Metal Gear Solid 4: THE OFFICIAL GAMEPLAY THREAD. Open season on spoilers!

[cool breeze]

I love how nanomachines is MGS's "A wizard did it."

I think the only time this is a problem is with Vamp.  Everything else is within reason. I'm willing to accept that technology could be totally crazy in the MGS 2015.  I mean, they are pretty far ahead of the game.

[MCD]

act4 spoilers:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

they are so advanced they can revive dead people yet they can't cure cancer.

[close]

[Narag]

act4 spoilers:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

they are so advanced they can revive dead people yet they can't cure cancer.

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Let me channel Safe Bet here and state that this is no doubt Kojima's treatise on gamers that have stopped folding to play MGS4 and in turn have slowed cancer research to a crawl.  If people hadn't played his game, Naomi would've lived.

[close]

[cool breeze]

act4 spoilers:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

they are so advanced they can revive dead people yet they can't cure cancer.

[close]

Did you miss the dialog about how

spoiler (click to show/hide)

she was taking the injection to stop the effects the entire time and wanted to die on her own?

[close]

[MCD]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

hahaha.

honestly she is the weakest character in the game.

edit: the injections only slow it down, it's not a remedy.

[close]

[FatalT]

@ the part where Snake turns on binocular mode or NVG mode of his Solid Eye, "accidentally" drops his cigarette, then sneaks a peek up Naomi's skirt when he bends down to pick it up. Oh man. Kojima you sly devil, you.

[Narag]

act4 spoilers:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

they are so advanced they can revive dead people yet they can't cure cancer.

[close]

Did you miss the dialog about how

spoiler (click to show/hide)

she was taking the injection to stop the effects the entire time and wanted to die on her own?

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Based on her walking corpse comment or whatever it was, I'd assumed the cancer had ravaged her horribly before the nanomachines were introduced.  I also assumed she wasn't so much stopping the symptoms as preventing her body from failing as it should've long ago.

[close]

[Mupepe]

"i made them right"

"good for you sunny!"

"are you crying?  your eyes are beautiful"

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA   probably the funniest cut scene in the entire game followed closely by the awesome ray jumping out the water cutscene which is one of the coolest in the game.

And playing as Rex was fucking awesome

I hope Act 5 is awesome

[Don Flamenco]

Just finished.   Okay, that last boss fight couldn't have been more awesome.   And I'm glad I opted to watch the movie instead of spoil myself than skip it.

thoughts: 
obviously, too much cut scene...but I was expecting too much cut scene.  Only problem is that extended action sequences are part of the fray, as opposed to just codec talks or conversations.  A 20 second clip of someone shooting a few guys before a fade out is fine in a game.  But these kinds of scenes go on forever in MGS4. I couldn't help but think that these cut scenes would've made great game play.  Let us play as Raiden or Meryl or anyone else in a sticky situation.  Doing that would've made Act 5 fucking awesome.

Otherwise, fucking amazing.  I can't wait to go through it again.  I just hope that more single player content is released...there really isn't much meat to the game.


super spoiler:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Did not see that twist coming at the end.  I kinda figured there's no way Snake could've offed himself, but Big Boss was a shock.  then he completely overstayed his welcome with an epic half hour long speech...the voice is all wrong too.   I know they couldn't have the same voice, but whoever they got sucked. anyway, the story is so freaking retconned, but hey, it's MGS.  They could've told me Drebin's monkey was actually the Patriots and it wouldn't have been a shock.

[close]

[Mupepe]

I will beat this today and then I will read your spoiler Fafka and we can play through it again together

[Positive Touch]

when the fuck do you get to buy tranqs on the new game+?  i'm trying to kill as few guys as possible buy i'm getting my ass kicked on the first map of act 2.

[MCD]

i never used the tranq, just killed everyone on my path.

[Positive Touch]

a true master gets zero kills and zero alerts

anyway i'm doing a run-thru of extreme before i go for the big boss ranking

[Draft]

Chapter 3 is fucking wretched.

Frustrating, slow paced reverse escort missing for the first half.

Frustrating, barely interactive chase sequence for the second half.

Pretty good boss fight.

