I think you just had a bad experience. You couldn't get into the story, you didn't really explore the gameplay in depth. Things like that. I find that sometimes I hate a game the first time round and it takes me a second playthrough to appreciate it. When your opinion differs so greatly to the vast majority it's more likely your fault than the game's.

Nah. Differing quality metrics, etc.

I also got into this game late. It was a pretty fun game. I was more impressed by the gameplay than with anything else about it.

not really i played them in order.

on Ps1 then bought a PS2 and Zone of the Enders (it had MGS2 demo) then got MGS2 , then substance then MGS3 , and yes i played all of them more than enough to understand the whole storyline.

and i LOVED MGS4 it was a very emotional ride, everything i remember from the old games got to an ending , snake got old. .....ect it was just a beautiful game

in a dramatic sense, not so much character or story, made it worse for me, well, more like funny, but I still have the game so I obviously don't think it's a bad game, just far from the best ever.

not refering to the story, not the greatest story ever either but it's definitely decent, it's the dramatic part of it, pure JP emoness, if you've ever watched their drama or things as such on TV, they usually give me good laughs. I don't think it's a bad game, it's in my collection.

Ok, I will now understand Kojima was doing a spoof of big-budget action films, fitting along the lines of Team America World Police, whose objective is actually to do spoof and satire regarding what it is doing.  It isn't meant to be a serious piece that looks at the nature of war, but has the war economy as a reason to blow stuff up.  It wants to feel like it is great storytelling, and make you feel like you are playing a big budget movie.  And it uses internal logic that is seen as brilliant to those who are fans of the Metal Gear universe, because it is how they want the world to be.  And all the inside jokes are seen as brilliant. 

It is this very uneven tone that has it suspect as great storytelling.  I guess it is a throw back to the game side of things.

By the way, don't pick on Drebin's monkey.  Him and Drebin were two of the best new characters in the game.

Good game, probably in my top 15 or so this gen. It is also the 3rd best MGS game, after 1 and then 2, but better than 3.

But see, here's where I think that the game falls down. I usually go through games fairly quickly, and don't dawdle, particularly a game with great cutscenes. I want to get to those cutscenes, I'm a reward kind of guy. If I have to go out of my way to experience a game to it's fullest, then that is a fail in the gameplay department. You shouldn't have to have some kind of inner understanding of the games mechanics to really enjoy it. The game should wrap you in it's mechanics and suck you in and force you to experience it. Really it should. There should always be an option to skip cutscenes, make the game easier for lower skill gamers, but there should never be an option to miss out on the core gameplay experience, which this game does.

He is a techie who likes to hide in a lab somewhere and not get shot at.

people won't get that stuff unless they've played 1-3, and a lot of people haven't, and won't be able to experience the MGS inside jokes as much, my favorite one remains the shadow moses MGS 1 flash back, that was pure awesome when I first got to that part and I was like "WTF!?!?! NOWAY!" best game ever though..... I don't even think it's the best MGS, so I can't promote that at all.