"Metal Gear Solid" or "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell"?

[rocketpig]

bobobologna said:
@rocketpig: It's funny that you mention MGS4 turning into a run-and-gun game, because it looks like Splinter Cell is also becoming more aggressive in it's game design. Hell, one of the pre-order bonuses is an automatic shotgun. If that doesn't scream run-and-gun, I don't know what does. I think this is a great thing though. What makes these kinds of games (MGS, SC:C, and others like R6, GR, SOCOM) great is that you have the option to run-and-gun or to play stealthily, rather than having the developers force you to play a certain way.

I disagree. If the game is billed as a stealth experience, I shouldn't be able to get myself out of jams by gunning everyone down. It defeats the purpose of the genre entirely. There were times in MGS4 where I was sneaking, got caught, and said "to hell with it". I just started running and took down all the enemies instead of fleeing and fighting from a position of strength. What is the point of sneaking if the element of danger from being caught is removed?

It's like playing Super Mario Bros. with unlimited lives. If there's no danger of dying too many times and having to restart from World 1-1, what kind of challenge is there left to the game? What does it really offer at that point?

There are plenty of games that allow the player to play as they like, which I appreciate a lot of the time. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it works for every genre. Allowing me to run-n-gun removed the challenge from MGS4, even on Solid Normal. And before anyone says "WELL YOU HAVE TO PLAY IT ON TEH HARDEST DIFFICULTY!!!11", I'm not going to do that on a game that didn't offer me a great experience the first time around. I save playthroughs for games that really hit me with a "wow" factor in the first run, which MGS4 did not.

And R6 and GRAW don't really give you an option on how to play the game... they give you different STRATEGIES, but there's only one style of play to get through some areas because you'll get your ass kicked in 5 seconds if you try to blitz the enemy. There's a big difference between giving the player a squad to use strategically, allowing for gameplay choices, versus letting the player run through the world like Rambo in what is supposed to be a stealth game.