Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PlayStation 4) Review

As far as Metal Gear games go, The Phantom Pain is a disappointment. Prequels can often be frowned upon, as going back in time in a series generally doesn't pose as much interest as events going forward. Metal Gear Solid 3 single-handedly changed that mentality. After the PlayStation 2 classic, though, hadn't Big Boss' story already been told? His status as a legendary soldier was cemented, and it was easy enough to see why he ended up on the path to villainy that paved the way for events in the very first Metal Gear. How much more of this chapter in Big Boss' life needed to be documented? If anything, it was Ocelot that needed some character development to detail his transit into the crazed torturer he becomes in Metal Gear Solid, but it turns out that this is one of the most boring and one-dimensional casts in not just a Metal Gear game, but of any game in the last few years.

With major changes to voice actors and poor dialogue, these characters don't feel anything like the ones fans have come to know throughout the series. What was the actual point of casting Kiefer Sutherland as Big Boss when he's practically a mute? The ridiculously-designed sniper Quiet serves little purpose in the story, other than eye candy to gawk at, and the true antagonist isn't even seen throughout the entirety of the experience.

The pacing of the story is all over the place, as things start off reasonably dramatic, yet then drop dead for about 20 hours, with mission after mission of similar gameplay goals, and hardly any cut-scenes whatsoever. This is a massive deviation from the series as it has come to establish itself since 1998, whereby long plot-heavy cinematics have always been customary, but The Phantom Pain has hardly any at all for the most part. This might sound like a relief to some that couldn't sit through them in previous outings, but after the opening prologue, there is little to keep the tale going. It's far too slow to get anywhere, meaning it's entirely possible the title will be dropped completely before anything decent starts happening. Metal Gear fans expect good gameplay, but not at the cost of any story-advancing cut-scenes to establish actual meaning and desire to push forward.

The real kicker is that a lot of typically important pieces of the yarn are resigned to cassette tape entries, which are a total pain to have to sit and listen to, with optional subtitles that don't always show the correct words being spoken - in some cases, completely different lines of dialogue that were clearly re-recorded. When cut-scenes do eventually start to ramp up in the final hours, they amount to near nothing because of how anticlimactic events are. There is no proper final boss fight with the prime antagonist, and what's worse is that the real climax has been omitted entirely, rendered too incomplete for it to make the final cut. It's an absolute disgrace that it was seen as okay to ship this product in its current unfinished state. How the final batch of story scenes are triggered - by completing repeated filler missions on harder difficulties or through even more side ops - is also lazy, almost like they were slapped in at the last minute when they could - and should - have been evenly placed throughout the campaign.

The Phantom Pain is a very conflicting piece of software, since when the story isn't busy being rubbish (or just not existing at all), gameplay can be decidedly fun, if effort is made to make it so - in other words, trying to ignore the fact that it was an utterly pointless move to take the open world route. It's a growing trend in videogames today, but jumping on the bandwagon is not always a good thing. Of the two main areas included - Afghanistan and Africa - the maps are incredibly barebones, save for the actual mission zones, so most of the time between these locations will simply be spent galloping on the horse to whichever place needs to be headed to next, or wasting just as much, if not more, time by hopping in the chopper and selecting the closest landing zone to the mission, and then sitting through the same exceedingly awful sequence of Big Boss looking painstakingly bored as he approaches his destination.

It's the freedom of expression on the battlefield that makes up for the tiresome story and pacing, though. With the range of tools at Big Boss' disposal, every situation can be tackled in a variety of unique ways, and through extended play time and customisation of weapons and items on offer, a personal style will be developed. It is very easy to fall into the tried and tested formula of simply sneaking up on nearby enemies, knocking them out, dragging them away, and then using the Fulton extraction device to ship them off to Big Boss' Mother Base. However, by stepping outside of these boundaries, Metal Gear Solid V becomes a playpen of humour and satisfaction through utilisation of not just Big Boss' weapons, but the surroundings and other hostile units. Although the choice is there to tear it up Rambo-style, there aren't many better moments than completely clearing out of a zone in a timely manner, without being spotted through sheer ingenuity and wit. Sneaking into a base, planting a whole bunch of C4 around satellite targets, and then setting them off from atop a nearby cliff, watching as soldiers haven't a clue what just happened, is nothing short of gratifying. Fighting a helicopter one-on-one? Heck, try Fultoning a tank - whilst extremely hard to do, with perfect timing, it can be airlifted right into the chopper, taking it out in a way never thought possible.

It's this diverse scope of mission approach that keeps The Phantom Pain alive, helped by remarkably tight controls that are a far cry from the clunky nature of previous Metal Gear entries. Whether much of the equipment is ever used at all is a problem in itself, though. Items must be crafted and, usually, waited on to be built before using. It can be a hindrance to certain situations - particularly one point of the story where it is only discovered after arriving at the mission zone that a certain tool is required, which then takes half an hour to make. The reality is that so many items aren't required in order to just work through to the end. Clearing out entire zones is made even easier when a buddy like D-Dog or Quiet is called into action. In fact, it's not a difficult task to get through The Phantom Pain at all, and since so many missions rely on similar goals, it doesn't feel necessary to make the effort to be unique in the field. As a result, by the time 20 hours of monotonous missions have been passed, with the story going nowhere, most players will have fallen into boredom, completing operations in the laziest and simplest way possible, just to see it out.

What this would have benefitted from, far more than the open world plan, is multiple large areas in the style of Camp Omega in its prequel, Ground Zeroes. This would have eradicated the useless and bland terrain, and allowed designers to focus on intricate semi-open areas that keep gameplay flowing for longer periods and may have forced some of the more distinctive items to be employed, instead of breaking things up too often with the short and small areas presented as they are now. Pace the story well throughout, and it's a recipe for a game that won't be dropped halfway through.

Sadly, there are further low points, the biggest of which is a real lack of boss fights. Central to every Metal Gear so far, is an array of bizarre and typical-Kojima bosses, but what's on offer this time round is ridiculous in both numbers and imagination. Ignoring the cut content at the end, it's difficult to pinpoint why this is the case; why didn't Kojima, of all people, create anything anywhere near as memorable as bosses like Psycho Mantis, The Sorrow, or even any of the BB Corps? Bosses are one of the many key features that define Metal Gear, and it's truly shameful that they are some of the weakest in the series in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, really rubbing salt in the wounds of this dispiriting game.