REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Yes, yes, I know. You have a lot of questions. This may be hard for you to hear, but you have been lied to for the past several years.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the missing link, the link that joins the Solid saga and the Big Boss saga. It is huge. I am talking 70 hours huge. I have just finished the 50th main story mission, and around 50% of the side-ops mission. For this reason, I can safely say that I have seen, and heard, every story beat.

We have seen the footage, we have seen the gameplay videos, and in all of them we were lied to. Yes, Kojima Productions has made a game where you awake from a coma, the year is 1984, and there is an Ishmael, an Ahab, and a Man on Fire. Yet, everything is out of context, and I fear that The Phantom Pain will collapse under the weight of expectations that have been set up by the wealth of misinformation that has been distributed by Konami, Kojima Productions, and even Mr. Kojima himself.

Now that is out of the way, let us begin, shall we?

Before I talk about the campaign, let me touch on the gameplay and multiplayer components.

The first thing I noticed was the smoothness of gameplay. Traversing the mission area–the area you are locked to within the larger world–is smooth and your horse glides across the sand with ease. That is until you come up against a rock, then it is obvious that your horse and Roach from Witcher 3 had the same trainer. The systems in place work so well, I copied one of the gameplay videos and rode past some guards unnoticed, thanks to having the ability to hang off the side of the horse. It was poetry in motion, until I pressed the right stick in.

I played The Phantom Pain before the servers went online, so I cannot comment on when exactly you unlock the Forward Operating Base. I, however, had it unlock as soon as the servers went live–and with it came with a handful of additional features. For example, I acquired expanded personnel, which makes unlocking research tiers a little easier. I also gained the ability to invade rivals bases, to capture enemies, hardware, and resources. At the time of writing, the servers were experiencing issues, so I have not been able to invade any bases. I did get to experience it through a tutorial, and if it is any indication of what to expect, then we are in for a real treat.

Yes, you have to purchase items with coins. Yes, you have to purchase them with real world currency. No, you do not have to pay for your first base, as it costs no coins. Pick carefully though, as each location is tied to bonus resource gains. If you want to relocate, that will cost you. The aggressive microtransactions hurt the multiplayer experience in my opinion. They left a sour taste in my mouth. I could ignore the multiplayer and just score the game on the single-player portions but considering that it is part of the package, it needs to be factored into the final score.

With that out of the way, let us talk about the campaign and some other aspects.

The opening section, dubbed a prologue, is best left untouched. It is a truly epic experience, with some clues dropped that are on par with Sixth Sense, which you have to experience for yourself. Once you hit chapter one, the game explodes with life. Not so much freedom, but life. The Afghan locale is nothing short of stunning, and will have you exploring for hours. Before that, you have to rescue your good friend, Benedict Miller, and with that, make the legend come back to life.

After going through the tutorial sections, rescuing Miller, and getting some much needed rest at Mother Base, the game then truly opened up. You gain access to the majority of offline systems from here, minus the ones you unlock through recruiting buddies, Mother Base personnel, or others.

Inevitably, The Phantom Pain will be held up in comparison to other large, open world games. The Witcher 3 being the main comparison I can see. The world of The Phantom Pain is not as dense as some other titles out there. It is a warzone after all. Villages have been ransacked, stripped of inhabitants, and left to burn. It would feel out of place if, say, you were riding along on your Walker–your mech buddy–and you came upon a small village with children playing outside, a parent hanging washing up, or someone returning from hunting animals in the wilderness. It is more likely you will come across an outpost, armed with four soldiers, some sentry guns, and maybe an inflatable love toy or two.

One of the clever parts of The Phantom Pain, of which there are several, is that you can make the game as easy or hard as you like. Fancy tackling a hillside fortress? Great. Go ahead. Fancy making it a little easier on yourself? Great, take out some of the surrounding outposts–quietly–and you will be rewarded with less backup, if all hell breaks loose that is. Doing this will enable you to hit the coveted S rank easier. As on most missions, if you call in airstrikes, use prototype tech, or get in touch with the met office, you will only be able to achieve the A rank at best. Also, if you use the chicken hat, which is pretty funny, you will be limited to the max of an A rank too.

Missions in The Phantom Pain are not hugely varied, but that does not detract away from the experience. Yes, you may be going to extract a prisoner, eliminate a target–or sending them to heaven–but how this all plays out, is not black or white. The time of day will alter the mission parameters, as will how long it takes you to get to the mission location, your play style, or heck, even the weather. Very few times did I experience the same scenario in any mission, be it the main missions, or the side-ops. Rescue a gunsmith? Sure, oh, wait…he has been transported. Why? Due to me messing up an outpost capture on my way there.

There are boss battles, with the majority of them being avoidable. The ones that you are forced into, well, you will see. Do not be afraid to use everything at your disposal, you can replay to get that S rank once you have better equipment.

The Phantom Pain runs at a smooth 60 frames per second most of the time. Unfortunately there are some freezing and stuttering issues though. Resolution wise, it is 900p scaled up to 1080p. Honestly, the game looks gorgeous, it is smooth and responsive. You will not be able to spot any differences in the two versions so relax if that was one of your main concerns.

The sound of the Phantom Pain is where I ran into the most issues, performance wise. It can stutter a lot sadly during key moments–which has resulted in me missing information. Thank goodness for cassette tapes. Konami are aware of this problem, and it is apparently being looked into. When the game is not stuttering, the ambience is absorbing. Doing a night run into an enemy compound with no markings requires you to use your senses. Knowing that an enemy is asleep in the next room whilst you steal a poster off of a wall–it is intense I tell you–which will reward you with currency and a distraction for your cardboard box. Yes, stealing a poster in the black of night, is enough to make my pulse increase, my blood rush, and my eyelids enter no blink mode.

The elephant in the room, or shall we say the Sahelanthropus in the room, is the story. The narrative is fine, the voice work is delivered by in a Hollywood fashion. Though, Huey’s acting leaves a lot to be desired. The voice of Christopher Randolph is great, he plays it well.

The main chunk of the story is delivered by cassette tape, the important ones are highlighted in yellow. There are a lot, and thankfully you can listen to them at your own leisure. I listened to most of them whilst performing side-ops, as it filled the silence. However, even with the cassette tapes, the story of The Phantom Pain just ends. I am not talking about the fake out ending, you will see what I mean. The overall story, just falls short. Maybe it is due to the conflict with Konami? Maybe it is because Mr. Kojima just could not close the loop on one of gaming’s most rich universes? Or, maybe, well, it is just leaving room for Metal Gear Solid VI: Kash Kow? Whatever the case, the twists, turns, and retconning, leave a marmite taste in my mouth.

It could be, that once I have discussed the story with other people, that I will see the missing pieces. It could be that I blacked out during some important moment–I did play for 18 hours straight on day one. Or, it could just be that we were never destined to have closure.

It has been very difficult to not spoil anything, I have worded sections very carefully, just to provide some light, but not spoil. Ultimately I have enjoyed my time with The Phantom Pain, Big Boss, Solid Snake, and the whole world that came from the mind of Mr. Kojima. Yet, as a standalone package, The Phantom Pain left me wanting. It is a solid entry, but an entry nonetheless. We will never know if this is how Mr. Kojima wanted to end the saga, but we will enjoy almost every minute of it.