Movie Time: Taxi Driver

I have never been a fan of Martin Scorsese’s work. Not that I hate it; I have just only ever seen 2 of his films, one of which is this one, the other film being Hugo. I respect the man for the influence he has had, but his works have never really interested me enough to actively seek them out. Hell, the only reason I saw Hugo was because my family decided to make a family-fun night out of watching the film. As such, I went into this film not knowing what to expect. All I knew is that it is considered important enough to be put in the National Film Registry and that there is a brutal shoot-out at the end. Still, I like to seek out and watch films that others consider good, so I decided to give this a go. When I finished the movie, I just sat there, shaken. This movie tapped into a part of my mind that I have not seen or even considered in a very long time. It is a very dark, very unnerving film, and I feel that I have walked away a different person than the one I was before I watched it.

Taxi Driver is the story of one Travis Bickle. He is an insomniac Vietnam vet who, of course, drives a tax for a living. The film follows Travis’s gradual mental deterioration over a period of weeks and chronicles his stilted, awkward interactions with a beautiful political campaign volunteer and an underage prostitute. The film ends with a climactic, brutal final shootout between the prostitute’s pimp, Travis, a bouncer, and one of the pimp’s henchmen. Once the smoke clears, three people lay dead and Travis himself lies near death, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Travis is trying out his Dirty Harry cosplay.

The film expertly builds to the finale, with the music giving the events of the film a sense of foreboding and dread. The viewer knows a storm is coming, even if they do now know what form it will take. The violence slowly builds as well, starting with discussions of violence and murder by various characters (fellow cabbies talk about another cab driver who was injured, a man Travis is driving discusses murdering his wife), slowly moving to an underage prostitute fighting with her pimp, to Travis shooting a man trying to rob a store, before eventually entering into the ultra-violent finale. The cinematography also adds to the tension, with multiple interesting shots that were far ahead of their time, the most memorable of which is a slow motion pan near the end of the film that emphasizes and gives the viewer time to reflect on the violence.

Still, not all will appreciate the film. The film progresses fairly slowly, which might bore some. The violence itself is not even close to being on the level of something like RoboCop; the shoot-out at the end is quick and brutal, and while it is very gory, it is not absurdly so. The film’s plot can be scattered, switching between one thread and the next, which might confuse some and anger others. Those wanting a traditional, “heroes journey” style plot structure will walk away disappointed as well. Travis’s character does not really “evolve” or even change; he ends at the same place he began and it still seems entirely possible that he will slip back into violence and madness. This is not really a bad thing; sometimes people just never change, not matter how much bad stuff happens to them, but it still might anger those who expect the film to end in a different place than where it began.

Hey, eyes on the road idiot! You want to get us all killed?

Even though the theme of violence is central to the film, it is not its focus; the focus lays squarely on Travis Bickle and his reactions to, and use of, violence. Robert de Niro does an excellent job as Travis, giving humanity and believability to a character that does a number of inhuman and hard to believe things. Travis himself touches a familiar cord. He is awkward and shy, but well meaning. Yet, he is also creepy, following around and spying on his romantic interest at her job and taking too much of an interest in the private lives of those he sees only briefly. He often clumsily tries to insert himself into the lives of others, whether they want him to or not. He fantasizes about others, building up all sorts of assumptions and fabrications about their lives inside his head. When he does try to talk to those he fantasizes about, he tries to talk to those people as if they were the fantasies, not the people he is actually talking too, and he does not take the time to learn who they really are.

For instance, in one scene, he is talking to the campaign volunteer right after the two have met. He makes all sort of strange assumptions about her feelings that he cannot possibly know: that she is lonely and in need of a friend, that she does not like a man she works with and is often seen talking with, that she only wants love, etc. She seems to think his assumptions are cute at first, but she slowly grows less comfortable around him and stops seeing him after he takes her to a pornographic film for a date, assuming that because she said she liked movies she would like all kinds of movies. Travis does not understand this, gets frustrated, and begins to stalk her, constantly calling her and sending her flowers. He eventually visits the office and confronts her. When he does, he gets violent and is thrown out. After that, he decides to devote himself to assassinating the political candidate she is volunteering for to get revenge on her for spurning him.