30 minutes of pre-rendered cutscene.

Time for a mission briefing!

[MCD]

enjoy your fanservice...

[Mupepe]

the on rails motorcycle sequence fucking rocked.  it was easy as fuck though.  how do you find it frustrating?

[Narag]

when the fuck do you get to buy tranqs on the new game+?  i'm trying to kill as few guys as possible buy i'm getting my ass kicked on the first map of act 2.

I read drebin doesn't sell tranq ammo on extreme.

[Draft]

the on rails motorcycle sequence fucking rocked.  it was easy as fuck though.  how do you find it frustrating?

You don't seem to have to do anything, the game just plays for you.

Turning and aiming is very slow, but it doesn't seem to matter, because Big Momma ( ) just plows through everything anyway.

So basically I shot like 6 Frogs off the roof of the van, and shot a few dudes in turrets or flying around dropping bombs, but otherwise I was just slowly rotating my crosshair onto an enemy that gets run over or left behind 2 seconds before I can get a bead on them, or reloading my damn infinite gun that only holds 30 bullets in the clip.

[WrikaWrek]

Chapter 3 is fucking wretched.

Frustrating, slow paced reverse escort missing for the first half.

Frustrating, barely interactive chase sequence for the second half.

Pretty good boss fight.

30 minutes of pre-rendered cutscene.

Time for a mission briefing!

The worst part about the mission briefings is that they are 20 minutes full of nothing.

[demi]

GTA4 all over? seems so

[Positive Touch]

haha no.  it's a good game with faults that suck, but not enough to sink it.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

The end of Act 2 

The first two parts of Act 3 This game is fucking awesome.

[Mupepe]

wtf junpei?  the beginning of act 3 is the worst part of the game!

[Don Flamenco]

I will beat this today and then I will read your spoiler Fafka and we can play through it again together

sounds good!   yeah, the spoiler is the biggest one in the game. 

GTA4 all over? seems so

nah.  it seems like we're all very aware of whats wrong with the game.

wtf junpei?  the beginning of act 3 is the worst part of the game!

it's just a somewhat sparse stealth sequence.

I thought the worst gameplay section was (act 4 spoilers...yep, I'm going there):

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shadow moses, for the most part.  It kinda sucks without any guys around. :\  Boss fight was awesome though, and piloting Rex was amazing...I hope ZoE3 is like that all the way through!!!

[close]

 

[Draft]

Piloting the robot was not amazing. 

[Mupepe]

You're on crack, draft.  It was effin amazing.

and robot?  He has a name and it's REX!

[Don Flamenco]

was not amazing. 

Talking about that part is spoilerish territory:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I loved that scene for what it was.  Had it gone on for 2 hours, it would've gotten old. It was perfect for what it was.  The boss fight was fun too.  Then there's the dork factor-- Snake riding a fucking metal gear?!  it can't be!

But after playing the first hour of ZOE2 just now, I take my comment about wanting ZOE3 to be like that. ZOE3 should be ZOE2 with more holy-fucking-shit action.

[close]

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I liked the Rex part.  It's the saving grace in that entire act imo.

But there just isn't enough actual "game" in MGS4 which is weird considering all the crazy 10+ "gameoftheforever" reviews floating around out there.  After Act 2 it's basically all cinematics and boss fights so you better be a MGS fan 'cause otherwise it's nothing but boredom outside of the motorcycle chase and Metal Gear Rex sequences.  And imo, the 2 action heavy acts at the beginning of the game aren't all that great to begin with.  Sure they play better than previous MGS games but that isn't exactly saying a hell of a lot.

I don't know.  It's such a confusing game.  Some of the highs are pretty darn cool but even they're marred by the game pausing to a black loading screen taking you out of the action - and why the fuck does this happen anyway?  Isn't this why we're installing the game after every act?  I guess Blu Ray is not ready for primetime.  Maybe next generation.   And the lows in the game are coma inducing - so many stupid design choices.  Why not let us actually play some of those cinemas?  For christ's sake, why make us watch 30 minutes of bullshit at the end of Act 3 when we could be playing it instead?  Dumb.

In the end, if I had to grade it I'd probably give the game a C or a C-.

