Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a mixed game. It had a troubled development cycle to keep it short and expectations were at an all time high for games considering the series history. Metal Gear had already past its peak in popularity by this point and the series had already ended once as well. This game didn't need to exist but it does and the finished product is pretty good but has very clear flaws.
Metal Gear Solid 4 had already ended the series back in 2008 but Kojima still had ideas that would connect Metal Gear Solid 3 to Metal Gear 1/2 and that came with the sequel to Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. To me, Peace Walker is a phenomenal game. It's seen as a good game to the community as well but theres definitely a lot of mixed reception around it as well but I really enjoyed the game. Peace Walker is the blueprint for this game and its clear. A lot of mechanics introduced there are included here like managing Mother Base, gathering resources, developing weapons, fulton recovery, and the biggest being mission based structure.
With all those extra mechanics the game had to play well in which it does, MGSV makes you feel like Snake with the way the game controls. Each movement is tight and precise and I feel if you ever get caught it is because you messed up somewhere and it is realistic when you do get caught. Metal Gear has always been ahead of its time and MGSV is no different. This game is incredibly free as there are countless ways to tackle each mission in this game besides the tutorial mission (which you need to play twice for some dumb reason). The amount of weapons in this game is insane and the tools included make it even better. The open world is a bit lacklustre in the sense there isn't much out there but it's impressive with its size and graphics for the time. The fact they got the game running on PS3 and X360 is groundbreaking to me. The gunplay in this game is very good as each gun feels nice to shoot. It makes me excited to see if Konami integrates the adaptive triggers with the PS5 version on Master Collection Volume 2. which is highly unlikely but it would be neat. Overall though the gameplay is by far the best thing the game has to show off.
The issue is though that the level design isn't all amazing. Each mission in the game can be seen as repetitive even if you approach things in different methods and good gameplay can only take you so far in a game thats over 40 hours long at the minimum. The so called "difficult" missions in the game happen to just be repeat missions with insane scaling issues, besides Mission 45: A Quiet Exit which is one of the most broken missions due to the fault of not being able to exit the mission once you start it and it begins from a Side Op which gives you 0 prep for the mission, one of the weirdest design choices I have ever seen. I would say that most of the missions in the game are pretty cool and the game features one of the coolest boss fights in any game I've played with Sahenlanthropus. But the lack of boss fights (none in the second half of the game besides repeats) and the countless amount of skulls fights really shows how development was not smooth on this game at all.
Narrative is definitely the worst part of this game. I understand that there really is nothing more they could do with the game story wise but it's still disappointing. The Metal Gear series had always been a narrative heavy series and it's very jarring having such a sudden shift in one game. You can argue Peace Walker was the start of that but even then that game had more plot than this game did and it happened to be a very good one as well. This game, right after Chapter 1 which is already forgettable story wise it completely takes a huge decline. There are great moments here and there like Mission 43: Shining Lights, Even in Death which is one of the best moments in the series it just sort of happens. And you can say that for all of Chapter 2 where events just happen and it provides for weak story telling. The characters in this game are also alright at best. All the legacy characters included serve very little purpose in this game. Ocelot can be argued for but even then his adaptation in this game is the worst in the series. Liquid, Volgin, and Psycho Mantis are here for no other reason besides fanservice which is annoying. Volgin being dealt with in a side op is incredibly weak and gives 0 emotional value. MGSV just happens to be a forgettable narrative experience with occasional cool moments which is disappointing from the series.
The review seems to have me hate the game, but my opinion on it is actually the exact opposite. In terms of a Metal Gear game, it's horrible but in terms of being a video game, it's great. It's definitely flawed and not perfect despite all the 10/10 reviews it got at launched. There are parts of the game that flat out suck. But for majority of the game, I felt I was having a lot of fun with the core gameplay mechanics and was making my own memorable moments without the story. Doing no alerts base clear-outs was always fun to me and had me thinking and had me feeling like a badass when I would extract a tank or something like that. The game did such a good job at making you feel like Snake. I'm glad I saw this one out all the way, and I would be open to replay it but it definitely wont be any time soon considering the length.
