Reviews// Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

I am a fair-minded chap, so I will take MGS4's cut-scenes at face value. At that value, I have to assume that Hideo Kojima wants to be taken seriously as an auteur. Therefore I will pay him that respect in this review. I'm going to say that the heavy-handed dialogue, thumping characterizations and mixture of Freud/Jung/Chomsky/Mishima/Lucas plot is post-modern and not simply mannered.

In its favour, the narrative – while organically confusing and in need of the kind of voice that could have said to Kojima, “Really, you've even lost yourself now, haven't you?” rather than “Yes Sensei, that as everything is brilliant” - does try to go beyond the usual kill everything you can't rape storylines that other games are hung on like whores over bed ends.

The cut-scenes are there to advance the plot and to make you feel closer to the characters. They are there to draw you into the story. They are also there because the creator(s) want to show off. I've got no problem at all with the idea of a creative personality wanting to show off. What the bloody hell else is being a creative personality for? Any of the cozening about “I am merely the facilitator of the muse” rubbish deserves to be stamped firmly into the mouth of the speaker by philistines who can then gorge themselves on the mix of teeth and falsehood.

Technically they do a fine job. The moving pictures are well made (of course you can forgive hair that moves with less freedom than a Zimbabwean opposition party activist). The music can be evocative (in much the same way as John Williams' music for movies can evoke... movies with John Williams' music in). The break from progressing by playing the game can provide you with a breather, time for a smoke and a glass of something to provide backbone before you pile in to put a bit of stick about with whoever is nominally a 'baddy' to your 'goody' at a particular time – you remember, the game-play?

Kojima is also paying the gamer a backhanded complement with all this hard cut-scene work. At least he is giving the loyal fans everything he can to tie up loose ends... or is he?

Personally – and yes, I do know that you can skip the cut-scenes – I would have taken him down the the local Izakaya bar and said, “Mate, let the team sort out the game... you know you want to go and make a movie. Summon up your courage Kojima-san! Escape your comfort zone! You've got the cash! Go and live your dream!” I would have been nice about it. I would have phoned the Houser boys at the same time – and Tomonobu Itagaki – and put them all on speaker phone. I would have bought them stiff drinks and repeated... “Boys! Go and make a movie! Your teams know what to do.”

Sorry about that – a bit side-tracked. What I mean is to pay respect to Kojima and his team by taking them seriously. These cut-scenes do act as comfort food and plot thickeners for those familiar with the convoluted storylines of the franchise. Don't confuse the fact that the storylines still bewilder even the hardest of hardcore fans with the fact that the game themselves are straightforward maze affairs. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive.