Metal Gear Solid 4 Was A Misread Masterwork

[@VenomSnake00]

This game was unlike anything I had ever experienced when it came out. I remember playing it with my dad, and we both just watched in awe at the menu screen as those were truly cutting edge graphics at the time. When snake puts the gun to his mouth, and you hear that gunshot, we both were speechless. 1998’s MGS was one of the first games I was ever introduced to, and to this day I will never experience anything on the level of these games ever again. If MGS4 was the only game I had in my collection I would be more than happy.

[@TheDalekCaan_]

For a fairly long time, MGS4 was the only game I had for the PS3 back in 2008. I can safely say it kept me satisfied for many years.

[@Jose-se9pu]

While the story in this game has a lot of problems (A LOT) everything regarding Old Snake just...works. When you hear that gunshot, you absolutely believe Snake killed himself, the entirity of the game was building up to that moment...but then he decided to live whatever time he had left, which was totally in character, considering the decision he took by the end of MGS1. Of course, the ending didnt need Big Boss, Bigg Boss didnt have to be in this game, and that is one of my many issues with it, but again, everything regarding Old Snake just...works.

[@meaningfulmindfulness15]

You're not alone in this. Haha I remember that this was the first game and series to ever make cry at the end. I was feeling so many things at once.

[@nickm5419]

@@Jose-se9pu Solid snake killed Venom Snake & the real Big boss returned from the shadows

[@pistachiodisguisey911]

It’s not even just back then more detail was put into hidden mechanics and lil things than most today bc it’s considered a waste of money and takes up a lot of development time for most higher ups

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

MGS4 will always be my favorite, no matter how melodramatic, drawn out, exposition heavy, or contrived it may be. It got me into MGS. It was a worthy end to Solid Snake’s tale.

[@Comakino]

Did you have fun going back and playing the others? :)

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@Burst Your Bubble Everything is subjective, my friend.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@Burst Your Bubble but we are talking about our opinion of a piece of media. That isn’t objective by nature of it being opinion based.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@Burst Your Bubble As an actual ending to the saga as it was, I still believe it to be a worthy ending. Not a perfect one by any stretch, but very on-brand and suitably grandiose. It had an identity, a point to make, and addressed everything that Kojima left unanswered… for the most part. I take it from your tone that you are among those who dislike MGS4, and if that is the case, I respect your point of view. The thing is, are you meaning to imply that _you_ are an authority on what is or is not “objectively” worthy as the end to Snake’s tale? Are you the end all be all of narrative analysis and critique? Should I change my stance simply because it isn’t sufficient for you? I posit that the answer to all the preceding rhetorical questions is no, no you are not; and to be completely transparent with you, I genuinely mean no disrespect in taking this tack in our debate. I am simply pointing out that pacing that YOU find bad may be enthralling to someone else. Things that YOU see as plot holes can be explained away if someone else has a different interpretation or understanding of what happened and what it allegedly contradicts. You could be right, sure, but so could somebody else. All of the things you say are objective are in fact only your personal opinions on those aspects of the game. Perhaps the fault largely lays on my shoulders for not being specific about what I liked about MGS4, or even more importantly, why I _still_ love it now, (and I am sorry to say I really _really_ don’t want to type _that_ essay within this one. Lol) having over the years gone over the lore of the franchise with a fine-toothed comb to the extent that I can pretty much teach a college-style lecture on what happens in and between every game except for 5. (And in 5’s case, I still _know_ what happened and all the significant lore developments-of which there are many-but the problem is that there are so many little details and intricacies to every mission that isn’t a hard mode repeat of an old one. To include V in depth would require sifting through every tape, every guard conversation, every prisoner interrogation, every optional objective including intentionally missing some on repeat playthroughs, and of course every cutscene along with different ways you could interpret certain ones) I would touch on it in broad strokes, sure, but I wouldn’t be quite as thorough as with the rest of the series.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@Burst Your Bubble See, now you’re sounding a bit more reasonable. It’s all down to personal taste. Your ideal Metal Gear differs from mine, and you experienced the story and it’s details differently than me.

[@RecencyBiasRadio]

I miss Metal Gear Online so much from MGS4. MGO was incredible on PS3. You had to be there to understand.

[@johnpsy4129]

You can play it today ! Fans have revived the servers

[@voxkoshka]

It's been revived! Even the PC emu gang can join the new servers I believe!

[@perfectman3077]

Yaaaas

[@djb1ge]

I was so trash at it, but had a good time on it with my younger cousins. lol Good times.

[@Norcaljourneyman]

I loved the cqc part and yes the customization was gold

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

Wait you can _drive soldiers insane_ by forcing them to listen to the MGSPO+ theme? There are STILL game mechanics I didn’t know about in MGS4?! It also never occurred to me that Drebin’s arm was bionic. I thought the fire thing was a magic trick, like the apple gag he does.

[@usernameRika]

There's tons of 'hidden' stuff like this in the game, that you have to piece together from small hints, like for ex.the Mount Snakemore actually being a projection (think octocamo).

[@Ryu_Himora]

To be honest, without confirmation from someone involved with developing the game, saying Drebin has a prosthetic arm seems like wishful thinking on the part of people reading to far into the connection between the fire magic trick and Zadornov's prosthetic with the lighter finger.

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@@Ryu_Himora see, that’s what I thought. It just makes more sense for Drebin as a character to explain the fire thing as just “wacky parlor tricks.”

