MGSV The Phantom Pain is nearly perfect!
Warning: **spoilers** throughout
Where to begin with MGSV The Phantom Pain? There is just so much here to pull from. If you include Ground Zeros in the conversation – like you should – you are left with a lot of game to discuss. Although the story beats are fewer and farther in between compared to previous installments in the series, there is still plenty there to debate, discuss, and think about. And that is what MGSV did for me; it made me think. Not only about the storyline and how it handled delicate subject matter (for better or for worse), but mostly it made me think while I was actually playing the game. Say what you will about the strange structure of the game (credits for each mission and three separate, complete credit rolls), the way Kojima mashes hard subject matter (child soldiers, rape, etc) with gimmicky anime antics (Paz and Quiet’s outfits, toilet noises, pooping horses, etc.), and the over the top acting that taps the talent level of Japanese dramas (a very low level), but you can’t deny that MGSV’s game play is beyond anything that has come before it. The controls are, for the most part, smooth and responsive. The only issue I had was with the transition between some commands when I was trying to lower a soldier to the ground and then instantly fulton them. I found that the command to fulton would not come up sometimes, or would be blocked by other commands like the prompt to pet D-dog. This is a small gripe for a game that should be praised for its controls and varied ways to use those in the game play. I’m not just saying this because the MGS franchise has been notorious for its bad controls. I’m saying this because with the amount of things that you can do, the amount of tools, guns, and devices that you can use at nearly a whim, the controls felt natural and smooth. Yes, there is a learning curve, but I found it less intense than other games with advanced control schemes like the “souls” games (I’m leaving FPS’s out of this because for the most part the major entries use a more or less similar control layout these days that have become intuitive by necessity of ubiquity).
The game play can become repetitive if you use the same weapon/tool layout over and over again. However, the Phantom Pain provides you with so many varied weapons, tools, commands, and the addition of “buddies” that you can have a vastly different experience in each mission depending on what you bring in with you and how you approach it. If you want to just stick with the tranquilizer gun and sneak like previous games, you can. Or, if you want to go all out third person shooter, you can. For myself, it depended on the mission type. I would find a layout that worked for a certain mission type and typically stuck with that for the rest of the game’s missions that were similar.
Some of the new game play aspects that were added to MGSV that were very unique are what I call the “command” options. This included a range of options like requesting air strikes from your team, calling in a helicopter when needed, and also the buddies that you can give commands to on the battlefield. The buddies are NPC characters that accompany Snake into the missions. Each had its own unique capabilities and advantages. My favorites were Quiet and D-dog (I played the game for 90 hours and never actually used the walker once…). As you use your buddies in more missions, you increase your bond level with them. As the bond level increases, you unlock more capabilities for that buddy to use. The more capabilities your buddy has the more the buddy is helpful in the missions. Actually the buddies got a little too helpful by the end. Taking D-dog into a sneaking mission meant that he would point out the location of all the soldiers in the base. This took some of the fun out of scouting and sneaking. Also, you could command Quiet to go scout out a base, leave the command to fire at will on, and she would take out all the soldiers in a base for you. That makes things a little too simple. Because these items are optional, you can choose to not use them – I only used it on a few hairy missions that, I’ll admit, I lost my patience with. However, I thought that the buddy aspect added to the game. It felt great to give out a last second command to D-dog to take down the guard that’s sneaking up behind you as you try to focus your crosshairs on the enemies across the canyon. One command that I probably relied on too much, but was just too helpful, was to call in a sleeping gas strike. This caused a rain of sleeping gas bombs to land in a specific area and put all the soldiers in that area to sleep.
Oh course you can’t always call in sleeping gas strikes and not expect the enemy to figure it out. This brings us to one of the coolest parts of the new game play. The enemy AI, changing behaviors, and seemingly endless variations in movement and placement really gave the enemies that feel that they were something more than light cones and a mini map like MGS1. If you use too many sleeping gas strikes then the next time you’re in the area, the enemies might have gas masks on. If you did a mission in an area and fultoned all of the weapons, the next shift that shows up later that night might call into HQ and report the weapons missing. This then puts you into alert mode wherever else you might be even if you’re not even close to that area. The weather might change in the area you’re at and affect the field of view for the enemies (and you). Or, my favorite that I saw, you might jump out of your jeep to avoid a random patrol, the jeep crashes into a power line, the power line then comes down on the patrol and shocks them to death. There is just so much going on that it is one of only a few times I’ve every reflected on the amount of calculations that must be going through the PS4 hardware at any given time.
Now let’s talk bosses. The bosses in previous MGS games gave us some of the most unique and endearing boss fights ever (Psycho Mantis, The End, and many more). Well, MGSV fell short here. In fact this is one of my main gripes with the game. They put together this amazing game play package, improved the controls, created some amazing level design, developed interesting enemy AI, and then failed to accompany all that with great boss fights. I think the only one that I really thought was any good was Quiet, but even that wasn’t as good as The End in MGS3. The other fights just didn’t do it for me. I was hoping for a cool encounter with the young Psycho Mantis, but it never happened. A disappointment, but I’m willing to overlook it because everything else about the game play makes the regular missions feel better than many of the classic boss fights.
