I'm not going to lie, I LOVE the Metal Gear series. Complex characters, the style of gameplay, and the convoluted yet engaging story that combines fact with fiction. The overall quality of the games are nothing short of excellence led by a man who expects nothing short of excellence. However, a lot of weight and pressure has been put on Kojima's shoulder as the fallout between employee and employer that created a rift between two sides making Metal Gear Solid V: The Pantom Pain officially the last game Kojima will ever work on. With all the controversy between Kojima and Konami how will the Phantom Pain fair?
MGSV splits into two chapters as chapter 1 starts things off 9 years after the events of Ground Zeroes - the attack on Mother Base that left Big Boss in a coma and transported to a hospital in Cyprus. In no time the hospital is under attack by the same group that tried to kill him 9 years ago. You are sucked in to a captivating sequence where Snake and an unknown man make their escape from XOF forces, and the unstoppable Man on Fire. It seemed Kojima has done it again by creating a wonderful atmosphere but it is all down hill after that. Once Snake escapes and rendezvous with Ocelot and rescues Miller, preparations to rebuild his army commence.
Revenge is the theme behind Phantom Pain. Big Boss, Miller, and the rest of the Diamond Dogs want to bring down those who cause the destruction of their home, and took away things that cannot simply be replaced. Snake does odds and end jobs within Afghanistan and eventually Africa in hopes to learn the wear-abouts of Skull Face, the shallow main antagonist as his motives are also based on revenge. But you won't really know what his motives are just by playing through the main story in Chapter 1.
Kojima has a tendency to convolute a plot, but not necessarily in a bad way. It would require you to play through the game multiple times to "get" it, but once it made sense you can appreciate how the story was told. In Metal Gear Solid V, the story telling is just down right bad and that is what drives the series. Without an emotional plot and memorable events, Metal Gear Solid loses a lot of its charm. Whenever the game decided to progress the story you would get a brief cutscene
that contains little to no information about what is going on. You are regulated to listening to dozens of cassette tapes that attempt to clarify where the story is going but not until Chapter 2 do things become clear. And the limited lines given to Big Boss makes him have no personality, it seems he has no input or care, and creates awkward or emotionless scenes that should otherwise be powerful. Sutherland isn't bad as Big Boss, I actually liked him, but I don't get why his lines were kept to a minimum. Skull Face is also a horrible antagonist. Just like the unclear plot, Skull Face's motives are poorly explained within the game. You must plow through more missions in Chapter 2 to obtain tapes that finally explain his intentions, and why he seeks revenge.
By Kojima standards, The Phantom Pain is very tame and very bland. You are always anticipating Kojima to troll us all but it never happened.
However, it did happen. Possibly the biggest shock in the series and his greatest troll attempt ever will surely leave gamers with jaws on the floor in utter shock. As much as I wanted to hate it, I tip my hat to Kojima as I expect nothing less. This may also explain the some of the issues I stated previously and now sort of make sense in the grand scheme of things. But I wonder if the purpose of the game was to deliver what the final minutes laid out. If so, did you really need to wait till the game was over?
Changes in the stories structure continue with changes to the game on how it plays. Kojima expanded the size of the game and created a open world that is new to the series - featuring two countries; Afghanistan and Africa. Scattered across the map are enemy outposts that are begging to be infiltrated. Due to the nature and scale of the game, there are lots of routes to take and is quite fun experimenting with different techniques. Gaining a vantage point is critical so you can 'tag' your enemies putting a marker above their head so you can keep tabs on their location. Progressing through the story will make infiltrating a bit easier as you can be accompanied by one other 'buddy'. D-Horse provides a means of transportation but becomes useless once you can deploy vehicles. D-Dog is most useful as he has super abilities to tag enemies hundreds of meters away. Quite is also useful as you can order her to scout an area and provide cover. A Walker is sort of like a mini Metal Gear that is useful when you're looking to flat out destroy the opposition.
The open world was cool, but visually it felt like a PS3 game remastered for current gen hardware. Low polygon count, draw distance was limited, and some flat textures to foliage and other objects made the game look dated in those areas. However, taking these short cuts allowed the Fox Engine to run at a smooth 60 FPS with high resolution and photorealistic textures to the mountainous terrain. Animations are always fluid and you can see the muscles working (D-Horses legs, Big Boss' back in the hospital), enemy AI is intelligent and seemed to adapt to items used.
Stealth is still the main attraction to the gameplay even though they went to an open world. MGSV takes a lot of the game mechanics from Peace Walker and expands on this idea. Building up Mother Base is still as fun as it was previously by extracting enemy soldiers from the battlefield but now you can also steal resources, vehicles, weapons, and animals too. Each solider has a rank from E to S++ in one of the 6 gradeable categories. Ranking up a specific category depends on the skills of your soldiers and will allow you to develop all sorts of equipment.
