Initial Impressions of Metal Gear Solid 4
I realize I'm coming to this party extremely late since this game was release in the US last May. Most people faintly interested in this game have probably rented the game or purchased it by now. As a virgin to the Metal Gear series I was not exactly sure what to expect. The game is best known for it's convoluted complex story with multiple hanging thread lines.
It is very clear that you don't really play MGS4 but instead you experience the game by watching several long in game engine cut scenes and occasionally crawl around and kill soldiers. It's clear that the game is stealth in nature but has some action elements. I find I am fairly lost in the story but find it compelling enough that I'm play more to figure out the story.
So far the games action has been very light. I have completed the first two acts of the game and I find game play really just gets in the way of the story. It's a 3rd person view shooting game where you really don't want to shoot anyone but instead sneak around without being noticed.. As you traverse the battlefield both sides will shoot at you on site and will call for backup. If you try to shoot your way through the level you will not last long so you have to be somewhat stealthy.
In the first six hours of the game I think I spent more than half of that watching cut scenes. This really makes the game play take a second seat to the story telling. It really seems to me that MGS4 should have been a movie instead of a game. From watching the opening credits it is clear the developers are trying model the game like a movie. Still the experience is enjoyable because the production is so high quality.
Visually the game is absolutely top of the line. There are no minor drops in frame rate or any glitches at all that I've seen. It seems clear that to get this high visual fidelity the game makes some sacrifices in AI artifacts on the screen. The lack of action going on the screen means more processing power can go to pushing pixels. Hopefully the rest of the game will keep up the visual quality and add some more action.
One gripe I have is after you die you have two options: continue or exit. Well I learned the hard way that Exit does not save your game and it seems the games does not actually save after checkpoints. Seems odd since the first thing the game does is warn you that it saved to the hard drive so don't turn off the game while the HDD lights are flashing. I lost only about an hour or so of game play but it's very annoying.
So far this games has met my very high expectations. I was not expecting a Gears of War type game play but I was looking forward to an amazing story with matching graphics. From what I've played I can not say this is the best game I've played this year. So far I think the game play is actually fairly weak. Hopefully there will be more combat in the other acts.
It is very clear that you don't really play MGS4 but instead you experience the game by watching several long in game engine cut scenes and occasionally crawl around and kill soldiers. It's clear that the game is stealth in nature but has some action elements. I find I am fairly lost in the story but find it compelling enough that I'm play more to figure out the story.
So far the games action has been very light. I have completed the first two acts of the game and I find game play really just gets in the way of the story. It's a 3rd person view shooting game where you really don't want to shoot anyone but instead sneak around without being noticed.. As you traverse the battlefield both sides will shoot at you on site and will call for backup. If you try to shoot your way through the level you will not last long so you have to be somewhat stealthy.
In the first six hours of the game I think I spent more than half of that watching cut scenes. This really makes the game play take a second seat to the story telling. It really seems to me that MGS4 should have been a movie instead of a game. From watching the opening credits it is clear the developers are trying model the game like a movie. Still the experience is enjoyable because the production is so high quality.
Visually the game is absolutely top of the line. There are no minor drops in frame rate or any glitches at all that I've seen. It seems clear that to get this high visual fidelity the game makes some sacrifices in AI artifacts on the screen. The lack of action going on the screen means more processing power can go to pushing pixels. Hopefully the rest of the game will keep up the visual quality and add some more action.
One gripe I have is after you die you have two options: continue or exit. Well I learned the hard way that Exit does not save your game and it seems the games does not actually save after checkpoints. Seems odd since the first thing the game does is warn you that it saved to the hard drive so don't turn off the game while the HDD lights are flashing. I lost only about an hour or so of game play but it's very annoying.
So far this games has met my very high expectations. I was not expecting a Gears of War type game play but I was looking forward to an amazing story with matching graphics. From what I've played I can not say this is the best game I've played this year. So far I think the game play is actually fairly weak. Hopefully there will be more combat in the other acts.
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