Metal Gear Solid 4 is More Movie Than Game
By Jonathan on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 7:46 PM PST In Editorials, Features, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Games, Impressions, Metal Gear, Sony, Sony
I’ve been saying it for over a year now: “The day Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out is the day I buy a PS3.” So on Thursday, June 12th, that’s exactly what I did. I even drove an hour to a Wal-Mart in a small town at 6 AM to make sure I could secure the special system bundle. Being a huge fan of the series, I wanted to savor the experience, so I waited until the weekend to start playing, when I could really devote my time to the game. In the meantime, I perused reviews praising the game for its brilliant gameplay and for fixing problems that had plagued the series from the beginning. Naturally, I was even more excited to begin playing. So imagine my dissapointment when I actually popped in the disc and found it to be more movie than game.
It’s easy to see why Konami didn’t want reviewers to discuss the length of the game’s cut scenes, because they take up more than half of the full play time. You thought the 45-minute cinematic near the end of MGS2 was stretching things a bit? Well Hideo Kojima was just getting warmed up. I finished the whole game in about 20 hours, and I’d estimate — since I didn’t have a stop watch handy — that most of that time was spent with the controller resting in my lap, unused. Hell, even if my estimation is wrong, it certainly felt that way by the game’s end. Rumors were flying around before the game’s release that there was at least one cut scene that approached 90 minutes in length. Konami and even other reviewers were quick to deny this, and, technically, they were telling the truth. If you put a load screen or something up every half hour, then I guess you could say no single cut scene is that long. But the point is there are looooooong stretches of time where you don’t need to touch the controller at all; several are over an hour. Sure, sometimes you’re given the option to press a button to expose and alternate viewpoint of flashback, but this is about as thrilling as pressing the “Alternate Angle” button on the DVD remote.
You may be thinking, “But I saw the trailers before, and the cut scenes looked awesome!” Well yes, there are several action-packed cut scenes that are highly entertaining to watch. Unfortunately though, most of the cut scenes are much more mundane. You’ll get a chance to hear every character’s take on war (spoiler: it’s bad), their dreams, their past, and *ugh* their inner turmoil. You wanted explanations on some things from past games? Well, they explain the CRAP out of them. You’ll find out what happened to almost every single character that ever appeared in the series from the 1960’s to the present. Remember that one character from the original Metal Gear Solid that had almost no impact on the story at all? Don’t worry, you’ll find out exactly what they’ve been up to since. And then they throw out new twists and explain the crap out of them too. Characters are literally introduced, wax poetic about the harshness of war, and then disappear forever.
But you can’t skip them, because every so often, they’ll throw in a plot twist just to shake things up. The problem is, there’s so many of them that they get less and less dramatic as the story goes on. Besides that, half of these are revealed partway through some characters over-elaborate explanations of some conflict, technology, conspiracy, etc. After awhile, I started listening for some dramatic music just to cue me on when something important was happening.
With this fourth installment, it seems Kojima has accomplished his ultimate goal of nudging the series into being a movie with a video game tagged on. He’s never been shy about his aspirations for being a film director; he was even the first game designer to actually call himself a “director.” But clearly the man needs to learn a thing or two about editing. All I kept spotting throughout the cut scenes and dialogue were bits that were completely unnecessary. For instance, we do NOT need to hear a discussion of the military industrial complex for the fifth time; we got it the first time. And we definitely don’t need cheesy, cliche metaphors shoe-horned into every other cut scene. Subtlety seems be an unfamiliar concept to Kojima. Even Michael Moore isn’t this wordy when it comes to political issues.
What amazes me the most though — and the main reason I’m writing a whole article on this one aspect of the game — is the fact that few people out there seem to see this as a problem. Ever since I finished the game, I’ve been going back and reading previous reviews more thoroughly, looking for people that found the same problems I did. Strangely, I’ve found a lot of reviewers who thought the cut scenes were too long, but brushed that aside as being necessary to reveal the story. I don’t buy that logic. Few people relented on Assassin’s Creed’s arduous conversations, so why are they letting this slide here? They’re quick to point out issues that have been fixed from past Metal Gear Solid games — notably with fewer codec messages — but gloss over the issues that have now been compunded even further. Sure, the long codec conversations may be gone, but that’s only because they’ve put those conversations into cut scenes and threw in a few flashy multimedia presentations to go with them. It’s the equivalent of listening to a political podcast while staring at the visualizer on Windows Media Player. This is one of those glaring facts that changes the game from “recommend to everyone” to “recommend to only fans of the series.” About the only review I’ve seen that called out all this problems loudly was from Yahtzee Croshaw, a man whom I normally disagree with. Metal Gear Solid 4 most certainly isn’t the next evolution of storytelling; if anything, it’s a step backwards.
