Zero Punctuation: Metal Gear Solid 4

[Seamus8]

Still going to buy it, it's like the catcher in the rye

 

[pulse2]

Maybe MGS4 fans should do what the Smash Bros fans did and bombard Yahtzee with insults and critisisms ¬_¬

Oh yeah, the age demographic of MGS4 players is higher, go figures.

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

Resident Evil 4 is a mere 2 hours worth of core gameplay so relatively speaking, things are not as bad as the MGS4 cut scenes would make it seem - don't be fooled .

Two hours?! That would be one hell of a speedrun for RE4. That game is HARD, especially on high difficulty.

 

[Magugag]

I agree with Yahtzee on most points. In fact he is completely right. The problem is: The cutscenes may be long, but except for the ending and the totality of the last act, I found them to be pretty enjoyable, because their presentation is close to flawless.

Is it me or are the long cut scenes shippable? Alot of moaning about something fixed easily.

I've heard that "argument" a few times before. But, please tell me: What's the point in playing a game that's supposedly about the story when you skip the whole story? The gameplay on its own isn't that awesome that it would hold its own, mostly thanks to the totally moronic AI and respawning. In fact, the only thing that pulled me through the whole thing was the story and the cutscenes, although I never played the first three MGSs, not counting giving them a short try.
Skipping the cutscenes is possible, but pointless. Why play the game then?

Seconded. That pretty much sums up my feelings on the entire thing, especially when so much of the game is apparently cutscene. Saying 'you can skip the cutscenes' in defense of the game is like telling someone to skip half of a movie. If you find an experience so flawed that you need to cut out such an enormous chunk to really enjoy it, then it isn't well designed. From what I hear, the story should be what you're THERE for, with the gameplay being decent but not something to base an experience on.

 

[DennoCoil]

Fucking hilarious. XD

And even though I'm a MGS fanboy by heart, even I have to begrudgingly agree with Yahtzee.

1. It's on the PS3, a gaming console that has doesn't have much of anything going for it except for 4-5 exclusives, including this, and a few unique features.

2. The cutscenes were un-fucking-believably long, with minutes of gameplay sandwiched between 20 minutes to a hour of cutscenes. If you take those out, the game is ridiculously short. It took me 20 hours to play through the game the first time and I think it would be half that if the dialog was taken out. I swear that after the fight Raven, it took over a fucking hour to get through the Hollywood type "Oh all is lost, the bad guys are almost winning" shit. [Also note that while you DO get to play with Metal Gear Rex, it's about 10 minutes long with a easy boss fight against Metal Gear Ray with a 35 minute scene afterwards.]

3. The stealth gameplay is good, especially if you like the MGS type of sneaking, and it improves upon the Camo system from MGS 3. Unfortunately, the QCQ and weapon firing system is a big CLUSTERFUCK. Having to grab someone from behind, take out your gun, kill baddy with your human shield, then throw your hostage to the ground and make him give up items and weapons sounds pretty good at first until you read the instructions and find out that it takes like 6 fancy button presses. I can't tell you how many times I tried doing this on my first time through and failing; then I said 'Fuck it' and proceeded to kill everyone with a M4.

4. The game is exclusively for MGS fans and the fans only as it's the only way to really enjoy it. Anybody who doesn't know about the last 3 PS1\2 games won't understand a damn thing and proceed to be lost in the dark from there.

tl;dr: Let it be known, this is a fanboy game. Don't go in unless you've played all the others and liked them.

 

[SilentHunter7]

Well played; excellent intro music.

 

[Darkong]

Is it me or are the long cut scenes skippable? Alot of moaning about something fixed easily.

But in the case of MGS4 the complaint is justified because the game, and series, are heavily story based, they're supposed to be telling a story. But its supposed to be a game first and foremost, the cutscenes should add to the experience in a way that you don't want to skip them but when they start to dominate over the actual game then you know that the balance is wrong.

And that's his complaint about it, mine as well to be honest, the convoluted story-telling and overly long cut scenes dominate the package, there doesn't seem to be that much in the way of game underneath. I haven't finished the game yet and frankly am just not enjoying it so doubt I will, its just too crippled by many of the same faults that have plagued the series.

 

[Opacic]

On one side we have MGS4 fanboys who don't respond to critcism very well, and Yahtzee fanboy suck ups who wouldn't mind tossing him off for recognition.

Get your own opinions, instead of just saying "LOL UR SO RITE YAHTZEE XD XD SO RANDUM"

It was an alright review, I chuckled a fair bit, but I can't agree or disagree, as I've never played the game.

