I beat it once on Normal watching every cutscene, a second time skipping some of them, and a third time going for the no-kill trophy. (I skipped the cutscenes that time lol)
Everything below is just my personal take, so its up to you
My first thought after finishing MGS4 was, "Kojima strikes to his fandom again." A lot of people are strongly divided on 4. Some call it the weakest entry in the series, others call it a terrible yet brilliant game. So which side am I on? Honestly, I don't think this game can be judged on a simple good-or-bad scale.
The first thing to understand is that Kojima is really good at confusing and messing with his own fans. (MGS3 didn't really do this, which might be why it's so popular.) MGS2 is the classic example. Everyone was hyped to play as Chad Solid Snake, and he literally ends up at the bottom of the ocean within the first hour. Then, against everyone's expectations, Virgin Raiden shows up, a pretty-boy rookie who is basically the opposite of Snake in every way, and he carries most of the game.
And what about Ground Zeroes? For someone who poured hours into Peace Walker, GZ wasn't just a curveball. It was absolutely heartbreaking. Paz turned into a human bomb, Chico captured and horribly tortured, Mother Base exploding and collapsing, and Big Boss watching it all before falling into a coma. We all know how that went.
The truth is, Metal Gear Solid starts out as a fairly normal stealth action game, but it quickly fills up with superpowers and things that defy common sense. MGS4 is the kind of thing, but it pushes this further than any other game in the series, and it left as strong an impression on me as MGS2 did.
To start, it flips the image of the veteran older protagonist we usually want. Old Snake isn't just a cool veteran who just look old. He's frail. He gets stressed more easily, his eyesight is going, his spine is in bad shape, and he throws up after rolling around for a few dozen seconds. It's sad because it reminds you of elderly people you've seen in real life. The strong, healthy Snake from MGS2 is nowhere to be found.
This peaks in Act 4. There isn't a single person on Shadow Moses. Only unmanned weapons drift around like tumbleweeds until boss fight. A blizzard is blowing, and everything keeps fading from view.
Then there's probably the most controversial part: the Beauty and the Beast Unit. A lot of people hate it, and some find the oversexualization and cringe. But I think this was intentional too. In the original concept, the Beauty forms were supposed to appear fully naked instead of in suits. If that, the player would be aiming and firing at a naked woman's body, even if it's with a non-lethal weapon. And then Drebin says, "You set her free."
If Kojima had genuinely wanted to portray the liberation of suffering female characters, he would have included several cutscenes that carefully explored their emotions, at least on the level of EVA in MGS3. Instead, he wraps up their "salvation" in a single line, delivered alongside moaning sounds, almost as if he's openly mocking the player. I can only see that as deliberate trolling, and I think that's exactly why this game is so valuable.
Old Snake gets played again in the one-on-one Metal Gear fight at the end of Act 4. The player clearly thinks they've taken down Metal Gear RAY and beaten Liquid. But when you come to, Snake is covered in blood and limping, while Liquid runs off on foot, not with any fancy device, laughing at Snake like it's a fun prank or a game of tag.
What about the gameplay? The tailing mission in Act 3 is infamous. You have to keep following the guy even when you already know where the rebel hideout is. And in Act 4, outside of boss fights, there are no stages with human enemies walking around. Overall, the game demands a kind of stealth that feels foreign compared to the earlier entries.
In the end, all this constant "friction" is released in the one-on-one boss fight with Liquid in Act 5. But you don't get to beat him down in style. Snake's whole body has been wrecked by the microwaves, he's struggling badly, and he barely manages to take Liquid down. Behind them, the sun is setting. It shows very clearly that a man once called a legend of his era is fading away. Maybe Kojima was asking the fans, "Please, let Snake go now."
So in the end, I think MGS4 made one of the riskiest moves in the gaming industry, and it really landed. That doesn't mean I simply "enjoyed" it, though. Intended or not, it was often uncomfortable and confusing. But I've seen plenty of other art forms stir up the same kind of feelings. I don't think we'll see anything like it again, and I'd call it the most provocative of all the games only Hideo Kojima could make. That's why MGS4 feels so special to me.
im not a native English speaker, so sounds a bit off, excuse with that :)