What really, really annoys me about all this though is the fact that the gameplay portions are sublime. Those parts ARE the game we were promised and more. The controls have been fine-tuned to perfection, the graphics rival any game on the market today, and your objectives are varied enough to keep you interested throughout — and that’s only scratching the surface. About the only negative thing I can say about these portions is that there’s not much of a penalty for being spotted by enemies, since shooting your way out is much easier now; but that’s only something fans of the past games would notice. And this makes the cut scenes so much more unbearable, because once one starts, you know you’ve still got a half hour to go before you can go back to doing some fun stuff.
Don’t get me wrong, the game still deserves many of the review scores it got (though the perfect 10’s might be debatable). I’m just disturbed that so few people made a point of mentioning the ridiculously long cinematics, and that may be due to Konami’s restrictions. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a great game and definitely worth playing if you have the patience to sit through the long non-interactive portions. I just hope future developers take their inspiration from the gameplay rather than the storytelling.
Also i have to say that having followed alot of MGS4 coverage, you MGS4 ‘Fanboys’ are downright disgusting, i have followed games for a long time and have never come across such a horrible bunch of fans…..Somebody said something bad about your favourite game..GET OVER IT!!!!
Having read the infotech article, i feel he makes some good points, and then read the comments i will forever view MGS fanboys as complete idiots, you cannot have a discussion and cannot accept that MGS4 is anything short of a 10/10, it makes you all come off as spoilt ten year old brats
Normally i don’t get involved in bitch-fests such as this…but in this case i simply must.
I really enjoy Hideo Kojima’s work, espically the Metal Gear series because it breaks away from ‘traditional’ shooters and provides an ample story to boot….but i have to agree with the article that Killa provided and with the comments left on that site and here as well…..some PS3/MGS fans are extrememly anal about any comment they don’t agree with….to the point of making themselves look like complete twats.
The story has been a huge part of metal gear even with metal gear solid 1 por the original playstaion. This is nothing new and u knew it would have long cutscenes before u bought it. IF u didnt then u have never played a metal gear game before. So why dont u retards quit ur bitchin and dont buy the game if u cant handle one of the greatest games of all time with the most epic story of all time.
id like to see an xbox fan buy a ps3 and see how much greater it is. u dnt even have a browser and have to pay what 20 bucks monthly just to play online. btw if uv beaten mgs4 then play it again skipping cut scenes n see how awesome it is. ps, i typed this on my ps3 xbox bitches
all the mgs games have lots of cut scenes. you should have seen it coming with todays technology. i personality loved every part of the game. i could barely put it down.
iv beat it 2 1/2x already n m probly gonna play it again. i think this game had the best ending out of any other game although it may be lengthy
lol @ everyone…
MGS4 is good, cut scenes are somewhat long, but so what? id rather have a game thats has a worthwhile story then some game (e.g halo) that has such a simple minded story. Twisted and cool is what MGS4 brings, and thats whats good about it, its unique, and like some people said, if u dnt like the cutscenes skip them?
as for the article.. i think the guy likes to take it up the ass
@ Killa
I am a sony fanboy (although i try not to be completely one-sided) I agree with whoever wrote that article, except for his misconception about blu-ray: 15% of the disc is audio: 25% is graphics and props: 5% is scripted: 40% is the AI, enemy data, weapon data, controls and interface, the last 20% is the maps and finishing touches
Games are inherently interactive. The storyline should be advanced through the game. Some very notable examples of this from many different genres are Mass Effect, Half-Life & Half-Life 2, Warcraft III, Gears of War, and many others.
Cut scenes are fine and dandy, and they can add a lot to a game, but cut scenes should never be a substitute for quality gameplay. They are a vehicle to advance the story, and should be treated as such.
This is really getting to me.
MGS 4 was the first game i ever played out of the Metal Gear series. I was actually a bit reluctant about getting it as i heard a lot of talk that ppl that are not former fans of the series will most likely not enjoy this game. I now realize that all that talk was a load of crap.
