Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Man, do I ever not remember any of this nonsense, which almost makes me question if I ever even played 4 (which I did, because old Snake, and Johnny Diarrhea).

i finished this game today. the end of the game is like 3 hours of cutscenes w some gameplay just tossed in. really once you get through Shadow Moses the game goes entirely linear, to the point where you are just holding forward for a good while.

it's a shame cos the gameplay during the start is a nice evolution of MGS3-style but by halfway through there is nothing stealthy about it. the last few hours you shoot like a million bullets. often there will be a room but of badguys and you just fight them over and over until the game just steps in and takes the control away from you.

still, it's pretty enjoyable. definitely worth a watch a least once. it really feels like the sequel to MGS everyone wanted from MGS2. the ending is super melodramatic. i like how during the very last bonus audio Snake calls himself a "blue rose", Kojima w the FWWM reference.

shoot i didn't have this thread bookmarked, v happy to read all of your posts on here adam! so many things i love abt this game, thought i talked abt it around here somewhere, maybe on one of the other mgs threads. the gear vs gear 5-minute combat remains one of my most favourite video game things ever because it's just such an absurd waste of development money for something that is completely unused at any ohter point. not even in a dumb dlc rush mode or something.

i loved that bit. all the MGS games have a OTT action setpiece, usually near the end of the game, where it just goes crazy. MGS2 had that bit at the end of the postmodern part where you just fight 2 dozen enemies in room after room that is also completely at odds with the rest of the game, where you stealth your way past a dozen enemies spread out over the entire game map. it is part and parcel with the cutscenes, the interactive cinematic stylisms that are the bread and butter of the series.

was kind of surprised that half the game was just a recreation of MGS, tho i guess that IS what the fans wanted, the expectation subverted by MGS2. the happy endings were all pretty nice, Big Boss as always pulling a fast one on everybody, Raiden waking up to have his life also revealed as a life and bestowing a suburban fairy tale ending on the ultimate tortured edgelord emo robot ninja of all time.

i liked how at one point they are all stuck and Johnny is the only one that can help them, and it turns out that him having diarrhea and being a general weirdo meant that he refused the nanomachines treatment, so he is free to save the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWqlz0wsQQ4

Raiden's speech starting around 3:00 in is so classic. "I'm a shadow, one that no light will shine on". you could open a Hot Topic just selling t-shirts with every line that he says here.

"It was never going to work out for me. It even rained the day I was born."

"I have nothing. I have always been alone. Always."

i think it would rank near the bottom for me though, i like playing 2/3/V way more, i like the stories in those games more as well. still a lot of fun and worth seeing at least once.