Okay, so I just picked up a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4. I remembered playing 2 on Xbox and finding the fixed camera angles idiosyncratic, the plotting overwrought, and the stealth elements cumbersome. Ultimately, I quit after five or six attempts at overcoming the Russian lady with hairy armpits. But--given the slew of perfect scores MGS4 received, its purported overhauling of the camera system, and its used price of $9.99--I figured I'd give it a try.
The first four or five minutes of the game are intriguing. You're watching what appears to be a fitness program with chipmunk voices, and when you reflexively go to push buttons you find yourself cycling through various channels filled with nonsensical media; more of a parodic envisioning of television than a conventional cutscene. After this ends--randomly, once any given channel reaches its conclusion--a camera pans across a gorgeous digitized desert, and mock-film credits run while a somber, but striking, score plays. It's not hard to see Kojima's filmic influence.
Eventually, the camera centres on a soldier, grouped around several others in a pick-up. He provides some narration; describing the world's plunge into a technologist dystopia in which war is omnipresent before the truck pulls into a ruined Middle Eastern nabe. He gets off, and you begin controlling him, swooping behind the truck as a crossfire begins.
I begin controlling the protagonist. I fiddle with the controls, which seem complex, before moving to the right. Nothing is there other than a few barrels. I move to the left, and begin to gesture to duck under another truck. Another cutscene--keep in mind the game has already taken ten or fifteen minutes to introduce the action--begins.
Now, I'm in an alley with a few soldiers. I move around, and--after a few more intermediary cutscenes, which essentially depict sensational aspects of combat while I'm doing rudimentary button-presses--play, I'm told to go north. I try to do so, still somewhat unsure of how the game works since I haven't had time to acquaint myself. It seems that whenever I move, another cutscene begins; by this time, having to do with how I'm being pursued by a massive robot that analyzes my discarded cigarette. There are cool things going on here, but none have to do with the gameplay: it just consists of running from place to place and not shooting.
In the next zone--after I've grabbed a few items my assistant, Otakon, asked me to acquire and endured another four or five minutes of yammering, which includes a incoherent flashback to three days earlier, and the realization of premature aging syndrome (also, a lot of acronyms)--the gameplay finally begins, sort of. I'm crept in an alleyway, and when I move forward I can see a crossfire between a few soldiers. Already, I feel fatigued; put off by the gameplay's excuse to pad out a film. I fire a few shots, and the soldiers are alerted. I kill of a few of them before reinforcements arrive. I die. Otakon shouts my name.
Again. I fire a few shots, and camp in a darkened corridor that converges with the street. I kill a few more soldiers--this is all bread-and-butter, tiresome stealth stuff--before moving down the street. Another cutscene happens somewhere--I may have the sequence of these confused. Now I glide through an alleyway, emerging onto the street where I pick off a few soldiers crouched behind sandbags. After that, I reticently cross the street--bullets are flying off in every direction--before picking off a few more soldiers, like every action game I've ever played before finding a confusingly-placed stairwell that leads to a new area.
This is a dark, indoor environment. I'm instructed to use my "solid eye"--god, these names are ridiculous--to make it fully visible; again, a standard action game element. I pick off a soldier, trek through a few tunnels that would've been unintelligible were it not for the night vision, and pick off a few more. When they are alerted, I either wait for a minute or two, until a conveniently-placed timer elapses--this is tedious--or just become impatient and shoot some more. I'm playing on second-to-easiest difficult. Neither seems to effect the outcome.
Emerging from this area, another cutscene begins (surprise!). This one features a black arms dealer, who its insinuated may be a clone, and his pet monkey. It is vaguely mysterious, and well-done by game standards--the voice acting is strong, and even the character's facial expressions betray subtle inflections. But the geopolitical commentary is frustratingly preachy, as well as a pedestrian, like a first-year political science class, and the whole ordeal goes on too long. When the cutscene finishes, I am informed of another game element--the collection and sale of redundant weapons--and told to make my way through a collapsed building. This consists of pressing triangle several times. As far as I can tell, the threat suggested here is entirely synthetic.
I get through the building, and--after another cutscene begins, in which a Middle Eastern soldier upends a barrel a man appears to be using as an impromptu bathroom--I finally lose my patience. I save the game, turn off the system, and go back to playing Super Mario Galaxy 2.
I want to enjoy Metal Gear Solid, I really do. I was an N64 rather than PSOne gamer--the venerated original passed me by--but that didn't stop me from recently making amends with Resident Evil after playing 4 on Wii, and finding in its abandonment of fixed-camera angles and retrograde survival-horror elements one of the tightest action games ever. But what am I doing wrong? Every Metal Gear I play seems like an absolute chore, rife with pseudo-philosophic babble and unimpressive--not to mention brief--gameplay sections.