One of the most disappointing aspects to The Phantom Pain were the boss battles. Since the main plot was sluggish, there was never a climatic boss fight to set you up to the next area of operations. There is a group called The Skulls that possess super abilities but they were pushovers. They lacked creativity, personality, and just plain awesomeness. It's a far cry from the insanely good boss fights of MGS4 and 3, but even the other games had great memorable fights. What happened?
There is plenty of side missions to indulge yourself in that also borrow elements from Peace Walker. There are a number of Side Ops that have you do multiple things from extracting prisoners, to eliminating powerful tank units. There are deployment missions where the computer analyses your success probability based on how skilled your soldiers are. Depending on the mission rewards vary and can also help you in the main mission by cutting off enemy supplies and equipment.
You also have FOB missions which act as the games online component. Having this large base is not safe from outsiders. Other players can invade your base and try to steal your resources and soldiers by successfully infiltrating your base. You can also invade other bases as well in attempts to strengthen your home. To make sure this is as difficult as possibly you can deploy mines, camera, sensors, and decoy soldiers. Success will results in rewards and MB coins which can be used to build another base elsewhere on the ocean.
As I've stated, Metal Gear Solid is by far my favorite series but something was just not right with MGS5. If it wasn't for the gameplay The Phantom Pain would have been so much more disappointing - if it wasn't enough already. I don't necessarily get the purpose of the plot and the point of Kojima's troll. I feel it does little for the canon of the series and if the only game was to set up the ending then that is just poor execution. I couldn't help but feel the game was unfinished as you can tell by some visual flaws, an underdeveloped plot, and missing missions. I can't say for sure if Konami had a hand in this but I can only imagine this to be true. I am not displacing blame for Kojima however, he had a large budget and half a decade to make this game.
It's a sad day to realize that this was the very last game and as unsatisfying as it was, it makes it a bitter pill to swallow. I wish they ended things that directly went into Metal Gear (NES) that had Solid Snake about to infiltrate Outer Heaven, but unfortunately we didn't get anything of the sorts. Maybe I'm putting too much emphasize on the plot but that is what gives Metal Gear Solid it's personality. Kojima, for whatever reason, didn't deliver what he seemed to always deliver. Because of this, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is just that - a Phantom.
Whether it's showcasing damage realistically or simulating fractures and conditions, these games are worth checking out.
The Metal Gear series has sold 60.2 million copies, as of September 2023.
Too bad it was a lazy release. They could've updated the visuals and everything. Missed opportunity.
...and yet, they couldn't give more respect and effort into the collection.
What a terrible company.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is another rollercoaster of a game in the Metal Gear Solid series. Here's what to expect and why you need to experience it.
Yea I don’t get why they’re allowing old reviews to be posted here. Someone did one on Soul Reaver and I got so excited thinking there was some stealth release of an HD Remaster, but no… it’s just someone who had a slow day posted an old review…
I liked the game but for me it felt somehow like a military simulator rather than a proper MGS.. i got bored of that
The author was in a coma for 9 years and didn't get to play the game when it released.
Amazing how bad this game looks already. We keep acting like this gen doesn't feel like an update but I think we're starting to see it.
Looks better than Starfield, Cyberpunk and most recent games out. Still fine.
The gameplay was great. It was the tacked on open world and repetitive missions that messed the game up.
The game started really strong in that hospital, but after a couple of hours I wondered if it was even an mgs game I was playing.
The hospital section was the only bit that felt like a MGS game.
MGS4 was the ending for me. I totally ignore the fact 5 exists. It didn't need to exist tbh
Spot on review I gotta say. Wholeheartedly agree with it. MGS ended for me with Guns of the Patriots.
Great review. I actually have to force myself to play the game. I'll stick to the main missions and will probably get rid of it as soon as it's over. After that, I'll go back to play other games in the series to satisfy my MGS need.
Interesting. Haven't played it yet, but any idea why all the 10''s everywhere?
I'm only at 21% complete but so far I'm really enjoying the game and story. The story is just delivered very differently to other Metal Gear games. It's not cutscene heavy, so listening to the tapes is a must - and that builds on Peace Walker a lot but this time you can do it while free roaming the maps to build your army. I also like that because the tapes are there you can listen to them multiple times instead of seeing one cutscene, so I've actually found this story much easier to follow than previous entries where, by the time you get to the end, you've forgotten large chunks of what was talked about in the beginning.
I personally rate this as my favourite Metal Gear game since Metal Gear Solid on PSone, followed by Guns of the Patriots.