Thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 4

Widely praised across a variety of gaming media, MGS 4 marks an interesting point in the early life of the PS3.  American and Japanese critics laud the game as a watershed moment in mainstream game design.  European gaming critics are a bit more circumspect in their praise, defining Snake Eater as the pinnacle of the series.  If there is one criticism that stands out about Guns of the Patriots, it is that the final third of the game slowly gives way to being primarily an animated movie with a few full-on gameplay sequences and several interactive cutscenes. 

Let’s establish one thing from the beginning: when you come to a game by Hideo Kojima, be prepared to play his game, not yours.  Despite Kojima’s repeated denials of games’ ability to be an artform, he is one of the closest examples of an auteur the medium has to offer.  Kojima has a story to tell, a method to tell that story, and sense that the gameplay should reflect something about that story.  The indulgent cutscenes in MGS are notorious, sometimes leaving gameplay off for cinematic presentations more than an hour long.  The scenes have a true film-like quality — staged, directed, and stylized to near breaking points.  The attention to detail in an MGS cutscene puts the vast majority of hollywood films to shame: 

 

Figure 1 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004).