Travis encounters a member of the dangerous “Grease” gang.

These events lead into another key aspect of Travis’s character: he is vengeful and fetishes violence to an uncomfortably familiar degree. He is often found standing in front of his mirror, practicing acting tough and bad-ass, even going so far as to get a Mohawk at the end to look like a hard-ass. He fantasies about fighting random thugs who decide to provoke him into fighting street fights and getting into shoot-outs with gangsters. He even goes so far as to purchase multiple fire-arms in an attempt to feel powerful. Once he has them, he spends hours shooting them at a shooting range and practicing drawing them from the many holsters he has strapped to his body. He even designs a device that allows him to hide a gun in his coat sleeve, and then when he presses a button it instantly puts it in his hand, in the off chance that he will ever need to instantly draw his gun.

Travis and his reactions are supremely disconcerting and disturbing; not just because the man is obviously mentally unhinged, but because many of the things he does hit far too close to home. I know that I too have built up fantasy versions of other people in my head, and then when I interact with those people in real life, I try to interact with the fantasy version more often than the actual person. I too try to insert myself into the lives of others because of the misguided idea that I am somehow more qualified to help them than someone else. I too have fantasized about getting into awesome fights in the street and totally kicking the other guy’s ass. It makes me greatly relate to the character, which makes it all the more uncomfortable when the finale comes around. If it only took that little to push Travis Bickle to outright murder three people, what does that say for me? Could I too become a murderer that easily? What the hell is stopping me from becoming one, if that is the case? Is everyone capable of horrible violence? Does fetishizing violence by making it seem “cool” make it easier to be violent? We like to say to ourselves “we would never do that, not even if pushed”, but could we be perhaps being lying to ourselves? The film seems to offer no answers to these questions, instead putting them out there and leaving the viewer to ponder them once the film is over.

No Travis! Shooting people is for later in the movie!

Taxi Driver is one of the most disturbing and unnerving films I have seen in a while. It sets itself apart from all of the other “white guy snaps and kills a bunch of people” movies, like Death Wish, by focusing much more on the character of Travis and making sure he feels like a real, relatable human (albeit a slightly creepy one). The end result of this it that it makes the viewer more attached, connected, and invested in the character that when he finally cracks it forces the viewer to ask many uncomfortable questions of themselves and their feelings towards violence.  It is an expertly crafted film with a great score, great acting, and great cinematography. I highly recommend this film to anyone seeking a film about the nature of violence. It may not be fun and it is definitely not for everyone, but it is important and well worth anyone’s time.

Final Rating: Depression/10

Breakfastman is an amateur reviewer, student, and all around cool guy. Questions, comments, constructive criticisms, rants, rages, or just want to tell me my taste in music sucks? All forms of feedback are encouraged, so feel free. All images blatantly stolen from Google.

Breakfastman’s Music Madness: “Iron Maiden” and “Killers”, by Iron Maiden.

Because I rarely read music reviews and have little knowledge of music theory, I am going to do these reviews in my own… “special” style. Mainly, I am going to go over each album, writing a paragraph or two about each song and how it holds up both by itself and in the context of the album as a whole. I will then do a quick conclusions/wrap-up deal at the end. Okay? Okay.

One of my favorite bands of all time is the English heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. They were a key player in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) in the 70’s and early 80’s, they were one of the single greatest bands of the 80’s, they have a massive fanbase that spans multiple continents, and are, arguably, one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time. Their legacy is far reaching and much of their music is generally considered some of the best heavy metal one can find. Most fans tend to only listen to the run of Bruce Dickinson (the lead singer for most of the band’s albums) and tend to shun everything else. And while Dickinson’s run with the band is considered their highpoint, the band has had other singers, 2 of which contributed to studio albums. The first is Blaze Bayley, the singer who replaced Dickinson for two albums during the 90’s when Dickinson left to pursue other interests, and who is routinely ignored or shunned by fans (for good reason). The second is Paul di’Anno, the singer for the band’s first two albums, the eponymous debut “Iron Maiden” and its follow-up “Killers”. How do these albums stand up? Do they deserve a place alongside classics like “Piece of Mind” or “Powerslave”? Or should they be put alongside the band’s crappiest albums, like “No Prayer for the Dying” and “Virtual XI”?

