Metal Gear Solid 4- Does anyone else think it's massively overrated?

[ShadowSoldier]

Reasonable said:
I don't think it's massively overrated, although coming to MGS through this game, I did personally find myself feeling similar, if far less intense, about aspects of the game.

For me, coming from Splinter Cell and Thief (with Thief as the true best stealth titles IMHO) the movement and interaction seemed very odd and limited - unable to climb anything other than specific boxes, very button intensive to chose to hug a wall, hang down, etc. and again only in specifically allowed areas, no jumping, etc.

However, I accept that MGS4 needed to remain faithful for the fans and core audience who I presume like and welcome familiar controls, and focused on getting to grips with what was there rather than fighting against it.

Overall I found Snake could mostly do what I wanted, but that the method of control seemed awkward to me due to past game experiences.

Gameplay was okay, but it felt to me the game was slightly caught straddling two fences - allowing for stealth and in terms of the internal scoring rewarding great stealth the most, but not requiring nothing but stealth and allowing you to easily run and gun as well (which I confess I ended up doing more than I should have been if I was trying to play Snake 'perfectly').

Perhaps more long time MGS fans could confirm or deny this - but I got the feeling a more stealth orientated title had been tweaked to allow more 'run and gun' as well.

The plot was okay if a little bloated sorting out loose ends and stuff from previous titles - but again that was for the folks who'd been there from the start, and I can understand that : I accepted it was my problem coming in on the 4th part of a story!

At least they let you skips cutscenes, etc. so if like me you were new to the plot and wanted to skip you could (I didn't for the most part, and I did make use of the free MGS database from PSN to help fill in backstory which helped with some of the more obscure references).

The graphics I thought were good, and it still looks nice enough today, particularly the character models (not just the characters, but stuff like the Geko's - a bestie I thought was a superbly mad bit of design), but the levels, etc. did seem a little small and perhaps a little bland in detail.

Again, though, this felt like it was more down to how a MGS game is traditionally designed. I did expect more from the engine though, for example the ND engine for Uncharted is a lot better overall, and I suspect would actually support a MGS game better than the MGS engine! The use of streaming vs loading apart from major location moves would be great, plus no big install either.

There were some great set pieces though, I thought, such as when on the bike, on Drebin's vehicle and some of the bigger shootouts. Some of the stealth worked well too, although the levels where you are following Naomi using IR, etc. I found the boss fights a bit mixed - but I hate boss fights. So for me it was the usual mix of admiring the great character designs on the bosses but wishing I didn't have to repeat the same moves quite so many times to gain victory.

So overall I found the title solid if perhaps not the amazing experience I'd been hoping - but I think a lot of the scoring, etc. here and by reviewers is based on taking MGS4 as a MGS game rather than perhaps scoring it more harshly vs what you could do today with controls, etc. - simple push to hug walls, context sensitive controls, etc. plus more freedom to climb, jump, etc. as and when you want and a different approach to level design - but then maybe it wouldn't be an MGS game in a sense.

My major gripe - which again though may be a function of a MGS game - was the coolest stuff seemed to happen in the cutscenes! Raiden taking out Geko's easily, lot's of cool swordplay, etc. I found myself thinking 'hey, I want to do that!'.

So not massively overrated, no, but perhaps a little overly revered due to it's history and perhaps allowed a little too much leeway on controls and innovation.

@Bolded

Yeah the controls were tweaked to allow that style of gameplay. They wanted to try and give players a choice of either sneaking through a level or just run and gunning it. If you play other MGS' you'd know that the earlier titles were a bit more restricting when it came to that aspect.

And for those of you saying this was my first MGS game and I didnt enjoy it. I have a question. Why would you choose the Fourth installment (And conclusion) to a franchise as your first foray into the series? That doesn't make much sense to me, especially considering how story-oriented MGS truly is. Of course you're not going to be able to appreciate the subtle things the story, characters and settings that the game presents to you.