I finally finished the game yesterday. It was my first MGS game. In the end, i have mixed feelings about the game.
First of all and without doubt: the production values are insane. Graphics, music, presentation, voices,... Absolutely splendid.
I didn't know anything about the story prior to MGS4 so i might not be the right person to judge. In general though, i found the story to be a bit too complicated, too bombastic maybe. To be honest, when i tried catching up with the story prior to playing MGS4, my head already exploded. I guess i'm not cut out for this sort of stories, with a lot of names to remember and a lot of tech words flying around. It did manage to move me at certain points though.
I didn't mind the cutscenes being that long. However, i don't think that there was enough balance between cutscenes and gameplay. It seems Kojima really wanted to make a movie and tell his story and that the game was for the moments in between that. In short, i found that the cutscenes took away the flow of the game.
My biggest problem with the game: i never felt that i actually mastered the gameplay. I played at an easy difficulty (2nd difficulty) and didn't die much but i had the feeling that this was more pure luck than skillful gameplay. I never managed to be as sneaky as i wanted. At times, i got caught and just ran through the wave of enemies because i had enough ration. I never really understood the gameplay mechanics behind this game. Most of the time, when i wanted to do something, i didn't turn out the way i wanted. I had the feeling that i managed to get to the end inspite of my poor gameplay.
In the end, i'm glad i bought the game as it is definately an experience. I'm going to replay it at a higher difficulty and try again. Maybe the gameplay is going to make more sense now than it did the first time around.
