Did Metal Gear Solid 4 Have A Cousin?
Throughout my first hour of the game, I'm noticing that the half of my time is spent watching stuff happen rather than playing the game. For a series about immersion and loneliness, this is a bit jarring, especially considering that most of the cutscenes involve things that happened in the past. I can't quite immerse myself when the focus changes from "Now" to "X Days/Weeks/Years Ago".
It's True: Samus Won't Shut Up
While she doesn't talk during gameplay, Samus has at least one line of dialog in every cutscene, and considering that half of the game so far has been cutscenes, it doesn't help. Also, the English voice actor that they got to play Samus is emotionless entirely throughout her performance. And it's not the good kind of emotionless either; she literally sounds dead-bored throughout the entirety of the first hour. The other voice actors actually do their job well, so it's not like I'm sitting in front of a choir of half-bored, half-sleeping surrogates, but more like I'm sitting in a choir that contains a robotic soprano that is auto-tuned to death.
Less Explaining, More Talking
The cutscenes that were mentioned earlier are narrated by Samus as she explains things in the past as well as what's actually happening currently (in past-tense). To me, most of the narrating is extremely preachy and doesn't give any thought to the fact that Samus is still a person and less of a vehicle for the story to center around. I'm also seeing no real reason for this, as if things were held under wraps it would give a sense of mystery to the story and it's not like the currently-narrated dialog skips long, unimportant talking scenes that the player wouldn't want to sit and listen too. Also, some scenes are extended due to Samus' narration and my feelings towards those are the same as the scenes involving what happened in the past; remove them and you just presented something interesting for the player to ponder on.
Pointless Addition #1
After Samus meets the Federation troops on the Bottleship, she lets them go ahead before deciding to trail behind. However, a little message box pops up stating that since Adam hasn't authorized Samus' uses of missiles or bombs, Samus has decided to turn them off. Other than being stupid and having no build-up to the point where Samus can justify this move, the ban gets removed about 15 minutes later when the first boss of the game is encountered, a blob of purple bugs. While technically only the use of missiles are authorized, there's no point in actually using bombs during the boss battle and right after it Adam authorizes the use of bombs. And even from a gameplay perspective I don't see the logic behind the decision; the only thing that I could find that required the use of either missiles or bombs before the boss was a hidden extra energy tank. And even if missiles open doors like they did in other games, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to perma-lock those doors until after the first boss was beaten.
To Come: Samus' First Mission Under Adam (And Beyond...)
Less Explaining, More Talking
The cutscenes that were mentioned earlier are narrated by Samus as she explains things in the past as well as what's actually happening currently (in past-tense). To me, most of the narrating is extremely preachy and doesn't give any thought to the fact that Samus is still a person and less of a vehicle for the story to center around. I'm also seeing no real reason for this, as if things were held under wraps it would give a sense of mystery to the story and it's not like the currently-narrated dialog skips long, unimportant talking scenes that the player wouldn't want to sit and listen too. Also, some scenes are extended due to Samus' narration and my feelings towards those are the same as the scenes involving what happened in the past; remove them and you just presented something interesting for the player to ponder on.
Pointless Addition #1
After Samus meets the Federation troops on the Bottleship, she lets them go ahead before deciding to trail behind. However, a little message box pops up stating that since Adam hasn't authorized Samus' uses of missiles or bombs, Samus has decided to turn them off. Other than being stupid and having no build-up to the point where Samus can justify this move, the ban gets removed about 15 minutes later when the first boss of the game is encountered, a blob of purple bugs. While technically only the use of missiles are authorized, there's no point in actually using bombs during the boss battle and right after it Adam authorizes the use of bombs. And even from a gameplay perspective I don't see the logic behind the decision; the only thing that I could find that required the use of either missiles or bombs before the boss was a hidden extra energy tank. And even if missiles open doors like they did in other games, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to perma-lock those doors until after the first boss was beaten.
To Come: Samus' First Mission Under Adam (And Beyond...)
