It’s safe to say that the latest (and perhaps last) Metal Gear Solid is absolutely fantastic in just about all regards (save for Kiefer Sutherland hardly having much to say), but after 40 hours of game time clocked (49 at the time of writing this), the last word that comes to mind when I think of Phantom Pain is ‘masterpiece’.

Yes, Phantom Pain is a very, very good game that should be bought and played by anyone with an interest in stealth or action games or by those with even a fleeting interest in the MGS series. With all the 10/10, 5/5 or 100% reviews its been getting (or damn near close to perfect scores), Kojima’s swansong is going to make so much money that I wouldn’t be surprised if Konami begrudgingly re-hired Kojima and his team back to the company to make a sixth game. But a masterpiece though? So far in Phantom Pain I’ve strapped a balloon to dozens of enemy soldiers, fooled guards by taping a poster of a anime girl on a cardboard box, cleared outposts using stealth in a variety of different success rates, evaded a Metal Gear whose AI routine literally cheated to make things difficult, and escaped mayhem by the skin of my teeth more times than I can count… The partial RPG elements from Peace Walker are a welcome return thanks to my completionist streak, and while no longer having instanced segments or levels may be jarring to some faithful to the previous games, the open-world is a delight to romp around in causing the Soviets all kinds of trouble. But a masterpiece?

There are just a few things too many to keep me from outright calling it a 10/10 game despite being far from completion, and namely that’s Kiefer Sutherland taking over primary voice acting role from David Hayter. One of the many great aspects of the previous MGSs were the various codec calls between the protagonist and their support team or with the villains, which showcased both the fantastic writing and skillful voice work by the cast. In Phantom Pain, Snake is pretty tight-lipped due to Konami apparently not having enough budget to pay Sutherland for more voice lines or whatever the case may be. In cutscenes he hardly has much to say, codec calls are limited to Miller or Ocelot and are one-sided… The worst instance is during a cutscene where Snake is bouncing around inside a helicopter as it’s being attacked by a hostile jet, and he makes nary a peep. Most of the dialogue is brought by other characters or the visuals, but it’s just much too eerie having Snake not be chatty, let alone a new voice altogether. Sutherland seemed to have an easy payday working on Phantom Pain since his vocal effort is quite lacking; he just has to grumble out his best line read from 24 when Snake’s time to speak comes and that was good enough for the director. I know change must be accepted, but I would be far more accepting of such a talented voice actor being dropped for a 'more relevant’ actor if said actor actually had the same amount of work in the previous games. That’s not even considering how playing as a character other than Snake still has NPC’s refer to him/her as 'Big Boss’ in order to break continuity and my nerves.

Event AI that outright cheats also leaves me quite bitter, but that is secluded to major events like the first meeting of the Skulls or a whole friggin’ Metal Gear. The normal AI of soldiers both on patrol or at outposts and the like are excellent in their programming and execution, but when it comes to major story elements, the AI cheats in order to act as a challenge, like moving towards you despite not knowing your position or happening to change their patrol patterns when you move to another area. Set pieces be damned, a game simply cannot invent rules after firmly grounding the current ones, and this is especially agitating when missions have side objectives that require you to avoid detection regardless of this trickery.

I digress. Phantom Pain is polished, excellent fun, but I keep happening upon more and more things that simply detract me from calling it the perfect experience I keep hearing about. I’m certainly going to keep playing it and rip my hair out going for 100% clearance, extracting everything that I can and having far too little patience for a guard to wander past so I can sneak by, but I wonder if I set my personal bar too high considering how this is most likely Hideo Kojima’s last Metal Gear Solid, let alone game working with Konami. I have no regrets buying Phantom Pain in the slightest (I even pre-ordered it to boot), and I wonder if my tune will change once the final credits roll.