So to start with, as I usually do with the beginning of these things, I'll talk about how gosh darned pretty this game is. It also has style. Lots of it. So you have the old, aging hero, which is already something that sets this game apart from others - you don't have some young (usually douchebag, see Bionic Commando) dude thats going around wreckin' crap, but instead, you have a badass who has lived a pretty full life, and since he's nearly an old man, its probably pretty likely that we'll be witnessing his last days. This is common knowledge to anyone whose seen any sort of trailer to the game, but hey, there could be some noobs that stumble on this blog o' mine, and I gotta keep em in the know. So, we have Solid Snake, someone nearly as iconic as Zelda as Mario, perhaps living his last days on our crazy little planet. It's a neat premise, and if the introduction to what hes been doing with his life doesn't impress you, well then you sir have no emotions, or at least no sense of adventure. So the game starts with a sweet monologue from Solid himself, voiced by possibly the best voice actor to ever BE in a video game (and Sam Jackson was in a game too, so even over HIM!) about war and how it never changes...no wait, thats another game (it's called Fallout). But anyways, you have Snake as a mercenary essentially placed into a completely insane warzone, and after you watch the first 20 minutes or so (get used to setting your controller down, this game does NOT mess around with the cut scenes), you'll be pretty amazed that when the game gives you control, you'll be looking at the same incredible graphics you were just watching the past 20 minutes. Everything is seamless and flows together in this game, and thats a pretty incredible feat right there, and easy to see why that crazy ol' genius Hideo Kojima (hes the one who dreams up these nutty little games) packed this blu ray to the gills and almost had to go two disc style on it.
So thems the graphics, and without going into another paragraph about them, I'll just say, theys good. You'll like em. This is probably the first game ever that pretty much makes you feel like you are playing a movie, and thats no small feat. It will also make you nervous in some of the more warlike areas, particularly one completely insane part in the second chapter. Yes the Call of Duty games (the really amazing ones, so, every other one then) can really immerse you in the war experience and make you never, EVER want to sign up the army unless you are a meathead jock that thinks it'd be sweet to say "BOOM, HEADSHOT!" in rl (that means real life, to you noobs), but Metal Gear Solid goes one step further and gives you the character driven experience. It also has a whole MESS of guns, a whole BUNCH of ways to take out your foes, which is another awesome aspect of the game, and was a great aspect of the last MGS too (which I sadly never beat. I know I know, crazy! inexcusable even!). You can handle any situation however you want - you can try and sneak around and just choke out the people who are in your way. Theres even an award for doing something like that. You can just use your tranq gun and knock everyone out and tip toe around them. Or you can go the more direct (and my personal favorite) route - you can go in freakin' guns a blazing. This game gives you a pretty much ridiculous amount of weapons that you can buy from your friendly neighborhood gun dealer, who may or may not be on your side, but probably isn't. If you want to spend all of your credits on a rocket launcher and completely obliterate everything in your path, go ahead. If you want to never waste money on one of those pansy little "silencers" (its too bad theres no option for a loudener) and come loaded for bear with AK-47 bullets and all kinds of other fun semi-automatic weapons, sweet man. Want to just snipe everyones heads off? You can do that too. The weapon possibilities are endless, and I think this was one aspect that some reviewers overlooked - we want flexibility in our games these days, and this game has it in spades.
Yet another nice thing that this game does is it completely redeems this idiot here. This guy was, there really are no other words to describe it, but he was, a pussy. He was the main character of MGS2, and he frankly sucked ass. He actually called his girlfriend and whined about the first time he had to kill a man. And I mean whiiiined. Like cried like a little bitch with a skinned knee and crap. It was pathetic. You really wanted to jump in the game, slap his punk ass across the face and scream YOU ARE IN A VIDEO GAME MORON, YOU HAVE TO WASTE STUFF TO COMPLETE YOUR MISSION. But alas, you can't, and he pretty much remains a pussy throughout. In MGS4, hes manned up. And hes manned up by pretty much the best way that anyone in the world CAN man up - and thats by becoming a ninja. He doesn't really come out and say "hey everyone, look, I'm a ninja now!" but when you see his introduction sequence, I guarantee you will be impressed. The fact that one five minute cut scene of ass stomping pretty much redeems him an entire game is pretty impressive in its own right. Ok, so I think I've said enough about the characters and story, because I shouldn't say too much anyways, it needs to be played and experienced.And story isn't all that makes a game, right? Well, the bad news is that if you are someone who just plays a game for its gameplay and skips past cut scenes and stories, this is not the game for you. At all. This is where people may split on whether this is one of the best games of all time or not - if you are a person, such as myself, that loves movies as much or more than video games, this game will freakin' blow yo' MIND son. The convoluted, sometimes confusing but always entertaining tale of the 15-20 hours you will first spend with this game is incredible, and BETTER than a lot of the turds hollywood craps out and expects us to pay money for (a few from this summer come to mind...Channing Tatum as Duke in GI Joe?! SERIOUSLY? THE GUYS NAME IS CHANNING! ...but I digress), so if you love you some movies and enjoy games too, this is the game for you. However, if you are all about the gameplay and could give a hoot less about the story to a game - and I can't say I could blame you really, ALOT of video games have completely pointless and tacked on stories, or ones you simply just don't care about - like Bionic Commando, for instance. But if you come here for just gameply, you'll be disappointed. Of those 15-20 hours, maybe a little less for the hardcore, maybe a little more for the light gamer, you'll actually BE playing around half, MAYBE 2/3 of that. The rest is cut scenes. If you don't enjoy the idea of setting your controller down to watch a cutscene, you may not like this game.
