When Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain first hit shelves back in September, it was everywhere – and with good reason. Though the title harbours concerns of meddlesome online content and a lacking narrative, it still delivers as a stellar toybox fit for fans of the series and newcomers alike.
The ways in which the game expands upon the concept of an open world are numerous. A plethora of upgrades, weapons, and other fun playthings allow you to tackle any mission with near unrivalled variation, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Anything worth customising in The Phantom Pain can be, and its rare that you'll ever feel like what you're doing is pointless or detached from the outing's solid continuity.
Both visually and audibly, the release continues to excel; a tense, foreboding score accompanies Big Boss as he travels across stunningly crafted landscapes and delves into nigh unbeatable skirmishes. The instalment also boasts a selection of goofy 80s tracks, too, which is never a bad thing.
"When it comes to action, stealth, and drama, look no further than this trusty hallmark of brilliance"
Moreover, it's the game's undying attention to detail that really makes it feel genuine. Wind howls past you as you gallop across Afghanistan's dry terrain, small clouds of dust spitting upwards from the ground with every step. It's little touches like these that are scarcely indulged with other titles of the genre, but they're proven to be highly effective here.
Almost every aspect of the release is polished to an incredible standard, while maintaining an appropriate vagueness reminiscent of past Metal Gear games. Everything from the stylisation of the user interface to the cinemacy of the cutscenes suggests a level of quality that's all but expected from the franchise, and yet it manages to nudge the bar even higher than that.
Furthermore, the performances that breathe life into The Phantom Pain's colourful cast of characters are equally superb. Although we can't help but think that Sutherland's Snake goes criminally underutilised, personalities like the loyal Kazuhira Miller and the intriguing Quiet promise rich emotional investment for those looking to spare them the time.
All in all, the closing chapter on this fan favourite saga is more than a fitting one, bringing new concepts and ways to play into an already impressive formula. When it comes to action, stealth, and drama, look no further than this trusty hallmark of brilliance.
Do you think that Metal Gear Solid V was Big Boss, or a load of old dross? Were you satisfied with the immensely varied sandbox gameplay, or did the game's stifled story disappoint you? Salute Hideo Kojima in the comments section below.
Comments 34
Mgs 5 is a fine game, but i cant help feeling that it was 10 hour game that was unashamedly stretched into 20 hour game. Being forced to replay missions with hard modifiers just to reach the conclusion really killed the imersion for me.
The last half of the game was a mess and had terrible pacing.
An amazing game!
But with some glaring omissions and a heavy dose of repetition.
Would appear higher in my list infact its in my top 3 I really enjoyed it and I played it for 85 hours without ever getting bored.
@Davros79 20 hour? I'm at 80-90 on Mission 32! I appreciate I've messed about a lot, though. I've given it a bit of a break but I'm going to get back into it.
Quite like the idea of replaying missions with harder modifiers, I found myself falling back on silenced sniper rifles too much despite the vast number of weapons available.
Superb game let down by its bare bones act 2. Fortunately its excellent gameplay makes up for it somewhat.
@kyleforrester87 lol yeah, 20 hours is a bit light, i think i beat the game in 32 something like that. I skipped alot of side ops tho.
@Davros79 Still, a crazy length for a MGS title. I once beat MGS2 3 times in one day collecting all dog tags in the process! (It's about 3 hours long skipping all the cut scenes!)
I kinda wish to have had a 1v1 boss fight with skullface that would have been epic....
@Davros79 Agreed. Being forced to replay missions was a bad design choice. I think it was probably forced by Konami though after Kojima's problems with them.
Thought this game would get higher up the list. I did love this game it had so many little touches which made it fun to play. Was it the finished article no I do not think it was. Chapter one was great, chapter 2 felt lazy. I would have preffered for all chapter 2 missions to be a lot harder, no kills etc.I like the fact you can keep replaying missions to get in right. The length of the game was good and a lot of different elements to it. Quiet was a great character and being able to choose different buddies was a nice touch. Infiltration of bases was fun and there is also the online element. Not many games have so much content. The story was not the greatest and also it was not as difficult as other MGS but it was strong game.
I'm approaching 80 hours and only finished level 30.
There's nothing like creeping around in a box, popping out with smoke grenades before airlifting a tank away.
@Dodoo Not sure it would have been forced by Konami necessarily. I love Kojima but he's not entirely innocent of bad design choices in his games!
@kyleforrester87 Not disagreeing but I get the feeling Konami were annoyed at Kojima over how long/expensive the game was taking/costing and so made him cut it "short" (at least compared to what he originally envisioned) and hence why the missions he probably planned ended up being repeats.
Of course that could be complete balls but that's my guess!
MGS V was the most repetitive and thereby boring game I played since Assassin's Creed 1. If a game is repetitive, it's not a good game for me.
