Strands Across America

HIGH The online sharing is one of the coolest things ever in a game.
LOW The storytelling is absolute junk.
WTF Hideo Kojima has all the subtlety of a custard pie to the face.
HIGH The online sharing is one of the coolest things ever in a game.
LOW The storytelling is absolute junk.
WTF Hideo Kojima has all the subtlety of a custard pie to the face.
HIGH Grabbing one Marine by the throat and shooting his friend in the head while slo-mo rain pelts the scene.
LOW How long am I going to have to wait for the resolution to this cliffhanger?
WTF One of the side missions is longer and more intricate than the main game.
When I got home from the store [with Metal Gear Solid HD Collection], I was looking forward to popping the disc into my PlayStation 3 and seeing how the games looked in HD… but upon reading the disc, I got the message that I've seen way too many times over the course of this console generation: Version 1.01 found.
HIGH The excellent expanded characterization of The Boss.
LOW Watching a tank slowly circle an area for 30 minutes while attempting to non-lethally disable its entourage.
WTF The ending after the ending. Pacifica Ocean?
After rolling credits for both the main campaign and the Overtime mode that comes after, my thoughts about the game are basically the same—it's a note-for-note reproduction of the original with a much gentler difficulty curve and a create-a-weapon mechanic that doesn't feel like a good fit for the schedule-oriented structure of play.
I would love to have a chance to sit down with Hideo Kojima, one of the industry's most well-known, well-respected auteurs and find out exactly what place Guns of the Patriots holds in his mind. Why? Quite honestly, the game is a shadow of what it could, and should have been.
Make no mistake. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is Hideo Kojima's game. The question is: are you okay with that?
Regardless of its flaws, I'd say that is probably one of the safest purchases for PSP gamers, easily trouncing most of the junk in the PSP section. Snake is definitely one of the most compelling characters in videogames today, and I'd take a slightly flawed adventure with him over another carbon-copy racing game or generic puzzler any day.
According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence
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