[@rugeramerican308]

WHAT?!

[@NLynchOEcake]

@@2yoyoyo1Unplugged NANOMACHINES, SON

[@shophet125]

39:11 I love the art design of MGS4. I'd be perfectly content playing "new" games that looked as good as this old title.

[@FierceO]

Portable ops had one of the best stories. I felt such emotional impact when your first recruit Johnathan sacrifices himself to save big boss. And when you lose your soldiers at the hand of gene. Powerful. Not to mention when your team rescues big boss. you’re forced to play as your recruits to rescue big boss. The cutscene is so cool.

[@khijir2]

@@FierceO can’t agree more. That game was impeccable considering the hardware and limitations

[@nicolasoliveira4903]

@@FierceO But its so bad to play. No right stick feels wrong without fixed camera.

[@limbojones9202]

Love how Futuresound casually drops multiple hour long MGS-Videos basically on a daily basis.

[@xaviermalcolm8481]

It's insanely impressive, his days must be at least 48 hours long instead of the 24 hours that the rest of us have. 😂

[@limbojones9202]

@@xaviermalcolm8481 Yeah + he‘s never running out of ideas 😃

[@XxXVideoVeiwerXxX]

Reminds me of disney and star wars.

[@gronos1457]

Emerged out of the pandemic as the leading MGS renegade scholar , by a MASSIVE margin.. I hope Kojima watches this channel.. MGS4 is the most important artwork of the 2000s

[@oll-turny-llo8200]

@@limbojones9202 this aged well

[@sygos]

1:04:40 the snake suicide trailer has to be one of the most emotionally impactful trailers in video game history. Kojima always gets praise for his cinematography but this one will never get old

[@tricd0444]

I'd LOVE to see the 'pure' forms of his work -- MGS2 with the full crash sequence, this game without alleged death threats after the release of that trailer along with pressure from Konami to keep their star gem alive... Then again, maybe that's how you end up with something like Death Stranding, seemingly too much game with not enough restraint to better articulate the finer points of the story and gameplay interactions...

[@sygos]

@@tricd0444 I would pay a lot of money to see see Arsenal smash into Manhatten original cutscene

[@jb111082]

@@tricd0444 I enjoyed Death Stranding, but I understand your point. It's divisive for sure.

[@red_revolvervega4405]

I used to joke and say the trailers for mgs4 were better then the game…then the mgs5 trailers came 😒

[@Hack_The_Planet_]

An actual documentary, my goodness. Didn’t even keep us waiting, huh!

[@alexwareham8005]

He's pretty good.

[@NicoTheCinderace]

@@alexwareham8005 Pretty... good.

[@jb111082]

Age hasn't slowed him down one bit

[@Big.Joe.Grizzly]

Hey, shut up in there willya?

[@knightshousegames]

Secret: In the upstairs of the Nomad during the briefings, there is a PS3. That PS3 is one of the limited edition "Gunmetal Black" 40GB models that were bundled with MGS4. They were wildly expensive even by PS3 standards, I think they cost like $600 a piece at the time. Only 10,000 were ever made, and Kojima himself was given Serial Number 1. It MIGHT have been the first model to ship with a Dualshock 3 controller rather than a SixAxis controller? Not totally sure. Another interesting thing that ties into these themes: MGS4 has never been re-released, so it also lived and died with the PS3 itself. It literally cannot be passed on. It also means if you ever want to play the entire MGS series, you pretty much need to have a PS3, as a PS3 can play every main series MGS game. It can play PS1 disks, so it can play MGS1, It has MGS2 Substance and MGS3 Subsistence as part of the HD collection, it is the ONLY system that can play MGS4, and it has MGSV Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, which were released on PS3 as one of it's last games.

[@Lunaria.Praesentia]

That's pretty much about to change, FINALLY, thanks to the Master Collection volumes, it goes without saying MGS4 will be released once again with Vol.2

[@knightshousegames]

@@Lunaria.Praesentia We'll see if it's even possible, since MGS4 was basically built for the PS3's weird 9 core architecture, which makes even emulating it super challenging, and leads to tons of issues with pop in and so on

[@mikew1080]

​@knightshousegames it will have to be ported to get good results. The same way Naughty Dog retooled The Last of Us for the remaster on PS4. In more than a few ways, the jaguar cpus are worse than the cell, but we have performance exceeding it for PS4. If Vol. 2 is current gen only, porting the game with better performance and visuals is absolutely possible. Emulating it would be a mistake and leave a lot of performance lost within the translation layer. You'd also be leaving tasks on the CPU that shouldn't be there for X86 architecture.

[@nobodyherepal3292]

This game is what introduced me to metal gear. It’s message was prophetic, and reality has become one of the satirical sketches in the into…

[@Pedalbored]

Metal Gear Solid got so much play time out of me as a kid. I remember playing it over and over! I couldn’t get enough of it. I still play MGSV to this day. The MGS series might be my favorite series ever. The story telling in MGS1 were groundbreaking. Actual voice acting with a complex story about the horrors of war and the military industrial complex. This game has shaped my perspective of the world more than anything else.

[@metaldiscipline3955]

Next to Resident Evil, Metal Gear is my other absolute favorite series. No other series tugs at my heart strings. 4 is a beautiful mess of a game, and it is one of my personal favorites! Can you just imagine what The Phantom Pain could have been if Konami allowed Kojima to realize his vision for the game? It would been the ultimate experience!

