Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

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.

After 7 years, clearing it again, it is without a doubt that this open-world stealth game represents the highest level in the genre. Even today, the graphics quality enhanced by the Fox Engine never goes out of style. While one can still count the polygons when looking at circular objects such as tires, the overall feel of sneaking and combat is excellent, surpassing even that of Ghost Recon: Wildlands. The Mother Base and fulton system create a perfect positive feedback loop. Kojima's selection of 80s classic songs, along with his reflections on war and language, provide new insights and discoveries upon revisiting the game.

Now listen, I personally really like Kojima. I admire his creativity and the way he forms his ideas on what concerns the story. However his games are simply not my type. Death stranding for example, is a walking simulator for 25 hours out of 40. Even though the concept is awfully interesting and the story is amazing the game robs you of any sense that you are playing a video game. Yes, I know it gets good but as I previously said if a game takes 40 hours to beat on average and you spend 20 or 25 forcing yourself to do something objectively boring just because it gets better is simply not my style. Metal Gear Solid, in a way, does the complete opposite to DS. It is a strictly gameplay focused game that however has a story that you need to watch recaps upon recaps and articles upon articles to somehow understand if you haven't played the previous games. And I personally am not such a fan of games that do not pay much attention to their story. And that's cuz to me, the most important aspect of a game is the story. Then comes the gameplay. But in order for me to like a game there has to be some sort of balance between the two. And DS along with MGSV are two perfect examples of how to have complete imbalance between the two even though they are objectively very nice games, especially Death Stranding. I have heard and seen that DS2 is more gameplay focused and more balanced and I am really looking forward to Metal Gear Solid D. I'm really hoping these two games will interest me so much that I will give another chance to DS and MGSV and actually love them. I WISH so.

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

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.