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https://gexpblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/review-the-phantom-pain/

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the final Metal Gear game from Hideo Kojima. The story bridges a gap between Big Boss’s story (spanning MGS3, Portable Ops and Peace Walker) and Solid Snake’s starting in Metal Gear (1987). My expectations going into this game were really high, considering how amazing MGS4 was, so I came out of parts of the game disappointed, but overall I think MGSV lives up to Kojima’s reputation and that of the Metal Gear series. The game is beautiful to look at, incredibly fun to play and brings the balance of melodrama and goofiness that is standard for a Metal Gear game.

Let’s start off by talking about the gameplay. Metal Gear Solid V is simply fun to play. The controls are really tight and responsive and moving around the world and interacting with it feels really good. A lot of time is spent running around the open world, and it just feels really satisfying to move around in TPP. I had a lot of fun sprinting from from one outpost to another, crouching down, sneaking up on enemies, knocking them out and attaching a balloon to them to take them away. Every action is enjoyable and easy to execute. Not only that, but the number of different things you an do in the game is expansive.

I’m used to a Metal Gear game involving sneaking around, tranquilizing enemies, taking them out from a distance or sneaking up on them–and when that fails horribly, running to the next objective shooting anyone in my way. In MGSV you’re given the option to play like that–solo stealth infiltration–or you an take a buddy with you, or you can play it like a shooter and forget stealth all together. You can also just play adapting as the situation calls for because it is fairly easy to switch weapons and play styles at anytime by calling in supply drops. All this is aided by the three loadouts you can set before you deploy to a mission, and the development options afforded you from Mother Base. As you increase the level of your R&D team and find blueprints you can unlock new weapons and upgrades that you can develop to assist your playstyle. So if you prefer to play non-lethally, and you see the silenced tranquilizer sniper rifle, or assault rifle, then you an pour all of your resources into unlocking and developing that particular upgrade.

The Mother Base features all work to integrate the story elements of Snake rebuilding his mercenary empire into the gameplay, so you’re always aware of the fact that you’re not working alone. As you complete missions you capture or gain recruits, your base grows and the leaders develop their plan for their organization. This is an important aspect of the game’s story, which becomes more apparent later on, and in setting things up for Metal Gear. All of these components amalgamate to make Metal Gear Solid V’s gameplay the most fun in the series.

(The buddy system is the other feature that incorporates this into the game. I wrote my impression of that in another post so I wont take up any more space with it here.)

Not only that, but the game looks beautiful. The open world is HUGE and detailed. Part of the reason it is so fun to move around is because everything looks so good. Whether it be the rocky and dusty landscape of Afghanistan, the marshy forests of Africa or the characters themselves; the level of detail is amazing. Accompanying the gorgeous world is the soundtrack, which lives up to the legacy of the Metal Gear series, but adds an equally incredible score of licensed music that rivals The Guardians of the Galaxy. The song selection is great and sits well with the time period of the game, and makes exploring the open world more enjoyable–in part because you can listen to the songs, but also because you can find cassettes in the world to unlock more music.

You can also set a song to play from your copters speakers, which is really fun when everything goes to hell and you need to call in for support and you hear “Maneater” faintly in the distance, and then as the mini guns open fire on the unsuspecting enemy,

Watch out boy she’ll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes) She’s a maneater
(Oh-oh, here she comes) Watch out boy she’ll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes) She’s a maneater

It’s really fun. Great touch. You can also play sounds off of your iDroid’s speakers to distract enemies, but nothing beats blasting great music as you give up all hope of successfully sneaking to your objective.

I only have two real complaints with the game. The first has more to do with what I suspect was Konami’s interference in development after they knew Kojima was leaving and they had disbanded Kojima Productions. The way the game is set up makes the story feel fragmented. You have to play a main mission where you get some story, then do some side ops, then go back to the story. There are no 40 minute long cutscenes to explain the plot, which I personally miss (especially with the level of detail in the characters and the quality of the motion capture and acting!) It can be hard to keep the momentum of the story going, especially since a lot of the explanation comes from cassette tapes (similar to codec transmission in past games) that you have to listen to on your own time.

That being said, when there are cutscenes and important plot points, the game delivers them really well. The Phantom Pain’s prologue may be the best intro sequence to a game I’ve ever played. It is intense and hits hard! There are several sequences like this throughout the game, it’s just a shame that they are so sparsely scattered throughout. At the end of Chapter 1 and into the end of Chapter 2 they become more common and their are a few parts that let the actors and writing shine and really make you feel for the characters. It is what I personally love about the series.

A big part of this problem is that Chapter 2 is disappointingly short. Most of it consists of replaying earlier missions with different settings that make them more difficult (like total stealth). This is all just to unlock the few new story missions that are left until the end (Mission 46). I was really frustrated when the whole “second half” of the game was basically me just replay and rewatching things I had already seen, only to unlock 3 or 4 new missions that tell a pretty great story. That and the fact that the final mission (Mission 51), that ties up one characters relationship to Big Boss was cut completely!

My other qualm was that there is hardly anything to do at all while on Mother Base! I thought it would act as a kind of home hub like in a BioWare game, where all the main characters are located so you can talk and interact with them. No, not so. The only people populating MB are some of the recruits you pick up along the way. Quiet, is in a cage, but you can’t interact with her and D-dog will follow you around if he was your buddy in the previous mission. But other than that, no one’s there. I guess Miller and Ocelot were too busy arguing and torturing dudes to make an appearance.

Apart from the fragmented story, and some Konami edits Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain is an incredible game, that does open world gameplay astonishingly well, and is the most fun Metal Gear game of the series. It looks incredible and has an amazing soundtrack. It is Kojima’s final words on the series, and I was satisfied with it overall. The way it bridged the series together has been sitting better with me the more I think about it and really did do a good job of connecting Big Boss and Solid Snakes stories.

We built this legacy together, with Kojima, as we played the games and were affected by their stories. Though imperfect and probably not exactly what Kojima wanted, The Phantom Pain is a great final game in the series and a nice farewell to the series, to Kojima and to us, the fans.