[@YoungMachette]

Having received MGS2 and MGS4 with understating of what the team was trying to say and accomplish, forever put me at odds with the rest of the gaming world, at least in the US. I never understood the critiques and only understood that there's Koji Pro games and then there's everything else. The depth and care put into their game is something that other people don't even understand, let alone are able to emulate. Kojima Productions is one of the few teams creating lived in world. Which is lost on people. While they're annoyed by Koji pros concepts and dialogue that didn't sink in got them, they never sit and think; What if I was in this situation/ in there person's shoes? Which is when Koji Pros work hits on so many levels. They think because the fantastical shit is happening everything else is as outlandish. But there's really grounded human things happening in hyper realism, which is why Kojima calls shit before it happens all the time. People don't like MGS4 because we haven't got close enough to it yet, and it didn't scare them as much as it should have, scared the shit out of me and still does when I see things moving towards the survivance state that can't protect it's own. IMO we're moving in this direction, like we moved into MGS2. We shouldn't wait and see if MGS4 happenes we should make sure it doesn't get this way, as we take sides and use info against one an other. But people will never see the extreme warning from MGS4 untill it hits them like a bullet in the face. And the global economy shifts to perpetually feeding pretty disagreeing that turned into people sign up for a faction they'll kill with. With how people discuss politics these days you would think they are aware shit like this coming. Their political enemies are almost their real world enemies. When that happens what separates the US and other "enlightened" nations from ones that have forever wars and conflicts? We're think because we're in the right location were immune to a forever wars, when in reality we're constantly one dumbass disagreement away from starting one here.

[@krspykreame1]

Deterrence is the only thing keeping the peace. And eventually someone is going to push to see how far they can go without risking all out war and even then will we even care enough to stop it? Probably not

[@Gamer1what]

@@krspykreame1I don’t believe it’s just deterrence stopping people in the US, there are still a lot of people that just believe in civilized society and are smart enough to realize they don’t want to be at war with their own country. People tend to forget themselves during tragedy and uncertainty (Covid for example) but they always return and take those lessons they learned with them to make a better future.

[@palix5925]

I love MGS 4. It was the game that got me back into video games. When it came out, I was just not playing games anymore, but then I saw the cardboard cutout of old snake and Raiden in front of gamestop and bought the PS3 MGS 4 bundle.

[@brunoseixas3658]

Today, MGS4 completes it's 15th anniversary, and no better way to celebrate than watching this amazing video!

[@WoodmanFeatherhigh]

MGS 4 gets a massively bad rep, even from smart youtube analysts that I generally agree with. It is a flawed game, and it's not on par with the first 3 chapters, but it has so much soul. If you care about the returning characters from previous games, it's an emotional rollercoaster, it's sad, tragic, but also incredibly epic. You see Solid Snake falling apart, but never giving up, showing amazing strength, morality and mental fortitude. And he ultimately gets a bittersweet but relatively happy ending. As a starting point in the series, it would be a very bad choice though. It relies entirely on you giving a crap about all of the previous entries.

[@raditzhoneyham]

"if you care about returning characters" unless your favorite characters are liquid, meryl, or big boss... And then you will be massively disappointed by how it treats them. People only like the characters if they like mgs2 snake, dislike mgs2 raiden, or want some weird power trip where the piss covered incest nerd becomes a handsome lad and gets the girl lol

[@rem9142]

I gotta say that as someone whose starting point was 4, I still found myself pretty moved by the game by the end of it. So I can only imagine what I'd have felt if I had played the other entries, especially since like you said it feels like common knowledge that the first three are just supposedly better.

[@preferredpronoun2614]

"And he ultimately gets a bittersweet but relatively happy ending" yeah that's what killed it for me. my head canon is solid snakes story ended at the grave and he pulled the trigger. That fake out bs just cheapened everything else and making everything 'nanomachines' was just plain stupid

[@Bolt_BDA]

I love how you made this video like a discovery channel in depth look at an animal species living their life in nature, instead its kojambo stressing over mgs in his old studio

[@iancoop4537]

I'll never forget the section of MGS4 when you return to Shadow Moses. That heavy dose of nostalgia is something I have not felt since playing this game way back in the day. It was like returning to your childhood home - all the memories came flooding back.

[@rgm4646]

Man I miss Metal Gear games. I have finished all of them, and since Kojima left Konami, its looking like there wont be another one anytime soon. I dont blame Kojima, after doing the MGS series for so long its time to do something different!

[@RenegadePandaZ]

I loved 4, I never realized how many people disliked it. I thought 4 was as close to perfect as the series ever got. I'd still mark 2 as my favorite, but 4 is damn close. They both challenged the player's perception of the world both in game and outside of it. Also the fanservice was on point, running around with the Solar gun is one of the most amusing things I've ever done in any game.

[@LUCKO2022]

I hated it in 2008. In 2023 I still hate it. This is where Metal Gear went wrong and it never recovered. Everything got summed up with Nanomachines as the excuse for everything. Bringing Big Boss back to life was stupid and negates his speech in MG2. Then he dies again because he can. Having Zero shown to be the mastermind behind the Patriots with zero context annoyed me. Everyone dying for stupid reasons. Eva, that is Foxdie, Ocelot Foxdie, Big Boss gets foxdied. Naomi decides fuck it going to bang Hal and then going to die now suckers. Sunny being this computer genius. Raiden bitching again about his birthday and shit. Shut up I hate you so much Raiden. Just die already. The game is a mess and it shows.

