Metal Gear Solid 4: Twin Suns

Having recently finished Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots I feel safe to say that it is easily one of the greatest videogames I have ever had the pleasure to play. As a consummate Metal Gear fan I was prepared for lengthy cut scenes, codec conversations that threatened the half-an-hour mark, and plot threads more tangled than a fisherman’s knot. In fact, I was more than prepared for these things. I wanted them, and I certainly got what I wanted.

Despite nearly falling asleep at the end, and the layers upon layers of exposition that sometimes felt more endurance test than game, I fell in love. The devotion to character, imagination and setting is absolute, and inarguably as good as anything Kojima has offered before. The Beauty and The Beast unit typify the idiosyncratic nature of the auteur’s vision when it comes to crafting memorable set-pieces.

The non-interactive chunks of MGS’s playtime have long been the cause of a splintering of gamers into love-it or hate-it camps. The cutscenes found in MGS4 are unashamedly lengthy, and while some devote whole sections to narrative and conversation (which is still entertaining in its own right) it’s the expertly composed actions sequences that truly electrify. Even the word ‘expertly’ fails to convey just how well constructed these visual spectacles are. Surpassing even Spielberg’s on-screen creations Kojima’s choreography feels like a blend of Bruckheimer and Woo-Ping Yuen – with a cheeky pinch of Lynch thrown in for good measure.

There’s a new fluidity to gameplay, providing the player with a Metal Gear experience that is less rigid in its reliance on stealth. And it’s certainly not coy in its sharing of gameplay elements with other triple-A titles. However, this is turning into a mini-review, and I don’t intend to do a review any time soon (I’d have given it a nine, if you’re wondering). What I would like to talk about is one very specific section, one of the game’s five acts that’s up there with the finest moments I’ve ever enjoyed in my life as a hardcore gamer.

Read on to find out more, but beware. There are epic spoilers ahead.

Could it really be Single-Player Game Over? A reflection on the single player experience.

 Originally written for Nuclear Geek.com  

  

“Alone in the Dark is a beautifully crafted single-player adventure game. I don’t think the industry is going to make many more of those.” These were the words of one-time SCE WWS president Phil Harrison, in a recent interview with Eurogamer.net. “I just don’t think consumers want to be playing games that don’t have some kind of network connectivity to them,” he continued, “Or some kind of community embedded in them, or some kind of extension available through downloadable content.” Revising his statement to Kotaku, he made it clear that, “The single-player, disconnected console game is probably in its dotage.”

It’s quite a declaration, to assert the demise of a major element of gaming that has been at its core for many decades. It’s true that videogames are changing, in considerable and diverse directions. Consumers increasingly want network connectivity in one form or another in the titles they play, and its inclusion is becoming ever more ubiquitous with each release. Nonetheless, is it really fair to rule out a stand alone, single player experience altogether?