IGN: Is Metal Gear Solid Overrated?

[richardhutnik]

I am going to chime in here. Take my view as someone who never really got into the series at all, but has owned every game in the Solid series, outside of PSP stuff. I got into it, because of the buzz about it.  MGS4 is the only Metal Gear game I ever played through completely.  Oh, I also own the first MGS Ac!d game, on the PSP, by the way.

I am of the belief that this is NOT the "best eva" unless you get sucked into the Metal Gear universe. The game has flaws and cracks with it, that get exposed when you factor in what Kojima was trying to do. The end result is the flaws stand out as far as it being a videogame goes. The cutscenes in MGS4 are WAY TOO LONG. It ups the attempt to tell a story, but cuts down the gameplay, which is what videogames are about. And the game play is a bit pokey in nature. As a shooter, it works, but other shooters do better.

And then, let's look at the story. Unless you are a deep down fanatic, who had followed every nuance of the game world, and played every game in the series, the story is confusing, muddled, and all over the map. It kinda comes together, but does so through some really weird events, like the personality of someone transferring over to someone else via the grafting of an arm onto them? Seriously fans of the series, WTF? Why would anyone not caught up in Kojima's "awesomeness" find that a realistic plot point?

Can I go on here about the entire "War economy" bit? Kojima believes that we can have a world that is completely funded by war? Seriously? Who here believes that? Exactly where does the money and production come from? You blow stuff up and do mayhem. Historically, wars were fought to gain large amounts of resources. Maybe the rest of the MGS story explains how in Kojima's world, that is possible to have, without having resources to fight over.

So, I will close here by saying that MGS ends up trying to bring the pacing and storytelling of a movie into videogames, so it feels AWESOME and high production, but then gets handicapped by videogame conventions and absurdities we are used to in videogames that we accept. The end result is a videogame that has cut scenes that run WAY too long, and something akin to an interactive movie with the absurdities of videogames in their plot points.

So, for my take it feels like a hollow movie like experience, but still AWESOME in production value. As far as production value to get a movie experience, one is hard pressed to find something greater. But, I believe there is other videogames that deliver better on the full storytelling experience that FEELS like it could be a movie. I count Uncharted as one.

Anyhow, I also believe the game gets overhyped due to the fact you have Metal Gear fanatics who are followers of it with cult-like devotion, and the fact that MGS4 is a PS3 exclusive, it gets held up as ammo in a fanboy war, so saying it is "The best game EVA!" is a way to score points to get people to buy a PS3 over a 360. If MGS4 comes to the 360, this will get muted.

Ok, so to wrap up, MGS4 is a very good to great (depending on your thoughts of the MGS series) that belongs on a PS3 owner's list of games to consider buying. But it isn't the "Best game ever!" and other people have explained why it isn't.