[@xacmashe3852]

If 4 was "as close to perfect" then 1-3 are beyond perfect. It's just the inferior game. It has the best controls but in terms of boss fights it's a lame rehash of better fights, the story isn't much better. Taking Naked Snake's comic relief team and making them the main villains of the franchise by saying they're the patriots is like the Darth Jar Jar meme but if you played it completely straight. It would be funny as hell, but as an actual plot point that would be pure nonsense.

[@redhood444]

The story is just really dumb and the patriots plot twist was very bad

[@user95395]

is the only one i got big boss rank

[@germanpalomaresdelpalomar5883]

Also, I think it is the highest-rated game of the saga by the Users in metacritic so it is a bit strange it gets that hate

[@G00dK4t]

As a french speaker, I must say your pronunciation of "raison d'être" was REALLY good. French's really hard so good job.

[@UnintelligibleYT]

Not only did he nail it, but he also improved every time he used it. I heard the word in previous videos, it was good, yes, but Jorin managed to improve the way he said it every time. Kudos to such a dedicated quality content creator.

[@christopher6547]

@@UnintelligibleYT Ever hear Homer Simpson pronounce it? He called it "Raisin Detra", and since he didn't know what it meant he imagined a breakfast cereal.

[@BlarGames]

I always just say "raisin daughter", I wish that's how it were actually pronounced so I could sound French Intelectual-ly...

[@pierre-charlesleonhart1615]

Dude, same. Jorin's great with this sort of thing

[@rishg134]

Le t-shirt

[@KomboKong]

I loved every second of these beautiful crafted cutscenes from start to finish. Love this game and would love a re-release on my ps5 please

[@backflipsimmons]

It’s strange we didn’t get a release version of 4 like we did with Substance, subsistence, and arguably Twin Snakes.

[@zeroattentiongaming820]

@@backflipsimmons Well there's always been that claim MGS 4 is so tied to the Ps3 system architecture that it cannot be ported. No idea how true it is but I've seen it repeated so many times at this point it seems to be widely accepted. That said, it is available on PS Now through streaming off a Ps3 server onto a Ps4 if my understanding of how that works is correct. Regardless, it can technically be played on Ps4 and I'd assume Ps5 but I've yet to play the latter so I have no idea if PS Now is available on it or with the same library.

[@MrEffectfilms]

@@zeroattentiongaming820 Considering it plays on the PS4 through PSNow and can on PC via emulation I don't think it's true at all. For whatever reason they just don't want to give an official port, maybe out of spite towards Kojima, maybe out of spite towards the fans who took his side during their very public split, whatever the reason it's being intentionally held back.

[@zeroattentiongaming820]

@@MrEffectfilms Playing on PS4 through PS Now is essentially the game running on a PS3 and being streamed to the PS4. Emulating it on PC is just that, an emulation of the PS3. Neither case is the game being run natively. The PS4 can emulate PS2 games but it requires a custom emulator for every game because the PS4 is simply not built for running those games and has very strict restrictions on anything not made for the system to prevent Sony from being hacked again like they were in the PS3 era. The PS5 likely has the same restrictions. It could in theory be ported to PS4 and PS5 through a custom PS3 emulator made solely for that single port, but do you really see Konami putting in that massive level of effort for something that might not work due to the massive differences between the 3 systems and all of Sony's current restrictions? Besides, MGS 4 being held back? Excuse me but have you seen any of these games get ports in recent years? Konami hasn't given a shit about the vast majority of their old library for a long time until Castlevania's anime and Bloodstained were successful enough to convince them that they could milk that franchise again. MGS 4 isn't being held back to spite anyone, Konami just abandoned that entire aspect of their company for ages. They haven't ported any of these games to console since the PS3/360 era, when there was another big reason 4 would never be on 360. The fact it would've taken iirc 6 discs to fit the game. Even if they could port 4 now, how can you say there are holding that specific game back when they aren't porting the rest anymore either? They put MGS 3 on 3DS, if they actually gave a shit about the franchise anymore they would've put 1, 2, 3 and Peace Walker on at least the Switch by now. MGS 4 isn't being uniquely snubbed, Konami's entire library apart from a few select titles is.

[@EBKDanteMustDie]

@@zeroattentiongaming820 its not true. If that were the case porting uncharted series from ps3 to ps4 would have been impossible.

[@gimpscam9976]

I think one thing that’ll always be under appreciated is the in between acts of playing as the little metal gear. It’s just such a nice break and the fact we can go upstairs or downstairs potentially seeing things we weren’t going to be able to if we stayed were we were, and being able to see characters doing their own thing is cool, like sunny, raiden, or Naomi.

[@sygos]

i only discovered controlling mk2 during those cutscenes a few months ago

[@gimpscam9976]

@@sygos yeah, now you have whole ass cutscenes to explore! You can also interact with I think X and press the tv and toys and such.

[@sygos]

@@gimpscam9976 wow i didn't know you could interact with anything sweet

[@XxCorvette1xX]

@@sygos yeah you can also pick shit up, like there’a always extra battery packs around for the solid eye

[@bobbythotimus1184]

Now that I think about it. Mgs4 is probably one of the best depictions of what a realistic futuristic dystopia would look like.

[@hughgrection7246]

Just putting this out there, but the Editor of this video is freaking epic. Dude's better than most television editors . Mad props. Edit: Spelling errors

[@hughgrection7246]

@Mario Arenales Gonzalez It's that thing that tells the Boomers and Politards what to think .

[@Haheehahohaheehoha]

It's GLACIALLY slow-paced, though...

[@sourxpill]

I found the editing terrible. Every sentence has like ten seconds of pointless music and video complication in-between them.

[@RecluseBootsy]

Played this game religiously, like i do with every MGS installment, right before enlisting in the Army. To this day, i see PMCs and Military contract stories that harken back to the things predicted in this game. Kojima and his writing team are basically Nostradamus level at predicting geopolitical movements as much as they did with technology.

[@Truekingr6]

Yuppppp proxy wars and war economy, it all got predicted by mgs

[@Truekingr6]

@@kyledavidson4604 haha 1000%xD hope some snake helps us now

[@LAK_770]

PMCs like Blackwater operating in Iraq and Afghanistan had been regularly in the news in the years leading up to the development of MGS4. Proxy wars have been happening since the 1950s, and the Military Industrial Complex has been a catch phrase since the same time. Similarly, before MGS2, internet message boards had just exploded in Japan, and journalists and scientists were already writing about misinformation, echo chambers, censorship, and data manipulation. Kojima isn't an oracle with futuresight, he's just a guy who clearly reads a lot of articles, and uses his imagination to think logically about how these developments might progress over time.

[@ciaranedward8027]

Kojima is a great writer, but Metal Gear Solid is solely a product of the movies and books which influenced him. When you really dig into his influences, you can see that his ideas about genetics, AI, PMCs etc. all came from other places. That's not to call him a plagiarist; he is hugely talented and it's not easy to bring all these ideas together into its own coherent world and story, but he's not the prophet messiah that some would have you believe.

[@emandc1]

think less "nostradamus" and more "high level army psychological operations clearance" type beat

[@PersianGamer36]

Nobody will make this kinda of game again. It’s my favorite but alienated outsiders coming in and knowing what’s going on. I loved how it felt like 100% was made for fans and finally answering questions we been waiting to have answered

[@Garoth4582]

It literally Felt like pure fan service and I fucking loved it!

[@MotherGapshin12]

Metal gear is so good because it's a perfect mix of the serious and the camp.

[@slim8916]

Few seconds into this video - I had NO idea this was the least favourite. This game is one of the best and an epic original conclusion imo. It ties up so much beautifully. I'd have thought MGSV was the least favourite (in terms of story alone).

[@viktor_v-ughnda_vaudville_476]

With all the quirks and really long cutscenes I really liked mgs4 it’s had some really cool features with the octocamo raider returning as a badass cyborg ninja the design of bb corps the epic return to shadow Moses and the fuckin amazing Rex v ray fight and just the ending with big boss and the foxdie thing I loved that game even though people hate it

[@Shittyrapper]

Good taste in music and games I see. Vaudeville villain is still my favorite of Doom’s discog.

[@viktor_v-ughnda_vaudville_476]

@@Shittyrapper it’s uncharacteristic of da Vick

[@gertytk5528]

This game made me buy a hard to find PS3 at a high price. And never regretted it. Even if PS3 was mostly just an MGS4 machine for me, it was still worth it. I played this game to absolute death. But now you listed some hidden things that I still wasn't aware of and I just might have to try them out.

[@NephiLoWaterGodXVII]

This game waa actually my first MGS game and is how i became a hardcore fan

[@jasonck9635]

I started with the original Ps1 metal gear solid and have been a fan ever since !

[@SmotheryAxe1414]

The first time I had discovered the existence of the Metal Gear franchise was discovering MGS4 on my fathers ps3 when I was 7. I didnt really understand much of anything but the intro sequence was so fascinating that I kept pressing new game over and over to witness the prologue. I never personally finished the game, but for some reason almost all of it stuck with me from the box art on the PS3 menu, to the cooked eggs, to the violin in the background with snake blending into a truck while monologuing about how war has changed, to the gut wrenching cow groans of the Gekkos. It all stuck with me, and despite never getting more than 2 hours into the game, its probably had the biggest impact on me, having subtle influence in my day to day life even now. I never finished mgs4 or even played far passed the prologue but mgs4 is one of the most nostalgic games to me.

[@TheKrowkaBoo]

After watching your video i wanna feel this experience again. Story, characters, themes everything was near perfect. Yes, even "everything is nanomachines now" .

[@joshuar3632]

I just bought another ps3 and with it mgs4. Then got the remaster with like 5 games

[@kevinfortsch]

Nanomachines = covid vaccine..

[@Uzeil21]

MGS4 was the first Metal Gear game I ever played and It blew me away, as an introduction to the series it's nonsensical lore density draws you in or pushes away.

[@carryingfire286]

IN-SANE that FF7 remake got announced same day as MGS4.

[@PersianGamer36]

By far my favorite mgs. Was literally made for hardcore fans that wanted answers and story explanation

[@victorcippitelli2242]

2 hs and 41 mins? Man I will enjoy this :D ! The longer, the better.

[@michaelkeller5927]

That's what she said!

[@varunbhatt8215]

That's what she said

[@christopherlowery3797]

If only I had a dollar every time I *didn’t* hear that...

[@jekstter]

thats what she said

[@KBXband]

I remember the beginning being hard when stealth was mandatory, but there comes a point where it becomes completely optional. And there was one point where I was a one man army with almost constant Alert status.

[@emanuelarriaza3710]

That run in the final scene was just a big damn nostalgia trip then ended epicly

[@karmaceutical3963]

this kind of depth of game systems is rare now without a doubt, the number of mechanics when interacting with guards when all items and weapons are considered is absolutely wild, even though the story was kind of a mess there is so much modern devs can learn from a game of this caliber, nice video man, clearly you put effort into this

[@Uber_GoobTube]

This was a very special game, specifically for MGS fans. I'll never forget the last fight, the cinematography, and how everything led up to that moment.

[@shalotfpv]

Incredible editing and extremely well written! I adore the background on production, especially the incite on where Kojima's head was at. How you view the game within the context of the PS3's cell processor, the FPS genre, and the changes within real life combat made fascinating connections that make me wanna play through the game again

[@Exigentable]

The editing on this is insanely good man.

[@mikeschwartz1764]

Over the last month I think this has become my favorite channel on KZbin. This is incredible content with excellent editing and an ability to pick apart the minutiae. You should be proud of yourself.

[@uiebattles]

I finished mgs 1, 2, 3 back in the day. Thanks to this channel I was so happy to go back and i just completed mgs 4, and V. Thanks so much Jorin. I can't wait for the next one.

[@Solid-Old]

Dont miss MGS Peace Walker

[@rogu3_wo1f74]

Such an underrated channel. I hope this channel gets bigger because the hours of content for mgs is incredible 👏👏👏

[@hyrulegend9786]

MGS4 is my 3rd favorite behind Snake Eater & MGS. I love MGS4 💕🐍 awesome video!

[@wrayday7149]

Word has it... to this very day. MGS4 is still installing.

[@spiritualgainz5874]

Metal gear was well ahead of its time remember buyin metal gear for the ps1 when it 1st came an thought this game knows things, then all the way to the 4th you can now see what he was telling us in real life what was to come

[@scottypittman1]

This and the second game are tied for my favorite of all time from the series. Everyone gushes over the third game, and it is good for sure, but the second and fourth games just have some kind of charm and allure that the third can't match up to. I know Kojima wanted to leave after 2, but thank God he made the fourth game. It helped me immensely with my own trauma and put things in a new light for me.

[@BigBrownPimpsta]

Greatest game ever made, no form of media has made feel this way and still does after all these years. Words can't express how much this game impacted my life and is pure enjoyment even today.

[@MCENTRAL8G]

This was absolutely awesome. I cant imagine the amount of work that went into this one. You have my most honest congratulations!

[@boussIRL]

"virtual citizen-soldier..." I've never heard a more fitting term for those like myself who were/are victims of the Militainment era of FPS games. Made me recoil back a bit with how hard that terminology just hit me..

[@ttprophet]

there was a 404 error graphic on PlayStation's website for YEARS (and may still be there) that is the MGS4 artwork of snake in an ascending pose and dissolving into chaff of soldier silhouettes and pixel distortions. I always loved the sub-narrative of simulation theory, that the saga is all inside a "game" (some call it the koppelthorn engine) as a running industry joke. Snake getting dissolved in an acid of digital pixels as the PlayStation 404 error "page not found" was a great nod to this. This artwork alone lead me down a rabbit hole to ask if old snake was connected to the machine at the end of 4, to replace the missing pyx that burned in act 3 twin sons. This makes everything after naomi releases snake to die and the flower petal falls, a false narrative... a sim inside a sim inside a sim. Nobody but ocelot, big boss, poisoned zero, and otacon over codec calls interacts with snake after he faints. And he's only seen inside a graveyard that looks like the server room. i found that interesting. I find this fascinating because I genuinely believe death stranding is a continuation of metal gear, in a zeitgeist sense. The idea Kojima established as an industry standard, then works fo hard to deconstruct... it fits with DS gameplay... but is still in the vein of many themes from metal gear survive. it acts in tandem. 4 is the lynchpin to this concept. A world inside a machine that writes it's own anomaly (sonny/joy archetype), to write the final touches to the foxalive virus. In a sense, sonny is the part of the system that assured there would not be total annihilation of the system since her coding left parts of the machine alive. The virus makes the systems collide. Ditre is the war ai (GW) purgatory, the very same that the sorrow could traverse, and death stranding is the distribution/government systems (JD) purgatory. JD of course would use the remaining functions to "reconnect America" similar to an ai's "functional compensation" explained clearly in Peacewalker. Sam Porter's journey is a metaphor to this functional compensation of a chiral system. This puts weight to Big Boss' final speech about how 1 becomes 100 again unless you take it to "before zero". It wasn't a random poetic muse, but a threat, that the system will "be coming back, and i'm bringing my new toys with me". without 4, you can't explore these concepts. it truly was a masterpiece of retro continuity and brought so many concepts and themes to the forefront of gamer consciousness.

[@NDRWS]

how to NOT go to the point the video

[@Horatio_Jones]

Thank you futura. This series is masterful. Your depth of analysis and insight into MGS has made me appreciate my favorite game even more. I really hope that Hideo has seen these videos. I’m sure he would be happy and grateful that someone understands his vision and artistry as much as you do. Thanks again.

[@reddchan]

I loved this game, it was an experience. I used the PS3 mono bluetooth earpiece at the time and this game settings allowed all codec calls to come thru the earpiece that was so neat. I also loved the integral podcast on snake’s ipod that played audio commentary.

[@solidsadd]

Finally, something that can represent how I feel about this game. Never the same twice to say the least. Always loved this game because if how it felt, how it feels playing. It touched more senses than any game I have played. Thank you for your work Jorin.

[@leethemanpowell]

Please never stop making these! Your deep dives on MGS/Kojima games are unparalleled. The level of detail and understanding of history and philosophy is impeccably well done.

[@christopherlowery3797]

It was your videos that got me to pick up MGS2 & 3 for an ancient PS2 we found in our late grandmother’s house, and I wound up marathon-ing the entire series, becoming addicted to it. Plus, I had even more of your videos to help me parse out their messages. You really ought to be a spokesperson for Kojima Productions, my man!

[@ARIXANDRE]

Thank you for your amazing (and delightfully long) essays!

[@artemisarrow179]

MGS4 blows me away every time I play it and these essays make it all the better

[@dravorek]

Enjoyed the video. This video seems a bit scattered structurally. And I'm not sure I'm convinced by all the themes that as conjectured here, like the "parallelism echoed inside the game as a theme" for example. But this provides some neat context around the game.

[@jacksterstream]

Perfect for this rainy day. Thank you so much for your dedication

[@JohnSmith-xs1ml]

Can't wait for the What Even Happens In MGS4

[@jb111082]

I always thought that the B and B Corps were named after both the Cobra Unit and FOXHOUND. Screaming Mantis = Psycho Mantis + The Fear (or maybe The Pain) Laughing Octopus = Decoy Octopus + The Joy/Boss, Raging Raven = Vulcan Raven + The Fury, and Crying Wolf = Sniper Wolf + The Sorrow.

[@ADDodd]

Was waiting for an MGS4 vid. Its convoluted and messy, but its my favorite

[@FourthHavoc]

I consider myself an MGS die hard. 4 is by far my favorite tittle.

[@lexscarlet]

Dude I asked for a drink the other night with an alcohol that the bartender made sure to inform me was "60 dollars a shot" and I was like how stupid. Your content is like the 60 dollars a shot liquor that's actually so worth drinking, every damn sip is a satisfying "ahhhhhhh." Keep it up please do all the analysis all the time.

[@Pigness7]

the argument that FPS games can train people for combat I find to be generally untrue, I've seen plenty of people with tousands of hours in FPS games pick up a real gun and not even know how to load a magazine.

[@tricd0444]

Gross motor skills are easy to train and pick up, you just replace pressing square with mag release, flick, mag, tap, rack. Things like intuition as to where an enemy might be, fast reaction times to new threats, staying calm under pressure... Much more difficult to train someone, and takes YEARS to do either way.

[@bwillsskates2638]

I’ve owned this game for YEARS. I just turned 28 and my dad gave me his ps3 I use to play as a teen, for my birthday. And I totally forgot this was even on the console. This actually made me go on my ps5 and purchase every single metal gear in the series. I just beat 2 & 3 the other day. I’m playing the first one at the moment just so I can finally get to this game. And then I’ll complete phantom pain.

[@nickkelly3199]

I was hoping for some MGS4 content from you and then you drop a Christopher Nolan length video on it! Thanks Boss, love the content!

[@grumpy5728]

I remember this game back in middle school!! Literally felt modern when compared to previous titles. Knew this game like the back of my hand. Lost track of how many playthroughs I have

[@ViewtifulJae]

A video all about the secret mechanics of every game would be epic . Even if you did it I think there would still be things missing lol

[@demetriusjohnson9864]

My favorite channel on youtube….. absolutely brilliant. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@lucasalce6010]

...it played us like a damn fiddle!!!

[@night1952]

Imagine MGS4 was a PS5 game, how amazing this game would look with ray tracing and how good would the guns feel on the dual sense.

[@eepyJay]

I really like your videos, and subbed, but I find the mixing really difficult, with the game footage and music being so much louder than speaking volume...it’s hard to watch when it switches so often Also sometimes edit in unrelated video such as when you mention Drebin and then there is loud unrelated gameplay footage after for about 15 secs. It makes it difficult to follow for me (just advising on how to make your message clearer for people who find the volume distracting and pauses between sentences hard)

[@patrickbateman4541]

Yeah very annoying.

[@kennethjose7159]

I remember in 2010, Act 4 when I was approching Shadow moses Helipad, my heart began to ache. Then The Best Is Yet To Come played, I crie

[@hueghh3775]

I think that, despite the campiness in some places and less-than-stellar reviews in others, Metal Gear Solid is one of the most poignant stories in video game history.

[@EagleZtoTheGrave]

Absolutely

[@TheDalekCaan_]

Critically speaking, MGS might be the most successful franchise out there.

[@hueghh3775]

@Jotaro97 wow what a unique drop of shit in your cereal that must have been

[@technologic21]

I can't thank you enough for churning out thoughtful MGS content regularly. Keep up the great work!

[@LittleHillsTabletop]

MGS4 is still within my Top 3 games of all time. Such great work throughout the entire game. And such a great video essay!