 

[ResidentEman]

I have to respectfully disagree with Yahtzee about this review. MGS4 is awesome, and not just fanboys can enjoy it. However, there are a lot of good points about the length of the cutscenes. They are really very very long. However, I enjoy these long cutscenes like most MGS fans. And I also have to disagree that the game is poorly written. I think the dialogue in this game is better than 90% of the crap that comes out these days!

 

[sfried]

Maybe MGS4 fans should do what the Smash Bros fans did and bombard Yahtzee with insults and critisisms ¬_¬

Oh yeah, the age demographic of MGS4 players is higher, go figures.

They can still act as immature, believe me.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

What I want to know, is Ninja Gaiden "2" (The game advertised at the end of the review) now off limits for Yahtzee? Or will it still be fair game for a ZP review?

 

[ogenbite]

Thank you, Yahtzee. I knew I could count on you to call out Kojima on that unnecessarily complex story and ridiculously long cut scenes. I actually applauded at the part about Kojima needing an editor, because someone needs to seriously reign him in from his own BS.

 

[Moo of the seven]

Yahtzee you charismatic fool, you've done it again. You make Wednesdays awesome. You and my paycheck.

 

[sexymustard]

It really pains me to say this, but I agree with Yahtzee on just about everything.

I always called BS on Metal Gear being a '99% movie/1% game' series, but MGS4 is pretty much that. I didn't realize it until the very end of the game, but if you play through the whole thing while skipping each and every cutscene, each act will last you somewhere around twenty to thirty minutes, resulting in a game that will only take about 2-3 hours to complete.

2-3 hours?!? that is quite the low estimate, maybe on easy with the stealth camo on the whole time. If the game really was only 2-3 hours of game play as you say why would the raven emblem REWARD you for completing it in under 5 hours approximately twice your estimate? that's ridiculous. I averaged one hour for each act on normal difficulty. which is still quite short but don't go halving it

 

[Dboyz-x.etown]

Thank you SO MUCH for pointing out the flaw about the Mark 2 tranquilizer pistol. It's essentially the EZ gun from MGS 3, in that the suppressor is built in (and therefore never wears out), the ammo for it is essentially infinite (you'll find this stuff EVERYWHERE), and the octocamo will constantly give you a camo rating of at LEAST 80 percent when you are laying down or otherwise in cover, many times more. This essentially takes away any semblance of skill required for the game on any difficulty under extreme, and essentially turning the game into target practice, where you'll lay down, and shoot all the enemies in the area in the head.


Also, the gameplay was pretty boring as well. The first two acts were pretty fun, where you actually had two sides fighting against each other and you could either sneak by them, or alternatively help them out. After this though, it got extremely boring. Act 3 basically consisted of you belly crawling your way through the level, following around a single guy. Act IV didn't even pit you against human AI. And act 5 was literally one section of free form gameplay, followed by arena battle-> boss fight-> running-> more running (except with dwarf gecko this time)-> button mashing-> more button mashing (except this time in a boss fight). I agree with the above poster that it probably will take you more than 3 hours to beat this game, but how much of those 5 hours are actual "Tactical Espionage Action" probably is closer to 2.5 hours.

 

[Russ Pitts]

I asked but you didn't say, it was the tee shirt ad wasn't it?

Yes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84679-Zero-Punctuation-Shirts-Finally-Arrive].

 

[Lv2sfo]

I didn't play it on easy mode knowing it would be childishly simple, but the silenced tranquilliser with infinite bullets isn't available on the more manly difficulties.

And the stealth tools are an absolute necessity first play through, successive play throughs become patronisingly simple however when you unlock goodies or simply use the convenient drebin shop to buy ammo for your most powerful weapons.

For somebody who thinks of themselves as an advocate for games as art, he seems to overlook the fact that MGS4 is at least trying to do something very few games do, Inspire emotion. Granted any scene with Otacon in, and you pretty much have to get the mute button ready to avoid the cringe-worthy dialogue, but other moments fare pretty well at immersing you into the story. If you didn't find your hand drifting towards your crotch in the Raiden/Ninja scenes then you're a eunuch.

 

[nightfish]

the infinate ammo tranq gun is for easy mode

it shouldn't be there in easy mode either.

 

[IpHr0z3nI]

While this weeks Yahtzee was good it was no where near as good as others with that being said. His review was pretty narrow. He focused on cut scenes which everyone whose played a metal gear solid game before knows Metal gear solid has a lot of them. Metal gear has always been a Hit or Miss game depending on the type of player. It has always focused on story telling, which it does through cut scenes, over gameplay. Also his point about having the tranquiler gun which owns everyone in one shot. While that may be true on easier levels but on the harder levels tranquiler ammo is severely limited and they must be found.

 

[Xojins]

Funny review, as always. I have never really cared about the Metal Gear Solid series, and have never paid it any attention at all for that matter, but my friend is getting the game so I'll check it out.