[Draft]

The controls and mechanics of the Metal Gear fight aren't amazing. They're barely even fun. You have a chunky ass dodge that you use to avoid Liquid's chunky ass charge, then you do an R1 R1 R1 combo on his robot, then you QTE him. Then you shoot him with your machine gun. And you do that like 6 times.

The appeal of the sequence is that you're in a Metal Gear and fighting another Metal Gear so it's like oh my God Snake's driving Metal Gear how can that be?

And so I see the appeal and enjoyed the sequence, but yes, my statement was directed at the ZOE analogy. ZOE has fun robot fight mechanics. MGS4 does not.

Anyway I just polished off the game.

Battle with Liquid is frustrating. Can't pause it either, which is kind of lol. I was eating a plate of spaghetti while the cutscene played and then when the interface popped up I leaned over and touched start and nothing happened. Damn near spilled butterfly pasta all over myself. That fight has the same stink the Metal Gear fight has. Kind of shitty mechanics wise, clearly intended to rapidly stroke the MGS fanboy gland.

I will probably give MGS4 another playthrough, but I don't think I missed too much the first time through. This game is, without a doubt, a step back from MGS3. That game was, is, I guess, quintessential MGS for me. Perfect sneaking, perfect boss fights, lots of gameplay buried in the cutscenes.

MGS4 is amazing for two acts, repugnant for one, tolerable for another, and really, the fifth act is one room, then one boss fight, then a torture sequence, then geriatric fisticuffs.

But, I say GODDAMN, the lighting during that fist fight is unreal.

[MCD]

Draft pretty much nailed it.

[Crushed]

The controls and mechanics of the Metal Gear fight aren't amazing. They're barely even fun. You have a chunky ass dodge that you use to avoid Liquid's chunky ass charge, then you do an R1 R1 R1 combo on his robot, then you QTE him. Then you shoot him with your machine gun. And you do that like 6 times.

So it's dial-a-combo action.

[Draft]

The controls and mechanics of the Metal Gear fight aren't amazing. They're barely even fun. You have a chunky ass dodge that you use to avoid Liquid's chunky ass charge, then you do an R1 R1 R1 combo on his robot, then you QTE him. Then you shoot him with your machine gun. And you do that like 6 times.

So it's dial-a-combo action.

Dial-a-combo is OK, unless dialing means hitting one button over and over, then doing QTEs.

Then you have God of War.

[Mupepe]

there were qte's in the rex and ray fight?  i didn't get any

[Rman]

there were qte's in the rex and ray fight?  i didn't get any

It was basically mecha CQC.

[Draft]

there were qte's in the rex and ray fight?  i didn't get any

The XXX kick-kick-kick combo sets up a QTE, and then there was another one where I actually bit the other robot, but I"m not sure how I set that one up. Did happen like twice though 

edit: They weren't using the CQC mechanic. A context icon came up on the screen in both cases. I did the kick-kick-kick QTE at least 5 or 6 times.

[Vrolokus]

If anyone's looking for the Limited Edition more or less for free: www.joystickdivision.com is doing a contest right now where MGS4 LE is the prize for first place.  You have to be able to identify more of the characters in their banner than anyone else.

Just FYI.

[FatalT]

The marriage proposal scene was badass. It reminded me of the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley did basically the same exact thing, except that scene was distinguished mentally-challenged.

[Sho Nuff]

Let's have a Johnny Akiba game where you walk around and press the button to shit yourself

Wow awesome comic relief

[Vrolokus]

The marriage proposal scene was badass. It reminded me of the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley did basically the same exact thing, except that scene was distinguished mentally-challenged.

Both scenes were pretty distinguished mentally-challenged.  The only thing that made me roll my eyes more was the bride wearing a gun on her hip.   

[Sho Nuff]

Raiden breakdancing with the Gekko and using them as a helicopter was the stupidest thing I've ever seen

[Sho Nuff]

I literally cannot believe how long these mission briefings are

[cool breeze]

The marriage proposal scene was badass. It reminded me of the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley did basically the same exact thing, except that scene was distinguished mentally-challenged.