Metal Gear Solid 4 had already ended the series back in 2008 but Kojima still had ideas that would connect Metal Gear Solid 3 to Metal Gear 1/2 and that came with the sequel to Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. To me, Peace Walker is a phenomenal game. It's seen as a good game to the community as well but theres definitely a lot of mixed reception around it as well but I really enjoyed the game. Peace Walker is the blueprint for this game and its clear. A lot of mechanics introduced there are included here like managing Mother Base, gathering resources, developing weapons, fulton recovery, and the biggest being mission based structure.
With all those extra mechanics the game had to play well in which it does, MGSV makes you feel like Snake with the way the game controls. Each movement is tight and precise and I feel if you ever get caught it is because you messed up somewhere and it is realistic when you do get caught. Metal Gear has always been ahead of its time and MGSV is no different. This game is incredibly free as there are countless ways to tackle each mission in this game besides the tutorial mission (which you need to play twice for some dumb reason). The amount of weapons in this game is insane and the tools included make it even better. The open world is a bit lacklustre in the sense there isn't much out there but it's impressive with its size and graphics for the time. The fact they got the game running on PS3 and X360 is groundbreaking to me. The gunplay in this game is very good as each gun feels nice to shoot. It makes me excited to see if Konami integrates the adaptive triggers with the PS5 version on Master Collection Volume 2. which is highly unlikely but it would be neat. Overall though the gameplay is by far the best thing the game has to show off.
The issue is though that the level design isn't all amazing. Each mission in the game can be seen as repetitive even if you approach things in different methods and good gameplay can only take you so far in a game thats over 40 hours long at the minimum. The so called "difficult" missions in the game happen to just be repeat missions with insane scaling issues, besides Mission 45: A Quiet Exit which is one of the most broken missions due to the fault of not being able to exit the mission once you start it and it begins from a Side Op which gives you 0 prep for the mission, one of the weirdest design choices I have ever seen. I would say that most of the missions in the game are pretty cool and the game features one of the coolest boss fights in any game I've played with Sahenlanthropus. But the lack of boss fights (none in the second half of the game besides repeats) and the countless amount of skulls fights really shows how development was not smooth on this game at all.
Narrative is definitely the worst part of this game. I understand that there really is nothing more they could do with the game story wise but it's still disappointing. The Metal Gear series had always been a narrative heavy series and it's very jarring having such a sudden shift in one game. You can argue Peace Walker was the start of that but even then that game had more plot than this game did and it happened to be a very good one as well. This game, right after Chapter 1 which is already forgettable story wise it completely takes a huge decline. There are great moments here and there like Mission 43: Shining Lights, Even in Death which is one of the best moments in the series it just sort of happens. And you can say that for all of Chapter 2 where events just happen and it provides for weak story telling. The characters in this game are also alright at best. All the legacy characters included serve very little purpose in this game. Ocelot can be argued for but even then his adaptation in this game is the worst in the series. Liquid, Volgin, and Psycho Mantis are here for no other reason besides fanservice which is annoying. Volgin being dealt with in a side op is incredibly weak and gives 0 emotional value. MGSV just happens to be a forgettable narrative experience with occasional cool moments which is disappointing from the series.
The review seems to have me hate the game, but my opinion on it is actually the exact opposite. In terms of a Metal Gear game, it's horrible but in terms of being a video game, it's great. It's definitely flawed and not perfect despite all the 10/10 reviews it got at launched. There are parts of the game that flat out suck. But for majority of the game, I felt I was having a lot of fun with the core gameplay mechanics and was making my own memorable moments without the story. Doing no alerts base clear-outs was always fun to me and had me thinking and had me feeling like a badass when I would extract a tank or something like that. The game did such a good job at making you feel like Snake. I'm glad I saw this one out all the way, and I would be open to replay it but it definitely wont be any time soon considering the length.