Review: Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear Solid 4
5/5
While games have come to a new level in graphics and level of control, one thing that's been thrown out since the 90's have been the stories. A lot of the new games are based more on gun modding, big explosions and amazing backdrops/textures. Most of the best selling games of the day end up having shallow or repetitive storylines, take for example Call of Duty which is mostly a generic story but is an amazingly popular game.
Back in the 90's a lot of the games focused on bringing interesting stories, especially the Adventure Games (point and click) of that time. While gameplay and visual are important, the memorable games are the ones that also make you remember it for more than its sniper rifle.
MGS4 maybe "old" but it still beats about 99% of games coming out today, due to great mix of gameplay and most of all perhaps one of the best uses of cut-scenes in modern games. It's more of an interactive movie than a game, and that doesn't mean it doesn't offer some seriously enjoyable gameplay but it's beauty is it's amazingly written story, and how well its executed through cut-scenes and its narratives.
I've obviously not played the Metal Gear series in detail prior to this, I've only played bits of this and that. Yet the story is well explained even for someone fairly new to the series, while you might be wondering whose who in terms of characters it's not like you need to have played the older games to get into the story, that's the great part about it.
In terms of the gameplay, well the Metal Gear series runs on it's stealth system. You have the choice of tip-toeing, crawling and well avoiding as many enemies as you can or if you aren't good at that you can always engage them via the more risky run and gun. The games switch between 3rd person and 1st person is seamless, some games while have this tend to get it wrong by not having the level of zoom right or well just having a bumpy transition from one view to another.
The camo suit is definitely a fun part, and well executed. You can blend into just about anything, and it is a very important part of the game and is far from just a visual thing, again it links to the steal vs engage choice you have. Movement is pretty good, you have many ways of positioning yourself, such as the ever useful laying face up, a feature plenty of FPS/3rdPS forget about. The only problem is you don't have a jump, while you do have a sort of rolling jump you'll find certain parts where you think you can probably climb it but can't, and just having no jump (vertical) is a bit of mystery.
The PMC's (basic units) aren't too difficult, it really depends on the level of difficult you go with. You don't get a huge variety of different units, but being a stealth focused game it obviously doesn't make sense to chuck in hundreds of different units. The boss levels are pretty good, each of them different to each other and in the latter bosses you'll also have to do more than just try and shoot at them directly. The storylines behind each of the bosses are quite brutal, and well Metal Gear overall is definitely not for the lighthearted, while it doesn't have the whole overdoing of virtual blood and guts it has some very intense and "disturbing" moments.
I've also jumped into the online side of it, and while it's nothing overly special it's pretty good. You still find plenty of servers, included noob servers so you can still get in on it. Most of the players seem to be European based, so you might want to synchronise yourself with that timezone if you want to catch the most amount of hosts and players.
I could go and on and on about this game, it's been awhile since I could probably make a statement like that about a game but Metal Gear is definitely a masterpiece. Now it's definitely not for all, the more impatient of us will probably get tired of seeing its 30 minute cut scenes almost one after the other (overall you'll feel like you're watching through the whole LOTR trilogy), but for anyone that wants to go back to games being more than just flash it's definitely worth a look at, if you amazingly haven't checked it already that is. It's no surprise it's constantly referred to as one of the if not the best game on the PS3, but it's definitely more than that as genre aside it's just a classic piece of gaming/entertainment.
With another Metal Gear in the works, I'm just wondering whether they'll be able to be what they did with MGS4 cause it's definitely going to be something else to top it.
Reviews: inFamous & Army of Two
So after finishing up inFamous I got Army of Two, the two games are quite a contrast in how good/memorable they are.
inFamous
4/5
This is one of those games that grows on you, simply cause that's how the game works. At the start you're chucked in out of nowhere to a disaster zone without any explaination, and the first thing you'll prolly notice is your character (Cole) is always running. Most would get annoyed with this but as you get accustomed to it you'll realise running is all you need and end up doing cause of the pace of the game.
