Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom review

    Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a not-so-old entry into the video game library of Konami games, coming out in 2015. Which is still ten years ago and worthy of giving a retrospective toward. It is mostly famous for being the supposed end of the Metal Gear franchise, the source of Konami’s break with Hideo Kojima, and several questionable decisions related to the franchise’s end like the replacing of David Hayter with Kiefer Sutherland as well as overly sexualized depiction of its female companion, Quiet.

    The game takes place in the early 1980s with the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire conflict. It was preceded by the ultra-short game, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, which is included in Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience. For the sake of this review, I’m going to count that as part of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain since the games really should have been one continuous story except for corporate shenanigans.

    The premise for The Phantom Pain is the complete destruction of everything that Naked Snake AKA Big Boss achieved in Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. The mercenary army that Snake assembled is slaughtered, Mother Base headquarters is destroyed, his child soldier companion Chico is killed, and beautiful (but traitorous) friend Paz is used to blow up the helicopter that Snake is riding on. Naked Snake is left in a nine-year coma and wakes up with a piece of shrapnel stuck in his head among other permanent injuries. He doesn’t get long to recover, though, because the hospital he’s staying in is attacked by the black ops forces of XOF (Fox spelled backward).

    What follows is a lengthy story of the rechristened “Venom Snake” seeking his former companions to rebuild his mercenary company, re-christened Diamond Dogs, to get revenge on the rogue intelligence agency of Cipher (theoretically XOF’s bosses). They must disable and kidnap soldiers from Soviet and mercenary forces before convincing them to join their cause. They must also carry out numerous missions to build up their resources that take them up against the real-life atrocities of this time period. They also must deal with XOF’s access to genetically enhanced zombie-like super soldiers, Metal Gear bipedal tanks, and a weapon they claim will surpass nuclear weapons (though they have plenty of those too).

    What makes The Phantom Pain interesting to grimdark fans is that it is a much more serious take on the sometimes-goofy Metal Gear universe than previous entries. Multiple characters from the previous games are killed, often in horrific ways, while others are left maimed or a shadow of their former selves. Master Miller, who was Snake’s goofy supporter, is now a broken man with missing limbs that wants nothing more than to kill as many Cipher supporters as possible. The subject of child soldiers, imperialism, and pandemic response all come up in this story. There’s some goofy moments like in previous Metal Gear Solid entries but, for the most part, The Phantom Pain plays it all very straight.

    The first half of the game is extremely well done with the slow build-up to face Skull Face and his super-weapon well-done from beginning to end. The story is a bit minimalist, and we lack the usual collection of mini bosses but the Man on Fire, Floating Boy, and Quiet are all memorable characters. Skull Face seems, in part, inspired by Freddy Kruger and is a memorable antagonist despite his short time on-screen. The gameplay is also fantastic and makes every mission worth repeating until you get that coveted “S-Ranking.” If they’d ended the game after its final mission, “Sahelanthropus”, I would have given it a 10 out of 10.

    Unfortunately, the second half of the game sucks and feels like it was where Konami cut off Kojima’s funding. Most of the second half consists of NG+ style missions with extra requirements while only a handful meaningfully advance the story. There are some good moments like the revelations regarding Huey Emmerich and the end to Quiet’s story but, infamously, Eli’s (Liquid Snake’s) story is just left unfinished with his final mission never completed. It’s a massive let down after so much build-up. Another flaw is the fact that the game’s story is primarily in cassette recordings that require a lot of sitting around and listening to.

    The game is gorgeous and there’s an endless amount of fun to be had sneaking up behind people, tranquilizing them, and then sending them up through balloons to be brainwashed into your followers. The game is hard but not overly so with Snake able to absorb more punishment than any human being other than the Master Chief but not so much that three people shooting him won’t put him down. I love D-Dog, D-Horse, and Quiet with each bringing something new when you bring them along missions. I also think the game has a fantastic soundtrack with “She Blinded Me With Science”, “Maneater”, “The Final Countdown”, and other classic tunes.

    However, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the fact that the game’s biggest twist is a controversial one. Without getting into it, a lot of fans felt that it renders most of the game’s character development for its lead pointless. For me, I didn’t mind it but The Phantom Pain is also a story about how legends are lies. Given that misinformation and propaganda are running themes in the franchise, I give it a pass, but others are still furious about it a decade later.

    Do I recommend the game? Yes. But once you complete the main campaign, I suggest doing the remaining story missions and nothing else. The Phantom Pain is a game that clearly exceeded its ambitions.

     9/10

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