Do you shoot your way through Metal Gear Solid 4?

By Spencer . June 16, 2008 . 3:20pm

Do you shoot your way through Metal Gear Solid 4? images

The inaugural Metal Gear Solid 4 weekend has past and I’m sure some Siliconera readers picked it up. I never played Metal Gear Solid 4 at a booth by choice so this weekend was my first time playing it too. My first thought was Metal Gear Solid 4 felt more like a Hollywood action movie more than the other games in the series. Sure, you can sneak behind PMC soldiers as Old Snake, but you don’t have to. If you completely ignore the alert system Snake can run through the Middle East with guns blazing. There is even a first person camera to make Metal Gear Solid 4 more accessible for the FPS crowd.

Actually, I think it’s easier to act like Rambo in the first act. If you want to be stealthy you need to be patient. You have to wait for troops to move and get shot during enemy crossfire. You have to search for alleyways to hide in. You have to creep around soldiers while wearing a drum can, play dead on the battlefield, and search for routes on rooftops. These techniques, sans rolling in the drum can, are nothing new to Metal Gear Solid veterans, but a newcomer to the Metal Gear series can beat the first act without sneaking around. The main penalty is Snake will occasionally vomit from an overdose of bloodlust.

You may miss out on precious rations if you don’t search every corner too. However, if you shoot without discretion, you earn plenty of weapons. These extra guns are automatically cashed-in to Drebin Points which can be spent on better artillery. This feedback loop allows players to continue using brute force as a way to move from one cutscene to the next. Arguably, Metal Gear Solid 4 wasn’t meant to be played this way, but it can be. At certain points shooting skills are required and other times you need to utilize espionage abilities like trailing a mark. So no matter which choice you pick everyone does some of both.

But, when you get a chance to choose between the two which do you pick? Shooting or sneaking?

Images courtesy of Konami.

TAGS: Konami, Metal Gear Solid, Playstation 3

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John

Silenced weapons + 85%or higher camo rating + headshots = fun.

I've already beaten MGS4 twice, and the first time I played it through stealthily, but I still killed alot of enemies. I had 0 alerts in the game and just over 300 kills. Second time, 0 kills, 0 alerts.

You can kill a lot and still be stealthy. I prefer doing it in stealth, as Snake gets the shakes and makes aiming harder as his stress goes up/psyche goes down. It gets annoying.

Louise

I'm more of a shooter, which is why after reading that it's possible to play this game without sneaking around, I'm tempted to pick it up as well as a PS3. I never got into previous MGS games because I have no patience for hiding behind things and being sneaky.

QBasic

Um...neither, really!

I just let the war mongers have fun in their little warzone...and on occasion, I'll snipe a headshot or two for my own benefit.

You don't have to go Terminator on them, or do it the MGS-way; you can just let the local militia do all that for you; you just have to be careful not to get in the way. :-D

Ryu Kazama

I mainly went with the tranquilizer gun. Prefer to knock them out rather than kill them. I had to switch for the Frogs though. They wouldn't seem to go down at first.

I might try and do a 0 Kill (down from 56) and 0 Alert (down from 36) run soon once I find out whether some alerts/kills actually count or not.

SomeDude

I kill the crap out of people. Just over 300 kills? I think I had over 300 kills in Act 2 alone.

I like the fact that I can pick off enemies at my leisure and let killing be my stealth camo. I think that's the reason why I may actually finish this MGS as opposed to all the others where I couldn't play the game for longer than an hour, despite appreciating all the game design that went into it.

Aoshi00

Unfortunately I only played the very beginning and stopped, I need to go back to finish MGS3 first (right now fighting the Fury, I think I'm half way thru) since I want to get the story before meeting "Big Mama".

I'm horrible at FPS and can't aim w/ the reticule for my life in a fast pace gun fight, so I think I would sneak my way thru the game, or use the M9 traq.

This weekend I just finished playing Sons of Liberty in Japanese, and I think I like the story much more than playing it in Eng. back then. Raiden doesn't sound whiny at all, in fact he's voiced by the stoic Horiuchi Kenyu, you can't get any more manly than that. I can't wait to see the rematch between Raiden and Vamp in MGS4. At least I would get to meet "Raikov" very soon :)

KC

I tried to stealth through the gun with the usual camouflage, tranq gun, and good ol' box and barrel drum. After all, it is the way the game was meant to be played - as a tactical espionage game.

But hey, sometimes, gun blazing is the only option (fun way?), but you get more of a challenge and satisfaction through the stealth way.