[@proggeorge]

2008 it was released. But I just played and completed it this October 2021. I can't afford a PS3 way back since I'm still a student. For that 13 years I avoided spoilers. I remember just in awe watching the E3 trailer countless times before. Now 32 years old, I was blown away on how it conclude and wrap up Solid Snake's tale including Big Boss as well. It relives every memory across the previous games. So glad to snug out a 75$ used PS3 and the MGS4 game disc. I'm sure it is Christmas for me even I have my PS4 Pro for a year already. This game is a true testament on how great and deep the story of MGS is. This legacy will live on for years and years and years to come even the franchise is already in shadows officially. And it will always be "A Hideo Kojima Game"

[@JayEdelgardVT]

But fr tho I did like mgs4

[@themisfitbrigade]

The fact he loved this series but ended up having such a hatred for having to stay with it just breaks my heart. He revolutionized gaming in so many ways with Metal Gear but it became a detriment to him.

[@roc5291]

I have SO many mixed emotions about this game. There really is ALOT to like about the game. The use of over the shoulder perspective replacing the top down perspective. Any kind of gun or weapon you could want. Octocamo. Overall good voice acting. The graphics IMO still hold up really well and I love the nostalgic parts of the game. However, you play the game in like 5-10 minute bursts. Then a cutscene that goes on for over 15-20 minutes. Then another 5-10 minutes of gameplay, then another 15-20 minute cutscene. It’s hard to go back and “play” this game knowing that is what you’re going to be doing. The best play through with this game is the first one because it’s all new. I can’t help but entirely skip many of the cut scenes on any other play through which I never did for MGS 1, 2 or 3. Many of the story wrap ups and, “answers” to the questions of the MGS saga were really……really…….odd to say the least. Major Zero, a side character from Snake Eater has been the main rival to Big Boss and the player behind the scenes this whole time? Side characters you only speak with in codec form from Snake Eater like Sigint, Para Medic and Eva were all once members of the Patriots and therefor the most powerful people in the world????? That feels like Kojima just shrugging his shoulders in regards to the story and felt extremely lazy. I can write a college level thesis about any piece of art to rationalize and justify it’s themes and messages but at the end of the day, this story is a bit of a cluster f*** and that’s all there is to it. This is the game where I felt that Kojima was given ALOT more freedom to craft the story he wanted to tell and kinda got lost in the scramble to complete it by getting just a little too up his own ass with certain aspects of the game. Anybody that wants to try and rationalize the entire Act 3 part of the game is going to have an up hill battle with me. You walk at a snails pace stalking someone. Watch a LONG information dump of a cutscene. Have an on-rails shooting sequence. Fight a boss. Then watch an even longer cutscene before you get to the cutscene to bring you to the Act 4 briefing cutscene to then bring you to Act 4. It’s maddening. Kojima really does need a strong co-writer or producer to keep him focused and in line which I feel like he had in MGS 1, 2 and 3. As an overall piece of art, this game is fascinating. As a GAME….it’s a SLOG to play.

[@Marsawd]

I have different favourites for different reasons, but MGS4 was in a class of its own. Gameplay-wise, it improves on a lot of things from the previous games (camo, rations, humour) and removes a lot of others as quality of life improvements (3rd-person camera controls, standing/crawling; no crouch). I honestly adore this game, and if it ever got a Remaster I'd pick it up about as quickly as I picked up the initial PS3 release.

[@-reverse-5876]

Kinda glad MGS is gone no man can do that for long even kojima

[@theoverviewguy]

MGS4 is up and down as my favourite MG game with MGS3. Soooo good and love how it finishes up all the stories

[@stephenrochester6309]

Kojima: “MGS is over, telling you the rest of the story is not going to be a pretty sight” Fans: “Make MGS4 or we’ll kill you” Kojima: “Aite my dudes don’t say I didn’t warn you”

[@anonony9081]

MGS online deserves a lot of credit too. It was seriously unique and amazing fun

[@andrewmorgan9902]

I respect the work you put into this but the pacing in your videos fucking kill me. Can you cut out some of the 5 second long pauses please?

[@sasaki999pro]

THANK GOD its not just me! I was listening to this guy thinking I was having a stroke or something, the commentary audio is just TERRIBLY stitched together.

[@andrewmorgan9902]

@@sasaki999pro I was watching and thinking. And I the only one tbat can hear this?

[@hotcoldman9793]

Every time you say "I could make a whole video on" all I think is Yes Please!

[@IroquoisPliskin86]

How is Assassin's Creed an MGS knock-off? They're in no way even remotely similar.

[@johncrisponce7184]

Thank you for providing us, time and time again with quality videos like this.

[@kevinpreciado4740]

Finally the counter part to steak Bentleys “metal gear solid 4 was a mistake” I’m excited to see what this essay might entail.

[@miguelfcp1993]

Metal Gear is my favorite saga ever . As a big fan MGS 4 for me was a big masterpiece and my favorite game ever! How the story ends it is too much epic. I always shed a tear at the end of the game. This game deserves a remaster.

[@cloudscapemysterio]

Kept you waiting huh

[@emorris77]

Don't worry, the ads will end soon

[@cloudscapemysterio]

@@emorris77 get adblocker fren

[@jaisenpai9506]

Being the first mgs game I’d ever play as a kid ,it’s by far the best way to end the series and start it

[@natetete1379]

Take out the awkward pauses "for effect" the video is like 30 minutes.