I am not saying "because it is not like other Metal Gears that the pacing is wrong", you are assuming what I think and constructing why I would think that, which is not cool, I respect your opinion that you think the story is strong and it has its moments but I have a different opinion, it isn't well thought out, its badly written, I have played the game for 150 hours and debated with my friends over what it misses and what it does well, I played it for as long as I have because the game play and mechanics are good however just because you tell me to think about certain things isn't going to change my mind it, maybe if I was one of the only people that think that, but there are many people who think the overall pacing and story is bland and could have been a lot better .

In terms of pacing there is rules and techniques to make a story fluid and complete, this game has many deus ex machina moments especially code talker to move the plot along, a lot of the missions are just "get this guy for intel or kill him because he is a bad guy" and they don't relate too much to what is happening, None of the new characters that appear are that well written, Rebenok and Man on Fire is not very unique, I felt they were all lacklustre and have you noticed how literally none of the bosses speak, I wish there was a deeper meaning behind this but I just think it was rushed, I heard that the Skull unit was meant to be more of an over world random encounter opposed a boss segment. They remind me of badly designed comic book characters. A man literally on fire from revenge and every time he takes damage it is fired back, that's already been done and I feel detracts from Volgins character. If you look at the second chapter which is a big indicator of how badly the game paces itself, there is repeat missions and it feel disjointed, in the timeline the "island of flies" (I'm paraphrasing but the events with Eli and Sahelanthropus on an island happened, which was cut from the game because it was unfinished.

I don't act like anything, Eli doesn't have to change, I never said he had to but he doesn't add anymore to Liquid Snake , it is bad characterisation, his character relies on that we know it is Liquid, apart from that he offers nothing, boring fights and hates adults, it was a cameo appearance at best, the lord of flies reference I feel was pretentious when they added the conch shell attached to his shorts, the pig head was enough. You are saying that I am stuck to "they are different" no, I am saying they are inconsistent and boring, I had no problems with Ocelot in MGS3 because It was in line with how they made Ocelot in the previous games, they did a lot with his character, I have no problem with Miller becoming angry and twisted because he has a reason, people do change, so what was the cause of Ocelot changing? what did the game show you that made his personality so different from the previous games, everything you say about him is personal conjecture, "because he is working for venom and he hypnotized himself" that doesn't mean he cannot be sadistic, he loves torturing, the games makes it clear throughout the whole saga, he is loud, energetic and he loves showmanship, how does he go from, he was obsessed with his revolver techniques in mgs3 as he was in mgs1 yet in this game he really doesn't do that much, uses a different gun type and is very light hearted in his torturing, except the Huey scene with the needle which I felt was stepping in the right direction, you would think a scene where he is training men to shoot he would show off his own skills, because you know he is actually like that, nope we get a scene which is a call back to a previous game, if anything this game detracts from him, Ocelot didn't need to be in this game when you look at his role which could have been replaced by either a new character or Miller, even if Venom snake was the voice of reason would have been great to see a struggle between two old friends who are taking different stances on how they should move forward, miller wanting revenge, were as venom wants peace.

To answer "why he's written differently" probably because they had to rush the game, perhaps they struggled with ideas, they wanted to focus on other characters, we can come up with lots of reason of why he is and he isn't but at face value, I found Ocelot boring and poorly written.