I loved the first few missions of this, I convinced myself it was the greatest game I had ever played. Then the setting started to feel really dull, & the missions tedious. As for the story.....well I really wish I hadn't watched the trailers as I'd basically seen it all by the time the game launched!
I bought the MGSV console bundle (the console looks awesome!), but this game is a 7/10 for me at best. What the hell was Kojima doing with the million years he was working on this game for?!
I dare say I enjoyed the trailers more than the game
@Dodoo Ah I get you now. Perhaps not so far-fetched put like that.
@Ichiban
Developing the Fox Engine no doubt, and fair play because it's the business!
@kyleforrester87 yeah the fox engine is very impressive
Surprisingly low given the acclaim. I kinda liked it.... spent too much time(150+ hours) doin identical side missions!!! ...... AND I mean IDENTICAL!!! Rescuing the same soldier from the same people in the same area ...... OVER and OVER and OVER!!!! Bored myself silly!! Got to the Episode One credits after the "Sahelanthrepa" robot (or whatever the stupid thing is called) and haven't gone back to finish it! Why all the filler???!!! Theres a great game buried in there!!!!
What really gets me,is why did kojima insist upon and pay mega bucks for Keifer Sutherland ? The guy said like 2 things!
David hayter would have probably cost a fraction of Sutherland 's wage...
I reckon Sutherland was only in the recording booth for 10 minutes!
@Ichiban Then the setting started to feel really dull, & the missions tedious.
How quickly did you feel like this? Everywhere on the maps is varied, you have desert, mountains, hills, jungle, canyons, power plants, oil platforms, swamps, plains, roads, castles, forts, ancient ruins, airfields, bridges, tunnels, hospitals, villages, outposts, courtyards, rivers, streams etc etc
Mission types - rescue prisoners, find a target, follow a target, destroy a tank unit, destroy an armoured unit, target practice, beat the clock, rescue animals, find plants, find posters, find letters, find materials, build your base, sniper fight, hide from a dinosaur, plan attacks, plan escapes, ride a horse, ride vehicles, ride a dog, ride a girl, contain a disease, set traps, disable mines, rock climb, bird spot, track crazy people, build an army, build a research centre etc etc.
You cant be serious with that critique?
Thing is, it can be repetitive but as @TheMightyPunram mentioned it's usually down to how you're playing it that makes it so. Really, if you find it becoming samey, try running the missions without any starting gear/using explosives only etc. to mix things up.
I kind of get the repetitive point, because we play games for fun and for some (many) people they'd rather, or have become accustomed to, the game lead them along showing them all the great things they can do. It pays to take a minute and genuinely think about how you're going to approach each mission in this game before doing it, and set some challenges for yourself in the process, that's where a lot of the fun lies. It's easy to run up to a base at night, order a sleeping bomb and extract the target while everyone takes a snooze.
That's the difference between people who got an hour out of Ground Zeroes and others who got 20+.
@kyleforrester87 Well said.
@TheMightyPunram That's not to say I'm not just as lazy half the time, too Hats off to those people who make all the crazy bases in Fallout 4, and awesome Minecraft worlds!
The biggest problem I had with MGS5 us that it actually had a pretty incredible narrative, but that narrative was literally hidden from the player.
I'd have put it in my top 5 but there's no question MGS V is a little disappointing. Another game that like Batman I was super hyped for but has problems that can't be overlooked. However, in this case I blame the imbecilic publisher more than anything else.
It's a good game but personally I preferred the more traditional linear story telling MGS like Snake Eater to this open world one.
you guys are a joke a game that had game ending bugs , a empty world were you travel a hour before you do anything and the game released unfinished as online came later and chapter 3 was pulled to make the holiday sales. plus the game is repetitive and boring , this disgust me it does nothing new but you sap jump on the name because the game is repetitive mess and utterly boring after 10 missions. this site has become such a joke of sellouts you guys rate games by there name and there past games lol.
@godslayer1975
@godslayer1975 Thanks, man.
@themcnoisy I'm very serious, I'm trying to figure out if your wall of gibberish is meant to be taken seriously though!
@Ichiban Why is it gibberish? How would you like a game set in Afghan to be set out?
The gameplay is as eventful as your imagination. As your clearly a fan of mgs you might have been expecting a different game - but taken on its own merits mgs v is phenomenal. I don't see how the missions are boring, because they are all fun. Should that wall of text I wrote previously be taken seriously? No, It could easily have been 5 times as long.
@godslayer1975 you haven't played it have you? That comment is a joke. Why all this hate for a great game - yes it has faults, but these are all at the back end of the game. The intro, size of the world, locations, graphics and gameplay tools are all brilliant. The biggest thing of all - you feel like a total badass.
What are your top 5 games?
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