Iron Maiden:

Prowler:

This is probably my favorite song on the entire album. As such, it is a very strong start to the album. The song is blisteringly fast, rushing along at a breakneck pace from start to finish. It only ever slows down for a second or two at a time and those times when it does are right before launching into more speedy riffs. The entire song feels like going on a roller coaster; starting out with a (relatively) slow build-up, then immediately launches into a blisteringly fast riff. These moments are repeated over and over during the song and are great fun to listen too.

Paul di’Anno has some good vocals here too, combining the rough sound of Brian Johnson with the deeper-pitched voice of David Lee Roth. The lyrics are not too shabby either. While the song has no real “meat”, so to speak (it provides no unique insights or statements; it is simply the sordid tale of a man stalking women through the streets), the lyrics are catchy and fun. The way that di’Anno elongates the end of a few key verses (in addition to the clever use of backing vocals on those same lyrics) also helps to make the song much more engaging. It sets those verses apart from the others and the subtle change in sound helps to attract the listener’s attention and draw them in. 

Sanctuary:

This is another solid song. It is fairly notable for the fact that it makes the jump from the heavy metal sound of Prowler to a more hard-rock sound, in the style of Bon Scott era AC/DC. The lyrics are solid, but nothing special. The chorus is quite catchy and memorable, and can become quite an ear-worm if one lets it. Nothing much else to say about this one. Solid, but nothing too special.

Remember Tomorrow:

Now, this is something entirely different. Avoiding the hard rock and heavy metal sound of the previous tracks, this song goes for a more prog-rock feel. The entire song lacks any choruses and has only 12 verses. It is also marked by a direct change of tone on every fourth verse, and switches into a fast guitar solo right in the middle. It really is a wholly unique sound compared to the rest of the songs. It actually does not feel like it would be out of place on a Yes or Led Zepplin album, which is good or bad, depending on one’s taste for progressive rock. It actually reminds me quite a bit of a later song by the band, Children of the Damned, what with tonal change; the long, protracted wails; the prog-e feel; and the guitar solo partway through the song. Not that that is a bad thing, since both have their merits.

The song also shows off di’Anno’s great range. He transitions from relatively normal, clean vocals to high pitched, prolonged wails very easily, cleanly, and smoothly. It is quite impressive and really adds to the enjoyment of the song.

Running Free:

This song marks a transition back to a more… traditional rock and metal sound. The entire song is carried by a strong central riff, with di’Anno’s vocals perfectly accentuating the guitar playing. His singing both merges seamlessly with, and enhances, the strong central riff, and it makes the song very enjoyable to listen too. 

Phantom of the Opera:

This is longest song on the entire album, clocking in at a solid 2 to 3 minutes longer than all of the others. It is also probably the most ambitious song on the album, featuring numerous tonal shifts, a complicated lyrical structure (with no choruses), multiple solos (sometimes one right after another), a lengthy instrumental section smack dab in the middle, and lyrics based on a classic piece of literature. Unfortunately, it does not all work. Di’Anno’s vocals really don’t work for this song (some lines sound forced and strained to fit the sound of the instrumentation) and the way he sings some lines makes them impossible to understand without a sheet of lyrics handy. Still, it is not all bad. The instrumental sections are fantastic, with a great interplay between the lead and rhythm guitar, the bass, and the drums. It also features some really strong riffs and solos. The song is worth listening too for those sections alone, and those who enjoy lengthy prog adaptions of classic lit (or just prog in general) might find this interesting.

Transylvania:

This is Iron Maiden’s first instrumental and is still one of their strongest. There are a number of impressive, fun solos contained here and the instrumentation is top-notch. The interplay and transition between different solos sounds great and the song features a number of complicated pieces that are ear-shatteringly fast. What more is there to say? It is a fantastic instrumental, through and through.

