As a long time fan of the MGS franchise, the release of Metal Gear Solid V is a bitter sweet moment. From the moment that I set foot on the dingy loading docks on Shadow Moses Island, to the utter surprise and confusion that I felt when I discovered that MGS 2 was actually played as Raiden and not Solid Snake, I have been in love with the series. While each game has managed to bring its own signature brand of near perfection, boasting a masterful combination of plot and gameplay, Metal Gear Solid 5 is a different beast all together. While the game has changed many things for the better, it's many achievements are overlaid with a sad and nostalgic tone for me, as I watch one of my favorite series of all time finally come to an end. Despite of this, MGS 5 is a remarkable achievement, and Hideo Kojima has again managed to craft a masterpiece that only comes about every few years.
The story of Metal Gear Solid V follows one of the series long time protagonists, Naked Snake, also known as Big Boss. After the events of Ground Zeroes, Big Boss falls into a coma and does not awake for 9 years. In his absence, the shadowy intelligence organization known as cipher, a group led and founded by Big Boss and his former allies from his time with the C.I.A. agency FOX, has grown unregulated while Big Boss's influence has slowly faded from the world. After awakening and teaming up with his friendly rival Ocelot and partner Kaz, Boss seeks revenge on Cipher and the mysterious Skull Face, the people that he blames for taking everything from him, all the while creating a new organization of private militants known as Diamond Dogs.
As always, Hideo Kojima brings his A game to the story of MGS 5, and proves that he is one of the premier game designers in the industry. Kojima is a master at blending outlandish story details and insane plot twists into a coherent and believable plot, and any fan of the series will be thoroughly impressed with the way that Kojima has moved the series into a darker place while still maintaining its childish and insane roots.Though the game tells its own coherent story, it is often reliant on the details of its predecessors, and many new fans may find themselves lost when it comes to the game's broad implications and commentary on the series as a whole outside of this particular game. As this is meant to be a conclusion to the series, many of the game's prevailing questions have been answered, including some questions that i myself had never even thought to ask, all the while bringing the series around to finally connect the prequels to the first game in the series, Metal Gear for the MSX.
Unfortunately, while Kojima has obviously put all of his effort into making the best game possible, many parts of the plot of MGS 5 seem to go without answers to their most basic questions. Due to Kojima's now infamous feud with publisher Konami, some parts of the story seem to have been cut, for what are assumed to be budgetary reasons. The most notable of these is and entire character subplot that is left unresolved in the game, though a semi-complete version of this conclusion can be found on Youtube, leaving many fans, myself included, disappointed about how certain aspects of the story are resolved.
As for the infamous Kojima twist, there still is one in the story, and it's one that many fans had predicted would occur before the game's intro had even concluded. I myself initially considered this to be the direction that the game was leading, but found myself letting my guard down as the story progressed, only to be kicking myself for not staying with my original theory. While the twist has a way of making you feel a bit worthless in the wider scope of the game and the series, it successfully manages to vilify the now loved protagonist that is Big Boss, a turn that many fans have been anticipating since the game's first announcement that it would feature Big Boss's descent into evil.
As for the gameplay, the phantom pain boasts some of the most unique and entertaining of the entire series. The most notable feature is the massive switch gameplay format that The Phantom Pain has used. Much like the Witcher 3, The Phantom Pain has made a change from its standard linear game formula into an open world style, allowing players to infiltrate outposts in diverse and creative ways that simply couldn't be achieved in previous games. The missions of MGS 5 see you sneaking your way across the vast landscapes of Afghanistan and Africa in your pursuit of revenge, encountering all manner of challenges along the way.
The game's primary story comes from the standard mission set that unlocks in a basic sequential order, while players can also complete minor "side ops" for more structured outpost infiltration than your standard. Each mission boasts various ways of completing them, and though each player will eventually arrive at the same conclusion to each mission, the way that they achieve their objectives will be entirely different. Some players may enter a base and silently neutralize every enemy, either by using their handy tranquilizer gun or be silently executing them, while others may take a more loud approach, entering with gunfire and explosions to meet their enemy head on. This is a broad generalization of all of the options presented in Phantom Pain, as it would be impossible to detail every way of completing a mission due to the games open-ended nature, with me still finding new ways to complete objectives that I had never before imagined, creating a truly open experience that, despite a few minor complaints, is one of the most memorable experiences in the series.
