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Closure, at last!
I'll be honest, this was my first actual experience with the Playstation 3. I’ve never had the chance to play one until Jess bought one and was gracious enough to let me borrow it. I am proud to say, however, that this is our site's first Playstation 3 review, now we probably seem much less biased. But enough about that, though; it’s time to move on to the review of Metal Gear Solid 4. This was THE game I wanted to play on the system. I needed closure after playing the first three games, and hoped this game would offer that. Thankfully, it did.
The Metal Gear games have always focused more on stealth infiltration rather than just barging in to a place with guns blazing. In this game, however, it seemed like there were more gunfights than sneaking. This is more of my playstyle I suppose. I never was very good at sneaking so it always confused me why I liked this series so much. It must be the story. Even though it is at times overly complex and somewhat confusing, it’s still quite intriguing. It does comes together quite well in the end, though. It would take me too long to explain everything. This is not a game you should play if you have not played the first three games. Absolutely nothing will make sense to you.
The game is actually somewhat short on gameplay. However the gameplay that is there is enjoyable. As I said before, it felt like there was significantly more fighting in this game than in the other games. Not that its a bad thing, it was just kinda strange to see in a series that usually punishes you for engaging in open combat. Really though, it just felt like the gameplay was a bridge in between cutscenes, which was the biggest part of the game. Somewere over a half hour long. This could potentially be a turn off to some players. Although, if you're playing this, you've most likely played the other three games and know what to expect.
At least the cutscenes are interesting to watch. The story is full of “Oh Snap!” moments where it throws in some rather surprising twists and turns. A warning though, make sure you clear out a good chunk of time when you get to the end of the game. From the beginning of the final battle to when “The End” appears is about two hours. It's been about five years since the events of Metal Gear Solid 2, and yet Solid Snake seems to have aged about 30 years. This is explained in the game, it would be a huge spoiler if I revealed why, so I won't. I also liked that there were plenty of funny references to the previous games. A lot of them seem to want to remind you that you're using a Playstation 3.
It was said that this game would only could only be done on the Playstation 3. I have to disagree. While visually it does look amazing, I see no reason why this game could not be on the Xbox 360. It just might take more disks to do so.
Soundwise, its top notch. The voice acting is really good, mostly because the actors are probably quite familiar with their characters, having played them in pretty much every game up to this point. The score also sets the mood well, especially in the final battle, where it plays a medley of themes from past Metal Gear games.
It's a fairly beefy game too, longer than most of the other games in the series. It took me around fifteen hours to complete the main story line. I didn't really do anything extra, just ran from point A to point B. Didn't really go out of my way to find secrets or anything. You also get items at the end of the game depending on your performance that carry over on your next playthrough. This is standard with the series. Also, there is Metal Gear Online, which is the online multiplayer game. I didn't have a chance to try it out, but all these things combined would add significant replay value. Even after playing the main story, I will still buy it when I get my own PS3, or if it does come out on 360, whatever comes first.
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System: |
Playstation 3
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| Genre: |
3rd Person Action
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| Experience: |
Finished the main story in 15 hours
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