Returning to MGS4 in 2025: A Retrospective

[Departed]

Fun fact: originally there was gonna be a Russian PMC group that occupied Shadow Moses and I am so bummed that they were cut. Some of their gear is still in MGO2, in fact. From a design perspective, it makes perfect sense and really does add to that sense of desolation that Shadow Moses evokes. All of its life truly is gone, and it does a great job of making you feel isolated. The Gekko's are certainly still intimidating and used well in this sequence, but I think I would've preferred a new mech type for this area that was still like human guards but smarter and harder to evade. The scarabs are just too easy to deal with.

The boss fights really are the highlight and I love how there are so many back to back in this one act. Wolf is easily one of my favorite bosses in the whole series, and it just makes me wish MGS4 had more of them, given their earlier plans with cut characters like Snake-Man and Adam.

I have a whole new appreciation for the Vamp fight because like you said, you really are outmatched against him and you feel it. What's great though is that the game doesn't tell you that you can actually shake Vamp off. Like, if you blast him and knock him back with a shotgun, you can run and hide using Octo-Camo and debris for cover. Vamp can actually lose track of Snake and start slowly stalking through the arena seeking him out, hunching low when he looks for you, and you can ambush him by grappling him before you fully kill him and injecting him on the spot.