A great work of art forced into the mold of a decent game.
This is definitely the first of the four (three if you don't count Ground Zeroes) that feels as though it misses out on not reaching its intended potential. I think the story and gameplay are fantastic, but they struggle with their presentation through some pretty clear studio interference and time constraints. Peace Walker "ended" prematurely as well, so playing additional missions to become more comfortable as Venom Snake and uncovering the truth behind the many MANY plot secrets didn't feel too out of place or infuriating, but how we uncovered these secrets was not very thematically driven. After mission 31, you have a minimum of about 15 additional missions to complete in order to find out the truth about the man who sold the world. The thing is, only about 3 or 4 of the missions are unique gameplay. The rest have you replaying some selected missions you have already completed but with much harder difficulty. I think the intention here is to force players to make tough decisions about what they are doing to provide a new perspective on what they already did (something that is really only perfected in the final mission). Obviously anti-violence is a huge theme in these Metal Gear Solid games, so I personally always play as non-lethally as possible which makes the games more difficult but also more rewarding. You are punished when killing people through the change in appearance to Venom Snake, as he famously grows a horn and becomes covered in blood the eviler you are. These repeated missions can be infuriating just because you are repeating them, but also because they are that much more difficult. You are put into compromising situations where killing would be so much easier, forcing you to consider what you have done up to that point and why.
Most of these repeated missions don’t adhere to this thematic exploration though. Many of the repeated missions feel completely arbitrary, saving people you’ve already saved and killing people you’ve already killed. Do the Quiet fight again but she can one shot you this time? Beat this mission without any equipment after Mother Base is already nearly at its peak? Why? The reasons are unfortunately cynical, Konami wasn’t happy with how overbudget Kojima was going to be (despite this game breaking record for the company) so these missions are just… copy pasted. It doesn’t truly feel like what you do matters that much since they’re very clearly means to the end of the story.
Now, what saves this from being completely awful and unfun is that there are original story beats in between these lame missions, albeit seemingly random ones. These story scenes are incredibly revelatory and tie expertly into the thematic material of the game, primarily revenge. This game is at its absolute strength when it explores what it says it will upon the cover of the game – pain and the unbridled rage that comes within enacting revenge. Miller, Quiet, Snake, even Skull Face, are all suffering great misfortunes and bear a lot of weight on their shoulders, but all choose to suffer in silence until they physically can not take it anymore. These people are all painted with fine-tuned, empathetic strokes due to Kojima’s love of humanity, and he really knows how to set up situations wherein they almost need to act or else they will suffer more. The geo-political implications behind these highly personal squabbles is as powerful as always, and comes together very well in the end. Every single action in this game is driven by revenge. Every single one. Nobody acts out of empathy or kindness, and this completely destroys them both physically and mentally. When Snake is able to break this chain, it becomes overwhelmingly kind and interesting. Mission 43 is absolutely incredible, some of the most effective story-telling through gameplay I have ever experienced due to its legitimate emotional weight and willingness to subvert expectations of what a video game will punish or support you, the player, for.
By the ending (which I won’t spoil for my good friend Zac, one of the only people who will likely make it this far into the review [hey!]) it becomes apparent that Kojima’s true vision was to examine Big Boss as a figurehead and icon, and how he has influenced not only the landscapes of MGS, but the gaming world in general. How do people respond to Big Boss doing what he does? Why is violence so coveted in modern video games when you’re clearly purposefully and unnecessarily inflicting pain upon people? Is it truly worth it to suffer in silence without reaching out to a support system? Who really is Snake, what does he represent, and why does he continue to trudge on even in the face of a plethora of great pains and mistruths? A lot of this game personally made me consider how long Kojima has been working with this character specifically, how often he likely thinks of how he would like to treat him. By putting him through the absolute wringer, introducing a physical manifestation of pain that you will never ever be able to shake, we learn a lot about what Kojima and even Big Boss think about loyalty, violence, and pain. Even these heavy and emotional themes are somewhat fumbled even when the game is entirely original gameplay. You must build your base again like in Peace Walker, taking many jobs that relate to Cipher but often indirectly which means there isn’t a whole lot of integrated story telling. Sometimes it feels like a metronome ticking between “do a mission” and “watch a cutscene” in a very unnatural feeling way. This is also supplemented through cassette tapes like in Peace Walker, but this is not a super engaging way to tell a story due to a lack of visuals and impairment of ability on the battlefield when listening to them. The very beginning of the game is slow to start as there is a pretty big learning curve in understanding how the guards, weapons, and controls work in a truly open world setting for the first time. I struggled through the first few missions for sure but once I unlocked better equipment, I was able to play to my sneaky strengths in a satisfying way.
There’s a lot of emotion packed into this game, but it is far too messy for its own good, even by Metal Gear Solid standards. If this was a completely polished game, I could honestly see it standing just slightly below Snake Eater, but as of right now it’s about on par with Peace Walker which is a good game but also flawed in many unfortunate ways. It’s a give and a take though, since after this Kojima departed to make a game even better than any of his games before it, and who’s to say of this game was made differently his fate wouldn’t have been different? Either way, this is an emotional experience through and through, just not a very refined or whole experience at that, full of rage, pain, and empathy but not able to capitalize on it perfectly.
