Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PC)

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes caused quite a stir among the loyal fans of this long-running stealth action franchise. Some marvelled at the amazing quality of the game’s graphics, its detailed level design, and its authentic sound effects; others criticized its faulty enemy AI, its extremely limited amount of content, and the rather outrageous price of the game when it first came out. All of this raised expectations for the “real” title, the one that tells the story in depth, released under the name Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The following review is meant to shed some light on the content you can expect, and hopefully gives you some useful information for deciding whether this highly promoted title is worth the price you’d have to pay for it.

Amputation

A little later, after he’s woken up from his drug-induced slumber, the same doctor informs him that a lot of people would have been happy if he hadn't made it. They needed to perform plastic surgery to make him unrecognizable to anyone who’d want to do him harm. But it seems that all their efforts were in vain, as while he’s talking to the doctor, an assassin shows up, strangling an unsuspecting nurse. Big Boss is forced to sit by helplessly as she sneaks up on the doctor, as he’s still heavily sedated. Nor is he able to use the pistol the doctor tosses to him as he struggles for his life. He’s not the assassin’s primary target – she’s actually after the guy in the next bed – but there can’t be any witnesses, and unfortunately for Big Boss, he’s one of them.

His “roommate”, however, turns out to be a bit more ready to defend himself than the protagonist, and he uses a bottle of antiseptic alcohol to set his attacker on fire. She falls out of the window, screaming, and then all hell breaks loose. Masked commandos storm the hospital, gunning down everyone inside. Big Boss and his helper, who goes by the name of “Ishmael”, need to make a break for it, and fast. Then things take a turn towards the paranormal, and the hero and his rescuer are pursued by a man who appears to be made of fire, accompanied by a floating youth wearing a gas mask. Strangely, the uncanny pair seem to go right past the soldiers, even though they’re after the same thing. Big Boss barely makes it out alive. Now he’s hell-bent on regaining his former status, rebuilding his military organization, and getting his revenge on those who brought about his downfall.

Loss

This newfound level of freedom naturally includes the ability to complete missions in a variety of different ways, and sometimes you can even decide the order you want to do them in. The only missions you really have to do in any particular order are the ones directly connected to the storyline. After all, the developers have to be able to tell a coherent story. One thing that’s really noticeable is how much effort the developers have put into making the experience as realistic as possible for players. For example, the view switches to first-person when “Venom Snake” uses binoculars to scope out his surroundings, and can then mark any enemies he sees. There’s also an option that makes it so that any time you aim your weapon, the view will switch to first person, which offers greater accuracy. The iDroid smartphone doubles as a map that covers the whole screen when you use it, but it doesn’t pause the game, making it ideal for a brief look to get your bearings in the heat of combat. There’s also a companion app that allows player to use their actual smartphone to perform the functions of the iDroid, but this feature isn’t supported by the PC version of the game. What a shame.

Big Boss doesn’t spend all his time in in the field – his new military team, the “Diamond Dogs” have a base on an offshore oil platform, which can be upgraded and expanded throughout the game. This is where you manage the resources you acquire during missions, initiate research operations, and produce all kinds of useful items. At first, the crew is composed of rescued prisoners or less willing recruits who first have to be knocked unconscious and then abducted via the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system. Big Boss himself can access any of the new Mother Base’s facilities, but you’ll have to use the iDroid to control the oil platform’s detailed day-to-day operations. And of course, what’s a modern game without RPG elements? Each Diamond Dogs recruit differs from the others in stats and special abilities, meaning you’re going to have to thoroughly review each recruit’s file if you want to be able to use them correctly in the field.

Like in any good sandbox world, enemy soldiers adjust to Venom Snake’s behavior. If you kill too many of them with headshots, their sentries will start wearing protective helmets, forcing you to try other tactics. Fortunately, the hero’s arsenal also increases to keep up with the increasing level of difficulty. The Mother Base will constantly be developing new weapons, which you can then use in the target area. You can use diamonds, fuel, and all kinds of precious metals to finance projects that otherwise only become available after you complete certain missions. But you can’t get everything by researching it at the Mother Base, so you should keep an eye out for blueprints for new inventions, and grab them whenever you can. The trick is to make sure that you complete a mission without having to reload, a technical quirk you might have experienced in Assassin’s Creed – when something goes wrong in the middle of a mission and you have to reload from a checkpoint, all the items you collected are gone, security mechanisms are turned back on, and all the guards you took out are alive and kicking, even the ones you got rid of before you hit that particular save point.

Like other games in the Metal Gear Solid series, the fifth installment features a large cast of charismatic characters – on both sides. While Big Boss receives organizational support from Revolver Ocelot, a mercenary who’s really into the Wild West, and Kazuhira Miller, an Asian-American drill instructor, figures such as the “Man on Fire” and the sniper known as “Quiet” are formidable adversaries.

And of course, boss enemies have a variety of supernatural powers, making them stand out amid the masses of rank-and-file enemy troops. This makes it all the more satisfying when you beat one of them. Despite all the highlights, though, you still get the feeling that the developers intended to do more with the countless items available in the game world, something that didn’t just reduce them to a cash and/or research value. It’s almost disappointing when you gather up medicinal herbs and they disappear into thin air, only to show up at the research facilities back at the oil rig, where all you can do is examine them for research. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater allowed you to treat a variety of wounds using items you found along your way. The storyline that was so imposing in its depth at the beginning, complete with gorgeous cut scenes, gradually gives way to tape-recorded briefings – a well known trick used by developers when dealing with a budget that’s been cut. This is what people were expecting in any event, as Hideo Kojima – the creative genius behind the Metal Gear series – broke with Konami earlier this year. This means that The Phantom Pain hit the market as a rough diamond, lacking the finishing cuts that really would have made it shine. It’s a real bummer, too, as it’s still a good game, but it would have gone down as a legend in the annals of video gaming had things been otherwise.

The game’s multiplayer aspects also left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. In single-player mode, you can establish a Forward Operating Base, and once you do so, you’re automatically logged in to Konami’s server. FOBs are a good way to get extra money and additional resources. Players can attack the FOBs belonging to other players, who can defend against the invasion. The nasty catch to the whole thing is not the surprise attacks – anyone who’s played Dark Souls II will be more than familiar with this concept – rather, it’s a microtransaction system that offers unfair advantages to anyone who’s willing to pay. I’d really like to see an end to this stupid trend that hits gamers up for cash after they’ve already shelled out the cash for the full version of the game. Or they could at least allow players to earn real money by selling off the items they find in the game.

The Phantom Pain

Eye Patch

 

Hearing Aid