Metal Gear Solid 4

[Eight Rooks]

I didn't mind the gist of it - it just went on, and on, and on, and on, and on...

as I said before it could have been over and done with in about three minutes and would have been far more effective that way. I liked the idea of Kojima bait-and-switching, but as usual, the man doesn't really do concise or subtle.

[Phar]

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Basically summarises everything I was saying a couple days ago. The dramatic impact of everything that has transpired gets totally blootered out of the mind with the Big Boss speel and if Kojima had just spent an extra 5 minutes giving Snake a beautiful suicide scene then it would have delivered a much more fitting end to his story.

Instead, we are left to convince ourselves its the right ending when quite clearly a simpler and more emotional note would have worked much better!!

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Got to agree, it's not like he'd be ending it just for the sake of it, he'd basically be taking his life to stop the foxdie virus spreading, it'd be an heroic sucide, but suddenly were now told that the virus is receding and it's no longer a threat. I'm still convinced that the suicide thing was the planned original ending and they just tacked this on to please the fanboys.

[doodledude]

Just finished this for my 1st time and IMO is one of the best games I've ever played. Seems to have all the great elements of the previous games but ups the ante on all of them as well as adding new gameplay elements to this amazing series.
The care to detail, graphically and sonically, and overall production values is not something I think we'll see again for a long, long time.

Now, I think it's time for a 2nd playthrough

[kernow]

on act3 again and remembering why I didn't enjoy it first time, track someone for 30 minutes, set off an alert and oh look! he's gone, never to be seen again.

[kernow]

meh, easier and less annoying than last time I guess.

[kernow]

omg I keep missing the

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dolls

I only got the first one, I thought you had to get them after you tranq each boss, but it must be while they are in their female form. As you

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leave the building where you fight them and can't return back to look for it

I can't even remember what they give me anyway if you get all of them. hah

[SmokeMeAKipper]

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Just to echo what others have said about the ending - I just assumed and hoped Snake would die at the end and I felt cheated when he didn't. The whole Big Boss epilogue just left me shaking my head... I felt it was really contrived and spoiled what otherwise was a pretty decent story.

Gameplay-wise I thought it was good but I wasn't blown away. I really enjoyed Act 1 and wished it had lasted longer, Act 2 was great fun, Act 3 was a chore but the set-piece was excellent, Act 4 was great for

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nostalgia

but I feel repeated playthroughs would start to show some of the cracks in the design. Act 5 was actually very short (in gameplay anyway!) but that first area was incredibly frustrating.

I can understand the love people have for this game as the combination of story and gamplay make it a largely unparalleled experience but for me this didn't have anywhere near the impact the first MGS did. After playing it I'm genuinely surprised at the 10 scores from both IGN and GameSpot - for me it's more of an 8 or an 9.

I really hope we get more MGS but just not in the same vein - a prequel type game or something completely different within the same universe might be appealing.

[ItsThere]

This is definately an experience game.

First playthrough was amazing, second, when you are armed with foreknowledge of what lies ahead, not so much.

Still very good but I think that I should have left it a little longer between plays to appreciate it properly again.

[Rossco]

omg I keep missing the

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dolls

I only got the first one, I thought you had to get them after you tranq each boss, but it must be while they are in their female form. As you

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leave the building where you fight them and can't return back to look for it

I can't even remember what they give me anyway if you get all of them. hah

Yeh you need to run away from the beauty form to get it, and I believe it gives you a

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special gun from a previous Kojima game

I think, can't remember what it's called though.

[Mephistopheles]

Just started playing this on Solid Normal. Near the end of Act 1. The weapons are so powerful the game becomes piss easy in my opinion. And there's so many rations all over the place death is extremely unlikely.

I'm very tempted to restart on Big Boss Hard now.

[kernow]

Yeah, its not very difficult, the bosses were definitely toned down from 3, I was running around laughing at how easy Raging Raven was the second time round, its almost impossible to die when you have 10 rations and 4 noodles or whatever.

I think I could perform a no kill run quite easy on normal but I'll do it on liquid easy one day, I managed it on act 1 and 3, but got two kills on act 2 bah!

[ItsThere]

You can only carry 5 rations on BB Hard and you take A LOT more damage.

[kernow]

Yeh you need to run away from the beauty form to get it, and I believe it gives you a

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special gun from a previous Kojima game

I think, can't remember what it's called though.

hmm, might be the

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sunlighhht!

gun from

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boktai

although I'm not sure.

3rd run through on liquid easy I'll be skipping every cutscene, this 2nd time through on normal I like them so much I watched them (they are very pretty)

[Eight Rooks]

It is definitely far from the hardest game in the world on Solid Normal. The tranquiliser pistol is frighteningly powerful - I was actually a little shocked at how much leeway it gives you. Very generous autoaim, massive range, fast rate of fire, if you're at range enemies won't react beyond a "?" if you've hit them anywhere other than the head - as long as you can get the sights reasonably over the target you can squeeze off a couple of shots in no time and down a group of three or four people no problem at all. Unless you're rigidly sticking to no alerts it's very, very easy in places.

But it's still fun. I disagree (somewhat) with repeated playthroughs lessening the magic - I can see why people would try for all the emblems, a lot more so than some other recent games. In some ways, much as I've got very big problems with MGS, I feel it's much more of a sandbox game than GTA or Crackdown.

[Dazzyman]

Aye Im definetly playing it on hard on my second play thru after going thru the other 3 (as never got far on 3) as Im finding tranq gun and tranq rifle a doddle for no kill runs and Im maxxed with rations and never use em. I spent hours last night on act 2 on one bit stuck though on a no alert no kill fetish as Ive decided to do act 2 on no alert for a laugh (cant see me doing the other acts though as I actually miss the run around and hide in alert phase I adore that in MGS but dont like killing thats all).

From messing with the areas on no alert though over and over I think its got massive replayability.