After beating MGS4 i researched the other games to get a better understanding of where everyones opinion is coming from and came to this conclusion:
All the previous metal gear games, possibly excluding the NES ones to an extent because tech wasn’t as advanced back then, were all much more story driven than gameplay driven. In reality, all the ps2 games were pretty much the same exact bloody thing, with a few extra addons; you sneak around and try to avoid combat in order to get form point a to point b. Thats MGS in a nutshell. Theres some gadgets that add to the experience but its still pretty much that. What gets ppl hooked on the series and gets people playing the series is the STORY. People want to know what happens next.
Saying that a story driven game has too much story, or too many cutscenes is moronic. Especially when MGS4 is the LAST of the series (supposedly) and needs to tie up all loose ends left by its predecessors. You simply CANNOT do that without adding the amount of dialog and video that this game provides. Sure maybe some of the dialog could have been edited down so that it was shorter, but it never really posed a problem. I personally enjoyed all of the games cutscenes and their length. The point of a video game is to let yourself be immersed in a different reality and thats exactly what metal gear solid 4 delivered.
Sure, if your some1 that has the attention span of a turnip and absolutely despises story and cutscenes then this game isn’t for you, but neither are most games made outside of North America. Frankly if you prefer storyless games then wandering into the MGS series was a big mistake on your part and only YOU are to blame for your dissatisfaction. Do your homework next time on a game before you buy it. That and stick to the brainless FPS games that you will most likely enjoy and comprehend more.
Bottom line is that MGS4 has such long cutscenes is because its a game that needed cutscenes like that. It brilliantly tied up loose ends, had absolutely stunning visuals and flawless gameplay. Each cutscene in turn provided some new info and a new perspective on the current events of the game. This game deserves it 10/10 score more than any other game previously had. And if you disagree then you pretty much don’t know what your talking about and should close your browser window at once, turn around, load up your xbox or pc or w/e and go kill shit in your FPS nightmare before the fact that your a 3rd rate member of society, penniless, have no taste, no comprehension and have an IQ that barely adds up to the number of hours required to beat this game catches up to you.
@Yuri
You ok dude? you need a drink of water or something?
Calling somebody else ‘moronic’ because they don’t agree with your opinion neither makes them moronic nor you smart….it’s an opinion…nothing more, nothing less….your inability to deal with this opinion in a mature and tactful approach shows that you take this stuff -WAY- too seriously.
If i were you i’d try to find my happy place, take a deep breath…relax…enjoy some time -away- from the computers and the consoles before you have a stroke or something.
Seriously.
I accept everyone’s opinion…but when I read the comments on blogs and forums, people call themselves ‘big fans of metal gear’ and say ‘ive always loved this series’ etc etc…but then they complain theres too much cutscenes, too much waiting etc…ok its good its their opinion. But you cannot say youre a big fan of metal gear if you dont like long cutscenes, because thats actually the essence of metal gear! If you don’Tlike it, its okay…but you don’t get the whole point of the Metal Gear series
ok, sorta like mr jonathan at the top, i also said i would only buy a ps3 when metal gear 4 came out. unfortunately didnt have enough cash at the time so waited a while before i got 1.
finally i the day came where i went out and bought the console and the game, to start off with, it was exactly what i expected, great action, amazing graphics and a storyline that kept u hooked on
however i did feel as if the furthur i got into the game, the less i played and more i watched. 
not having heard anything bad said about the game, i naturally assumed all would be well. and it was and i’m pretty sure every hard core MGS fan would feel the same, having wanted some questions answered in the previous games.
i meen myself, i was really satisfied with what a played/watched but wouldnt recomend the game to anyone who hadnt played the previous games, unless you wanna get really confused (thats only if ur not amazingly good with short bursts of flash backs whilst clicking X). by all meens, do try the game, its an amazing piece of work and they fully took advantage of the ps3 system, just keep in mind you will be sitting and watching for alot of it
and yes the game didnt take long to complete but it was the same with the other 3
anyway yea just completed it and wanted to see if anyone felt like it was an awesome movie game aswell.
@ M
It’s amazing how you can take somebody’s opinion and twist it into them being less of a gamer and/or not getting the ‘point’ of the game simply because they have an opinion that you dont agree with…..sad.
Just so i have this right, any fan of the Metal Gear series who thinks that this paticular game had overly long cutscenes isn’t truly a fan and/or doesn’t get the ‘point’?!?