For the record, while I have an affection for the kind of straightforward functionality Nintendo games offer, I don't dislike "arty" games. I loved the first No More Heroes, Shenmue, Shadow of the Colossus, the Monkey Island series, etc. Something about the Metal Gear series just seems. . . like mediocrity in the guise of high cinema (which you shouldn't have to re-watch Citizen Kane to know it isn't). Any suggestions?
The first four or five minutes of the game are intriguing. You're watching what appears to be a fitness program with chipmunk voices, and when you reflexively go to push buttons you find yourself cycling through various channels filled with nonsensical media; more of a parodic envisioning of television than a conventional cutscene. After this ends--randomly, once any given channel reaches its conclusion--a camera pans across a gorgeous digitized desert, and mock-film credits run while a somber, but striking, score plays. It's not hard to see Kojima's filmic influence.
Eventually, the camera centres on a soldier, grouped around several others in a pick-up. He provides some narration; describing the world's plunge into a technologist dystopia in which war is omnipresent before the truck pulls into a ruined Middle Eastern nabe. He gets off, and you begin controlling him, swooping behind the truck as a crossfire begins.
I begin controlling the protagonist. I fiddle with the controls, which seem complex, before moving to the right. Nothing is there other than a few barrels. I move to the left, and begin to gesture to duck under another truck. Another cutscene--keep in mind the game has already taken ten or fifteen minutes to introduce the action--begins.
Now, I'm in an alley with a few soldiers. I move around, and--after a few more intermediary cutscenes, which essentially depict sensational aspects of combat while I'm doing rudimentary button-presses--play, I'm told to go north. I try to do so, still somewhat unsure of how the game works since I haven't had time to acquaint myself. It seems that whenever I move, another cutscene begins; by this time, having to do with how I'm being pursued by a massive robot that analyzes my discarded cigarette. There are cool things going on here, but none have to do with the gameplay: it just consists of running from place to place and not shooting.
In the next zone--after I've grabbed a few items my assistant, Otakon, asked me to acquire and endured another four or five minutes of yammering, which includes a incoherent flashback to three days earlier, and the realization of premature aging syndrome (also, a lot of acronyms)--the gameplay finally begins, sort of. I'm crept in an alleyway, and when I move forward I can see a crossfire between a few soldiers. Already, I feel fatigued; put off by the gameplay's excuse to pad out a film. I fire a few shots, and the soldiers are alerted. I kill of a few of them before reinforcements arrive. I die. Otakon shouts my name.
Again. I fire a few shots, and camp in a darkened corridor that converges with the street. I kill a few more soldiers--this is all bread-and-butter, tiresome stealth stuff--before moving down the street. Another cutscene happens somewhere--I may have the sequence of these confused. Now I glide through an alleyway, emerging onto the street where I pick off a few soldiers crouched behind sandbags. After that, I reticently cross the street--bullets are flying off in every direction--before picking off a few more soldiers, like every action game I've ever played before finding a confusingly-placed stairwell that leads to a new area.
This is a dark, indoor environment. I'm instructed to use my "solid eye"--god, these names are ridiculous--to make it fully visible; again, a standard action game element. I pick off a soldier, trek through a few tunnels that would've been unintelligible were it not for the night vision, and pick off a few more. When they are alerted, I either wait for a minute or two, until a conveniently-placed timer elapses--this is tedious--or just become impatient and shoot some more. I'm playing on second-to-easiest difficult. Neither seems to effect the outcome.
Emerging from this area, another cutscene begins (surprise!). This one features a black arms dealer, who its insinuated may be a clone, and his pet monkey. It is vaguely mysterious, and well-done by game standards--the voice acting is strong, and even the character's facial expressions betray subtle inflections. But the geopolitical commentary is frustratingly preachy, as well as a pedestrian, like a first-year political science class, and the whole ordeal goes on too long. When the cutscene finishes, I am informed of another game element--the collection and sale of redundant weapons--and told to make my way through a collapsed building. This consists of pressing triangle several times. As far as I can tell, the threat suggested here is entirely synthetic.
I get through the building, and--after another cutscene begins, in which a Middle Eastern soldier upends a barrel a man appears to be using as an impromptu bathroom--I finally lose my patience. I save the game, turn off the system, and go back to playing Super Mario Galaxy 2.
I want to enjoy Metal Gear Solid, I really do. I was an N64 rather than PSOne gamer--the venerated original passed me by--but that didn't stop me from recently making amends with Resident Evil after playing 4 on Wii, and finding in its abandonment of fixed-camera angles and retrograde survival-horror elements one of the tightest action games ever. But what am I doing wrong? Every Metal Gear I play seems like an absolute chore, rife with pseudo-philosophic babble and unimpressive--not to mention brief--gameplay sections.
For the record, while I have an affection for the kind of straightforward functionality Nintendo games offer, I don't dislike "arty" games. I loved the first No More Heroes, Shenmue, Shadow of the Colossus, the Monkey Island series, etc. Something about the Metal Gear series just seems. . . like mediocrity in the guise of high cinema (which you shouldn't have to re-watch Citizen Kane to know it isn't). Any suggestions?
