I don't think the game is really that bad, but man is it disappointing. It feels like a lot of the metal gear charm just zipped away. The weird but hilarious boss fights, the over the top villains, the cliche and overcomplicated but sincerely told plot... it's all just kind of missing. The game feels spiritless, like it was a metal gear game that Shang Tsung walked over and ripped its soul out.

The gameplay is probably the best in the series, not that it's a super high bar, but it does get old pretty quickly. There's a good reason why none of the previous games were all that long.