This is definitely the first of the four (three if you don't count Ground Zeroes) that feels as though it misses out on not reaching its intended potential. I think the story and gameplay are fantastic, but they struggle with their presentation through some pretty clear studio interference and time constraints. Peace Walker "ended" prematurely as well, so playing additional missions to become more comfortable as Venom Snake and uncovering the truth behind the many MANY plot secrets didn't feel too out of place or infuriating, but how we uncovered these secrets was not very thematically driven. After mission 31, you have a minimum of about 15 additional missions to complete in order to find out the truth about the man who sold the world. The thing is, only about 3 or 4 of the missions are unique gameplay. The rest have you replaying some selected missions you have already completed but with much harder difficulty. I think the intention here is to force players to make tough decisions about what they are doing to provide a new perspective on what they already did (something that is really only perfected in the final mission). Obviously anti-violence is a huge theme in these Metal Gear Solid games, so I personally always play as non-lethally as possible which makes the games more difficult but also more rewarding. You are punished when killing people through the change in appearance to Venom Snake, as he famously grows a horn and becomes covered in blood the eviler you are. These repeated missions can be infuriating just because you are repeating them, but also because they are that much more difficult. You are put into compromising situations where killing would be so much easier, forcing you to consider what you have done up to that point and why.
Most of these repeated missions don’t adhere to this thematic exploration though. Many of the repeated missions feel completely arbitrary, saving people you’ve already saved and killing people you’ve already killed. Do the Quiet fight again but she can one shot you this time? Beat this mission without any equipment after Mother Base is already nearly at its peak? Why? The reasons are unfortunately cynical, Konami wasn’t happy with how overbudget Kojima was going to be (despite this game breaking record for the company) so these missions are just… copy pasted. It doesn’t truly feel like what you do matters that much since they’re very clearly means to the end of the story.
Now, what saves this from being completely awful and unfun is that there are original story beats in between these lame missions, albeit seemingly random ones. These story scenes are incredibly revelatory and tie expertly into the thematic material of the game, primarily revenge. This game is at its absolute strength when it explores what it says it will upon the cover of the game – pain and the unbridled rage that comes within enacting revenge. Miller, Quiet, Snake, even Skull Face, are all suffering great misfortunes and bear a lot of weight on their shoulders, but all choose to suffer in silence until they physically can not take it anymore. These people are all painted with fine-tuned, empathetic strokes due to Kojima’s love of humanity, and he really knows how to set up situations wherein they almost need to act or else they will suffer more. The geo-political implications behind these highly personal squabbles is as powerful as always, and comes together very well in the end. Every single action in this game is driven by revenge. Every single one. Nobody acts out of empathy or kindness, and this completely destroys them both physically and mentally. When Snake is able to break this chain, it becomes overwhelmingly kind and interesting. Mission 43 is absolutely incredible, some of the most effective story-telling through gameplay I have ever experienced due to its legitimate emotional weight and willingness to subvert expectations of what a video game will punish or support you, the player, for.
By the ending (which I won’t spoil for my good friend Zac, one of the only people who will likely make it this far into the review [hey!]) it becomes apparent that Kojima’s true vision was to examine Big Boss as a figurehead and icon, and how he has influenced not only the landscapes of MGS, but the gaming world in general. How do people respond to Big Boss doing what he does? Why is violence so coveted in modern video games when you’re clearly purposefully and unnecessarily inflicting pain upon people? Is it truly worth it to suffer in silence without reaching out to a support system? Who really is Snake, what does he represent, and why does he continue to trudge on even in the face of a plethora of great pains and mistruths? A lot of this game personally made me consider how long Kojima has been working with this character specifically, how often he likely thinks of how he would like to treat him. By putting him through the absolute wringer, introducing a physical manifestation of pain that you will never ever be able to shake, we learn a lot about what Kojima and even Big Boss think about loyalty, violence, and pain. Even these heavy and emotional themes are somewhat fumbled even when the game is entirely original gameplay. You must build your base again like in Peace Walker, taking many jobs that relate to Cipher but often indirectly which means there isn’t a whole lot of integrated story telling. Sometimes it feels like a metronome ticking between “do a mission” and “watch a cutscene” in a very unnatural feeling way. This is also supplemented through cassette tapes like in Peace Walker, but this is not a super engaging way to tell a story due to a lack of visuals and impairment of ability on the battlefield when listening to them. The very beginning of the game is slow to start as there is a pretty big learning curve in understanding how the guards, weapons, and controls work in a truly open world setting for the first time. I struggled through the first few missions for sure but once I unlocked better equipment, I was able to play to my sneaky strengths in a satisfying way.
There’s a lot of emotion packed into this game, but it is far too messy for its own good, even by Metal Gear Solid standards. If this was a completely polished game, I could honestly see it standing just slightly below Snake Eater, but as of right now it’s about on par with Peace Walker which is a good game but also flawed in many unfortunate ways. It’s a give and a take though, since after this Kojima departed to make a game even better than any of his games before it, and who’s to say of this game was made differently his fate wouldn’t have been different? Either way, this is an emotional experience through and through, just not a very refined or whole experience at that, full of rage, pain, and empathy but not able to capitalize on it perfectly.