My altered view of MGS4 now that I've beaten it.

[Onimusha12]

The game seems to be the victim of questionable story telling that tries to avoid calling attention to its shortcommings by being awkward, disjointed and superifcially "artsy". This is not to bash the game or say that it is a bad game, but MGS games have always been indicative of questionable story telling balanced with redeeming elements. However the heavy dependence of this particular instalment of the series on story telling through such as lengthy and numerous cut scenes greatly offsets this equilibrium resulting in a game that is just begging to draw attention to its inadequacies and subtle awkwardness.

By and large MGS4 will be loved by people who wanted to love it no matter what it was, for everyone else though the general consensus seems to be that upon finishing it, the game leaves a rather confusing and awkward taste in one's mouth which just leaves them struggling with the dillema of, "It wasn't a bad game, but was it a good game?"

While opinions of the game range from phenomenal to reserved there is no denying there is something amiss with this game's reception.

The game seems to excel in no one single element, but rather tries to subsist on some sort of equilibrium of its modest (if not questionable) elements as a whole. The graphics, while appreciable are not bar setting and certainly not something the series had relied on in the past. The controls and gameplay are questionable at best, tolerated largely due to the ambiguity of the game's genre and the benefit alloted any sequel of such a renown franchise. The story telling is really no worse than that of previous MGS game, however the sheer amount of story telling contained within MGS4 and the game's dependence on it only makes Kojima's shortcommings as a story teller all the more clear and exaserbated.

In the end the game does not come together quite as well as the masterpiece everyone had hoped for, rather MGS4 seems to have become more of an exercise in compromise and consesions for the fans to make in their struggle to try and come to terms with this game's true merit.