(The tl;dr companion video to this article):

I think one of the best qualities a person can have also happens to be one of the best ways to go about media consumption in one’s day to day: don’t take it so fucking seriously.


I feel as if I need to start posting this image as a disclaimer at the beginning of all my articles as a reminder that, I do not in fact, personally hate you and think you’re a shitty idiot with terrible taste, just because I said a mean thing about the media you like

Though I’m pleased to report that I followed through with my plan of finishing an act a day in Metal Gear Solid 4 until it was beaten, I must admit it was way more of a marathon then I remember it being. If memory serves, due to my proclivities of loving both challenge and speedrunning, I was led fairly early on in the series to chase some pretty serious “runners highs”, in normally predicating myself in pursuing “perfect stealth” runs as much as possible; aka, no alerts and no kills. On top of that, after I got good enough at speedrunning any of the Metal Gear games back in the day, I kind of just adopted the mentality of the difficulty mode referred to as “European Extreme” mode, which is instant game over if spotted. Keeps one sharp, I’ll tell you that, especially when a silent but deadly fart can alert the entirety of the enemies army on the highest difficulties.


Pictured: Snake trying to warn Otacon that he just used the bathroom and he should wait a little bit before using it after him

I don’t think I had any firm expectations going back into MGS4, as I’ve mentioned before, having had almost two decades to think about the game, my mind was mostly concluded on the matter, though my initial “first impressions” when I reviewed the game way back when it first launched was nothing but glowing praise. Definitely too young and overly enthusiastic to see the forest through the trees on that one, that’s for certain. My re-assessment, however, is that considering the eventual breakup between Kojima and Konami, and where the series went from here, which was a slow slide into a treacherously engulfing abyss, leads me to believe we’ve come full circle, where once many loved the game initially, then soured on it after time had passed, and will now show the title a little more grace, after having witnessed what a regretful future the series ended up having when all was said and done.


WORDS AND DEED TRULY REGRETTED

As is the case with a lot of games that suffer turmoil in development, you see kind of a warped sense of gameplay distribution throughout MGS4, as each act become progressively more cinematic heavy, with act 1 having a 4:1 ration of cutscenes to gameplay, and then having the ratio slowly and completely invert with each passing act. Even though act 5 does end in quite an epic manner, if you breakdown how many different “areas” the player navigates through, it really kind of just boils down to “4” medium sized areas: the top deck, the Mantis battle, the microwave hallway, and the Ocelot fight. Even beyond that, the microwave hallway is almost partly a cinematic, and the Ocelot fight, at least on lower difficulties, almost feels fairly choreographed as well, keeping the player on a rather tight lease, with almost no room for experimentation with which one can do anything with all of the skills they’ve accrued and the weapons they’ve unlocked, which is a damn shame.


You get a weapon at the last minute that allows you to physically manipulate enemy combatants….when there is literally only one enemy left in the entire game to manipulate. Anyone about to chime in with new game plus can go piss up a rope for all I care about such a comment

I think due to the fact that the game is so story heavy, is likely why I’m feeling at a bit of a loss for more clever insight on deconstruction involving the game. As I’ve made mention many times here on ATE in the past, I much prefer discussing the metaphysics of the games; the balancing of systems, the competitive aspects, the engine, the mechanics, the history of design methodology present, etc, and not as keen as so many others are on a more “literary” breakdown of character themes, narratives, interpersonal relations etc. Not that I don’t have a horse in that race, but I feel as if the market is not just cornered, but downright overcrowded with so many doing the same, its largely the same reason that when I do bring up philosophy, I tend to avoid “beating the dead horse of discourse” where banging on about the ills of capitalism are concerned. Its not that I’m pro-exploitation, mind you: but by en large, the collective internet has that one covered, me thinks.