I think you may want to get over yourself, just because you enjoy overly long cutscenes doesn’t make you a more dedicated gamer and/or a bigger Metal Gear fan…just because somebody doesn’t like overly long cutscenes doesn’t make them any less of a gamer….it does mean however that people like different things.
For the record, i liked MGS4 just the way it is…it answered questions to quite a few characters…but i’m the type of gamer that has the ability to see why others didn’t like it….without resorting to blatant attacks and thinly veiled put-downs to get my point across.
Even though I do not own a PS3, I for one will never buy this game. And it has to do primarily with the cut scenes.
My issue with the cut scenes is not just their length. It also has to do with the absolutely terrible way in which the stories and morals of the MGS games are presented. Mr. Kojima, the self proclaimed ‘director’, has yet to discover that when you want to deliver a story, and it’s included message, you do it gradually and subtly. Mr. Kojima, on the other hand, prefers to sling all of this into your face with overly detailed, unnecessarily long cut scenes overflowing with pseudo-intellectual drivel. Rather than have the message unfold though the actual events of the game, he simply has Snake and company stop whatever they’re doing (which is usually saving the world) in order to sit down and thoroughly debate the evils of war, the harsh reality of being a soldier, etc. If the MGS games were actually released as movies, Hideo Kojima would be known as the Japanese Uwe Boll.
What’s ever more frustrating about the direction Kojima took with the Metal Gear games is that it has caused the games to stray from what they’re meant to be – tactical espionage games. Now, the series is nothing more than Kojima’s personal soap box for his views on the world.
For the record, I love games with good stories. But the game actually has to present the story to me, rather than force me to sit and watch hour after hour of cinematics. It also has to be inventive. MGS fails in both of those regards.
These are just my opinions. If you like the game, good for you. I’m glad you are happy with your purchase.
TOTALLY UNREALATED TO THIS!!!!!!
i dont know about you guys but i am excited for the “as-of-unnamed” interactive halo-movie dealybobber i keep hearing about on the interwebs. I dont know if that is what it is, but WETA is working on it, and peter jackson is involved.
i can feel my nipples get hard in anticipation.
and yes the cut scenes in this game were incredibly long. if properly done well i am sure perhaps half of what was in the cut scenes could have been explained in a lesser amount of time. and MAYBE even during gameplay.
All I’m saying, is that MGS4 is a perfect example to the industry of where NOT to go.
Have a great story, have a great game. Intersect the two seamlessly. Have the gamer play the story, not sit idly by and watch the story, before being shuttled into a gameplay segment which has no real narrative effects aside from setting up the next cutscene.
I am going to end this arguement right now
The reason MGS4 is unquestionably the greatest game of all time is because of the depth of the story so without the long cutscenes the game wouldn’t b stayin true to the franchise. Games like COD4 n Gears do have amazin gameplay and average stories bt u dnt reli get to know about the characters, so i couldnt care less wat happened 2 thm. All Soap is in COD4 is a gun with no personality ( you never acctually heer him speek ) which , although it is one of my favourite games , makes a bit of a mindless shoot-em-up game. Metal Gear jst has more class thn tht.
The fact is if you reli are a true metal gear fan thn you would enjoy the clipscenes no matter what length. So any one tht complains is officially not a fan
anyone tht tries to dispute this is retarded _ bt i will allow retards to give their opinions bt they still are officially retarded opinions tht i can laugh at 
If Your little brains can’t handle an indepth story thn they indulge in this masterpiece of a game coz the game deserves btr thn to b played by a bunch of ugly morons who dnt appreciate its brilliance 
End of the day the game has the legend of Solid Snake , the greatest Game Character Of All Time _ Just having him justifies anything the Hideo chooses 2 do
i kno theres going 2 b alot of mongos out there tht will disagree wif me n try 2 b smart n diss me lol bt i couldnt care less because i know i’m right ( its not a matter of opinion ) you’s jst haven’t realised tht you are wrong
NEXT ARGUEMENT ______ PRO VRS FiFA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
My opinion _ PRo Destroys Fifa
feel free to chip in
I ment 2 Say ** Then They Shouldn’t indulge in this masterpiece blah blah blah
sorry for the mistook
Ps The Guy tht wrote this has a small penis
Im so sick and tired of people wining and complaining about how long the cutscenes are. If you dont like it, then dont play the game. So why do I like watching Metal Gear Solid, just as much as playing it? Or why not just watch a movie? Because the MGS stories are always as interesting and entertaining as any Hollywood movies out there. In terms of Kojima ideas- they are just brilliant and super creative, the characters are brought to life really well, and the voice acting is superb..most video games, even the good ones have bad voice acting. Yes, the stories can be hard to understand, and sometimes Kojima doesnt deliver it in the manner it should have been delivered…but that doesnt take away the fact it was interesting and entertaining. Yes MGS 4 was a convoluted mess…but it was still an extremely interesting story with great characters. And it was really emotional as well. I can guarentee you that there isnt one game out there that has an emotionally engaging cutscene like the one where Snake crawls through the hall of microwaves. This is what I like…if you dont like it dont play it and just shut up with your whining.
