"Wait, is that it?"

It’s been compared to the technically staggering ‘Tanker’ mission in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, but with a premium price point attached, many were expecting Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes to have a little more girth to it. Sadly, it turns out that that may not be the case, as reports suggest that the standalone prologue – which will retail for up to $40 on the PlayStation 4 – will take you around two hours to complete.

The surprising snippet comes courtesy of Game Informer magazine’s latest cover story, which originally mentioned that it had managed to see out the main objective and some side quests during a four hour hands-on session with the paltry prologue. However, the actual quote inside the issue is a little more damning: “Judged just by the core story mission, Ground Zeroes is short,” it reads. “We completed it in just less than two hours.”

Fortunately, a recently leaked list of Trophies suggests that there may be much more to the game. For starters, it seems that the package will be padded out with ‘Side Ops’ and ‘Extra Ops’ challenges, each of which will be ranked. Moreover, there’ll be cassettes and other items to collect in the sandbox environment. As such, it’s hard to criticise the game without playing it – after all, these may be the best two hours of action ever conceived.

Still, it’s perhaps the price point that’s causing the backlash among fans and casual observers alike. If this was included free with, say, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, then we don’t think that anyone would be complaining. However, the idea of paying $40 – it’s cheaper if you nab it digitally or on the PlayStation 3 – understandably isn’t sitting well with most consumers. Are you going to stump up the extortionate fee anyway? Point your silenced pistol at the comments section below.

[source gameinformer.com, via kotaku.com]