Post by fuq on Jun 28, 2011 20:47:36 GMT -5
I was never into the Metal Gear series until 3, which is probably the best one, but I haven't played it so much. Through friends and borrowing, I've played through four times (new game and new game plus on two playstations). Twice lethally (huh, what was that noise 
) once through with no alerts and no kills, and finally with no kills and no guns.
I think the story is best considered as more of an abstract mood-builder than a narrative story; it stumbles around as a narrative and might be best approached with complete ignorance of the series. The Kojima Team aren't particularly good writers and they compensate with narrative massiveness. The game isn't even a new creation. Most of Metal Solid 4 is just stuff from the other Kojima games, cut up and endlessly rehashed. The things that are original are realistic slices of modern-day anxieties. I think it works and the whole is greater than it's recycled and cooped pieces. It is closer to collage art than it is to a film.
The themes are quite amazing for such a mainstream videogame. First of all, the game is wonderfully queer and criticizes masculinity. Snake was always a parody of the hypermasculine male action movie hero, macho, and MGS4 completely undermines this.
I like stealth action games and MGS4 has a great stealth system, but it seems a bit weak after MGS3. In MGS3, the player has to pause-menu up the appropriate camo, in MGS4 it's mostly automatic, although on later playthroughs I used the costumes and the special downloadable camos quite a bit.
The game has really good replay value.
So anyone else played this game? I hope everyone has. What did you think?
) once through with no alerts and no kills, and finally with no kills and no guns. I think the story is best considered as more of an abstract mood-builder than a narrative story; it stumbles around as a narrative and might be best approached with complete ignorance of the series. The Kojima Team aren't particularly good writers and they compensate with narrative massiveness. The game isn't even a new creation. Most of Metal Solid 4 is just stuff from the other Kojima games, cut up and endlessly rehashed. The things that are original are realistic slices of modern-day anxieties. I think it works and the whole is greater than it's recycled and cooped pieces. It is closer to collage art than it is to a film.
Later in the game a mech battle bitten off of another Kojima game features a new type of gameplay. The collage art styling of the game climaxes in basically being forced to play a whole different type of game: a fighting game with completely unfamiliar controls and no explanation
. The end result of the collaging is that symbols and themes emerge somewhat clearly out of the silliness. The themes are quite amazing for such a mainstream videogame. First of all, the game is wonderfully queer and criticizes masculinity. Snake was always a parody of the hypermasculine male action movie hero, macho, and MGS4 completely undermines this.
Snake and his boyfriend live on an airplane with their adopted daughter. A cybernetic ninja and a vampire repeatedly penetrate each other. Vamp's giant knife-codpiece is a genius piece of costuming. Raiden, the surprise hero of MGS2, who was seen as uncanny to those expecting the generic macho that Snake parodies, now he sprays semen from his wounds during his dances with Vamp. I think that Naomi makes Otacon question his sexuality.
It's very subversive and I really appreciate that. Although the Kojima Team may not have been conscious of it, it's a gold mine of psychoanalysis. In the light of all this, the over-the-top sexism of the game toward it's female characters isn't so straightforward. I think the game's treatment of the Beauty/Beast unit is some extreme extension of a misunderstanding of Donna Haraway's cyborg theory. I like stealth action games and MGS4 has a great stealth system, but it seems a bit weak after MGS3. In MGS3, the player has to pause-menu up the appropriate camo, in MGS4 it's mostly automatic, although on later playthroughs I used the costumes and the special downloadable camos quite a bit.
I found the Haven camo to be indispensable to my no kill/no alert run. It makes you invisible when not moving and by virtue of that changes the game mechanics and play style. I enjoy the increased need for stealth with the camo because a few bullets will kill snake quickly.
There's also breadth to the gameplay options. With a few practical exceptions I played through the entire game with smoke grenades and a bunch of other non-lethal methods. Even though there are a lot a lot of guns in this game I found many guns practically interchangeable. The controls are complex but rewarding to master. After I set the three different camera modes to different sensitivities and figured out item cycling the controls became fairly instinctual and reactive. Then again, I played through the game four times. The game has really good replay value.
The emotional ammo adds a whole level of new gameplay element. Between that and the Haven camo the game takes on a different character. Old Snake, invisible prankster of the battlefield! ;D
The unlockable items are good rewards for beating the game, but some of them only make the game too easy and don't add much. So anyone else played this game? I hope everyone has. What did you think?