While I’m griping, let’s just get into the other issue I had with the game. I never thought I’d say this, but this MGS game doesn’t have enough story. I guess it does if you are willing to listen to all the tapes, but I’m not. I don’t like that method of storytelling. I didn’t like it when Bioshock did it, and I don’t like how MGSV tried to do it now. I will give one concession; it was nice to not have those annoying, mandatory codec conversations that went on too long about uninteresting subjects. What I’m most disappointed about is the reduced number of over-the-top anime style cut scenes. I’ve never been an anime fan, even though I’ve lived in Japan for a third of my adult life now, but those cut scenes were always fun to watch. [As I wrote this, something just occurred to me. Most of the time when I was watching those cut scenes, I was thinking to myself, “man, I wished I could just play this.” So, maybe it isn’t so bad that the cut scenes are reduced and replaced with superior game play…]
Before I get to my conclusion, let me just weigh in on the controversy of the portrayal of MGSV’s female characters. I might not have anything meaningful to add because to be honest it isn’t a subject that I think about too often while gaming, but I am aware of the conversations surrounding MGSV and maybe my experience can add a different perspective to the conversation. I live in Japan. I’ve lived, worked, and been involved in Japan for the past two decades. Although I’m aware that this doesn’t make me an expert on the matter and solid evidence is needed, I can speak to what I’ve experienced. Yes, Japan has issues with equal rights for women. However, progress has been made in the past two decades. There are active efforts to increase women’s wages, get more women into leadership positions in both workplaces and government, the amount of pornographic imagery found in public has been reduced drastically (I emphasize “drastically”), and younger girl’s treatment in schools has improved over the years. However, many of these efforts have not seen instant success because changing the collective mindset of an entire nation takes time. For example, look at cigarettes. It took decades of smoking abatement programs before we saw a significant reduction in smoking and more protection for non-smokers in the United States. Japan has also gone through its own smoking abatement campaign over the past decade or so. In the past two decades of watching terrible Japanese variety shows, I have seen show hosts go from belittling their guests that mentioned that they stopped smoking by asking questions like, “Do you not like the taste of smoking?” and literally, “What is wrong with you?”, to the same hosts quitting smoking themselves and encouraging others to quit also. My point is that major efforts to sway the collective mindset of a group of people or nation take time and require patience and effort. For the issue of portraying women as sex objects in media, Japan does lack ground here compared to other modernized nations. However, let’s keep in mind that Kojima is a product of a different generation in Japan. He grew up in a generation in Japan where women were not treated fairly, large efforts for equalization were not a focus, and pornography was seen everywhere in public – it was unavoidable. That mindset is slowly changing in Japan and, I have no hard evidence, but from personal experience here, I believe the younger generations (younger than Kojima that is) may treat this subject matter differently. Of course Japan is taking baby steps towards equalization just as the United States. However, just passing this stuff off by saying that it’s the typical “anime bull shit” may not hold true in the future. Obviously there is artistic choice and we consumers have the agency to choose to purchase or not. I chose to purchase and to play the game even though I knew what it contained. Also, I’m a guy; I don’t think or feel the same as women do. Many women may choose to not purchase based on moral principle. As the number of women gamers increases, developers and publishers may see a decrease in sales due to this kind of content and make greater efforts to not include it in the future, but I’m doubtful of how much it will be reduced as we see from film and other media, sex still sells. Lastly, let me give my personal opinion on Quiet. I personally thought she was the strongest character in the game. Keifer’s version of Snake was weak, Miller was an asshole, there wasn’t enough of Ocelot in my opinion, Skull Face was one-dimensional, and Code Talker was clichéd, but Quiet, although silent for most of the game, still had depth and showed her integrity through he actions. The scene where she shoots down the missile to save Snake was my favorite scene in the game. I instantly thought to myself, “Quiet is a bad ass, yes!” In the end, if you cut out her stretching in the helicopter, cleaned up the dancing in the rain scene, and reduced the crotch-in-face moments in the cut scenes I’d say she was the most interesting character in the game. I really missed having her as a buddy after that fateful mission. She came across as a better “strong silent type” than Snake did in MGSV.
Finally, let me state my last word on this game. I simply can’t stop playing it. I’ve put in 90 hours, and I haven’t even touched the online mode yet. Even then, I just can’t stop playing this game. And that is the best indicator of a great game; one that you just can’t put down. It has its flaws, but it is the best game I’ve played in some time. The game play is just so varied and pure that it keeps me coming back for more. I find myself at work thinking up different, fun ways to capture soldiers and take over bases. I would have preferred a few more cut scenes and better boss encounters, but I’d just be a swine ready for the slaughter if I complained too much because what I got was a really fun game to play, and in my opinion a masterpiece.
Final side note (major spoiler): Kojima missed an opportunity to pull his biggest troll on his fans. If only he had had David Hayter voice the real Big Boss at the end, it would have been perfect. Huge missed opportunity…
