Metal Gear Solid 4

Now I thought long and hard about what was going to be my first post on this blog, as I wanted it to be something of at least a little substance. No actual idea why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time…

So over the last few days I have been playing Metal Gear Solid 4 – Guns of the Patriots. Playing it has been all the sweeter as I had obtained it for free after my friends TV died and he had no reason to hang onto it any longer. Now I have to say, I thought that this was going to be a good thing to blog about, simply because it gave a great opportunity to have a moan and bitch about the insanely long cut scenes in this game…

And they are insanely long. Not just a little bit long. REALLY long. The 45 minute cut scene I sat through while my mate bitched about how ludicrously long winded it was, certainly brought this sort of thing to a new level. And this wasn’t the longest cut scene in the game! The final cut scene (and I am counting from when you last have to press a button until you are finally given the end of the plot) was 1 hour 10 minutes long! I mean my God by the time you have finished the game you are talking quite literally hours (and I do mean multiple hours) of cut scenes! The highest unlockable achievement in the game requires you to complete the whole thing in under 5 hours, and while I haven’t totalled it up I firmly believe that if you sat through all the cut scenes you would probably have about 30 seconds of game time to actually, you know, do the game! For the record, I didn’t exactly slouch my way though the game and it took me seventeen and a half hours. This has taken the “cinematic” nature of video games to an entirely new level… This is the first game ever, in the history of man, that I have been grateful for the ability to actually pause a cut scene. There have been several occasions where my bladder actually could not take sitting the entire way through one.

But, and here is the big but. I did actually choose to sit through them. Yep there is the option (from the outset) to click start and select skip and you actually bypass the cut scene all together, yet I never chose to use it. Why? Well because they were actually really, rather good. The story in this game really does suck you in and quite frankly that makes the whole thing all right by me. You actually care about what happens to the characters. They actually have depth to them. This game certainly serves as a fitting end to the Metal Gear Solid Series (until of course “Metal Gear Solid 5 : The Quest for more money” is released).

The game itself is excellent, and as a technological exercise it is truly amazing. What makes the cut scenes so watchable is that they are all rendered using the same game engine as is used for the game and they link seamlessly into the action. In several cases you can actually choose to watch the cut scene unfold from the perspective of your little robot buddy allowing you to wander round the scene to your hearts content and look at it from every angle imaginable. All of is in beautifully rendered graphics courtesy of the PS3 (who is finally starting to show some of the games we have been waited for), and of course full surround sound. The graphics on a HD TV really do look amazing, and the sound is just as good. You will probably have to experience it to believe it.

The game itself is great fun. Described as tactical stealth action and that probably about sums it up. You can approach problems in multiple ways. You can sneak, you can fight, or any combination of the two. The balance is there in that you can approach the bulk of the game either from an action, run and gun type approach or a silent sneaky approach. Both are equally rewarding. Action wise, the guns feel good, the controls responsive and the bad guys sufficiently intelligent that the game has you on its toes the whole time. If you go the sneaky way, the tension can really build, crawling through narrow vents, using the very cool adaptive camouflage system to avoid detection, and of course sneaking up on enemies and dispatching them with a variety of cool close combat moves.

The set pieces are amazing. One boss battle has you pitted in a truly amazing (and innovative) sniper dual (against a massive wolf like super soldier I may add). This would have been awesome just on it’s own, but it is set in a massive snow blizzard that hampers visibility and looks amazing, while on a tactical level your having to factor in the direction of the wind in your efforts to avoid detection from the enemy sniper. All the Bosses require a bit of thought in your approach to them and there are some other moments in the game that are equally as brilliant (including a brilliant bike chase that has got to be about as close to reproducing a cinema type chase scene as has ever been managed in a video game).

So while this kind of started out as a moan, I can’t actually follow it through. The game is great, it is that simple. Some people will absolutely hate the long cut scenes and deride it because of them. Hey I came pretty close myself. For those people – Hit start press down and click on “Skip”. Yes you can do it from the beginning, and enjoy a great sneak / shoot em up game on its own merits. Everyone else, seriously, watch them. This is as close to an interactive cinema experience as you can get.

Oh and if you haven’t played the previous games (Metal Gear 1 +2, plus Metal Gear Solid 1-3) a trip to Wikipedia to brush up on the previous plot points will help you enjoy it a lot more.

Next challenge – Try and beat it in under 5 hours.