GUNS of the Patriots

[MGWSpike]

MGS4 drastically upped the number of weapons compared to the previous games (list here). I'm looking forward to hear your opinion about it. 

Here are several questions to help start the thread:

- Which weapons were your favorites?

- Did you enjoy being given the choice between various weapons or did you think it was useless (you kept using the same limited number of weapons)?

- Did you think it made the game too easy or too action-oriented?

- Did you think there was enough gameplay to use said weapons?

- Were you disappointed that a few weapons from previous titles didn't come back? I'm thinking about the FAMAS, for example.

- Were you disappointed by the lack of customization? I'm thinking about how you couldn't attach a suppressor to the Five-seveN here while you could in Ghost Babel, for example.

[BigBrother]

I actually really liked it. It felt like an evolution in gameplay allowing for far more shoot-outs. The kinda....set piece action scenes always felt clunky, I recall allowing weapon customisation allowed for individualisation and specialisation to account for the approach you wanted to use. I also really liked how it tied into the narrative of the game.

[starschwar]

Here's a list for anyone whose memory needs refreshing:

https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_So...e_Patriots


- Which weapons were your favorites? Because of the backpack and cutscene auto-switching, I wound up using the MK2 Tranquilizer, Operator, and M4 Custom a lot. Beyond that... Glock 18 is a must for the bike chase. SOCOM for Act 4. Desert Eagle for "suit" replays. XM8: Because you know it's a mid-late 2000s military game if that thing's in it! For a few years, it was going to be the next big thing, but it wound up being nothing. Mk 14 was great for ranged stealthy sniping. The rest I used randomly at a whim.

- Did you enjoy being given the choice between various weapons or did you think it was useless (you kept using the same limited number of weapons)? I enjoy the variety, but it would have been way more enjoyable with an MGS2 style inventory rather than having to swap out the few backpack slots.

- Did you think it made the game too easy or too action-oriented? Not really. There's a general shift to action after the escort mission in Act 3, but that has more to do with design than Drebin's menu.

- Did you think there was enough gameplay to use said weapons? I wish there were more acts like the first two. After years of hyping up "sneak through a freaking warzone!" the shift away felt less satisfying, especially when human enemies were pretty much absent in Act 4.

- Were you disappointed that a few weapons from previous titles didn't come back? I'm thinking about the FAMAS, for example. FAMAS was the big one. All that MGS1 nostalgia - it should have really returned. I prefer the M9 to the MK22 but that isn't the end of the world. USP is just a smaller SOCOM, it's okay to skip that one.

- Were you disappointed by the lack of customization? I'm thinking about how you couldn't attach a suppressor to the Five-seveN here while you could in Ghost Babel, for example. Yes, the idea was really half baked compared to both contemporary titles and especially what you could unlock in Phantom Pain.

[NateDog]

I thought there were way too many weapon types, nice to have the option but felt a bit odd for what was an entry into a stealth series. Felt like it fit in with that very early "this is FPS!" trailer though.

[Dirty Duck]

The gun customisation and Drebin's shop were things I was immensely excited for before playing MGS4.
I'd sit and watch videos like this and be amazed at the options on display:


It made the game seem truly next generation in a big way. It also fed in very well to the themes of the war economy and war as a business-going from procure on site gameplay to having your very own deals on wheels gun salesman.

I also loved the things that weren't shown off pre-release like the emotion bullets you could get after beating the members of the B&B Unit.

That being said I reckon I probably only used a select few weapons unless I was expressly trying to experiment and piss around.

[Departed]

Which weapons were your favorites?

One of the things I'm most excited about coming back to MGS4 over is finding out this exact question. I think my favorite was the sawed off, because I love a good shotgun in any video game, but I never did enough with the guns beyond sticking with the M4 in most playthroughs so I plan to remedy that here.

Did you enjoy being given the choice between various weapons or did you think it was useless (you kept using the same limited number of weapons)?

I kept using the same limited amount of guns but the option for having so many meant the game could tailor itself towards any preferred playstyle. It also gave you incentive to keep saving points for the super expensive attachments and weapons, like the tornado musket.

