Great game. Great gameplay. Fantastic sound =)

My favorite MGS to date. I am close to the end of Act 2 right after the boss fight. I am now chasing down the girl.

I like everything about this game. As for people not liking the fact that the cutscenes get longer, and play gets less as the game goes on, the plot is about control. I think it's fitting that as you go along, you lose more and more of it. If it's annoying, it's the intent. What better way of expressing how loosing control sucks, then to put you though it. I think it's clever.

I've completed the game on Solid Normal and Big Boss Hard; I'm extremely impressed by the game in a whole. The entire wraping up of most of the lose ends was superb and the new plot line was also awesome. The ending is a different story though I can't say 100% it was masterful due to how much it caught me off guard; you were right earlier when you said NO ONE can predict the ending. Best game I've played in my life, there are no exceptions that can currently surpass this for me.

It's an awesome game.

Just started my second run. This time I'm going to take it easy and really soak up more of what the game has to offer, as now there's no urge to 'get to the next section to see what happens.'.

The Japanese game has 2 'normal' difficulty levels. Not sure if other regions have that. I beat it on the easier of the two first time through, and this time I'm on the next one up (can't remember the names now). Seems quite a bit more difficult already.

I really enjoyed this game, I just beat it not too long ago with and clocked in at 20:34:29 on the Solid Normal difficulty.

Kojima needs to make a spin off that focuses on the new gameplay mechaincs introduced in this game. I want more sneaking in a warzone damn it!

@hanafuda - Yea, they're probably in every region. They're called Liquid Normal and Solid Normal.

^

Interesting.

In Japan I'm sure it is Naked Normal and Solid Normal.

Gameplay is great.

Cutscenes, not so much. They mix some great cutscenes in between complete shit cutscenes while all of them enjoy writing that I could have turned in to my creative writing class... In the third fucking grade. Terrible.

I'm actually kinda digging the story. What I'm not digging is Kojima's method of taking what should be a simple 30 second scene and turning it into a six minute shitfest that explains the same point over and over and over and over and over and over again. Maybe if you're as dumb as a stump and like being treated like a child, you'll appreciate this game's dialogue.

For those of us with a brain, a more sparse approach would be appreciated. There was one scene that I had figured out within one minute of the scene's start... The problem is the rest of the scene told me nothing more than I already figured out and Kojima rambled on about bullshit for over 8 minutes after that. Maybe some people like being spoon-fed intent... I. Do. Not.

Presentation is great, though. I still love the little touches in the game.

I think this is probably one of the best games I've ever played. I love the control scheme, I don't really understand why people complain about it so much. I mean, in what other game can you grab a guy, shoot his 2 buddies with a tranquilizer gun, slit the guys throat, whip out an RPG and shoot the APC, then whip out your M4 with red-dot scope, silencer, and M203 grenade launcher and take out the rest of the enemies? Then look at a Playboy to reward yourself on a job well done (not that I've done this...)

I love the graphics. The in-engine cutscenes are amazing. The character models are very well done. The environment is hit or miss, but overall was good.

Acts 3 and 4 were very nice surprises. Game is about as long as MGS3. I beat both MGS3 and MGS4 in about 14-15 hours my first time. I do wish the game was longer, but that's only because I love the MGS series so much, and wish it never ends.

The first boss fight was okay. The second and the last boss fights weren't that great. But the other 2 or 3 were awesome (depending on your definition of a boss fight).

Ending wasn't that great IMO. It's unexpected in a "wow this feels completely random" instead of a "wow, I wasn't expecting that to happen" way. Which is bad. But it does give a fair amount of closure to everything which is pretty impressive considering how many things he had going on in the previous games.

Some of the cutscenes dragged on (well a lot of them), but for some reason it didn't bother me as much as the cutscenes in MGS2 or MGS3, where I would get restless halfway through a cutscene.

I'd rate the MGS games in order. Four being the best, 1 being the worst. Based purely on gameplay of course. Because in the end, that's all I really care about. Story wise, I'm not too sure how I'd rank them. Probably 4 -> 1 -> 3 -> 2. But only because 4 "finishes" the story.

@ Rocketpig

Which cut scene explains the same point over and over?

I wonder how much the translated versions veer from the original?

So I finished the game! It took me around 16 hours to beat and I have to admit it was a GREAT game. I'm working on my second go through right now, this time I'm trying to not die and not kill anyone ha ha. Make sure when you beat the game you pay attention the the credits. I hope they make MGS5 or a spin off!