OK, before you all say “WTF Izlude?”, let me explain. I’ve played this game up to the fight with “The End”. And I have to say I am VERY disapointed.
The general gameplay has become alot more leniant. There is little to no reason to sneak around on “Normal” difficulty. I’ve been able to literally rambo my way through the game thus far using the over haul of weapons and ammo that I was given. The “sneaking” aspect of this game is really cool since its based on cammo instead of “dont be seen” by hiding. The characters are, if its even possible, more over the top and annoyingly unrealistic than those in MGS2. I HATE to say that I am not loving every moment of this game, but I just cannot lie about this.
One part in peculiar that bugged the shit out of me was “The End” (thats his code name). He is this 100+ year old man whos eyes bulge out of his head ala “Spirited Away” style. Hes a sniper, and most of the time you see him before the fight he is snoring his ass off. Needless to say, hes boring as shit. NOT as boring, HOWEVER, as the bossfight with him itself. I spent about 20 minutes running around looking for him and waiting, actually WANTING him to shoot me, so I could see where he was. The worst part was the fact that the thermo goggles detect stupid shit like rations… and pick ups… So even though I killed all the wildlife in the woods, the left overs were still there to hinder my ability to find him in the MASSIVE foliage that he hid under. Half the time, I wondered if the old fart was asleep on me while I was trying to find him. I eventually gave up, slapped the thermos on and ran around with the 12 gauge shotty looking for him. I found him and walked right up to his wrinkled ass and pumped him full of 10 shells. That fixed him.
Here I am now, looking back on everything I’ve done UNTILL that boring fight…
The Prologue was decent but long… Revolver Ocelot is a pussy, hands down. He IS getting more willfull as the game progresses, but snake is still toying him around like a little rag doll.
“The Pain” was just fucking stupid. Hes a fat guy who uses wasps as his weapon. Normally, I’d say “Sweet, he uses wasps as a weapon…!”… But no… He’d keep doing the same stupid shit over and over again.
He’d shout “GRENADE!” and the wasps would swarm around his hand and a grenade would appear… (wtf?) Then he’d do the same thing with a “Tommy Gun!”… The fight was easy but the character was just STUPID.
“The Fear” was creapy as shit, but not in a “cool I like this guy” kinda way. More of a, “Are you SURE Hideo Kojima isnt going senile?” sense…
The good:
I’ve enjoyed the dialogues between snake and his affiliates via comlink/codec/radio things… The save chick of this game is much cooler than Otacon tried to be, she does all sorts of Movie refs from the 60s so its really funny some times.
The fall from the bridge was awesome, I broke some bones and some ribs and got some cuts and stuff… Yeah… I had to snap it all back into place, stitch it up myself, brace it, disinfect… There is alot of crap you have to do for your various injuries…
If you get shot, you’d better fish the bullet out with a knife and bandage the wound else you’ll be bleeding for a long while.
The game is Rambo all over again, I busted through a labratory (again, supposed to be a sneaking game) using a shotty and no shirt with cammo pants. The rag doll physics of shooting a guy point blank with a 12 guage was very rewarding as he’d fly about 20 feet down the hall knocking over anyone else not killed by the massive power of the gun. There were no infinite enemies, once dead the “warning” goes away and I could walk around freely as I pleased.
The Bad:
Killing and eating animals was supposed to be cooler than it actually is, I thought you had to kill and eat the animal on the spot… However, you kill the animal and it turns into a ration that you carry around with you.
There is ANOTHER female character who feels the need to show off her cleaveage along side of being a “Tough Chick”. I really dont MIND it, but it sure as shit isnt necissary. I found myself going, “Wow, she looks like sniperwolf only cuter. Big whoop, another blonde showing off her boobs.”
Battle. Never before has grappling and HOLDING a person to snap thier neck been so retardedly hard. Supposedly with this new CQC combat system (close quarters combat) you can do all sorts of cool things in close range. However, instead of being done with the SQUARE button like the two previous games, its supposed to be Circle now. However, I’ve yet to be able to do anything more than punch the guy in the back of the head. I actually walked up to him, let go of the joystick and HELD the circle button (I also tried pushing it normally, and tapping it) and always the same results… TWACK “Huh? Its the enemy! I see him!” RATTA TATTA TAT TAT TAT TAT!
In short, there is alot more to this than I am mentioning on both the good and the bad sides, but certainly the game is NOT what I expected it to be. And that is: Better than MGS2. I wouldnt have thought that making a game better than the second metal gear solid to be hard, but they proved me wrong. Granted, I’ve only played maybe half way through the game, and it COULD very well pick up greatly. But I’m not holding my breath.
If you are in the mood to gun down a few (yes, a FEW, there are barely enough enemies to keep me satisfied) russians and some stupid ass bosses, then this game is AWESOME…
But if you are seeking the same great gameplay and story, with provocative characters like in Metal Gear Solid, then you are definately going to have some let downs here. The biggest complaint I’ve had is that there is NO reason (yet) to sneak… And by GOD, I will slit someones throat before I beat this game or else I’m taking it back to gamestop. The CQC controls are shit-tacular and cannot be altered from any options menus.
Closing statement?
“Metal Gear Solid” is still the best thing of this series… And that makes me upset.
I didn’t read the whole thing but man, you should really really mark them from now on. 
