay - octocamo and the stress meter particularly are strokes of genius that somehow both deepen the survival mechanics while also massively streamlining them, and a wealth of new ways to express yourself have been added on top of that. i particularly love how much you can do when crawling now, especially since you spend so much of both mgs3 and 4 doing exactly that. rolling across the battlefield from cover to cover, dodging gunfire and explosions, feels incredible. i suppose i can understand those who feel that the active warzone setting feels gimmicky and i do think it could’ve been fleshed out better (i’d have liked it if there was more incentive to side with the armed forces, especially since you start out on the side of the rebels), and i think people would’ve looked at it more favorably if there was more of snake eater’s predator gameplay to balance it out, but on the whole i think it’s a novel and fun idea that is certainly executed with a lot more depth than, say, the wildlife system in mgs3. the gun selling mechanic, coupled with the narrative information that these conflicts are meaningless proxy battles free from ideology, does also incentivize you to play both sides in a fun little way – i often found myself picking off rebels with anesthetic rounds when no one would notice, and not even feeling any narrative dissonance from it since usually these were rebels who were about to run into gunfire and senselessly die anyway; the way i saw it, snake was doing them a favor. it’s always special when a game’s mechanics can spontaneously generate personal narratives like this. cqc is another thing carried over from mgs3 that is massively improved – not only is it much easier to get to grips with and more useful, but it’s also a lot more robust. aiming also feels good for the first time in this series which i think is a blessing but also a bit of a curse insofar as aiming is more emphasized in gameplay (parts of this game undeniably feel a little too military shooter-y; though to play devil’s advocate i’ll say that it does feel like part of a deliberate point that kojima’s making). lastly i’ll just mention that this is the first time in the series i went with the hardest difficulty available on my first playthrough, and that it was a choice that paid off in dividends – it’s expertly balanced and feels very fitting, what with snake’s more fragile body.

narratively the game is a mixed bag. i think thematically its pretty interesting, an early entry into the “metamodern” trend of sequels about series iconography collapsing in on itself as metaphor for the cultural decay of postmodernism (see also: dark souls 3, rebuild of evangelion). that said as willing as i am to interpret something like metal gear on a primarily subtextual level i can’t say i’m ready to push plot and character to the wayside entirely; ideas are worth little without proper execution to back it up, and this is definitely where mgs4 becomes a tough game to appreciate. it’s an unfortunate paradox – the game is clearly a for-the-fans affair but it also can’t help but spit in their faces with how much it retcons the previous titles. the reveal of who the patriots are is definitely the choice that stings the most – both for fans of mgs2 like myself (who will likely not appreciate the demystification of the patriots, no longer an undead, ageless and formless digital consciousness embodying the hegemony of american empire and the immutable ubiquity of capitalism) and also for fans of mgs3 (who will be surprised to learn that naked snake’s wacky codec team actually turned out to be a gang of hitlers – plot twist!). the bb corps are also… just not good. like, uncharacteristically bad. i appreciate the fact that them being a mix of all the previous bosses in the series is clearly feeding into the main theme but the hamfisted “beauty” aspect of it – and its accompanying utterly shameless leering shots – woof, it’s bad. it’s not good. honestly even kind of passes into heinous territory with the stupid torture porn backstories. at least the sound design in their second phases, as they walk towards you increasingly faster, is genuinely kind of unnerving. for what its worth, there are also moments where the main theme of decay is well elaborated on, with little accompanying baggage – returning to a run-down shadow moses, devoid of non-artificial life, after being told the archipelago is slowly sinking into the sea, is simple and effective. most of the game’s callbacks are not this elegant, though, however well-meaning they might be.

another issue is that the game kind of looks like shit; graphically it’s impressive for an early ps3 title but it’s infected with the malignant 7th gen disease that made every game look like brown sludge. again, there’s the question of whether by pointing this out we’re actually stumbling upon The Point – it’s always a little hard to tell with kojima but it’s a notion that at least has to be entertained. we could also dismiss the auteur angle entirely and simply accept that it’s a part of the game whether intentional or not and should be discussed on those terms alone. on that note i’ll say that there is a nice thematic ring to the game having the look of a generic military shooter, but i’d still prefer if it, y’know, actually looked good. it’s a shame too because the designs in this game rule. gekkos and scarabs? raiden’s new cyborg body? the mk ii? the solid eye? all very cool. i’ve still yet to discuss the elephant in the room which is how fucking long these cutscenes are and yeeeeahhh it gets grating. i expect long cutscenes between gameplay by now with kojima and it’s not really the length i mind so much as the excruciating levels of exposition and superfluous information, this stuff really could’ve been trimmed down. but things like raiden vs vamp and the gekkos, or ocelot going sicko mode on a boat i have no beef with.

this is the most I’ve fluctuated between feeling that kojima’s a genius and feeling that he’s the biggest hack of all time. there is dreadful stuff here, often side by side with some of the biggest kino in the series (right before that amazing split screen sequence leading into an even better final boss, we get johnny and meryl proposing to each other). i’m teetering on giving this 3 stars to be totally honest but you do pilot metal gear rex and duel ray and then the game ends on a fight with shirtless ocelot where one of his moves is tenderly - erotically even - kissing you on the cheek so i think i’m duty-bound to give this at least four stars if only for that alone