I thought it was pretty over the top and way too long.  And this is me being a stickler here, but I hated how Meryl ran out of bullets when she had one hanging off her ear.  It would have been awesome if she just ripped that off and used it.

[Mupepe]

there were qte's in the rex and ray fight?  i didn't get any

The XXX kick-kick-kick combo sets up a QTE, and then there was another one where I actually bit the other robot, but I"m not sure how I set that one up. Did happen like twice though 

edit: They weren't using the CQC mechanic. A context icon came up on the screen in both cases. I did the kick-kick-kick QTE at least 5 or 6 times.

Oh man, I didn't do anything but spam rockets and machine gun at the fucker.  *rockets* *machine gun his face*  *rockets*  *machine gun his face*

killed him in like 15 seconds my first battle (played it again the next day because it was so awesome)

[Sho Nuff]

JESUS GOD HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO KEEP FOLLOWING THIS GUY

[Draft]

The entire stage, buddy.

The entire fucking stage.

[tiesto]

Finally beat it yesterday, some of the final parts were kinda frustrating - how the hell were you supposed to figure out how to kill Vamp w/o consulting a FAQ... also, the Haven room with all the gekkos and frogs all over the place, and the fight with Psycho Mantis. I didn't do so hot in the game, got the rank of "Eagle"... But oh well, it was really cool seeing the story even if it did overstay its welcome.

[Draft]

I got an Eagle rank too. Eagle is a good rank. It means you shot a lot of people in the head. America, Fuck Yeah.

[Sho Nuff]

Big Mama isn't shutting up...oh god when do I get to touch the controller again

OH WAIT I get to save, yesss finally gameplay

OH GOD IT WAS JUST A MID-CUTSCENE SAVE ARGGGHH

[WrikaWrek]

Oh Big Mama

I rolled my eyes so hard that i almost passed out.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Finally beat it yesterday, some of the final parts were kinda frustrating - how the hell were you supposed to figure out how to kill Vamp w/o consulting a FAQ... also, the Haven room with all the gekkos and frogs all over the place, and the fight with Psycho Mantis.

I did it without a FAQ.  The Vamp fight took me less time to figure out than the Mantis one - that one was confusing.  With all of his talk about nanomachines, Vamp basically tells you how to kill him himself.


........


"I only get off this motorcycle when I fall in love....or die."

"Oh Big Mamma!"

Story of the forever!

[Sho Nuff]

"Oh Big Mama!"

My jaw went slack at that point

I wonder if somewhere in Japan someone thinks that's a powerful line

[MCD]

i think otacon told me how to kill vamp.

[pancakesandsex]

Finally beat it yesterday, some of the final parts were kinda frustrating - how the hell were you supposed to figure out how to kill Vamp w/o consulting a FAQ... also, the Haven room with all the gekkos and frogs all over the place, and the fight with Psycho Mantis. I didn't do so hot in the game, got the rank of "Eagle"... But oh well, it was really cool seeing the story even if it did overstay its welcome.

If you read the item description, it tells you the syringe disrupts nanomachines, and it tells you how to use it on others as well.  It requires a little thinking outside the box.  Or you can just talk to otacon a bunch of times till he tells you.  I think you have to kill him once 1st.

[Sho Nuff]

NO HELP ME THE BIRDS ARE PECKING AT MY FLESH AND MY SOUL!

[FatalT]

You guys are nitpicky bastards.

[MCD]

NO HELP ME THE BIRDS ARE PECKING AT MY FLESH AND MY SOUL!

HOLD HER SHO NUFF

[Don Flamenco]

So who had to worst lines?

-Naomi - melodrama extreme

-Old and Busted EVA - waxing prophetic to the bitter end.  minus points for granny cleavage and for having the only nipple slip in the game after Naomi teased for a half hour in the mission briefing

-Any Beauty and the Beast corps - lol wut

   

[duckman2000]

Big Mama isn't shutting up...oh god when do I get to touch the controller again

OH WAIT I get to save, yesss finally gameplay

OH GOD IT WAS JUST A MID-CUTSCENE SAVE ARGGGHH

Mid-cut-scene save?

[MCD]

yeah, there are plenty of those.

[Mupepe]

how do i kill mantis?