Strange World:

This is a very different song compared to most of the previous. It is slower paced, features clean vocals, and feels much more contemplative and introspective. It does feature some solos, but these are much slower than previous. It sounds more like a classic Pink Floyd or The Who song than a classic Iron Maiden one. Nonetheless, it works and it works quite well. The vocals mesh well with the instrumentation, the solos are still interesting, each part transitions well into the other, and the lyrics paint an interesting picture of a Dunsany-style fantasy paradise.

Charlotte the Harlot:

This song is another solid addition to the album. It features a strong central beat and a catchy chorus, both of which make the song very enjoyable to listen to. Still, that does not mean the song is afraid to mix things up. Partway through the song things slow down and the entire thing takes on a slightly more tragic air, fitting of the lyrics. The song is basically about a man who is in love with a hooker that does not reciprocate his love. He is jealous of her clientele and wonders why she won’t pay attention to him. It is probably one of the more interesting concepts for a heartbreak song that I have heard and it works pretty well, all things told. 

Iron Maiden:

This is another more traditional song, and it does not really have that much going for it. The vocals are okay, but supremely uninteresting. The instrumentation is solid all around, but again, not particularly interesting. The lyrics don’t really do anything new or different. The entire song is just kind of bland. Not really bad, but not really good either. Just kind of boring when compared to all the other interesting, different songs on the album.

Conclusion:

This album is a very solid hard-rock/heavy metal album. It features a number of good songs, a couple great songs, some great instrumentation, and solid vocals. Despite containing some boring songs, there is a lot to like on this album for fans of classic rock or metal. It is also interesting to see the roots of one of the most famous heavy metal bands in the world. I recommend checking it out.

Final Rating: B+/10

Killers:

The Ides of March:

The second album starts off with a really short (as in less than 2 minutes) instrumental piece. It sounds nice and has that “galloping” sound Iron Maiden can do so well (and indeed, became known for on later albums), but it is nothing special. Still, it is decent and a solid start to the album.

Wrathchild:

Here is where things really start kicking. This song is short (around 3 minutes), but sweet. Di’Anno’s typically rough vocal style really shines here and he does a great job with the lyrics. He even gets to show off his range, with a well-placed yell in the middle of the song really showing how high he can get. The chorus is catchy as hell and really digs into one’s brain. The riff is strong and fast, and makes a subtle use of the “galloping” sound to draw the listener further into the song. All in all, it is a great song and serves as a good introduction to band’s new focus on a more pure heavy metal sound over the slightly prog-rock feel of the first album.

Murders in the Rue Morgue:

This song starts out slow, but slowly builds up over the course of a minute to a blisteringly fast riff that caries the song for the rest of its runtime. This song, like Phantom of the Opera, is based on a piece of classic lit. That is not to say it has a similar structure or feel to Phantom. In fact, it abandons the prog-rock feel of Phantom for a more traditional heavy metal, Judas Priest inspired sound. The song itself features a catchy chorus and fast instrumentation with strong vocals to match. Di’Anno belts out each verse incredibly fast. It actually bears resemblance to Steven Tyler’s vocals in Walk This Way, with both being sung at about the same speed. And, again as with Walk This Way, it is highly impressive and engaging to hear a singer sing that fast while still being able to pronounce every verse correctly and in tune with the music. Overall, a pretty strong song.

Another Life:

This is a relatively simple song. It only has 8 verses that are repeated multiple times throughout the song. What instrumental sections there are work, but are nothing too fancy. It is just a fairly nondescript, plain song. Nothing really that special.

Genghis Khan:

This is the second instrumental of the album and it is by far the stronger of the two. It has a nice beat, and the solos and riffs flow into each other nicely. What is especially nice is the aural soundscape in creates, especially in the later part of the song. The song starts out fine enough, with good solos and instrumentals creating a slow build-up throughout most of the song. Then suddenly near the end wailing guitars come in and totally change the tone of the entire song and it becomes significantly slower, but none less interesting. The progression of the music seems like saddling up one’s horse in a base camp than riding out across some blasted tundra, the rushing wind in one’s ears. It really is quite an interesting, underrated piece that needs to be heard more.

