Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain is the penultimate journey in Hideo Kojima's classic saga; even though it's a prequel there is a good deal of surprises to be found in the story. The gameplay is nothing short of phenomenal and there's so much attention to detail graphically and narratively speaking.

The Phantom Pain is a gaming experience to be remembered for generations to come. Its immersion for the players is unsurpassed, its atmosphere phenomenal, its story a bit sparse yet massive in scope and ambition. Hideo Kojima has made the 2001: A Space Odyssey of video games right here. There's endless subtexts throughout, visually and script-based, and that's excluding the ridiculously tense and terrifying start of the game, where you're at a hospital in Cyprus, trying to escape certain death.

If you haven't played the game yet, please do so, and play the 'Day One Edition' on the PS4: the definitive version of this modern masterpiece.

3 years after its long-awaited release, it's strange to say that The Phantom Pain still haunts me without any doubts for obvious reasons that could be controversial for some people.

In fact, Metal Gear Solid V's gaming experience is the most memorable and unique one I experienced since my passion for video games began. This powerful arty blockbuster offered me way more than I expected from it by immersing me into a genre-bending weird interactive adventure that intelligently associates complex hard science-fiction, dark psychological drama, disturbing war depiction, mind-blowing philosophy, terrifying surreal horror, grotesque sense of humor and good historical transcription.

But aside from its artistic madness, The Phantom Pain is also inevitably a remarkable game design achievement that knows how to mix a rich sandbox emergent gameplay system with a captivating, intense storytelling. As the hours go by, the player freely writes its own story, building its base and choosing how to approach objectives thanks to a vast, well designed open world and a whole panel of gadgets and weapons. Hopefully, that's not all as acclaimed director Hideo Kojima, in addition to these modern elements, introduces into the game's structure everything we want from a Metal Gear Solid game: challenging bosses, beautifully executed cutscenes, jaw-dropping moments, fourth wall breakings and a dense, fluid narrative that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final twist drops.

But of course, the famous game designer isn't the only one to provide great genius, indeed, what would be Metal Gear Solid V without Kojima Productions' talent, experience and mastery of the gaming medium? Because thanks to them and surprisingly high production values, The Phantom Pain also delivers outstanding visuals, phenomenal soundtrack/sound design, perfect technical presentation, excellent controls and some incredible performances from the cast.

Everything combined logically creates an unforgettable and visceral gaming masterpiece that transcends its own medium in original ways. Brilliant, innovative, violent, funny and emotionally powerful, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a pure art work for the ages that will clearly be remembered by History.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" (2015) is truly an amazing experience. Hands down this is one of the most addictive games i have played in a very long while. It has tons of action, sneaking, hiding, crouching and etc. Controls are amazing, it is not even boring to run trough the open world maps on your foot. Graphics are gorgeous, game play is amazing. Story was good, but since the only Metal Gear game i have played before was 1st part (back in 1998), i didn't understood lots of characters, but that is not a problem, there are plenty of greatly voiced tapes which you can listen even during missions which are informative. I liked the extraction thing - genius. Mother base was also very cool thing, but i have 1 complaint. After collecting lots of stuff to mother base like gun turrets, emplacement, tanks guns and so on, it kinda don't have any real payoff at mother base except that security unit gets more points. but that is it, it kinda useless to bring whole stuff up there - or maybe i'm wrong but at this point i'm completed 64% of game - i finished main story and i'm at about 82% of side missions but still there was no effect of bringing all stuff to mother base except soldiers. Anyway that is a minor complain. because everything else in this game rocks.

Overall, whether you have played just one Metal Gear Solid game before or none, The Phantom Pain" is a must play to everyone, because everyone will find here something he will love. Great game, not the best ever, but great one.

Once you are dropped into the game, you are treated to beautiful cinematics and mystery. Even if you have played all of the games in the series, there is a lot of mystery and confusion. The game does a great job at revealing its story, and filling the past games' plot holes and "now I know now" moments.

The game-play of The Phantom Pain is more fluent and dense than any other in the series. From the facial animations to the crouch movement, You can clearly see the amazing effort Kojima Productions and Konami had put into this game. All of the good details, graphics, and animations all look perfect in the game's cut-scenes.

In The Phantom Pain, there is no longer the "stealth or guns- blazing" decision making. It is Unexplainable of how many ways you can infiltrate, kill, travel, or anything else (So many choices!). It has the most choices of game-play of any game EVER! Even so that I just can't explain it!

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is easily the BEST stealth oriented game to date, and the most game-play choices of any game in existence! Everybody should buy this game when the chance is given!

Pros:

• Great diverse Gameplay
• Useful companions
• Great graphics, voice acting, animation
• Tons of customisation
• Interesting plot twist (that makes sense)

Cons:

• Tons of padding in campaign
• Open world is kinda lifeless
• Limited variation in missions
• Boring main villain
• Most boss fights aren't that great
• Lack of MGS quirkiness and heart
• Online is an afterthought

Verdict: Tons and tons of reviews give this a 10/10, greatest game of all time. Overrated IMO thou still an enjoyable game, but with just allot of unnecessary padding and lack of key elements that made the other MGS games great.

7.5/10