I mean, depending on one’s interpretation, technically speaking, MGS4 kind of alludes to a Marx quote, in this scene at the heart of the Patriots operation, in that they ended up “making their own grave-diggers”, if shoehorning a mention of Marxism into this article is really going to whet your whistle any

As kind of a further extrapolation of my main point thus far, I think one of the greatest follies MGS4 is guilty of, is that it is front loaded, where gameplay is concerned, so if you kind of know the story already from your first time playthrough, it’s not quite as engaging ***Spoiler Alert*** (for an almost twenty year old game I guess?) that during the credits, it’s revealed Big Boss is still alive, and you finally get answers to what has been left obscured up until that point, but on a 2nd or 3rd playthrough, it’s not so much “I can’t wait to see what happens next!”, and more like “ah fuck, that hour long cutscene is about to start, I better go take a piss now while I still can…”. It is very much the same reason why movies famous for twists have a potency of quality in some sense, cause once you know…you know. The next best thing after that is exposing others to the twist, and reliving the shock and awe vicariously through their surprise, which is kind of a novel bonding habit, now that I think about it.


Because what’s not to absolutely love about inducing and then witnessing said traumatization of a friend, right?

I guess to make any serious comments about the narrative present in MGS4, Kojima, as alluded to yesterday, totally shot himself in the foot with some of the hanging plot threads, but then also doubling down and feeling the need to explain them all, especially as one large interconnected entity. I think the story would have greatly benefit from leaving things more exclusive in nature instead of tying everything together, especially where elements of Metal Gear Solid 3 are concerned (the identity of the Patriots is just like, still so fucking goofy to me). I reiterate that, the game has a queer fascination to it, as long as one doesn’t think about anything seriously going on within it at all for longer than three seconds, lest your head explode due to internal bleeding occurring from attempting to just “be cool” with all the nonsense going on.


Fairly certain it makes one hundred percent no sense whatsoever that Snake could somehow survive within a gigantic microwave for several minutes, but I’m just going to stop myself from thinking about it at all because it is so fucking awesome

I know we got a revamp/second coming of Metal Gear Online with the release of 4 (after being treated to it alongside MGS3), which was awesome, and stood out as having some great online to sink ones teeth into, but I always lamented that its inclusion was perhaps a reason we never got the MGS4 equivalent of a VR Missions, Substance, Subsistence follow up “expansion pack” of sorts, in which one could really put the engine of the game to its limits, and enjoy what would have likely been 100’s of hours of more content. Whether it be the online relevancy, or the fact that the team was just so over it, it remains a sad void that will forever exist for us Metal Gear admirers. This time around, with MGS4’s inclusion in the Volume 2 Collection, however, we didn’t even get a repackaging of Metal Gear Online to enjoy, so fucked twice this time round. Such a sadness.


“Being fucked twice”; not too dissimilar of a sentiment as when one has their ass kicked by a 70 year old cowboy who is also possessed by the soul of your cloned brother because of obviously sensible reasons

In trying to find anything of shocking quality to share with y’all before I wrap up for the day, I provide you with kind of a left field thought. To that point, I will say MGS4 does share some of the egoistic flaws that Avengers: Endgame does, in that it represents more of a masturbatory victory lap then an freshly potent finale, cause so much of the game is a self-referential celebratory walk down memory lane, a lot of more interesting story and character moments get swept away by the forced focus on the repetitions of the past. To follow through on this weird contrast between MGS4 and Endgame, with full acknowledgment that the next two items on my list share nothing but a similar metaphysical presence to their eventual part 2’s, respectively, is why I am under the impression that MGS3 and Infinity War come off as far more endearing “soft endings” of sorts, as there is simply no time to gloat about how we got here, cause we are still currently fighting here…with the future still at stake, and the dramatic sentiment that goes with that atmosphere is an excitingly thankful one.


Awesome line for an awesome moment; not so awesome: the next thirty minutes of gratutious exposition that follows

I guess that’s about all she wrote for now. I put off writing my Words of Wisdom today, cause I was hellbent on getting MGS4 finished before the end of August, and I happily succeeded in that notion: and with a no alert, no kills, no healing, and no continues used run to boot (only on Solid Normal, mind you, but there is time yet for upping the ante). I’m guessing I’ll write at least one more article about MGS4, so maybe in the interim, something will pop into my mind worthy of discussion. Either way…MGS4 still stands as quite the moment in time… and at the very least, an awesome ending for one of the best video game characters ever, in our guy Solid Snake.

Till next time.

~Pashford