I'm a big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series, but I just can't understand the love for MGS4. It almost ruined the whole series for me. The story was pure garbage (imo), and the gameplay was ruined by the Drebin Points and among other things. It's easily the worst in the series, and lacks a lot of things I liked about the previous MGS games. Hell, I'll just go through everything I hated about it.
Story was Poor
The first thing on my list is the story; it was poorly paced and poorly written. First of all, it takes forever for the game to get the message across - whatever it is. One character says one thing, and the other character says the same thing but words it differently. This happens alot, and it really drags the scenes. Alongside that, MGS4 takes forever to tell you your mission. Remember in MGS1 when the mission briefing came on and showed you all the villians and told you what you're suppose to do in a span of five minutes? MGS4's mission briefings, on the other hand, takes about 45 minutes to tell you the situation. Of course, they add more stuff like a poorly developed relationship between Otacon and Naomi and some other stuff you probably didn't care about in the first place.
Apart from being poorly paced, it's also poorly written. The story makes no sense at all, and no, it isn't because "you haven't played the previous games" (which I have by the way) or because it's "too complex" or "too deep." The story just makes no logical sense at all. The one part that strikes the most is Ocelot pretending to be Liquid, Solid Snake's brother. Ever since MGS2, we were led to believe that Liquid Snake took over Ocelot's body, and this would make some sense since Ocelot is supposedly The Sorrow's son. Maybe Ocelot inherited some of The Sorrow's power or something like that, but nope, Ocelot was playing all along. And why did Ocelot pretend to be Liquid Snake? To help Solid Snake achieve his goal. Yes, Ocelot pretended to be Snake's enemy, tried to stop him at every turn, to help him successfully complete his mission. That makes sense right?
Another thing that made no sense at all was Raiden cutting his own arm. Instead of holding the ship, why didn't he just pick up Snake and get the hell out of there? That way, he wouldn't be crushed and forced to cut his own arm off.
Also, it was filled with a bunch of Hollywood cheesiness and melodramatic crap like Akiba & Meryl fighting the frogs and Otacon crying over a one night stand. I remember my mom was laughing when she heard the line "Raiden, you can still shine through the darkness." A lot of the lines and scenes made me shake my head and blush in embarresment. The story was just horrible, and the following thing contributed a huge part of why.
Nanomachines
The answer to everything was nanomachines. Why was Vamp the way he was? Nanomachines. What made Johnny/Akiba the way he was? Nanomachines. What kept Naomi from dying from cancer? Nanomachines. It was so lazy especially in Vamp's case. So did nanomachines really give Vamp the ability to heal wounds quickly, walk on water, dodge bullets, control people by their shadows, etc? More people should have those types of nanomachines injected to them then.
Did a terrible job connecting the dots
One thing I didn't like about MGS4 was bringing the MGS3 support team as the patriots. Why? Because it made so sense at all especially in Paramedic's case. MGS4 brought up that Paramedic was Dr. Clarke, but from what we learned about Paramedic in MGS3, she stood against all the types of atrocities Dr Clarke committed; and there was no prior development that would suggest she had a change of heart or views on such things. Also Sigint as the Darpa Chief is laughable since the age doesn't line up.
Too Many Cutscenes, Very Little Gameplay
I know the Metal Gear Solid series is known for its excessive use of cutscenes, but the gameplay-to-cutscene ratio here was horrible. There's like 9 hours of cutscenes vs 4 hours of gameplay. MGS2 & 3 were half-half in terms of cutscenes and gameplay, but MGS4 was dominated by cutscenes. And you know, I really wouldn't be bothered by the amounts of cutscenes if the story was good, but alas, it wasn't. Also, the last chapter had very little gameplay; it was two boss fights, a corridor and some shitty press triangle event.
Drebin Points
Drebin Points was a horrible addition to the game because it removed the need for exploration and conserving your ammo. No matter what you did to the enemies, whether it was stunning them or killing them, you got points for it, and with those points, you could buy ammo and weapons. Yeah, that's right; you can buy ammo/weapons anytime in the game. Ran out of ammo during a boss fight? No problem! Just press start and buy some. You can just spray bullets all you want since ammo won't be a problem here.
Can Easily Run n Gun
Unlike the previous games, you can easily run and gun in MGS4. Most of it was due to the Drebin Points because ammo wasn't an issue anymore. Also, the back-up units were just more of the same soldiers you encountered on the field. MGS2's back-up units at least wore body armor and shield, which in turn were harder to take down than the ones patrolling the area. First and foremost, this is suppose to be a stealth game, and the fact that you can easily beat the game with very little to no stealthing at all means that you failed with its gameplay mechanics.
No Variety in Missions
MGS4's missions were mostly move forward and had no variety in them. MGS1 had you changing the temperature of a key card; MGS2 had you diffusing bombs, escorting and protecting Emma, disguising yourself as an enemy to find a hostage, taking pictures of Ray, etc; MGS3 had you dressing up as Raikov, planting C4, escorting Eva, etc. MGS4 didn't have any of that.
Horrible Character Development
This mostly pertains to the B&B Corps. Unlike the previous bosses in the series, you virtually knew nothing about the B&B Crops, and they didn't even play a role in the story. In MGS1, you learned all about the members in Foxhound and their abilities within the first five minutes of the game, and they did play a role in the story. MGS2, you learned about Deadcell fairly quick upon entering the Big Shell, and they also played a vital role in the story. You learned about Fatman and even had missions pertaining to him. MGS4's boss unit, on the other hand, had no role in the story and no character development. It wasn't until after you defeated them that you got a call from Drebin, telling you their backstory, but it's too late by then. Who cares about that dead character who played no role in the story? It screamed lazy writing to me.
Boss Fights were mostly poor
Speaking of the bosses, their boss fights felt like poor copies of previous boss battles in the series. It was missing the magic the boss fights were known for. The only good one was Ray vs Rex. The last fight was terrible, imo, because of the crappy controls; hell, even the hand-to-hand combat fight in MGS1 was better than this one. It was okay in terms of nostalgia, but in terms of gameplay, not at all.
Lack of Easter Eggs/Codecs
Where are the Easter eggs or cool codec moments in MGS4? One thing I love about the MGS series is that you get to learn some cool stuff about the MGS universe via the codec, as well as hearing some interesting or funny conversations between Snake and his support team. MGS1 had an amazing amount of people in your support team. MGS3 had you discussing movies with Zero and how this animal taste like with Paramedic. MGS4 didn't really have anything interesting in its codec.
As for the easter eggs, MGS4 lacked that as well. Out of all the MGS games, I've replayed MGS2 the most because of its easter eggs. Everytime I would replay it, I would find something new and interesting like getting a call from the Colonel after killing bird and beating up hostages. Sending certain types of pictures to Otacon, playing around with the Parrot, using the mic to hear hidden conversations, etc. MGS3 also had an interesting amount of easter eggs.
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There's probably more stuff I didn't like about MGS4, but those are the main things I didn't like about it. I just don't understand the love for the game nor do I believe that this is a 10/10 game. Help me out. IMO, Deus Ex Human Revolution is miles better than MGS4, and it's what MGS4 should've been.
