A Metal Gear “game” I despise. While I do recommend that you should play it on your own so you can formulate your own opinion, if your opinion goes against mine I will unleash the locusts on your crops. MGS4 is more of a movie than a game, and people always try to defend it by saying “Oh, well at least it’s a good movie”, but it’s not even a good movie. Genuinely the only good and fun parts of this sorry excuse for a game is act 1 and 2, but act 1 has that God awful rat patrol escort segment that sucks through and through. Act 2 is perfect, peak even, even with the lame Drebin chase at the end, it’s still a really good Act. Act 3 is garbage throughout, a boring tailing segment and an awful motorcycle chase, with the only decent part being the Raging Raven fight. Act 4 is a nostalgia filled memberberry fest filled with nothing but Gekkos and Mini Gekkos, with, again, the only good part being this act's boss fight, Crying Wolf. The Rey vs Rex fight was okay. Lastly, Act 5 is probably the worst act in the entire game, the only actual gameplay (If you can call it that) is the short “stealth” section of Outer Haven that lasts about 5 minutes, then you’ve got the Screaming Mantis fight which is fine, probably the easiest boss, then you’ve got a stupid trek through a long corridor filled with Mini Gekkos, then the awful microwave hallway part, maybe like, 10 minutes total if you know what you’re doing and 20 if you’re new to it. People say “Oh, well at least the Ocelot fight is peak”, and yeah, it is, but putting sprinkles and chocolate drizzle on a steaming pile of crap doesn’t suddenly make it an ice cream sundae. If you’re familiar with Metal Gear and have played all the games before and after 4, not including Peacewalker, you’re going to get like, maybe 3 hours total of gameplay out of this. MGS4 seems like the catalyst that caused so many Sony games nowadays to be movies first, and games second. This is all criticizing the gameplay, not even mentioning the lame and lackluster story. A lot of characters in this game are either good, garbage, or forgettable. Ocelot/Liquid, Snake and Otacon are obviously the best, while Johnny, Raiden, and those two forgettable guys from the rat patrol are garbage. Everyone else is so easily forgettable, except the soda drinking monkey, I love that little guy. Giving a gag its own character, development, and romance is so incredibly stupid, if Johnny just remained a gag I wouldn’t care, but the fact that his whole stupidly forced romance with Meryl comes out of the blue and takes up most of the scenes with Meryl is annoying. Raiden’s character has been all over the place between 2, 4, and Rising, but MGS4 Raiden is by far the worst version of Raiden, even Rising Revengeance Raiden is infinitely better, but both can’t hold a candle to how good MGS2 Raiden is. Overly edgy, overpowered, and “cool” in the most generic and artificial way. “B-But he’s so cool and b-badass” but it’s like the most jingling keys type of “coolness”, anyone that thinks MGS4 Raiden is the best Raiden likes jingling keys. I can understand this jarring and garbage change to Raiden and most characters in both a meta and story way, but that doesn’t immediately make the changes good and masterful. The Beauty and the Beast unit are nothing characters, eye candy and crappy fanservice in every regard with the most generic and edgy backstory. That Angry Armadillo joke is right on the money with how The BB Units backstories are. In the realms of fanservice, Metal Gear as a series isn’t shy when it comes to fanservice, but the thing is, most of the previous Metal Gear games has their fanservice be either one and done things or blink and you miss it. Whether it’s Meryl ass shots in MGS1 or pinup posters in MGS2 and 3, but in 4, fanservice, both erotic and nostalgic are everywhere. It’s all bloated with nothing but memberberries and pinup Ladies disguised as characters with “deep” backstories. But then again, I could be spoiled, after all I've got over 100 hours in MGSV and I think it’s one of the best Metal Gear games. Overall, Peacewalker is a better Metal Gear game. The Haven Troopers are the only good part of this garbage game because they make my cocky want boing boing.