Did you think it made the game too easy or too action-oriented?

The dirty little secret about MGS is that these are not difficult games. None of these games are designed in a way where you can't just bend it over and break its difficulty in half, and I think that's to its credit. MGS has never been about difficulty but creativity. Kojima himself has stated even more now that he prefers designing games where players have an excess of options to tailor the experience in a way that feels unique to them and gives them input. I think the surplus of different guns do just that, with a variety that work for long range, mid range, getting up close, mixing all of the above, heavy duty action, or absolutely bonkers and silly annihilation.

Did you think there was enough gameplay to use said weapons?

Yes and no. MGS games aren't long but they're very replayable and MGS4 lets you keep all of your toys for new runs, if I remember correctly. So you get plenty of bang on the subsequent playthroughs. The reason I say no as well though is because MGS4 does a little too much, and that mechanical inconsistency renders a lot of your toys useless after a while. All non lethal weapons are pretty worthless for most of Act 4, and Act 5 only has two corridors with human enemies. Most of the bang you get for your buck is in the first two acts which I think is MGs4's biggest weakness. The rest of the game isn't bad but the moment to moment gameplay is never as good as those first two acts.

Were you disappointed that a few weapons from previous titles didn't come back? I'm thinking about the FAMAS, for example.

MGS4 had so many weapons that it would be impossible for me to be disappointed by their absence. If anything, I was disappointed that future games didn't keep the same weapons types as MGS4, even if MGSV had the best weapons customization. It still never had the one-handed sawed off or the tornado gun.

Were you disappointed by the lack of customization? I'm thinking about how you couldn't attach a suppressor to the Five-seveN here while you could in Ghost Babel, for example.

MGSV forever holds the title of best customization of weapons in any shooter I think I've ever played, but MGS4 wins in terms of just sheer variety of guns that actually feel different from one another. There are so many different assault rifles and snipers, each that feel truly unique in a way not every weapon from PW or MGSV did. I think that more than makes up for the lack of customization, plus it means some pistols aren't one-size fits all weapons either. A Five-seveN is better as an in-action side arm that packs a little more punch for when you gotta reload another weapon, and something like the standard pistol with a suppressor is better for slow, covert headshots in stealth.

Personally, the guns, overall, are the biggest incentive to keep replaying MGS4 and I plan to utilize that more fully when this releases in a few days than I ever did on the PS3. I want to finally experience what a truly busted loadout feels like and how I can just obliterate an entire battlefield with the weirdest guns ever introduced to a video game.

[Tricerius]

It's been a hot minute, but from memory, most weapons went unused simply because the basic M4 and 1911 were (usually) the superior picks, both due to upgrades and suppressors. I think that the only unlock/pickup I used (besides the solar gun) was the M82, and I think the Mk23. There's also the fact that MGS as a whole funnels you into not using lethal weapons for the highest ranks.

With that being said, more options are, if nothing else, never a bad thing, and it both served to address the obvious fault point of not being able to actually procure weapons from anywhere other than the designated spots, and it was incorporated in a way which served a broader story point (Drebin, him bothering to involve himself with you on a surface level, how to crack the ID chipped weapons, etc).

I did use the Type 17, the AN-94 and Tanegashima for the novelty factor though.

[BULUPTAX]

I wanna start off by saying how GREAT it feels to be playing MGS4 on a current platform. I really enjoyed revisiting it. I know many had mixed feelings on it but it was the first title I properly played and it got me into the series as a whole

I used to think that it was silly that they gave you so many guns that you don't get many chances to utilize in a single plathrough. But now I feel like it might've been a narrative decision, commenting on the games whole thing of "the war economy" and the worlds obsession with war and weapons.
I still only ever seem to use the weapons given to you though, the tranq gun, Operator and M4

It was really strange having access to so much compared to the previous games where there's only a handful of weapons and they feel more like tools with specific uses. But I also like when games encourage experimentation and multiple playthroughs like that. I feel like MGS in particular has always been pretty good at giving you plenty of stuff to muck around with on repeated playthroughs