Magazine Article - Metal Gear Solid V Review

Review Article – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, shortened to MGSV: TPP or MGSV due to the rather long name and possibly easily confused by people, is an open-world tactical espionage that follows from a line of tactical espionage games known as the Metal Gear franchise made by Hideo Kojima.

My experience from the other Metal Gear Solid games is not quite what it felt like playing MGSV. The main reason for this was most likely the freedom of an open world on two rather large maps (There’s a reason for only having 2 maps). All Metal Gear Solid games featured instances in a single level which emulated the feeling of open world but the danger was mostly exclusive to that instance rather than elsewhere.

Due to the open world mechanic of MGSV, an example of how the rest of my gameplay was affected was how an enemy spotted me during my small incursion on an enemy camp. After dealing with the situation however, the other camps in the area was alerted to an enemy presence (which in this is myself) they made their soldiers more alert and they were more defensive than those who were unaware.

On to the summarised story before the events of MGSV: MGSV is the continuation of the events that happened during Ground Zeroes (The prologue of MGSV: TPP), which happened after the Peace Walker Incident. After saving Chico and Paz, Mother Base is under attack from XOF, another private military company guised under as the inspection group checking on the apparent ‘threat’ of MSF, Big Boss’ own private military company. After being almost wiped out by the sneak attack, Big Boss and Miller and the rest of the MSF survivors attempt to escape the danger that befell them. However, nothing is at seems and Snake was setup and Paz was in fact operated on forcefully and had a bomb surgically placed in her. The medic was able to get the bomb out but Paz had woken up in a sudden daze to warn Snake of another bomb that was inside her. However, before they could take action, Paz jumps out of the helicopter in an attempt to prevent the bomb from exploding inside the helicopter but was too late and the bomb exploded just outside of the helicopter heavily injuring everyone inside of the helicopter and eventually sent crashing from the force.

It has been 9 years since that event and Snake has woken up from his 9-year coma. Placed in a hospital bed in a location he has no knowledge about, Snake is recovering from wounds 9 years ago. After a few weeks of recovery and learning about his condition, he finds out that the same people who invaded his PMC are hunting him and are killing people in the hospital to get rid of the evidence and any form of witness as to why the XOF was there.

Gameplay:

MGSV plays just like how Ground Zeroes did but on a larger scale and several features that a Metal Gear Solid game has such as the recurring and iconic cardboard box, now with a new feature which allows you to have a poster stuck on the cardboard box to emulate certain effects such as a saluting soldier which other soldiers will salute to for a certain amount of time, giving the player enough time to choose the method of elimination whether it be lethal or non-lethal. With enough upgrades to the cardboard boxes, they can even take enough bullet shots to be called a riot shield.

This brings me to another feature of MGSV that most likely comes from one of its predecessors (MGS: Peace Walker) where you are able to develop your items and equipment. This includes all forms of weaponry ranging from pistols, sub machine guns, rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers and so on. The R&D development isn’t only exclusive to weaponry which means it also includes several items that can provide certain tactical advantages such as smoke grenades to cover your assault, stun grenades to stun several enemies within a vicinity, an invisibility device that renders the user completely invisible for a length of time, EMP mines that stops vehicles in its tracks ready for capture or you can opt in to using AT mines which will destroy tank treads or destroy vehicles completely.

As it shows, equipment development plays quite a role in MGSV although in such a way that the game can be played with the minimum items or with every single item upgraded to its highest potential. This can result in many different ways to approach every mission available in MGSV. MGSV may be the game that allows other people who have never played a MGS game before as it is far more lenient in the way missions and other such encounters can be handled. A person could go all in guns blazing, forsaking the stealth mechanic to take out all the people who are potential witnesses. As they say, dead men tell no tales. Whereas another person could play as the most invisible operative known to man, taking out objectives and finishing their mission as cleanly as possible, with no evidence of their existence ever emerging... or a person could play between the two extreme play styles and create their own ways of handling the situations they are given in which case, most people would tend to go for more naturally.

However, there is one feature that everyone will be constantly using all the same: the Fulton Recovery System. During gameplay, players will constantly be using the Fulton Recovery System to steal resources, gun emplacements, vehicles and even people. Well, it’s not exactly stealing but more on taking people to persuade them into joining Snake’s new PMC, Diamond Dogs. Each person persuaded will be placed in his or her appropriate speciality such as the Combat Unit, R&D Unit or the Medical Unit. The units will provide different functions; the combat unit periodically provides the PMC with GMP (in-game currency used to research and develop equipment), the medical unit increases the efficiency and how quickly an injured or sickly soldier recovers when in the sickbay or the Intel team provides information on the field, updating the players map to any immediate danger or any other information concerning other things in the proximity (Which will then give the player a sound prompt notifying them that the “Map has been updated”). You will often get volunteers that will add to already growing list of 'employees'.

With an ever growing PMC means having a bigger base would help quite a lot; then a bigger base the players will have. The base will be introduced to the player as a growing feature, very much like how a player is gaining experience from doing their missions. Over the course of the game, the base will grow and expand under the commands of Snake. Each time a plant is built, you gain space for more of your persuaded comrades to work in, further increasing the level at which the players units are made up of. The more people in a unit, the better the level of work they can do.

Ultimately, the game gives the player freedom of choice in what they do, how to deal with the situation that they are given and see how the world evolves around the way Snake adapts to his surroundings. The game would be almost perfect or in some way, one of the greatest games to be made if it wasn't for the missing content that prevented the players from learning the rest of the story that happens after the technical ending of MGSV. Having only 2 rather large maps is pretty expansive on their own but after a while, players will notice that they have eventually gone through the same area more than enough times to go through it blindfolded. Some could say it could be marked off as experience but some could say that it's slight overlook on the apparent repetitiveness of the map. Personally, I would have enjoyed maybe another map or two, even if smaller in scale just to change the pace slightly but it did not deter me from enjoying the game as much as possible.

However, as far as negative points go, from my experience there hasn't been much more, maybe a slightly higher difficulty curve later in to game may have changed the rather easy difficulty curve of the game but I thouroughly enjoyed playing through it and especially after piecing together the story and the reason for the ending made it the perfect good bye from Hideo Kojima.