Innocent Exile:

To be perfectly honest, this is a fairly generic song. It once again talks about running from the law, a theme all too common in much of Iron Maiden’s early work. The instrumentation is okay, but extremely bland and uninteresting. Sure, it is not incompetent, but it is just so samey and boring when compared to every other song from the era that it becomes supremely uninteresting and, dare I say, bad. Or maybe just lazy, but that is still not a point in the song’s favor.

Killers:

This is a great damn song. It really, really is. It has lovely instrumentation, allows di’Anno to stretch his vocals (especially in the beginning), it provides a strong central riff, and it has a great sense of style about it. The entire song is basically about a serial killer stalking and killing his victims. This song sounds dark, but the entire thing is played up so it is so over the top and ridiculous, it becomes hard not to like. Di’Anno just makes the killer of the song sound so damn crazy and gleeful that it appeals to that small part of our brain that enjoys crazy psychopathic killers. He just sounds like he is having so much fun that it is hard not to get some enjoyment from listening to the song. And there really is nothing wrong with that.

Prodigal Son:

This is a fairly slow song when compared to the rest of the album. While this is sometimes good (because it can spice up an album, adding a little bit of extra flavor), the song itself has to be at least interesting for that to work. Unfortunately, this does not have that going for it. The entire thing is really quite boring and provides nothing interesting to latch onto. The vocals are bland, the instrumentation is bland, and the lyrics are bland; the entire thing is just extremely forgettable. I have actually sat through this song multiple times without realizing I sat through it until something more interesting came up. It does not stay in my memory long enough to even realize I listened to it. If I go away for 5 minutes without thinking about it, I will completely forget what it sounds like. That does not happen with most other songs, even the ones I absolutely despise. Really, the entire is just a flavorless piece of nothing and holds no real value.

Purgatory:

This is certainly an improvement over the horribly dull Prodigal Son, but it is not without its problems. Namely, it too is generic. The instrumentation is pretty decent and has a good pace, but still fairly generic when compared to more memorable pieces. Really, the best part of the song is the chorus. It has a great sound about it, sometimes dipping into wailing territory, but never too much as to be mistaken as black metal. Beyond that, there is nothing really memorable or interesting about this song that has not been done better in multiple other songs on the album.

Twilight Zone:

This is one of my favorite songs on the entire album. While it is quite short, there is still a lot to like packed into its 3 minute length. It has a great beat that integrates perfectly with the vocals. This actually has the side effect of making the beat much more noticeable and enjoyable. The song uses some subtle backing vocals in the chorus to make it sound slightly otherworldly, which goes perfectly with the lyrics. The lyrics themselves describe a tragic tale of longing, describing a ghost haunting his lover. He wants to be with them, but they cannot see or hear him, no matter how hard he tries. It is all well written and works very well with the instrumentation and di’Anno’s vocals, who helps to create creating an atmosphere of sadness and longing about the song with his perfectly timed wails.

Drifter:

I will say one thing: this song does do some interesting thing with tonal shifts. Not much else going for it, though. There are parts in the song where the tone switches briefly from fast and furious rock ‘n roll to a much slower, introspective sound. This usually occurs right after the chorus and creates an interesting disconnect between the end of the chorus and regular verses. Beyond that though, the song does not have much to offer at all. The instrumentation is boring, the vocals are boring, and the lyrics are boring. It is just really uninteresting (aside from the neat tonal) and a pretty disappointing end to the album.

Conclusion:

“Killers” has a lot of great songs. Unfortunately, it also has a number of bland songs as well. The great songs are certainly worth a listen, it is neat to hear the bands progression between albums, and it is cool to see the start of some of the bands signature musical elements (like the aforementioned “galloping”). But, whether or not it is worth the bland songs that come with the good ones will be up to the listener. There really is a lot of blandness here and it drags the album down.  One might just be better off buying the good stuff off of iTunes and abandoning the rest.

Final Rating: PBJ sammich/10

Breakfastman is an amateur reviewer, student, and all around cool guy. Questions, comments, constructive criticisms, rants, rages, or just want to tell me my taste in music sucks? All forms of feedback are encouraged, so feel free. All images blatantly stolen from Google.

