|
Now that Metal Gear Solid 4 has had around a fortnight to grace the public gaming world, those who have read a few gaming forums and/or browsed any number of reviews will notice that there is an often re-occurring lament regarding certain aspects to what is the greatest game released for many a year. These grievances, which are in no way legitimate, transpire for only two reasons.
The first occurs because the reviewer needs to find something wrong with what is the perfection of Metal Gear Solid 4. They want to pretend they are in some way ‘professional’ by not awarding a 14/10 or a 298% ranking to MGS4, but really they are just bored with their workplace like Geoff Gerstmann was and will do anything to get “fired.”
But this article isn’t about these hacks, this article is intended for the second form of person who likes to talk junk about the Solid: the Xbox Fanboy. These sub-human pieces of filth have these general qualities in common: their knuckles drag on the ground when they walk; will buy every EA title for any and all North American sports; they were weaned on a first person shooter which doesn’t allow you to lie down and in which the only all-purpose weapon you need is a sniper rifle. So if you are one of these people, and you have a program which can convert the text off this webpage into audible grunts and snarls, then please keep reading/listening. This guide could not only help you understand the radiant brilliance of Metal Gear Solid 4, but may even help you break free of the mono-system stupidity disease which has afflicted you all these years.
Installing
The first thing you will notice when you go the play MGS4, is it requires a seven minute listen time. Now seven minutes may seem like a long time, but if you use them wisely then you won’t even notice them fly by.
You can spend the first 2-3 minutes just staring at the brilliant rendering power of Snake as he chain smokes his way through half of Cuba’s finest. These sorts of graphics may seem common place to PS3 and PC players. But for our Xbox Fanboys it will be quite hard to conceive of how a console could not only render such perfection in the first place, but also on the fly during an install and without catching fire and requiring a cardboard coffin to be flown in from India.
After recovering from this initial shock, and should you have any time left during the install, you can brew a cup of tea. After all, the anti-oxidants from the tea will aid your undeveloped brain for the sensory orgy it will experience for the first time.
Narrative?
That’s right, there is a purpose behind MGS4 which transcends selling you themed cans of Mountain Dew. The creators have spent many years weaving together a myriad of plot points, linguistic cues, cultural artifacts and intricate meanings in order to share with you their take on this crazy world and human condition. You don’t have to agree with their message; after all, you are the reader of their text and so the importance is on what the meaning is to you.
But don’t be put off by a cut-scene which goes for more than thirty seconds, and which doesn’t support the current Bush administration’s War on “Terror.” Just because the main protagonist isn’t wearing a green helmet, and isn’t being told to just go and blow up a ring, doesn’t mean that ‘stuff ain’t happening.’ There will be some amazing cut-scenes involving the best fights you have ever seen; explosions and shooting and tits and high speed driving and camel toe peaks are all in MGS4, but it all needs what is known as a “context”, and this works best with a dynamic story and game play experience. The Armageddon movie’s approach of plot point climax after plot point climax after plot climax was bad enough for a film, it would be even worse if you had to plod through it for twenty-five hours of gameplay.
Why don't the maps repeat?
OK, we know what you are thinking, ‘Why can’t the story involve pointless map level back tracks in order to extend the gameplay over the same terrain I have been playing for the last forty minutes?’ Well there is a very good reason behind this. MGS4 comes on a large capacity disc format, and this allows for large maps to be stored and played through once in the game. You would be pretty upset if you went to an amusement park and were told that you were about to ride a ten kilometre long roller coaster, only to find out that the track was just five kilometres long with the attendant making the carriage go in reverse for a return circuit. So the average gameplay of MGS4 is twenty-five hours of constant change, not two twelve hour sessions of the same boring maps.
Unrelated, however, is the lovely ability of being able to come back later and play the same levels again on a harder or easier difficulty setting, looking for different paths to follow and different ways to achieve a goal. There is easily another 30 hours of play on the Big Boss setting if you want get through the game without raising an alert or killing an enemy. Pregnant women and people with heart conditions are advised not to play through in this way. In fact, why aren’t you playing WoW or cooking my dinner?
Continued on page 2
Did you like this article? Why not tip it, share it or bookmark it.
 Tips N4G
Why not sign up to our NGG Clan ladder?
|
