Kojima Productions
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

The current generation of video games seems to me to be the most unhappy ever since the days of Pong, and I believe that the queen of such mediocrity can be considered Sony, which with its PS3 is essentially undoing all the positive contributions it made to this reality since the first half of the 90s. It is increasingly evident that the theme is now to exploit hugely popular sagas to the core for the new gemu otaku thirsty for high-definition spectacle and dizzying special effects but lacking any gaming significance.

I thought that with the relatively recent "Final Fantasy XIII," the degradation had reached its peak and would be hard to match in this respect, but I was evidently wrong.

"Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" (which I had the, ehm, pleasure of trying and completing only recently, although it has been out for a couple of years) is enthusiastically reviewed by every major media outlet and some define it as "not only the best game for PS3, but the best game of all time." Fans of the series get excited like 14-year-old girls in heat because "finally, the saga is completed since that far-off 1998, from the clash with Liquid Snake in MGS." MGS 4 is considered fantastic because it is an "interactive movie" (sob sob sob), thus mature, thus "serious," I'd even say committed at this point. Kojima's direction is hailed as the best for a video game, because it is full of plot twists, narrative twists that reveal the personal story of each character, and then there's Snake prematurely aged due to his nature as a clone that makes him so endearing as he smokes like a chimney, it's impossible not to get attached. And then you can use 8656 different weapons and visit places so dear to longtime fans (not mentioning to avoid spoilers).

But maybe not.

MGS4 is probably one of the most pretentious, ingratiating, self-referential, and narratively verbose games ever conceived by the mind of a programmer, totally devoid (I mean it, not even a tiny crumb) of good taste. First of all, it's not a game. The interactive component probably has less runtime than the sum of the long and exhausting cut-scenes where they even tell how many hairs are left on Big Boss's dormant body and how much Otacon loves anime. An indigestible blend of political science fiction that clearly draws sap from the apocalyptic theory of the New World Order and the Illuminati that could surprise me at 18, but now only leaves traces of itself in repeated yawns. Additionally, the gameplay is one of the flattest, most insignificant, and trivial not only in the series (the glory of the original MGS, that is a masterpiece, is a far cry) but in the entire gaming output of the last 15 years, something that makes even Mission Impossible for PSX look good (check out the area set in Eastern Europe, where you have to tail a rebel... I'd say it's comedic). A hybrid of stealth and third-person action that wants to please everyone a bit... and indeed it does, as it seems perfect for casual gamers.

Snake has become Rambo; most of the time, he can choose to remain indifferent to the surrounding environmental elements to hide behind, grabbing a machine gun and annihilating enemy troops (the AI, at a normal level, sometimes borders on the ridiculous). MGS4 is monstrously linear not so much in terms of maps (which wouldn't even be a bad thing in itself) since the first ones set in the Middle East and South America are almost totally explorable... the trouble is the structural action logic: take two steps, crawl on the ground, stand up to kill soldiers, take two more steps, and so on. A dynamic that is not only obsolete but reduced to the extreme compared to the already mentioned and beautiful MGS and the good MGS3. Also, concerning blending in with the surrounding environment, the OctoCamo suit simplifies the dynamics of the third chapter of the saga, and going unnoticed seems to have become almost a walk... the few times when it really matters to blend in. The weapons to use are numerous (too many, I would say, I never used a mine or a grenade for example...) but they are almost all interchangeable in terms of actual effects on enemies (a rifle is as good as another sometimes) and the implementation of Drebin's shop doesn't seem to change much compared to the more classic random pickup of weapons on the ground. Oh, and I almost forgot, the CQC close combat style seems even more cumbersome than usual, and many of the possible alternatives (catching the enemy from behind, using them as a hostage to push through, etc.) you won't even consider, simply because they won't be needed to survive.

A final note on the cinematic component of the game: if MGS4 were indeed a movie, it would be a sensational kitsch, on par with, I don't know, Flash Gordon. So I wouldn't be too proud of certain "spectacular" ideas you'll encounter that are worthy of the worst B-movie.

You can always enjoy the online game (it only takes a week to download and install, come on)...

And these would be the new-generation Sony exclusives?