When East meets West
(For reference this was played on a PS4)
Metal Gear Solid V synergises the best of Japanese and Western game design to the point where it is one of the best playing games that has been made. Like most things in life it has its highs and it has its lows. Several story revelations are not as satisfying as I'd like, and the game at times felt quite empty; devoid of story or variation.
The Boss wakes up after 9 years in a coma from the events of Ground Zero's and must enact his revenge on cipher and Zero. This theme of revenge runs through the whole story and provides the backdrop for several characters and their involvement of the story. It seems every cutscene in the game involves a speech from Miller of Skull face, based upon how they will act out their revenge. At times it can feel long winded, and at worst, ham fisted. The characterisation of most of the new characters is poor, really only Quiet gets what I feel would be "good" character development; the apex of her character arch is one of the better story moments in the game. On the whole Quiet justifies her appearance in the game on much higher level than just some T&A show, that said, there is still the classic Kojima moments of uncomfortable longshots on her breasts or bottom, that can still of course complain about the over sexualisation of her (Maybe I wouldn't care as much if I actually found her character model attractive, but whatever I digress).
On the whole the story of this game is presented in a much more acute manner, as opposed to the at times obtuse manner in previous games. There are still lots of cutscenes but they are spread out across the game quite thinly that at times you feel as if you are playing a different open world game and not Metal Gear. Of course I would be remiss at not mentioning that near the end of the game they start piling on the cutscenes very thick. It does, however, not become like say for example, the end of Metal Gear Solid 4 where the epilogue is basically a feature film in of its self. Instead they feel like what ending cutscenes should be, a bow that attempts to tie the whole story together. Cassette tapes is really where you get the meat of the story from and then some. Some tapes with a certain character become so long winded, and his cadence is so slow, that I never finished his lines of tapes. Within the tapes there is information that before would be presented in cutscene format with b-roll footage coupled with in game cutscenes; in that sense it's a relief that this information was presented in this manner, but at times the tapes feel like a rehash of what the story has just shown you and in some cases being expansions of the cutscenes that you just watched. One line of tapes based around hamburgers is really where I found the most of the goofy Metal Gear moments that I enjoyed. With the tone of the game on the whole and with some of the things that happen in the game, I'm happy that I found it to be mostly serious; but a part of me misses the goofiness that I personally found endearing and entertaining. There was one crucial story thread that I missed in the latter part of the game that seems to be rather important to in the ending, so yeah be careful that you can miss this.
On a whole the story feels a bit disjointed and feels incomplete, (rather like the ending of Knights of the Old Republic 2 to me) I would've liked to of seen more after the ending as many times during it I thought to myself "Is this really it?". I enjoyed the story on a whole and the revelations of the ending I liked yet felt that it perhaps should've been expanded upon better than what they did.
It is an undeniable fact that this is the best playing Metal Gear game and it ranks high in the list of great playing games. The game seems to run at a smooth 60fps, the only time where I found that it would slowdown would be when Quiet is moving beside you and the effects of her movement animation would slow the game down. They graphical quality of the Afghan desert and the Africa savannah is excellent. Things such as grass you can see don't have the same type of quality as the rest of the world which is quite obvious as for large portions of the game you will be close to the ground hiding in the grass. The shadow's looks nice as well as the weather effects. How things look when they get wet is excellent and the water stays for an acceptable period of time. In the savannah the change in how the dirt roads change to basically piles of muck for some reason is really cool to me. The sandstorms are neat but I found that they didn't add nearly as much to my experience than it took away. Also I rarely had it work as a good shield of vision from enemies that I was stalking which was a bummer. The character models sometimes look strange to me, Snake looks amazing, but I can't help shake the feeling that the way certain characters look in their portrait on your iDroid is unnatural and oddly creepy.
Speaking of the iDroid the base management features which they introduce in Peace Walker are expanded upon vastly. You have money to manage this time around and going into the red can have drastic implications upon your mother base. The platform constructions and expansions always felt incredibly satisfying to me and I constantly was on the lookout for when I could expand my base to accommodate new personal. The whole FOB stuff didn't interest me past getting the first one to expanded my personal divisions so they could rank up. I never invaded another FOB and I was never invaded in turn which was nice, but the constant threat of that occurring to you while in the middle of a mission doesn't sit well with me. Neither for that matter does the micro-transactions for insurance for the resources that get stolen from you during invasions. It seems like a seeding case grab coupled with a system that many have no interest in and will actively avoid. The fact that they half your GMP and prevent access to the resources stored on your FOB when you play offline is yet another seedy and desperate attempt for your money.
Another aspect of the iDroid is the management of your staff. You Place them into different divisions like in Peace Walker i.e R&D, Medical, Security etc for what is best suited for them which you can tell through a rank of E to S++, this in turn ups the level of that division which unlocks various things such as weapons you can develop or the time it takes to expand. You can get a upgrade to your binoculars which lets you see the stats of the soldiers before you extract them, which creates this weird situation where you are judging who to take and who to leave bleeding out on the side of the road based upon who is more talented. The combat team can be sent out on dispatch missions which you don't play, and your guys go out into the field and collect resources and personal which you collect when the mission is a success. I found early on that even though the mission success indicator was 95% , the highest it goes, I was failing combat dispatchments too often. This seemed to even out in the end but it felt weird at first. You also create a Security team which protects your FOB in the event of an emergency. Seeing as I wasn't getting invaded I took little heed of this division usually repositioning them in separate divisions.
The mission based structure of this game seems strange at first because of how Metal Gear games have been structured before has never given you this level of personal freedom on the order this does. You have Main Missions and 157 Side Ops, which for the most part are optional but several have to be completed for main missions to be unlocked. The Side Ops are exciting at first, but when you're doing prisoner extraction 15 going back to the same area for the fifth time it begins to get tiresome. The Main Missions are for the most part ok, some feel like glorified side ops where how it ties into the main story is apparent until the end. They can also feel like the side ops in that when you return to the same mansion for the fifth you become tired. I had really no problems unlocking some of the later missions, but I know that people have had trouble.
The actually meat of the Gameplay is superb. The shooting in this game feels magical. It takes the improvements made in 4 to a whole new level. The movement feels fluid and realistic. Unlimited sprint is a godsend in this game. CQC has been redone into a simple button press and a menu of actions. I found myself always trying to CQC guys unlike in 3 and 4 where I usually just traqed them. The Fulton Recovery System makes a return from Peace Walker and is oddly satisfying. Extracting a man, bear or jackal shouldn't be this satisfying but it is. You can now develop a full non-lethal getup which lets you carry a riot assault rifle which makes combat engagements easier and less frustrating as in previous games if you are going the non-lethal route. A new swan dive feature has been added which I used extensively as getting from a standing to a prone position feels quite clunky and slow.
The overall improvements in the Gameplay of Phantom Pain makes it one of the better titles of the year and sets its place in the pantheon of the all time great playing games. However unfortunately the story elements within don't stand up to the improvements made in the Gameplay section. This coupled with a fatigue of the unnecessary elements that Kojima inserts into his games really hamper with my enjoyment. However, The Phantom Pain is a classic; It'll be remembered by many as Kojima's swan song with Konami, but to me, I will remember it as when the East met the West to create one of the most memorable titles of recent memory. Despite all the corporate drama that preceded it's release, Kojima has proven that he's still relevant in this brave new world that the games industry is evolving into. ****1/2 rounded up to ***** because Giantbomb don't do star increments
