Returning to MGS4 in 2025: A Retrospective

[NateDog]

I assume the version of "Here's to You" they recorded was meant for the original ending?  Snake and Otacon being executed ties in to the lyrics well enough.  If there's one word I wouldn't associate with Zero and Big Boss, it would be 'innocent'. 

Not that they could have afforded it, but I think the perfect end song would have been The Beatles' Let it Be.  Connects perfectly with the 'let the world be as it is' mantra, as well as the notion of a departed mother (The Boss) giving some much needed guidance.

As far as I know, yes. Knowing Kojima it was a creative decision that he decided upon early and didn't want to let it go. I suppose you could argue it still has some significance, not the same as it would have had had the original ending stuck of course especially as Otacon can live his life now, but given what Otacon and Snake had had to endure over the years together (whether it be from the very beginning of their relationship at Shadow Moses or the eventual creation of Philanthropy and their being villainised) and the impact it had on their lives, they still had to face years of punishment.

[Dirty Duck]

They should have gone with the original ending. I’ll die on this hill

Why do you think it’s better than what we got? It feels a bit bleak and needlessly harsh to me.

In a story about soldiers being disposable tools of war, it feels right that the ultimate soldier meets a soldier's fate.

But it’s a story that opposes that. The player and Snake spend the length of the game fighting against this system that gets to decide whether soldiers, and the rest of society too, live or die. To then submit to a fate decided by a similar, albeit smaller scale, structure of power would feel wrong. Snake’s character arc has always been about the pain of surviving on after doing terrible things, and the call to do what’s right. He is the true inheritor of The Boss’ will without ever trying to be but unlike her he doesn’t just accept dying because a government says he has to. He chooses to live the short amount of time he has left his own man, deciding his own fate at the end of a life dictated by the actions of others.

[solidsnake2003]

MGS4 is still the best game in the series in my opinion. Sure an argument can be made about the gameplay. But I still think that MGS4 still has more variety in gameplay than MGS V: TPP. MGS V may be unscripted in a lot of ways, but the main gameplay loop is still:

1. Go to Location X
2. Either of these 2 options
2A. Kidnap/Kill Target A
2B. Destory/Steal Target B
3. Exfiltrate

That is basically the vast majority of the gameplay missions for all 50 main ops and 150 or so side-ops.

[DANMATUS]

I'm afraid it's been... SEVENTEEN YEARS??? I wasn't even 17 when I joined MGSF just before this released.

I had been going through the series again last year before the announcement for the Master Collection was made, but in typical fashion I have taken a strange and long route in doing so. This is actually the first time I've done a full replay of the series since it seemed like the end for Metal Gear Solid. I had never played Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake up until this point, so I said I'd finally rectify that, then I moved onto MGS1-3. 

But I thought, "how can I possibly do this in the most difficult manner possible?". So I decided to play them all on the PS Vita (ever hear of it? Of course you have. Vita means life but this lovely little system was left to die like Otacon at Shadow Moses). Remind me never to do that again. Fighting the RAY army in MGS2 on Hard on a Vita is something that human hands were never designed to do.

I get to MGS4 and dig out THE CELL my PS3. When I started writing this I was only up to Act 3 but I decided to write my thoughts down for myself while they were fresh in my head, and then it ballooned into a giant essay. So I'm going to post it act by act as I try to write even more to ensure nobody will ever read it tidy it up. Much like each of these posts, there will be no discernable rhythm to my updates. 

Besides, everyone knows Acts 1 and 2 are the only good ones, right? Well, maybe. If this replay has taught me anything, it is that my memory of the game is not as strong as I thought.

First up, the beginning. It's quite saddening to see David Hayter doing his little "interview" on one of the channels during the intro given what occurred and the truth coming out about Kojima trying desperately to get rid of him since MGS3. Sure, he could have felt like he didn't owe him anything and he was just a voice actor doing a job, and it seems like Hayter felt the same to an extent. But this man was Solid Snake and Big Boss, and had been for years and clearly loved doing it.

Anyway, Snake is cool as FUCK smoking in the loading screen, it was all because of this that I decided to take up casual smoking on nights out, thanks Kojima. Remember when we had to endure a 10+ minute install for every single chapter change? Luckily an option to install all chapters at once to the HDD was patched in but it was a while after release. We've come a long way.

Act 1 - "Brother! It's been too long!"

I always felt like this act in the Middle-East was the very best of MGS4 in terms of gameplay. You have a mixture of outdoor environments and buildings (or the remnants of damaged buildings) to utilise, and when you catch up with the Mk II, you can influence the battle between the PMC and the militia, or just use it as cover basically. But... quite honestly I found it pretty boring this time around. I tried pissing both sides off and it never really felt like it worked like it should have, and of course you can't side with the PMC soldiers, so it's really help out the militia or just let them falter. Probably doesn't help that bang in the middle of this section is that horrific hotel encounter with the FROGS, which is dreadful on Big Boss Hard or The Boss Extreme. The amount of times you make progress towards the exit only to find the screen flashing to the continue screen because of Johnny's sorry ass getting blasted to pieces is painful.

I feel like the best section is towards the end when you get to Liquid Ocelot's camp as the openness makes every move far more risky, but unfortunately it's just a really short section. It feels almost like a very intimate (and more populated) Groznyj Grad, but only a tiny portion of it.

A word here on the cutscenes: how long does a human need to hear Drebin and Snake talk about weaponry and ID tags? If I first played this as someone that had a life or a job I'd say I would have packed it in at that point. I mean we haven't even gotten to the stupid monkey yet. A game having 9 hours of cutscenes is never forgotten once you've experienced it all multiple times, but I really did not remember how long so many of them felt. Even on playthroughs where you're skipping every cutscene, there are still multiple sections during gameplay which force you to watch vehicles or soldiers moving. Going directly from MGS2 and 3 to this feels unbelievably jarring as it can feel quite hard to have any continual flow with gameplay segments being constantly interrupted.

I just started a new run after many years, its going to be fun to read your writeup after I finish every act. Are u going to write anything for Act 3,4,5 and maybe the mission briefing aswell?

[Dirty Duck]

I just started a new run after many years, it's going to be fun to read your writeup after I finish every act. Are u going to write anything for Act 3,4,5 and maybe the mission briefing aswell?

Might wanna read the whole thread rather than just the OP

[DANMATUS]

I just started a new run after many years, it's going to be fun to read your writeup after I finish every act. Are u going to write anything for Act 3,4,5 and maybe the mission briefing aswell?

Might wanna read the whole thread rather than just the OP 

I'm guessing he did write all the acts then xD