The phantom pain is real. Erase any memory of what you think Metal Gear was 10 years ago. Metal Gear V is a game that achieves what all of its predecessors could only dream of, yet fails in one of the most important part of any work of art. Despite this, Hideo Kojima was finally able to give the players a full blown stealth game, unhindered by current technology. What that means is that this game is the peak of any stealth-action game when it comes to gameplay. After being in development for 5 years, it shows how much thought went into the overall refinement of the game. The only downfall to this game is its story. Metal Gear games have always been known for their grand story lines. They have always had complicated worlds and rich character backstories that make the characters come alive. MGS V is at its weakest when analyzed in that respect or when compared to its predecessors. Luckily the gameplay balances all of the game’s faults that come from its story being unsatisfying and uneventful.
Snake is a Boss, in fact he’s The Big Boss, and you truly feel that as the player. Controlling Big Boss is exciting and fun. There are no slowdowns of any kind, Big Boss is only as good as the player. MGS V is extremely versatile in the ways it lets you approach all situations. If you have to infiltrate a base you could do it in stealth or go guns blazing. That sounds like only 2 approaches, but how the AI reacts to your actions is honestly kind of scary. There were many situations when I thought the AI wouldn’t be able to see me because I was “too far.” A little trick I’ve learned by playing other games where AI is very limited and could only react in one of two ways. It either sees you or it doesn’t. In MGS V the AI will spot you and react accordingly. If it knows its you it will call for help. If it is a little unsure it will carefully go scout the area. If you have already set off an alarm once, the soldiers will go with a buddy. They will pair up so it’s harder to sneak up on them. While on the subject of gameplay there is another huge addition to it which adds another layer to an already delicious pile of gameplay elements: the buddy system. Throughout the game BB (Big Boss) will collect different characters to help him when deployed on missions. There are a total of four very different buddies but my favorite was the wolf companion. He has the ability to distract enemies in many different ways. He can bark, stun enemies, wound or kill them based on the gear you have developed for him. I cannot think of a single thing that would have made the game play better.
Sadly the story is nowhere near as good as the gameplay. I’m not saying it’s a piece of trash that shouldn’t even be named Metal Gear, but the story is just not nearly as good as it could have been. You do get your story with a few twists and turns here and there but the fact that it is broken up into different sections was completely unsatisfactory. There is no flow to the story, and it doesn’t help that each time you get deployed on a mission the credits roll right before you go into your mission. It makes no sense. I must have read the phrase “written and directed by Hideo Kojima” around 100 times. The ending is something no normal person was expecting and it does sort of change the way you see things as a whole. Kojima really did outdo himself with the ending. To me, a casual gamer who took the other games at face value, the ending came as a total shock. I knew and understood the timely and events that transpired in all of the games, and this does sort of fill in a lot of the gaps left between Metal Gear Peace Walker and the original Metal Gear which came out in 1987 for the MSX 2 computer in Japan. That’s almost 30 years worth of story. That’s a lot of dots to connect and a whole lot of fans to satisfy.
Metal Gear V: The Phantom Pain is not perfect in any way shape or form, but it does achieve some great things that will not soon be forgotten. The gameplay will be remembered as the best of its kind. The story will be remembered as the most fragmented, unsatisfactory story in the whole series, that still managed to pull off an ending no one saw coming. Kojima was finally able to realize a true stealth game unhindered by technological limitations. He goes out with a bang in both gameplay and storytelling. I was very conflicted in writing this review because in the many, many hours I spent playing it, (about 80, and I only achieved 50% game completion) I felt like something was missing. A piece of the Metal Gear aesthetic was gone and I really don’t quite know where it went. I know it’s gone and probably will never be repaired due to this being the last Metal Gear Kojima-san will be involved in. It’s hard to tell if what is missing from MGS V is missing on purpose, and Hideo Kojima truly manipulated the player to have their own type of “Phantom Pain.”
I give this game a: 9/10
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Reviewed by: Edwin R.R.
Ed Reviews All 