MGSV: The Phantom Pain Review - A Game Divided (Part 2)

Welcome to the second part of the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain review. The first part is quite the downer, because I mainly focused on the negative aspect of the game, because I am a firm believer of eating the vegetables. Now with all the bad things out of the way, I can finally talk about all the good things in the game. Which in this case, is a lot.

Gameplay

We all know that it is important for a game franchise to evolve with the times and good god, what an evolution this game is for the Metal Gear series. The modernized control scheme and the flawless stealth mechanic makes The Phantom Pain the most addicting Metal Gear game I've ever played.

Furthermore, in The Phantom Pain, every seconds counts. On one hand, you can run around the Afghan desert or the African Savanna, capturing outpost, putting soldiers to sleep, fultoning the high ranking ones back to your Mother Base; on the other hand, you can whip out your iDroid no matter where you are and start managing your Mother Base on the spot. However, you must be careful as  the game doesn't pause when you use your iDroid.

You can manage your Mother Base from your iDroid, anywhere, anytime.
Just be careful don't get caught by patrolling enemy guards.

You can spend your hard earned GMP to develop weapons and items.

My glorious but somewhat empty Mother Base.
Remember to check out Medical Platform for a surprise encounter.

Usually, I don't like this kind of gameplay mechanic as it can be very annoying when badly implemented, like in Resident Evil 5. But it is actually so well implemented here that it reassures you that your base, weapons and items are developing in the background simultaneously as you play. Every once a while, notifications will show up in the background reminding you that the guys in Mother Base are making good progress. For me, this is why I'll never want to stop playing because I never want the progress to stop. Also, let's not forget about the silky smooth 60fps experience which makes the gameplay so enjoyable, which lead me to the next point.



Graphics and Performance

The development for this game started before the 8th gen console (PS4, Xbox One) are announced, which means it is designed as a cross generation game in mind. Which is why in terms of graphical fidelity, the game has to be able to run on last gen consoles with ten years old GPU and a meagre 512MB of RAM. So, what this means for current gen console is that for once we can experience rock solid 60fps gameplay at 1080p, which is a rarity for AAA titles even in 2015.

However, this game is in no way a compromise on the graphical side of the equation. In fact, this is actually one of the best looking (and best performing) current gen game on the market. I mean, just look at the time lapse video below and those beautiful screenshots.

 

 

This is a soldier scratching his arm after being shot with a tranquilizer dart.
Despite the huge map, small details on each individual soldier are never overlooked.

This is a Russian 4x4, just one of the many vehicles you can use to traverse the huge map in the game.

Musics

Musics and songs have always played a significant role in previous MGS games. This one is no exception, only this time, it has taken a more of a backseat role. Instead of beautiful music orchestrated and arranged to drive the player's experience (like the ladder section in Snake Eater), this time the music comes in the form of cassette tapes, which you as the player has to collect before you can listen to it on your Walkman.

The musics selection is varied and it comes in two categories, the first is the original soundtrack with scores from this game as well as the greatest hits from previous games in the series.

Category 1: The original soundtrack

Category 2: Classic pop song from the 1980s

The second is filled to the brim with classic pop songs from the 80's from Laura Brannigan's Gloria to Spandau Ballet's True to Midge Ure's The Man Who Sold The World, the list goes on and it is nothing but pure awesomeness.


Characters and Story

True to the MGS tradition, there are a lot of story.
Only now they come in radio drama form instead of cutscene.

The story in this game mostly comes in the form of very well acted radio drama that you can listen to on your Walkman. Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room, *cough* David Hayter *cough*. One of the most controversial issues about this game is the replacement of David Hayter with Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Big Boss.

Initially, I was a skeptic too, because Hayter's voice as Snake is arguably one of the most iconic voice in the video game industry, replacing him with the voice of Jack Bauer seems unnecessary at best and a terrible mismatch at worst, but playing this game convinced me otherwise. Through his voice, Sutherland manage to bring a certain maturity and groundedness to the character, which is very well suited for the 49 years old Snake in this game.

Throughout most of the game, Snake actually talks very little, and when he talks, he is usually the one asking question, effectively making him an extension of the player rather than an independent character of it's own.

Then we come to the supporting characters. It's actually kinda heartbreaking to see Kazuhira Miller (Robin Atkin Downes), previously the fun loving guy and the voice of reason in Peace Walker are now a jaded, paranoid skeptic, his judgement clouded by his thirst for revenge against Cipher. In a way, it is like losing a good friend.

The new voice of reason comes from Revolver Ocelot (Troy Baker), which is refreshing and weird as he is usually the over the top villain in the previous entries. But since this period with Diamond Dog is probably the only time period where he doesn't have to be a double agent or triple agent, he is finally free to be himself, so this personality is actually Ocelot's true personality.

The biggest surprise perhaps comes from Quiet, played by Dutch model Stefanie Joosten. Her character goes through a lot of controversy, being called too sexy, too exposed and whatnot. But once you get to know her backstory and see her ability as your Buddy, sexy would be the last word you would use to describe her. In fact, without being too spoilerish, let's just say that her character will definitely make you feel the phantom pain.


Conclusion

Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain is not a perfect game, far from it, with all the cut content (Episode 51) and a rushed Chapter 2 where you are forced to replay missions on a harder level to progress the story makes this the opposite of a completed game.

Ironically, it is exactly this sense of incompleteness that makes this otherwise terrific game a literal embodiment of it's title - phantom pain. The pain caused by the contents that is no longer there; story threads left open for the sequels that will no longer be possible, will no doubt haunts Metal Gear fans for a long time to come.

That being said - 10 out of 10.