The Official MGS4 review Thread

[TheDjib]

Quotes from "Levels" review.

Quote:
”When I’m about to enter a huge fortress, I can choose to sneak through the trenches, up the stairs and coordinate my crawling motions with the guards’ patrol routes. Or pick guards off from a distance with my sniper rifle. Or utilize the smoother control set to get Snake to climb up on scaffoldings, across walls and roll through hallways to quickly get ahead without getting spotted from a distance.

During the larger battles, I can accompany the guerrilla troops who are fighting the PMC armies and take out my bazooka in order to silence helis and armoured vehicles that otherwise rain down lethal machine gun fire. Or I can look around, sneak away from the battle and utilize the tiny robot Mk II to eliminate the lone soldiers who guard the route that leads past the battle. And even within these different manners of approach there are a great number of options. There are hiding places and possible routes everywhere.”



Quote:
”MGS4 constantly changes character. While previous parts in the MGS series have had good pacing and a large variation, Guns of the Patriots almost feels like several separate games. The different locations that Solid Snake visits are radically different from each other, both visually and in terms of how they force you to play. There are large, open areas with it’s a challenge just finding the right way. There are also completely linear sections. Enemies vary from human soldiers who make rational decisions to the occasional but very powerful mechs and tiny little robots who throw themselves over Snake.

Some parts are all about pure action in the vein of Lost Planet or Gears of War. Other times it’s a fatal error to equip yourself with anything other than silenced pistols. There are suspenseful chase sequences and mech battles. In one moment Snake is forced to use his eyes to look for signs in the nature in order to follow a person. In the next he’s forced to listen for sounds to be able to maneuver properly. Sequences where he travels alone in claustrophobic tunnels are followed by enormous battles where troops face off against each other, helis are thundering in above the ground and APCs head in between the trees.

The game constantly showers the player with new impressions, new challenges, and the end result is never anything else than fantastic.”

Quote:
A lot of fantastic games have come out in the past years, but none that has seriously given me that feeling that I’ve discovered something completely new, the way Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life or Zelda: OoT did when I played them for the first time.

…

But Metal Gear Solid 4 takes me back to that stage where everything feels new. Hideo Kojima not only surpasses the ten-year old predecessor – he once again manages to conjure up emotional storms within me that I actually didn’t know existed.

It’s not about one single revolutionary aspect. It’s about that MGS4 is so beautiful, so perfect and that it dares to get so close. When the credits roll, it feels like it’s just now that I’ve understood what games are all about.”

Comments from "Chief" magazine.

They don't divide the score in graphics, sound, etc. But they give some 'facts' about the game with the scores, nothing to take serious I think :P
Metal Gear Solid 4 is...
62% Hideo's perfect closure
20% picking up memories
15% saying goodbye
3% too much incomprehensible bullshit in between for the not-fans

Some stuff from the review text:

-They describe the gameplay as being perfect. It plays very refined and extremely nice.
-The combination of a wide gameplay, brilliant AI and fantastic design leads to previously unknown brilliant highlights. They consist of 'old school' situations were you go through bases and small corridors and options that get offered by the new generation (battlefields).
-The review describes the graphics as the best ones he ever saw in game. Not just about the detail in the models, but the total package of facial expressions and animations, enviroments and the number of details that every other game of this generation should be jealous about.
-MGS4 is much more then a game, more then just finishing levels. It's an experience, a closure of a legendary epos, one with about 50% of great cutscenes, very strong dialogue and not to forget: emotion. Maybe I'll create a better view of this when I say that after 3 days of playing I looked behind and I saw grown-up men really crying during the credits. Normally I would call them crazy, but this time I respected it, cause even this machoman was sad after finishing the storyline that had me in it's power for so long.
-Exacly for that reason Kojima deserves credit. The way the story is told, the way the plot takes a few last, very special turns; the way in which the trusted characters did their last trick; the way the motives finally fell into place and on top of this all: the tragic hero that finally takes care of his ultimate destiny.
-The way the gameplay is combined with the storytelling raises this game way above each other media experience. This is so much deeper then and experience through books or movies, so much deeper then other games. This is the true power of Metal Gear Solid: Guns Of The Patriots.