Current Events > Did you think MGS4 was a suitable finale to the MGS series?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I thought it was aight. The whole nanomachine thing was too much of a cop out to wrap up loose ends. In addition it retroactively degraded the mysticism in previous entries by explaining otherworldly concepts with nanomachines.

Thematically speaking it lacked the nature vs nurture theme that was prevalent in the first 2 entries. I personally was a huge fan of this, and loved how MGS2 just went head first into it by ultimately providing a meta critique on the player. Some may argue that this was just a giant clusterfuck, and kojima's message was lost in being overly ambitious, but I always appreciate an artists's strive to push the limits at the expensive of a less cohesive output. At the other end, MGS4 was very streamlined in its plot in attempting to wrap up loose ends and ambiguity as direct as possible. While this is great for a cinematic experience, it felt a bit stale to me.

Anyways, I thought it was a decent finale. Themes of acceptance play well for closure, but I do wish it explored more metaphysical concepts as they tie into human individuality; but that might have been milked dry by the first 2 entries so who knows.

Gameplay speaking the hard bounce between acts made the game feel less connected. I always appreciate a good hub world, and this game really moved away from that. I mean MGS3 was already exploring that, but this made discrete areas that were explicit to the player.

In terms of characterization, I wasn't a fan of the Beauty and the Beast unit. They were cool in concept, but they were extremely forgettable. I honestly don't even remember if they had any dialogue that was beyond nonsensical blabber. MGS1-3's antagaonistic mercenary groups were very memorable and played a huge part in atmosphere so it was a bit disappointing that the Beauty and Beast unit were so lackluster.

Overall aight game. Kinda felt like Kojima was in a rush to tie up loose ends and didn't know how to do it well. But I'm glad he did it.

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I haven't played it since release but I wasn't too wild about it. It was really hammy, self-serious, ridiculously over the top with the amount of movie vs game and the story -- especially compared to 3 -- was overall less well written and constructed. The game itself was fun though.

But no, they weren't in a rush. the opposite in fact. MGSV was the rushjob.

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the B&tB corps said something after you beat them related to their "emotion", iirc.

I agree that they were pretty lackluster, but so were the Cobra Unit from MGS3, IMO.

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Absolutely; it's everything the last game of the series should be:

Cheesy, over-exaggerated, overly long, full of suspense

Just full of itself

And my Gawd was it great

I don't get how they made MGS even more MGS but they definitely succeeded in that with MGS4 lol

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It's like Biden and Trump having their final debate.

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no

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g0ldie posted...

the B&tB corps said something after you beat them related to their "emotion", iirc.

I agree that they were pretty lackluster, but so were the Cobra Unit from MGS3, IMO.

You didn't like the sorrow or the fury? They were pretty memorable to me. Or come on, the end? I mean the end didn't have much characterization, but that whole boss fight spoke volumes about his character.

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Not really, but I'll take what I can get, I guess.

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I liked it a lot, and I thought it was a good ending point but they gotta beat everything dead nowadays

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WalkingLobsters posted...

You didn't like the sorrow or the fury? They were pretty memorable to me. Or come on, the end? I mean the end didn't have much characterization, but that whole boss fight spoke volumes about his character.

yea, I didn't care for them.

and I thought that you were talking about characterization, because I thought that both The Cobra Unit and the B&tB Corps had some fun fights.

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it should've ended on the gunshot in the graveyard

I think it was a brilliant finale and one of my favorite games of that generation

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g0ldie posted...

yea, I didn't care for them.

and I thought that you were talking about characterization, because I thought that both The Cobra Unit and the B&tB Corps had some fun fights.

no i meant characterization for the end.

Even though there were no real words spoken, a boss fight that's as well designed and meticulous as that can speak a lot about one's character without explicit dialogue. But yeah in terms of a fleshed out background, he ain't got none.

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Absolutely. It's one of the all-time greats, especially in terms of tying the story up and giving closure to just about every dangling thread in the series.

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I was pretty satisfied.

WalkingLobsters posted...

I thought it was aight. The whole nanomachine thing was too much of a cop out to wrap up loose ends. In addition it retroactively degraded the mysticism in previous entries by explaining otherworldly concepts with nanomachines.

Thematically speaking it lacked the nature vs nurture theme that was prevalent in the first 2 entries. I personally was a huge fan of this, and loved how MGS2 just went head first into it by ultimately providing a meta critique on the player. Some may argue that this was just a giant clusterfuck, and kojima's message was lost in being overly ambitious, but I always appreciate an artists's strive to push the limits at the expensive of a less cohesive output. At the other end, MGS4 was very streamlined in its plot in attempting to wrap up loose ends and ambiguity as direct as possible. While this is great for a cinematic experience, it felt a bit stale to me.

Anyways, I thought it was a decent finale. Themes of acceptance play well for closure, but I do wish it explored more metaphysical concepts as they tie into human individuality; but that might have been milked dry by the first 2 entries so who knows.

Gameplay speaking the hard bounce between acts made the game feel less connected. I always appreciate a good hub world, and this game really moved away from that. I mean MGS3 was already exploring that, but this made discrete areas that were explicit to the player.

In terms of characterization, I wasn't a fan of the Beauty and the Beast unit. They were cool in concept, but they were extremely forgettable. I honestly don't even remember if they had any dialogue that was beyond nonsensical blabber. MGS1-3's antagaonistic mercenary groups were very memorable and played a huge part in atmosphere so it was a bit disappointing that the Beauty and Beast unit were so lackluster.

Overall aight game. Kinda felt like Kojima was in a rush to tie up loose ends and didn't know how to do it well. But I'm glad he did it.

I last played it in 2010 but I'm about to replay it. At the time, I was putting it on my top games ever list. We'll see if it still is. So strange to this day 12 years later PS3 is still the only console that can play this gem. And strange to think MGSV is also on this same machine.

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I loved it.

WalkingLobsters posted...

I thought it was aight. The whole nanomachine thing was too much of a cop out to wrap up loose ends. In addition it retroactively degraded the mysticism in previous entries by explaining otherworldly concepts with nanomachines.

I was going to post this tbh.

The Beauty and the Beast were good enough. What really brought them down was their backstory. It was bad fanfiction, right down to forcing their respective animals into the origin.

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