Even after you pass up the initial part of the game you're likely to feel frustrated by your lack of powers, and in fact some players have given up/got bored of the game and it is prolly the games strongest criticism. But don't let up, this game is great fun as you progress and get use to the controls and most of all acquire new powers. You're powers depend on the side you take, the karma system isn't perfect and could use some tuning but it's a nice way of balancing things out.
I ended up finishing the game as a Guardian, unfortunately I lost hero status during the end stages of the game due to killing alot of civilians mostly as collateral damage. But I managed to acquire all powers, and some of the powers you acquire later are pretty awesome such as the lightning.
The cut scenes are pretty good, it's all done in comic book style drawings and they look very pro and add to the superhero theme of the game. The story is quite linear but it's well scripted and the end is definitely a memorable twist, and sets itself up for what is likely to be a fascinating follow up. Without going into more intricate detail my overall stance on this game is good to excellent, the initial stages are definitely the throw off but as mentioned as long as you keep playing you're likely going to end up loving this game. Fav part is the fact that you don't die from jumping off buildings unless for ex Price of Persia or Asassin's Creed, you're pretty much invincible that way which helps alot since the game involves plenty of jumping and roof-top action.
The enemies are hard to begin with due to lack of power but destroying the standard level enemies become easy, but that said it isn't a walk in the park mostly cause enemies are always in bunches. The bosses aren't too hard which is prolly one gripe, its usually easy to understand the routine of the enemy. The AI could definitely have been better as it seems the boss levels seem canned, its a bit confusing but they're pretty easy to take down once you learn how and what they do. The game has plenty of different enemies who are generally individualist, having different gangs and levels of enemy so you don't feel like you're killing the same enemy in a different texture. You also have various side mission/achievements, it depends on your style of gaming but I didn't quite feel like doing them but some of them are pretty fun and offer some good chill time especially if you feel like you need to lay back from the usual more intense mission modes.
inFamous is definitely a must by for PS3 fans, the game is pretty old now but if you haven't played it then don't pass up on it.
Army of Two
2.5/5
Whilst inFamous got a lot of things right Army of Two really flopped. The games cover system is probably the most annoying part, the game is old so it can be forgiven on that end but it's definitely one of the most annoying cover system I've come across purely cause you're stuck to shooting in one direction.
The game goes on the theme of terrorism and the usual of Americans going in and taking them out, now the game is not a Patriotic game by any means as it includes a decent storyline. But the missions are repetitive, it's like you're hunting the same people over and over again and the bosses are so easy to kill that they might as well have 2-3 regular enemies in their place. Maybe it's to emphasise the human factor of game but it's a game after all and you don't want a boss to be a regular guy with a machine gun.
The big positive for me was the character design, the masks are pretty cool and whilst they have/do nothing in terms of gameplay they're enjoyable to browse and stare at. Gun customisation isnt deep but it's not bad either, it's just a shame some of the guns are really expensive and your earnings are relatively meager but maybe that's a good thing too as it means you're not handed things on a platter, especially since the game overall is pretty easy.
It was pretty unfortunate that the enemies had a mixed AI, whilst the way they try to find cover and flank you etc is pretty good it's also pretty ridiculous the way in some areas of the game they all just for example run down a staircase and make for easy fodder. Some areas have too many enemies, and the game could have featured more interesting tasks instead of mashing you into a shootout cause just about every level has a shootout where you have to end up killing anywhere between 40-80 regular enemies.
Things like step jumping, back-to-back and co-op sniping is alright but really it offers very little. Due to the games pretty poor cover system sniping is a bit tricky, but then again I've never been good at sniping or even liked it. Thankfully your partners AI is pretty good, this makes the single player campaign easy cause you can control your computer team-mate pretty easily and unlike some games where you end up having to do everything or see your team-mate get killed cause of stupidity, in Army of Two you have good authority on how he moves about etc. In terms of co-op the game isnt bad but it's nothing unique.
Army of Two has several problems like AI, poor covering system, easy (meaningless) boss levels, button press reaction issues and just lacks depth in what you end up doing. The game is no doubt fun and the grungy theme helps but there are so many better 3rd person shooters out there. The games ease also meant for a quick finish, but the gun modding, easy control of your team-mate (the AI) and decent storyline at least help make the game playable.