But that doesn't mean that everyone shouldn't give it a try. For one, its definitely one of the best looking games out there, and its not gonna be surpassed for a long time - probably when FFXIII comes out and kicks us all in the face with awesome MGS4 will take a back seat, and some other pretty ones like Uncharted and Bionic Commando give it competition, but really, this is high end stuff. This is another game to shove down Roger Ebert's big ol' piehole too - the story to this game rivals many great movies, and I guarantee that while you won't particularly be moved by any of it like you will in Valkyria Chronicles, you'll be damn well impressed. Especially the end of Chapter 4, which in my humble opinion, game could've ended there and no one would have complained. Really, anyone who loves watching junk blow up owes it to themselves to see what happens at the end there - if your jaw doesn't drop at least once when you see the COMPLETELY INSANE ending to that chapter, well then I'm not sure if you even have a pulse. But ok, enough ranting about this classic-but-may-not-be-classic-for-every-kind-of-gamer game, and on to some scores!
Graphics - 10/10. Hasn't this already been established? They will freakin' rock your face off. You'll be in awe in some of the junk that happens on your (hopefully obscenely large like mine) TV screen. They don't make them much better than this.
Sound - 10/10. This is why surround sound exists. Particularly in some of the war zone areas (yes, theres more than one - why haven't you ran out and bought this game yet?), the bullets and explosions will make you nervous. Thats a good thing, books, movies make you nervous. Games usually don't. This one will, if you have the sound cranked. It will also piss off your neighbors if you live in an apartment. But if they come to bitch, toss em a beer (or a soda for our younger readers!) and tell them "dude...check THIS out" and show them a sweet cutscene. Maybe they'll go buy a PS3 the next day.
Challenge - Well, it depends. This game, like many nowadays, can be as easy or as ridiculous as you want it to be. When you first start out and if you've never played a Metal Gear game, you will die. A lot. You may even want to throw your controller. But, don't! For one thing, they are expensive. For two, it gets easier. This game definately believes in the "trail by fire" idea of life, because Chapters 1 and 2 are seriously probably the most difficult in the game. But if its too tough, crank down the difficulty. And after you beat it and want to do the whole thing over again (you probably will), crank it up to big boss mode and work on the crazy things they want you to do in THAT mode. You may cry. And you will love it. So how about we'll just go with a 9/10 for Challenge, but you could dumb it down and make it about a 5/10 if you so desired. This game is cool like that (anyone remember that rap song, Cool Like Dat from the 90s? That was a jam).
Fun - 10/10. You will be entertained. Those who play for gameplay, maybe not so much. Bump it down to about a 7/10 for those who just come for gameplay and don't care about story. But seriously, if your jaw doesn't drop once or twice or you don't yell out "oh MAN!" at some of the insane stuff that happens in this game, you probably shouldn't be playing video games anyways, because you obviously have bad taste. This game will rock your face off. Its one of the best games ever. It didn't get a huge review for no reason.
Overall - 10/10. I love this game, which should be obvious. Before Valkyria Chronicles changed my entire perspective on what a video game can be, this was my favorite game ever, even topping Zelda Twilight Princess and Final Fantasy VI. A note about the ending though - crazy ol' Kojima (and he is crazy, nobody can argue with me about that!) obviously didn't want to let go, since this was SUPPOSED to be the last Metal Gear game. We all know now that it wasn't, but still, the ending runs a little long. You may yell and say "Isn't it over YET?! GOD!" at the end, but then you'll remember what happened at the end of Chapter 4, and then you'll smile and won't care so much. But yeah, play this game. Its incredible.
Oh, and a sidenote: Guitar Hero 5 just came out, and me likey my music games. I just don't have anyone to play them with, not that that will stop me from buying Beatles Rock Band promptly at midnight next week. I haven't reviewed one yet, but I will, but for some fun info about it, check out my equally hilarious friend's blog, at http://www.miserableretailslave.com/?cat=10
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