While the signature Boss fights of MGS in the Phantom Pain may not hold as creative characters as its predecessors, the battles here are still intense and mesmerizing to behold. Battles are generally found in major points in the story and generally pit you against some of the games more strange characters, like the mysterious man on fire or the strange and powerful skulls. Almost every battle in the Phantom Pain can be solved in multiple ways, allowing the player to avoid some fights all together. You may find yourself up against an array of nearly invisible and deadly accurate snipers with your primary objective not being to kill the snipers, but to get to the other side of a valley that they are carefully guarding. While most players would simply attack the snipers in a tense and exciting sniping battle, the game also accounts for those who enjoy thinking outside the box, allowing you to sneak past these snipers to avoid confrontation altogether. These decisions all ultimately have consequences, with a battle with the snipers resulting in other nearby enemies being made aware of your presence, while sneaking by the snipers will cause the enemies to be possessed and attack you in massive waves on your resulting infiltration.
Thankfully, the player isn't forced to go into these encounters alone, as they are now able to be accompanied by a cast of companions, including everything from an assassin dog to an invisible sniper that can assist and cover you on your various adventures. These characters, while not essential to the game, add an extra layer of depth to the gameplay, and allow for interesting uses in combination with Big Boss's various skills. You could have your dog wander an outpost and mark all enemies for you, or you could hide in a cardboard box while your sniper friend eliminates every enemy in the area with little effort. The attention to detail and various functions of these companions allows for a much greater gameplay experience, and creates a world of almost infinite possibilities based on your preferences.
One of the most notable innovations to the game, however, is the new and enhanced Mother Base system. Though this system existed in Peace Walker, the influence and power of Mother Base has never been as useful as it currently is. Using the returning Fulton extraction device, Big Boss can capture anything from new recruits to cargo and tanks to help aid and enhance his base. Troops that are captured are then assigned to specific teams based off of their skills, and can provide various forms of support for Big Boss, both before and during missions. Increasing your R and D team will allow you to create more advanced weapons, outfits, and items, while increasing the strength of your support team will allow you to call in ammo, vehicles, and many more items to your location while in the field. As your staff expands you'll have to create new platforms for your troops, which demands a certain number of resources. It's this system that creates an interesting and entertaining base building mechanic at the heart of the Phantom Pain, always driving you to create the best team you can create.
Through these upgrades and enhancements you eventually unlock the ability to customize various gear for yourself and your companions. The customization system allows you to alter everything from your basic emblem to your helicopter and vehicles. While these options are interesting and entertaining, the true power of the customization system comes in the form of the weapons menu. After recruiting a master gunsmith for your team, you gain the ability to alter and customize various weapons that you have created over the course of the game. This can allow you to make minor changes, such as adding a better sight to an assault rifle, but thinking outside of the box in your customization efforts allows you to create some truly lethal items. One such example is modifying a powerful sniper rifle with an assault rifle stock and sights to create a compact and powerful rifle that maintains the power and range of the original sniper with the quick draw and easy to use sights of an assault rifle, dropping almost any enemy in one shot. It's creations like these that open up almost unlimited possibilities for players to experiment with and find the tactic that is right for them.
As your base increases in size you may find yourself needing to expand your facilities outside of your staring area, which is where the mechanic of the games forward operating bases come in. The F.O.B.s are separate mother bases that exist online and allow for you to hold extra resources, at the price of risking an attack from fellow players. Though this concept may seem interesting on the surface, it is by far the weakest part of the Phantom Pain overall. Your base can often come under attack while you are away or on a critical story mission, and will often see you leaving your current objective ti fight off an attack from another player, which can cause you to lose your progress in an extremely difficult mission. Even worse, some personnel will occasionally vanish from your base without explanation, causing you to lose elite staff members without any chance of getting them back.
Regardless of these minor flaws, Metal Gear Solid 5 is one of the greatest game's to ever be released in the series, and is a meaningful and exciting conclusion to a well loved franchise. While we may never see another Metal Gear game again, especially not one with Kojima's name attached to it, the game series is going out on an extremely positive release. The open-ended design of the Phantom Pain and its various intricate systems allows for hours of entertaining gameplay that entices you to try every possible solution to a problem that you can think of. The Phantom Pain is a game that you can spend hours playing and not get tried of it, and will likely go down in history as one of the most entertaining titles of all time.