Without a doubt, MGS5 deserves to be written about. I'm sure it'll have some bullshit (and it already has), and that not everything will gel together well (some already doesn't), but damn is it trying to do something.

I've only played the prologue (and made myself sleepy for teaching high school today--well done), but I felt like jumping in and writing about it. Spoilers.

Playing with expectations

Well, maybe that reveal of David Hayter is coming later, but so far the Kojima moment has to be, "Hey, established named character. You need a new fucking face. Check out this Playstation Home looking screen and build a face"

Man, my mind went wild when that happened. Did every MGS5 trailer just MGS2 us and really we'll be playing as a new-faced Big Boss? Will characters react differently to me based on race or age or tats or scars? Is Kiefer so quiet because we get to form our own choices and personality for a remade Big Boss?

I stared at those choices man. Well, first I had to think about a name. I went with the thematic choice and called him Big Boss, and gave him my birthday cuz the Wiki just has the year, not the date.

With the face, I played around with a lot, but chose a darker skinned black man with some wrinkles but not 80 year old man wrinkles. I wanted Big Boss's real age to come through, and thought it was interesting to be a black guy. I was ready to dive in and embody this character. Let's escape this hospital!

Oh, oh no. You're choking. Oh. Guess I get to be beardy white guy. Huh.

So, I don't know, but I assume I made my MGS online avatar? Maybe? In which case, clever way to do that in story, but total tease.

I mean, the idea of Big Boss having a different face for every player, his story being somehow more personal in that customization even if his character stays defined--there's power there. If this story is about power corrupting, wouldn't it be crazy to choose the face of the guy?

I'm sure seeing the fucking guilt sternum of dead Paz growing out of regular ol' Big Boss's skull will be moving or whatever, but I dunno. I saw the stars in that new face, man. And Quiet stole them from my eyes.

Quiet had clothes!

Before they were burned off. Is that better or worse? I just cannot wait to hear about how her horrible burns are somehow related to her boobage. I dunno, she seemed like a scary assassin lady undone by my imaginary helper dude. There's something there.

Not a lot though. She's instantly defined as other, mysterious, unknown--professional killer thrown off my the clever use of ethanol and flame. Not a great intro to a new character, honestly. Nothing to grab a hold of. Nothing distinctive or interesting.

Strugglin'

I like the return of Snake moving painfully through halls. It's clearly an inverse of the MGS4 microwave. Here, his daddy is gaining strength as he moves forward, where there Oldy was constantly losing it. Entering vs. Escaping. All that.

The little choice to either crawl along the ground the whole time or use counters to boost myself before BB (goddamn the naming conventions of this series. I'm going with this as a substitute) would invariably flip over a garbage can was an impactful way to demonstrate his loss of strength.

As a tutorial, it works to build character without too much overwhelming danger but a good sense of tension. The scene where you have to hide in rooms as guards search other ones was tense and well done.

I mean, the guard that literally sees a dude grab your foot under the bed and doesn't notice you is dumb as rocks, though.

After awhile, I kinda got that these soldiers were killing everyone. Not sure seeing two innocents murdered in front of a window needs to be augmented by standing in a crowd being gunned down.

The slow growth of responsibility and movement, from barely crawling to crouch walking to sprinting to shooting to sneaking and shooting--it's a tight progression that empowers slowly.

Mantis. What is even happening?

So, these are hallucinations right? I mean, fire whale and bullet absorbing human torch Volgin are not real, right? Flaming unicorn?

But, like, they kill people and break stuff. Real stuff. Real people.

Is teen Mantis telekinetic and the hallucinations are really him creating all this violence? But where does the fire come from? The Fury had a flame thrower at least.

Is Metal Gear just magic for reals now? Ocelot was definitely telling me to reload so I could shoot that unicorn better. That whale ate a helicopter.

And then Ocelot is just like, "hey." No mention of the crazy shit. I just. I don't get it.

Clever/Impressive Kojima

Ahab, Ismael, Giant Whale. Gotcha.

One-shot camera work is deeply engaging. It's not as impressive as when a real human has to do that with real actors doing real long scenes, but it's still a great way to put a story together.

There was a way to go no kill in that hall where I had a killy gun and there was no other path? Huh. Interesting

This game credits more than just Kojima as a writer. That's good, probably. Like, more honest.

If you die, which I did, Ismael's all "Ahab? Ahaaaaaabbb!"

This sequence is gorgeous in lighting, character, and materials.

Immature/Contradictory Kojima

Dum de dum, BB opens his eyes... oh, thanks for leaning over me, nurse with a low cut top. Literally first five seconds of control.

There is nothing tense or otherworldly (the clear moods of this scene) about displaying each headshot I achieved. Stat tracking is neat, but it so does not fit the vibes here.

So if second me doesn't exist because it's just a psychological method of self-preservation, then how did I get in that ambulance?

It's a (really poorly modeled) water bottle, not piss? Ha? Also, if Ismael ain't real was that under BB? Does the real BB switch in these scenes? Because the real BB can't always be Ismael unless he was totally good with walking the whole time.

Now to keep playing...