2 reviews liked by ExMe168


Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain is messy. It’s a confusing game to say the least… It feels like there’s so much wrong with it, yet it’s still incredibly fun, and well made. Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain is a game that I’m very conflicted on, there’s so much fun to be had here, there’s a lot of great ideas and improvements here, but it falls short in a lot of aspects that I think are really important.


Mechanically, it’s definitely the most in depth, but I’d actually say that compared to 1-4, this might be the least fun one out of the main 5, either 5 or 4. I prefer 4’s structure of a more linear experience, with actual levels so I’m inclined to say this is my least favorite in terms of gameplay. Not that it is bad; far from it, I still think it’s fun! My main issue lies with how empty the open world is. There are some enemy camps on all the roads, but they’re small and have minimal buildings and structure. These aren’t much fun to sneak around, it’s honestly better to just take a car and drive through them, even if it gets you caught. There are some big buildings with actual complex structure and design, but
these aren’t as enjoyable as the actual levels of the previous games. These large buildings are also very far apart from each other most of the time. I think an open-world stealth game can work, but The Phantom Pain doesn’t really use it’s open world well. It’s two “levels” are just empty wastelands with few points of interest. It’s boring to traverse, and the missions that have you chasing around vehicles are usually very obnoxious because of how large and empty the level is.


Despite this problem with the world, the minute to minute stealth action is really great. Like I said before, mechanically this is probably the best in the series, and while I do prefer the linear format, I think the open ended missions are an interesting and refreshing change. You can be very creative with how you approach the objectives because of how many weapons and gadgets you can acquire. Finding combinations of load-outs and messing with enemy soldiers is really fun. A mechanic I’m not very fond of is “reflex mode”, I get why it was added, however it holds your hand way too much. Getting spotted and going into “reflex mode” is honestly an easier way to get past enemies in certain scenarios, so why wouldn’t you just get spotted on purpose and use the “reflex mode” to headshot the guards? This mechanic being turned off in the remixed missions is one of the reasons I think those missions are the best in the game in terms of pure gameplay.


The boss battles are really underwhelming. The Skulls are not very good, the male ones are damage sponges with glorified quick time events. The female Skulls are a lot more fun to fight, it’s a sniper battle in a jungle, which gives both sides a chance to hide or take vantage points. Quiet is also a sniper battle, but she is way worse. Her fight in theory should be good, she functions basically the same as the Female Skulls’ so what’s the problem? The boss arena is too big, and empty, she’s also way too easy to spot. That makes this fight pretty boring. Sahelanthropus is an amazing spectacle, and it’s the only boss with a more traditional health bar, but it’s gameplay is mainly just strafing and shooting. Metal Gear is known for multiple things, one of those being it’s legendary boss battles, and that’s an aspect this game is lacking in severely.


The cast of this game I think is pretty weak, Snake and Kaz are really the only interesting characters. The character that was done dirty the most is definitely Ocelot. He’s so crazy and entertaining in literally every other Metal Gear game, yet here he’s so normal… so boring. It feels like he’s lost his personality. He’s also so under-utilized, the game never expands on how he and Big Boss become friends. He is one of the most important characters to the over-arching story of Metal Gear, yet he does essentially nothing in this game. I don’t even need to talk about Quiet, she is mainly used for sex appeal and her role in the story is minimal. Huey is whatever, his involvement in the story is actually kind of interesting, however gets too little screen-time. Kaz is definitely my favorite character from this game, his determination and excitement is really fun to watch. I think he’s also the character that voices most players’ opinions. He speaks what most players are thinking during conflicts or indecisiveness. His motivations are pretty simple, but he’s a very likable character. Kaz also has my favorite voice acting in this game, Robin Atkin Downes does a really great job here.


The story is… really messy. I don’t want to say it’s bad, because I think there’s a lot of really good stuff here. The premise of expanding on what turned Big Boss into a villain honestly wasn’t really needed after Snake Eater’s ending, but I think following his downfall more closely is really interesting. The David Bowie song in the hospital room is a really cool hint at a major plot point. The subtle usage of media from the 80s to symbolize some of the characters is really well done. The presentation is really good, I like that all the cutscenes are a long take. The voice acting is great as usual with MGS. However, I think there are a lot of flaws. The pacing is awful. In Chapter 1, it feels like you are barely progressing the overall story a lot of the time. You do a bunch of missions, Kaz tells you they’re important to progress the story, but they never feel like it. The Phantom Pain suffers from having a weak cast of villains. Skull Face isn’t all that memorable, his plan is kinda cool at face value, but the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. There’s also a bunch of characters from later Metal Gear games that have no reason to be there, their inclusion feels like it’s there purely for fan-service. Chapter 2’s pacing is even worse, you play a bunch of remixed missions (which play the cutscenes from the original mission again), and then things just sort of happen at your Mother Base. The Chapter 2 pacing is even worse because the game just randomly drops a huge plot twist on you, out of blue. It just… happens, no build up. This game doesn’t even have a final boss. Every Metal Gear game has a LEGENDARY final boss, yet here you just get a huge plot twist after re-playing some missions and the game ends. It’s so anti-climactic. There are obviously cool moments here, but I think it says a lot about the game’s story that these moments are often not even brought up when people talk about the best scenes in the series. One of the things I really think this game’s main story should’ve done is expand on the twist of MGS4. Instead, any sort of explanation about the villain MGS4 established is left in optional audio tapes. The audio tapes do re-contextualize some of MGS4’s moments to make them be more sensical, but I wish we could have seen these audio tapes be animated with a cutscene and be placed in the main story instead. The overall story of this game just feels so disconnected, it feels like a sequence of events instead of an actual story.


Although I have a ton of problems with this game, (some I didn’t even have time to elaborate on like how the world-building is wack because of how technologically advanced everything in this game is, despite it taking place before MGS1, 2, and 4), I still enjoy this game. I think the stealth action is amazing, it’s ambitious, and has a ton of depth. I find this game to be a bit of a sad case, its a good game, but it could’ve been so much more. I really do think The Phantom Pain had the potential to be the BEST Metal Gear game, but a troubled development held it back.

I think Mikami understands to an unnatural degree that video games are fundamentally about problem-solving. Unlike an academic interpretation of "problem-solving" though, Mikami understands that the exercise of problem-solving is less about solving the actual problem but of learning new ways of thinking. Sure, other video games are problem-solving in a base sense, but Mikami's problems have that magical "Oh Shit" element to them; everyone who's done one playthrough of this game will instantly remember all three wolverine encounters, the first time they encountered Regenerators, the Krauser section, the entire 4-4 homestretch, etc. Consistent to all these amazing sections is that the game feels like it's adapting along with the player--as if Mikami was a math tutor guiding us along the workbook. "Ok you know how to deal with Wolverine now, but what if we stuck in you a locked cage with one of them? What if we put two of them in the same room? How would you adapt then?" You have to recontextualize and reinvent constantly, without forgetting the fundamentals that got you there. One of the fundamental pillars of a conservative mindset is the idea that change is risky--the problem might get worse if you approach in a new way, so it's safer to keep doing things the same way. RE4 looks at this mindset, kneecaps it, then gives it a head-exploding suplex--change is necessary, even if it is risky; use more of your resources, resupply, be more precise, exploit another weakness, or use a goddamn rocket launcher if you have to--just don't think the old way is the only way if you want to make it through. It's a constant escalation of gameplay, and that the narrative matches this escalation tit-for-tat is just aces. Literally one of the most radical games of all-time, in every sense of the word.