all i can say is i love the story but hey i litterly was falling asleep waiting to play the game ahahaha, sad but true, i was excited to get into this game i did beat it just under 17 hours, but the cut scene were just to much !! i wanted a game not a fuc*in movie !!
I remember playing the resident evil series on playstation 1 and I allways loved every cutscene I was “rewarded” after doing my part. (playing)
Also the tekken series awarded the player with cutscenes when you did good.
all I want to say to you guys who don´t like cutscenes is; play doom or unreal and other games where you know you can shot things dead all day and nothing will ever change as long as you don’t buy a new game cause cutscenes are here to stay.
Mgs4 is by far the best game ever and I love any aspect of it and it hurts waiting for the movie 2009
MGS4 = Epic, Masterpiece Game
As for the cutscenes, seriously? For me it’s not a problem, I played the series since 1998 when the first came out, and I’ve been counting the days for MGS4 release, and, as a fan, a REAL METAL GEAR FAN, I fucking loved every second of the game, every single second of the cutscenes, everything. Please, let me give an advice for thoso stupid morons that are going to buy MGS and they didn’t play any of the others: Don’t buy it, buy COD4, Resistance, MOH Airborne, anything that keeps you shotting and shotting, but please, don’t buy MGS4, because you don’t have what it takes to play it, to understand it, to love it for what it is.
As for the “problem” whith the cutscenes, on your Sixaxis controler you have a triangular buton named Start, you just have to press it and skip the cutscenes, fucking morons.
maybe it’s just cause im a girl.
but i found the cutscenes incredibly motivational. it compels me to play the game and it’s absolutely fascinating!
i do agree that the cutscenes were rather heavy handed, but here’s the deal, watch them or don’t watch them. it’s not like you HAVE to sit through them *coughs*KINGDOMHEARTS*end cough*
so yes you can finish the game in under 5 hours if you run it, but it’s open to remarkable change and diversity even though you play along the same storyline.
i think that MGS4 is incredible because it allows you to participate in a movie experience. hands on. it’s amaznig. like heavenly sword. the whole idea of that game was to make it feel like you were playing in a movie. and it works. that game was also frightfully short. but metal gear solid has been made of pure perfection. it gives you a chance to really become an amazing player. become a cqc expert. learn the things that the game DOESN’T teach you.
anyways. im not here to argue, just to put my opinion out there. i loved it. ive never played anything like it and i savored every moment of it. and because of it, im a better gamer, i play differently and plan differently and i just appreciate it. lifechanging
x
Ok.. I think this is something that we shouldnt be argueing about.. If you have played the previous MGS’s you would know, and Hideo also said that this is the last MGS.. And thats whats made it, the scenes to get you know the game..
Like to be honest I love fighting games like Street Fighter and maybe Mortal Kombat BUT! they didnt have a good story line but Tekken has a crazy one being Heiachi being a grand father to Kazuya being a son and Jin being the last of the true bloodline.. and thats just the Mishima/Kazama story.. Its because of the story it gets you hooked..
Till now to be honest i am still talking about MGS to my friend that has the game and he explain his way he saw the story and i explain mine and we both fill in what we probably missed..
I think the problem is that the people that are argueing about this is that they didnt put there 100% into the game.. Maybe they had a girlfrend on the side of them when they were playing or there mum was telling them to put out the rubbish, cause everytime a cutscene came on i was fkn happy.. Even when you beat the chick bosses and Drebin talks about how the Bosses gets into the dark stages for example the wolf chick.. I had chills and my hair was up.. Was fkn awesome.. so yea, I dont know why your complaining.. If there was something to compain about.. Id say.. ……………………… Far out i cant think of one but if i do i will post it up.