Not dead yet.

So yeah. Posting back on this site again. I hope to post more often and not abandon the site for months at a time, like I have been doing. Let's see how that works...

Gamegaddon: Metal Gear Solid 4

Breakfastman’s Gamegadon: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
It was supposed to be the end of one of the most beloved series of all time. It wasn’t, but is it any good regardless?

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a stealth-action game released in 2008 by Konami, and is the sixth in the “Metal Gear” series, which was started with the release of “Metal Gear” on the MSX2 15 years ago. My own experience with the series begins a bit more recently. A year or two back, I was in a used book store, browsing their used games shelve. I saw a copy of “Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance” for the original X-Box. I had always wanted to try the series, so I decided to purchase it. This turned out to be a great idea, and I quite enjoyed the game. About a month or so later, I purchased a copy of “Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence”. By the time I was finished, the game had become one of my favorite games on the PS2, and indeed, of all time. Unfortunately, it was not until recently that I finally managed to get a hold of a copy of MGS4, the game that marks the end to the series plot. Was it what I the epic end to the series I had hoped for? Kind of.

Metal Gear Solid 4 takes place five years after the previous game in the timeline, Metal Gear Solid 2 (Metal Gear Solid 3 being a prequel). Snake is rapidly aging because of his status as a clone, nanomachines are everywhere, and all parts of the world are in a state of constant war, with battles largely being fought by PMCs. The economy of the world is now intrinsically linked with war. Snake travels to the middle east to investigate reports of activity by creepy arm spirit possession man Liquid Ocelot. What he finds is that Liquid is testing a mysterious new weapon on soldiers. This starts a global race against time to find and stop Liquids plan for this weapon, hopefully saving the world in the progress. Snake meets many familiar characters along the way (in fact, anyone who wasn’t dead by the end of the previous games show up in some form or another), visiting a couple new environments, and meeting a couple of new characters along the way (only one of whom is any good).

            If you thought Metal Gear Solid did not have homoerotic undertones, well, have I got news for you!

 

The story is, to put it bluntly, pure Kojima, for better or worse. Yes, that does mean hideously bloated, way too long cutscenes, terribly overwritten dialog, an ending that goes for far longer than it should, unneeded characters that the game could have done without, and silliness. It also means tragic backstories, loads of great characters, a ton of good ideas (a lot of which actually work), and piles of memorable moments. It won’t win over anyone who hated the stories before, but for those who actually liked them, they will feel right at home.

This does not mean that everything is all sunshine and roses. There are still a few problems that seem to be unique to this game (or at least, pose much more of a problem in this game than in previous games). The main problem being that Kojima thinks the audience is a collection of idiots. There is also the issue of some awfully big plot-holes one could drive a truck through.

                    In game advertising does not get much more blatant than this.

Far too much time is devoted to explaining bits of history that I learned in highschool. This also happened in MGS3 (I know what happened in the Bay of Pigs, thank you very much), but it appears much more here. Yes, I do know what the cold war was. Thank you for explaining game. Oh wait, you want to explain the politics of the last 40 years? You do that. I am going to go get snack.

Too much time is also devoted to explain, in exhaustive detail, the events of previous games. This could have easily been accomplished with a “previously on MGS” option in the main menu that explained the events of the previous games (hell, they even have a mechanic that helps explain who characters are without interrupting the cutscenes), not the piles upon piles of cutscenes that we get in the game. They exhaustively detail every single plot twist, character arc, and relationship between the characters. It gets so damn distracting that I ended up tuning most of the dialog out, in order to avoid listening to characters explain to me things that I already experienced. They are distracting and break up the flow of the game considerably.

 Robotic tanks that walk around and two feet and moo. In case you couldn’t tell, this game can be a bit silly. Just a bit.

Far too much of the cutscenes are devoted to explaining things we have already figured out for ourselves. I cannot begin to count the times that a character revealed “startling revelation” that I had figured out at least a half hour prior. It is not even that I am incredibly smart and can spot twist a mile away (which I can, by the way); these twists are so screamingly obvious that the only way they could possibly be a surprise was if the player was high throughout the entire game.

