Elysian Shadows

Buy it.

Well, if you have a Playstation 3. o_o;

Controls
The first thing you notice when you start it is that the controls have been Americanized, to an extent. If you're not used to playing third-person-shooters (Gears of War, etc) it could be a little awkward at first. No longer is it R1 to go into first person and square to shoot, but L1 for a shoulder view (tap triangle to toggle First Person, generally for sniper rifles) and R1 to shoot. It took me a while to get used to the camera settings. You can invert X and Y axis for the three camera modes, but it's hard for me to keep everything consistent... I like first person view inverted vertically, but then it was messing me up when I was in 3rd person mode. o_o;

Story
Even though MGS2 was supposed to be the last one... and MGS3 was also supposed to be the last one... this is the last Metal Gear Solid... So it can be confusing because they had to tie in all the different games to get an ending. If you haven't played a Metal Gear Solid game, you should NOT start with this one! MGS4 references all the previous MGS games heavily, as well as the classic MSX Metal Gear to a lesser extent.

Really, this one seemed to have the most feeling in the cutscenes. I don't remember crying in any of the other Metal Gear Solids, anyway... @_@;; ( HEY, I'M A GIRL. AND I'M IN LOVE WITH SNAKE. GRR. ). Even from the beginning you can sort of tell how Snake is feeling about his rapid-aging predicament, and meeting peoples from his past and you can really empathize. The writing and dialog, as well as graphics and voice acting is great, as always.

Yes, lots of cutscenes. I don't actually mind it. A few times it seemed like they were trying to pack too many explanations in one cutscene.

OTHER THINGS
It took me about 20 hours to beat the game on Solid Normal (aka normal) and took my 15 year old sister 20 hours to beat the game on Naked Normal (aka easy). It does seem a little short.
There are about five acts, each with different locations, and some of them feel really short. My favorite area is the one that feels like MGS3.

The bosses felt the most frustrating out of the other MGS games I've played. I don't know if that's because I haven't played many games lately or what. They do look pretty neat, though.

I'M NOT VERY GOOD AT WRITING REVIEWS. I forgot what else I was going to say.
JOHNNY IS STUPID. GRR. >:(

Wait, wait, wait, WAIT, WAIT.

You have a PS3?!

Haven't I already bitched and moaned enough about how my parents bought my 15 year old sister a playstation 3 and television and all I got were them loaning me the money for tires for my car? o.o

When I move out, I shalt lose access to it.

I'd buy PS3 just for this game..

whenever i get a job this is gonna be the first game imma get

yey.

I love this game. Also it isn't necessarily short because of the different things you can get for completeing the game in different ways (you get a bandana which gives you unlimited ammo if you complete it without killing anyone and you can get a special stealth suit for completing it with the enemy never seeing you).

Er, I loved playing MGS4.... but I'm not into games with cutscenes 20 - 30 minutes long every 20 - 30 minutes.

cypher1554R wrote:I'd buy PS3 just for this game..

I did buy a PS3 (basically) for this game.

Well, that and FF...before it went to non-PS3 exclusive.

AerisAndMe wrote:Er, I loved playing MGS4.... but I'm not into games with cutscenes 20 - 30 minutes long every 20 - 30 minutes.

Yeah, it really is half game, half movie. I think that was their intention. Definitely not for everyone.

Lots of cut-scenes yes... I remember sleeping through one at a second play-through when I was tired lol.
However it's an amazing game! You will want to watch the cutscenes (most of you would I would think if you care about story line)

I am a huge fan of the MGS series, MGS 4 was definitely a high quality game and I didn't mind the extended cutscenes one bit as 1.) I love the story(no matter how convulted) and 2.) You can pause during them, god how many times did I have to replay a game due to the fact that I hit the start button to pause and it skipped a cutscene.

*****Spoilers****

My main gripe with the game was the very end with Big Boss, I thought it felt a bit forced. I don't think he should of been alive and as much as it saddened me, I think Snake killing himself would of been a beautiful way to end the game. It felt forced in that "Oh the gun jammed and SURPRISE Big Boss and Major Zero(Tom) are alive and OH They're dead again, so just forget that just happened" It left me feeling like they owed me 20 more minutes to that game just to level out that scene... I dunno. Good times!

I must say, it was hard playing the demo for me, so I didnt buy it.. Im saving up for Madden 10.. damn my income of less than $1 a week... I dont have time for a job either... Doubt lots of people hire 15 year olds with no experience in anything.,..

I loved the game. I was a massive fan of the first Mgs game and used to talk about it all the time in my youth. The game was an awesome conclusion to the series pulling in all the threads from previous games. my only complaint was the gameplay as it felt like they had taken the old style and turned it into a generic third person style game but I've actually grown to like the new style. I'm glad there's still alot of replayability in the game (some people disagree though) what with the weapon upgrades and the brilliant inclusion of an mp3 player with podcasts.