IC Forum Archive

firenze · Posts: 654

www.the-magicbox.com wrote:

- Hideo Kojima revealed some new tidbits on Metal Gear Solid 4:

Player can choose to strike on either sides (nation A or B), or even destroy both.
Player can choose to ally with either side or not at all

You know, I wasn't that excited about MGS4. Series ususally just doesn't impress me as much as it does many people. But those tidbits sound seriously cool.

Any other games that have this sort of mercenary mechanic? I guess maybe the Way of the Samurai games sort of let you do this, and the simple dark/light side mechanic of stuff like KotOR and Fable is sort of nudging toward that path.

chevluh · Posts: 183

Deus Ex 2 did it, but not too well. Basically everybody and their uncle had your radio frequency and would give you objectives, and choosing which of them to accomplish would determine who you'd be sided with at the end of the mission.

Sacrifice, on PC, did it better. You were, basically, a mercenary and could choose to side with any of five gods at the beginning of the game. But as the war went on and sides were more sharply defined your choices would be narrowed more and more depending on who you had sided with so far until you became the minion of a specific one (with one open opportunity for betrayal at one point though). Also, most missions had a semi-hidden objective that allowed you to gain the favor of another god. Who you chose to ally with had no influence on the outcome of the war though (in fact the whole game was a flashback narrated by your character near the end of the war).

I guess Mercenaries did it too, in a GTA-ish way. Dunno much about that one though.

Baines · Posts: 906

Armored Core let you go after one of the two main opposing corporations, but it didn't affect the ending. It just opened a couple of missions mid-late in the game.

another god · Posts: 1629

Why does a single mechanic ever really appeal to anyone? It's merely a tool used by the narrative to say something interesting.

Mostly, I think that Kojima is using this as a trick to tell us something interesting about war and choice.

But mostly I think Kojima is infallable...

Boo · Posts: 47

The Matrix Reloaded,2003 wrote:

Neo: There are only two possible explanations: either no one told me, or no one knows.

The Architect: Precisely. As you are undoubtedly gathering the anomaly's systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations.

Neo: Choice. The problem is choice.

extralife · Posts: 3316

This is interesting, provided Kojima provides the narrative context for it rather than just use it as a bullet point feature. I have faith in his abilities to do the former.

inmatarian · Posts: 338

Knowing Kojima, it'll probably be some kind of trick, where the choice is arbitrary and the end result will still be failure.

James · Posts: 1735

It'll probably be about as sophisticated as a NES game (again)

skelethulu · Posts: 129

I hope that no matter what you do, you the player have to kill yourself and get a Game Over (a real one, not some fake trick one), leaving the story unresolved, Amen.