Additionally, plot-holes. There are quite a bit of them. These are not small ones that one only realizes are there a week after when thinking about the game. No, these are “scream at your TV because it refuses to make sense” plot-holes. Multiple times characters make decisions that make absolutely no sense and do nothing but put their lives in danger when other alternatives exist that would not endanger their lives. Characters survive massive amounts of bullets, and characters that were pretty much dead as a doornail somehow manage to come back to life, then die a minute later, accomplishing nothing. It is all insanely distracting.

                                   Snake, morning the end of his relevance as a game character. :'(

But, every cloud has a silver lining; while there are stuff that outright craps all over the story, there are also many good ideas and interesting themes present. Chief among these themes is the theme of growing old. Since Snake is aging at an accelerated rate, he is now the physical age of a man well into his 70’s. He longs for the good old days, as seen in a later level of the game when sounds of his memories play in the background as he wanders around the area. He also suffers from “seizures” of a sort; these seizures really help to illustrate the pain that he is going through. Yet, the game never gets hopeless. Despite Snake’s age, he is still treated as an equal among his peers, and is even shown as being revered in a few circumstances. He is never seen as useless.

The game also has a rather heavy-handed anti-war message. Yet, despite how often the game bangs the player over the head with this (characters spout complaints about “the horrors of war” at every turn), it still manages to convey its message in some fairly interesting and subtle ways. Chief amongst these is the treatment of returning character, “Raiden”. In his youth, Raiden was a child soldier. This massively damaged his psyche, and as a result of that, he has a hard time connecting with people. He retreats from society to the only thing he knows: war. This has the effect of literally making him an inhuman killing machine. He is still seen as sympathetic; a man of unfortunate circumstances forced to become a monster because of forces beyond his control. Only when war has ended does he get his redemption, and the scene where he does is fairly poignant and moving.

                                   Nobody told Snake that you shouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight.

The game uses a variety of interesting ways to tell its story and keep the player interacting. Every now and then, an “X” will appear in the corner of the screen; when pressed, this button shows a screen from previous game, reminding the player of the character/actions being mentioned. In the same vein, the player can sometimes press L1 to show the view from Snakes eyes. Additionally, there are other nice little touches, like well-placed quick-time events, some small deviations from the typical mode of gameplay, and other nice uses of interactivity to heighten the player’s involvement with the story. In light of this, it really is a shame that Kojima seemingly can’t recognize a good thing when he has it.

Unlike the story, the gameplay has received some fairly substantial improvements in this game. The MGS series never had the best gunplay. The player either had to shoot from a top-down camera with no way to aim, or go into first person, making it easier to aim but removed the ability to move. MGS4 changes all that. The player can now fire down over the soldier, or aim down the sites at will. The game also allows the player to move and shoot at the same time. The ability to move while crouched or take cover behind walls is also added, and both are a god-send and improve the gunplay substantially. It is finally fun to shoot enemies in the face, and blows every other game in the series out of the water.

The tranq gun makes its triumphant return. Unfortunately, it has limited ammo, so no more acting like the sandman.

The camera has also seen a big change. Instead of the terrible, isometric top-down camera that nearly every single other game except the special addition of 3 had, they implement a camera that is controlled by the player. The player can now use the right-thumb stick to move the camera and look at whatever they so desire, without having to bother to go into first-person. This gives the action and the stealth a kick in the pants and change the way the player plays both.

The control scheme has received a number of improvements, but it is still not good enough to call it “good”. The player no longer uses the Codec to save, which is nice. But, the terrible inventory system from the previous games is still present. Pressing L2 and R2 bring up the item and weapon inventory respectively, and the player can flip through the selections on the screen. This has the unfortunate effect of breaking up the action whenever the player wants to use a health item or change to another weapon. It would have been easier to let the player map favorite weapons/items to hotkeys, but no such luck. Drawing a weapon with L1 and firing with R1 feels fine, but having to hit Triangle to go into first person feels sloppy. Crouching and going prone with X also feels fine, but if the player wants to roll while moving, God help them. Too often I found myself trying to roll away from danger, only to go prone or crouch at the end of the roll. Stuff like that should not happen; I should not be doing things I did not mean to do, through no fault of my own.

