This is an IGN opinion piece from Charlie Lopresto, who believes that love can bloom, even on a battlefield. He first encountered Metal Gear Solid on a demo disc from Pizza Hut and has since completed three hundred missions in VR– the kind that’s indistinguishable from the real thing.
Like Old Snake, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a fossil. A genetic dead-end of gaming evolution, the unhinged and overflowing masterpiece that barely left a mark on the artform. Despite its commercial and critical success, MGS4 is rarely regarded as top tier Metal Gear. But is that actually fair?
Trapped on dead console hardware for the better part of its hard life, thanks to the new Master Collection Vol. 2 it’s finally possible for everyone to experience MGS4, from series diehards who first fired it up in 2008 to people completely new to Metal Gear who have absolutely no idea what they’re in for.
All of them will reckon with the many, many questions MGS4 brings to mind, like: Will we ever see a game like this again? Why did we stop talking about it? And, perhaps most importantly: MGS4 is really good, isn't it?
Hideo Kojima did not want to make Metal Gear Solid 4. He publicly declared his desire to end the franchise as early as MGS 2, then proclaimed that he was finished with the saga after Snake Eater. Kojima’s words were weary but his deeds said otherwise. He wasn’t really ready to move on– both of those games ooze with a sense of momentum and life.
Guns of the Patriots feels different. There’s a gloomy weight to the game, like a funeral – the raucous kind where friends, grudges, and flames gather to settle scores, awkwardly hook up, and celebrate the end.
Prior to MGS4, we’d last seen Solid Snake in 2001, when he dropped a prophetic monologue and vanished into the streets of lower Manhattan shortly after the former President of the United States crashed into the city with a giant sci-fi submarine. As situations go, it’s certainly one that begs for some followup, and after years of fans demanding the return of the Legendary Mercenary, Kojima obliged in trademark trolling fashion.
You don’t get the cocky, mech-smashing super soldier who slays Tengu by the dozen with a metafictional bandana. Kojima, who reportedly received death threats over his reluctance to move the story forward with MGS4, instead delivers a feeble, actively decomposing relic. Old Snake grunts, screams, coughs and gags wetly as he crawls in agony through his final mission, all for the privilege of being allowed to die before his poisoned blood wipes out humanity. Old Snake was punished before Punished was cool.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/metal-gear-solid-4-the-flawed-masterpiece-kojima-didnt-want-to-make
