Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Let it be known that I am a huge fan of the Metal Gear Solid series. More than that actually - it's my personal favorite series of all time, in any medium. This will be as objective of a review as I can possibly make it. After pouring some 75 hours into this game, after painstakingly watching every trailer in feverish anticipation (which spoiled a ton of stuff), I've reached this conclusion about Metal Gear Solid V: the Phantom Pain; first, there's Metal Gear Solid V, the legacy of the series, the intersection of events leading up to the demise of Big Boss and the seeds for the story of Solid Snake taking him out. The second is that of the Phantom Pain, which detaching the legacy of Metal Gear Solid to it yields one of the best modern action adventure games ever made.

Sure, you could simply label this game a 3rd person Far Cry, and you wouldn't be far off. The thing is, this is Hideo Kojima, and things are never so simple with this guy. The beauty of the Phantom Pain is in the tiniest details. There are Metal Gear moments abound, just not in the conventional sense of what we've come to know in the Metal Gear Solid experience. The story this time around isn't as much of a focal point (more on that later), which will certainly make this the most polarizing entry since Sons of Liberty. Without giving away too many surprises, a small list of Metal Gear moments (which are all in the hands of the player) include: a bionic arm clothesline that makes the sound of the Six Million Dollar Man, a cassette tape of a soldier taking the loudest and most painful shit known to man that you can play in one of the johns to ward off the enemy, a wolf companion who comes with its very own eyepatch and sneaking suit, and, well, I'll just stop there. Bottom line, if you're the kind of person who hates Metal Gear and everything it stands for, give the Phantom Pain a try.

So the Far Cry comparison, what's that about? Yes, gone is the linear approach of the previous Metal Gear games. Like Ground Zeroes, the core of the game play requires Big Boss to survey the enemy camp with his binoculars in order to gain intel. The iDroid furthers this function, allowing the Boss to drop supplies or even bombs from above thanks to helicopter support. The rest is really up to the player. Stealth is always ideal, but going Rambo with your RPG rocket launcher is a viable option too. Knocking out a base's anti-air weaponry via C4 or grenade is a risk that can reward faster extraction out of the hot zone. Simply put, there's more than enough to do and plenty of ways to approach each mission it's intimidating. And while Ground Zeroes limited the action to Camp Omega, Phantom Pain is a colossal open world akin to the size of the Witcher 3 or Skyrim.

Traversal through this world (Afghanistan, Africa, and the Diamond Dogs Mother base) is most preferable with the first of your buddies, D-Horse. The first few hours of the game reminded me most of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, except controlling the horse in Phantom Pain is far less cumbersome. Then there’s D-Dog, who you find as a lone cub but eventually evolves into a fierce killing machine. D-Walker functions as a sort life-sized Anime robot, complete with appendages which allow for human control.

The most intriguing buddy from a narrative standpoint is deadly sniper Quiet, for a few reasons. On a practical level, she’s essentially game breaking, especially once you’ve unlocked the ability to tranquilize enemies with her rifle. As Big Boss, all you really need to do is sit back and order Quiet to incapacitate an entire base. And then there’s the great controversy surrounding the portrayal of Quiet, which I could go on about for an entire review’s length. Kojima even attempted to give an origin story as to why the character needs to dress that way, but the explanation offered is ridiculous to the point of parody. It’s definitely not enough of an indictment against the game’s other strengths, but it makes one wonder just what exactly Konami as a publisher and Kojima as an artist were really trying to convey here.

The most controversial aspect of Phantom Pain turns out to be the story, however. Yes, it’s shockingly absent compared to the prior games, and even more puzzling is the mission structure presented. Gone is the linearity, which in a sense should be a cause for celebration. This is an open world game, the kind most synonymous with player agency, and the Phantom Pain is a glorious triumph in that regard. And yet the mission structure is implemented in such a way that, by the game’s shocking plot twist and “trademark Metal Gear moment,” will leave most fans scratching their heads in utter bewilderment. This is an incomplete story. And surely, there are theories out there as to why this game was released in the state it was released in.

I could prattle on more about how polarizing this game is. The FOB online mode is annoying, and for most, won’t even bother worrying about it. The amount of time spent in a landing zone waiting for your chopper, and then waiting in the chopper, and then waiting for it to dump you off to another landing zone, is the game’s biggest offender in regards to game padding. Miller is a psychotic asshole who can’t decide if extracting enemy soldiers back to base is a good idea or not. Ocelot does nothing, except be voiced exceptionally by Troy Baker. It’s impossible to isolate emotion when writing this review, but I’ve tried in earnest to focus on the Phantom Pain as a singular game. And it is simply the legacy of Metal Gear that is to be showcased here, but an end of an era over at Konami. I can think of no other game in recent memory that has paid such careful attention to the small details. What comes to mind is the point in Sons of Liberty in which the player can shoot each little ice cube in the tanker. For 2001, hell, for 2015, that is an absurd attention to detail that could only come from Konami and Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the most complete video game experience I’ve ever had, and despite the story’s faults, despite the legacy of the series, this is the absolute finest swan song an artist or fan could have possibly hoped for.