                                                                Eh, Snake can take them, I think.

The game includes a new item customization system. The player can attach a variety of sights, silencers, flashlights, laser pointers, grenade launchers, shotguns, and more to most of the weapons. These changes not only show up on the guns in game (a nice aesthetic touch), but make a huge difference in how they work and how the player can use them. I ended up converting an M4 given to me in game into a silent bringer of death on par with my sniper rifle. This was probably my favorite new feature of the game, and it is implemented superbly.

A new shop system is also implemented. When wandering around the battlefield, Snake will pick up new weapons, the first version of which is kept, and all subsequent pickups are sold to the shop for points. These points can be used to unlock weapons (since the weapons Snake pick up on the field are locked for a certain individual and cannot be used immediately), or to purchase new weapons, items, ammo, or upgrades. The player will never want for points either, since enemies drop weapons whenever they die, and each weapon gives a rather large amount of points. I had over one hundred thousand by the end of the game, and had all the weapons, ammo, items, and upgrades I could ever want.

                                                                        Most useless. Metal Gear. Ever.

Stealth is much less of a focus in this game. Oh, don’t get me wrong; it is still a stealth game and stealth is still a viable option. It just so happens that blowing away enemies is also a viable option. The ultimate result of this is that the player has more options than ever. They can snipe enemies from afar, sneak around without killing anyone (and if they do get caught, they can fight their way out), or run in guns blazing. The end result is a game that offers more options than previous iterations and is more satisfying than ever, whether capping fools with a sniper rifle, sneaking behind enemies’ backs, or killing the hell out of everything that moves.

A MGS game would not be complete without memorable boss battles, and this game delivers, most of the time. All bosses are every different, both in tactics and overall appearance. Problem solving skills are still as important as they ever where; the player needs to be just as clever as they are aggressive to take them down, since many bosses have a trick to fighting them that is not always immediately obvious. I really don’t want to talk any more about them than that, since half the fun of every MGS game is the unique bosses that get thrown at the player.

                                     Someone is in for a load of pain. Hint: it is not guy pressed against the wall. 

While the gameplay is fantastic, the graphics in the game are good, but nothing special. There is a bit of nice texture work, everything animates beautifully, and the foliage and hair effects are nice, but nothing really stood out. The character models all look incredibly unrealistic, but it does not really clash with the rest of the game since it was not going for realism to begin with (the presence of giant walking tanks that can swim through the water pretty much destroys any hope for realism one might have had). The game does feature some absolutely brilliant use of particle effects that really help to make the game look nice.

The level design is also nice, but nothing special and frequently has problems. The first two levels offer the player many ways to approach a situation, but they don’t look that different from each other. The third level has an interesting premise and looks really neat, but it pretty much abandons much of what it had going for it after about a half hour. The 4^th level is also good, but does not have nearly enough gameplay. The final level has about as little actual gameplay as possible. Additionally, the game never stays in one place long enough for the player to get acquainted with it, unlike the previous games, which certainly don’t help. It is not up to the high standards set by the previous game.

                                 Snake’s favorite past-time: blowing stuff up. Hey, a man’s gotta have a hobby.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a solid entry in the series, but not the best. The story has a lot of good ideas, many of which work, but ends up being too hampered by a ton of terrible decisions. The gameplay has certainly received a bump in quality, resulting in gunplay and stealth that is more satisfying than ever. Metal Gear Solid fans will probably enjoy the game, and those who couldn’t stand the gameplay from previous entries in the series should check this one out. Anyone who didn’t like the others for the story shouldn’t bother. I would also not recommend this one to anyone looking to get into the series either; if you really want to get into the series, play MGS3: Subsistence.

Breakfastman is an amateur reviewer, student, and all around cool guy. Questions, comments, constructive criticisms, rants, rages? Feel free to post them below. All images blatantly stolen from Google.