Intro
The expression ‘Ghost in the Machine’ just got a million times more apparent thanks to the release of the latest instalment in the Metal Gear franchise. On the surface MGS V:TPP is a Game of the Year certainty, effortlessly mixing free roam elements with mission-driven story progression and RPG development – not to mention, it’s also nice to look at. However, under all the obvious there was bubbling controversy over Ground Zero, the previous instalment in the series.
Flawless in the flaws
Hideo Kojima is a perfectionist, but within the gaming world he can also be considered somewhat of a maverick, with many of the concepts in the original Metal Gear just being downright laughable – chicken hats anyone? Once you’ve stepped over all the surreal aspects of the series you start to see method in the madness and realise the quality MGS games have had in the past. 
Coming up with one for the current generation of consoles would have been a colossal undertaking, with gamers expecting Kojima’s creation to utilise the full potential of the PS4. The realist in me was expecting something on a par with The Witcher 3, but secretly I was hoping for something more.
The days which followed MGS V: TPP‘s release were plagued with online connection issues and reports of bugs here, there and everywhere. Call me the luckiest guy on the planet but I only experienced the former.
Of course connectivity was going to be an issue. As the first wave of September games hit the shelves there was to be no doubt that the sheer numbers of people accessing PSN or the Konami servers would be too much for them to handle, not to mention the online features were probably not tested on such a large scale before launch. The service was intermittent not none-existent but eventually I stopped trying to stay connected.
Ridin’ Solo
Up until now, Metal Gear has been a strictly solo experience. The game’s focal point is protagonist Snake and his various missions and undertakings. It’s nice to see that nothing has changed much. The player resumes where they left off at the end of Ground Zero, and data from those games can be downloaded to give yourself a boost in TPP. This is certainly a nice touch, especially after the criticism of Ground Zero’s length and value for money which followed its release. 
This is the big leagues though, a fully-fledged game with all the RPG elements you need and enough free roamyness to make those who’re still playing Skyrim stand up and notice. Sure, Metal Gear is inherently a different animal. Guns, stealth and gadgets are more prevalent and despite the occasional fire-starting boss there are no dragons to speak of (so far). What Metal Gear does do is deliver an enthralling single-player experience in which the player feels all-powerful one minute and very ‘human’ the next.
Begin Again
The game’s theme is a strange one to define. The story seems to be a mix of reclamation and revenge, mixed with a slight dash of self-righteousness. Meanwhile, every element outside the main missions appears to focus on capitalism and with that in mind, we should give all the more credit to the designers for capturing the very essence of American culture in a video game.
Socially commentary aside, the game begins in a fairly formulaic way: answering a few questions but posing oh so many more. Unusually for a sequel, it does begin incredibly slowly and the tutorial mission a real drag for anyone who has even seen a copy of the game before, never mind played it. Thankfully, this can be smashed through fairly quickly if the player wishes too, landing the Snake in Afghanistan where the real action begins. 
Your turn Snake
As far as gameplay goes, MGS V: TPP borrows staples from it’s predecessors, and as I already alluded to, some of the Kojima favourites, including Snake’s iconic cardboard box, make their return. For the most part playing feels natural, with the controls set up in a traditional MGS way and only frequent FPSers who are new to the franchise will feel out of sorts using X to crouch. Still, traversing the world feels very awkward when Snake is stood up, yet any movement while crouched or prone feels fluid and natural. The first few hours of gameplay will feel erratic if you’re not used to the series.
Good News for Mother Base
The mainstream approval of The Phantom Pain has been overwhelming and most of it is justified within a few hours of gameplay. Regardless, seasoned gamers will have doubts as to whether a lot of those 10/10s are more a commentary on the lack of other great games on this gen of consoles, rather than as a result of Metal Gear itself.
I was originally going to agree with every 10/10 review. The combat mechanics are excellently designed, the world is large, gorgeous and most importantly, at no point in the game do I feel like I’m being forced to do things a certain way. It might not be the smartest idea to complete a ‘kill’ mission by standing at the edge of the village and firing a rocket into the command building, but if I want to do so, it’s my choice. The scoring system encourages you to play a certain way, but even if you kill everything in sight using machine guns you can still get a pretty decent rank come the mission’s end – perfect runs will be rare until you’re replaying missions for your Trophy.
Another thing I like is the Mother Base system, essentially ‘home’ for Snake and Miller on their missions. This is a huge part of the game, and allows you to utilise all the items you grab on missions to expand and improve Snake’s arsenal and Diamond Dogs’ reputation as a merc group. After enough progression through the game you unlock other things Mother Base can do until eventually it becomes its own self-sustaining entity that feeds Snake cool weapons and tools.
We’re losing the plot, at least some of it
Despite all it does well Metal Gear has a few niggles, and the most apparent one is its lack of an impressive narrative. Of course, should this improve I’ll eat my words (in alphabet spaghetti form), but for the moment it’s nothing to shout about. Much like the plot in The Witcher 3, it’s there as a tool to facilitate character progression and open up areas of the world rather than to take you from a definitive A to B. 
However, the plot that is there is classic Kojima, with eerie and mysterious enemies looking to outwit Snake and his organisation – yet making the Bond-villain mistake of never finishing him off when they get the chance. I’ve also heard that there are a few bugs with the game – a perfectly reasonable expectation given that you are free to tackle missions any way you like.
Fulton, Box, Chicken
Regardless of flaws and merits as visual media, Metal Gear is still a serious and borderline realistic game. Kojima always adds a little dash of surreal of everything he creates, starting with the infamous Chicken Hat, which makes a return in TPP. Still for noobs, the hat limits mission rank and lets the world know that this person isn’t quite as good at gaming as other people are. There’s also Snake’s cardboard box, which essentially allows him to hide from anything and everything by putting it over his head.
Finally there’s the Fulton extraction, a super powerful balloon which allows Snake to abduct almost anything from the field and send it back to Mother Base. If seen, this leads to some interesting dialogue from the enemy forces.
Conclusion
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Metal Gear Solid is a very strong 9/10, there is so much it does right, and it’s so much fun and it’s so deep, like absolutely ridiculously deep. But the game was released on PS3 as well. This means that some elements of game play haven’t quite made the step up to the next generation. Unfortunately, that’s been the story of gaming in 2015. Every developer is still straddling the fence between current and last gen consoles (for the obvious financial reasons). I’m not contesting that the game won’t look better on Xbox One or PS4, but Metal Gear as a series has always utilised all it can from the console it was on.
Yes, I know, there are a few of you strongly disagreeing with me right now. But this is my opinion, and I genuinely don’t think we’ve had the first REAL current generation game yet – I thought we might have done with Watchdogs, and again with Destiny, but each of them still come up short. Look at what Grand Theft Auto III did on the PS2 or what Halo 2 did for the Xbox. These are games which define the console because they use the latest and the greatest technology available to them. Metal Gear uses the PS4 system to do a lot, but I can still see that little bit of empty space waiting to be filled.
So to Kojima and Konami I say congratulations. They’ve made an exemplary game that rivals anything we’ve seen so far. But much like CD Projekt Red, they missed their chance to take their game to the next level.
Fatelighter 