Players become fully aware of how groundbreaking Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is about an hour and a half into the game. After sneaking their way through the prologue, which does a fantastic job of introducing the story and characters to the uninitiated, the player is assigned his first mission.
Once given the details of said mission, the player is set loose into the game world. That’s it, no detailed tutorials, holding his hand, or otherwise. The game gives players the freedom to handle the mission however they so chose. This freedom and open-ended structure are a testament to just how revolutionary Phantom Pain is for a game of it’s kind.
The Phantom Pain is a tactical espionage/action game, set during the later years of the Cold War. The story is one of revenge and salvation, as the player must hunt down the organization that destroyed his life and military superpower nine years ago, while also getting involved with the Russian conflict in Afghanistan and Africa.
Throughout the game, the player will have to sneak, steal, rescue and fight through copious amount of missions and side operations. Where the game shines the most is in it’s fluid gameplay and expansive open world.
Almost every mission is unscripted, meaning that the player can handle the operation in any manner he see fit. This gives the player a strong sense of freedom and control over the game, as every move is all on the player. It also helps that the enemy combatants take note of how the player deals with them, and will enact countermeasures to keep him on his toes. What’s more, the detailed day/night and weather cycles mean that there is a near-unlimited number of ways one could go about completing your task.
Phantom Pain employs a number innovative and exciting additives that were only briefly touched on in previous entries to the series. To aid the player in his quest for vengeance, one will need to amass an army of highly trained mercenaries and build an expansive home base from which to launch the player’s operations. This has the potential to add hundreds of hours of gameplay to the already lengthy title, as players can work to expand their base, and collect rare soldiers and resources to strengthen their cause.
What’s more, the player can use this added manpower to develop more powerful weapons, give him intel in the field, and even accompany him on missions. The Fulton system makes securing almost anything in the world a trivial task, as the player can air lift unconscious enemies, vehicles, resources, and even animals to bring back to the base and put to use.
The fluid controls, masterful gameplay and storytelling, and expansive and nonlinear open world in Phantom Pain all break boundaries in a genre littered with uncomfortable similarities and unengaging copycats.
This final entry in the prestigious Metal Gear franchise does well to wrap things up for long-time fans, while also drawing in newcomers with a fresh story and exciting characters, giving those who have never experienced the full story a taste of what it has become.
The 411
Game Title: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Release date: September 1st, 2015
Cost: $59.99
Rating: 5 out of 5