Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

Is this truly Hideo Kojima’s swan song towards his most beloved franchise? Just before departing from Konami, their inner circle was already having internal affairs so to speak about deadlines, budgets and such.

Unfortunately, The Phantom Pain feels incomplete. Make no mistake, it is by far the largest entry available yet, but as far as the storyline goes, despite some conclusions and some retcons being reached, something was missing. Perhaps the plot wasn’t as crazy as we are used to.

Metal Gear Solid V is an open world tactical espionage operations video game where you play as Big Boss, now named Punished Venom Snake, and he is on a revenge spree together with Kazuhira Miller and Revolver Ocelot in order to retaliate against Cipher, who destroyed Mother Base in Ground Zeroes.

As they are rebuilding a new Mother Base, their new affiliation is called Diamond Dogs, and it’s a pun on several things, including carrying their fallen brothers in arms into battle, as well as etymologically having a theme playing around revenge.

Language is another major theme, as vocal cord parasites are introduced in order to ethnic cleanse the minority languages and only leave English intact, which is Skull Face’s objective in 1984. On the other hand, the parasites can also cause epidemics.

Narration is also largely told by radio activity from Kaz and Ocelot, explaining the current mission or event as the game takes place in two large areas; Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border. The cassette tapes have also returned, but the codec calls continue to be a better experience.

Still, there are plenty of plot details in the tapes, and you can listen to them almost any time, during missions, at Mother Base or in your personal commanding helicopter, operated by Pequod, arguably your best and fifth buddy.

 The Man Who Sold The World

That’s right, Metal Gear Solid V offers a new buddy system where you can bring along partners during the many missions being available. These include a newly found puppy dog, a dedicated horse, a robotic enhanced walker and Quiet, the woman striped of her words.

Controls and gameplay are by far the most qualified of the whole series, and while Peace Walker introduced the Mother Base and Fulton concepts, The Phantom Pain expanded upon them with more detail and quantity of variety.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous because of the fluid and smooth Fox Engine, but the assets of the actual destinations can be considered pale, repetitive and barren at times. Another disappointment is that the boss lineup is poor with the exception of the obligatory Metal Gear fight.

While the other Metal Gear games will also still be considered classics, Metar Gear Solid V really feels tight in overall. As said, there are a lot of missions and things to do, and it’s one of those games where time really can go fast because of the entertainment, and yet, it also unfortunately has some repetitive missions.

Speculations go about that Chapter 2 was rushed and felt incomplete. To add in on that, a 51th mission adding more development for Eli was not added alongside the final release. The talks also imply that this happened because of Kojima’s resignation and Konami’s internal affairs.

While there is plenty of plot details to be found and even several conclusions towards some mysterious topics, it still is not the end for Big Boss’s saga, as after the plot twist and true ending have happened, we could either potentially get another main entry, or we could see Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake getting remade.

It is subtly hinted that Big Boss is not only a person, but an idea, a concept and/or a cult of personality too, and that all of the major characters carry their own phantom pains in order to bring out the revenge they desire.

 Kids in America

In the mean time, we will be able to sink in this majestic entry’s features alongside a new edition of Metal Gear Online, where it is likable and winnable to stealth your way through instead of firing your guns around in usual third person shooters.

Potential DLC makes this even more interesting, but honestly, for what we have gotten out of The Phantom Pain by Kojima Productions, it truly is as far as gameplay and presentation goes, the best entry in the franchise, and I would be both satisfied and saddened if this would become the last entry.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a truly remarkable game, a must for diehard fans, but newcomers will not be able to grasp all of the plot details.

 
Rating: 8.7