I'll have to admit that MGSV Phantom Pain was my first game that I've played in the MGS series. As a newcomer, this game blew me away.
I followed the advice of the friendly people on the /r/metalgearsolid subreddit and decided to check a few Youtube videos to familiarise myself with backstory. With that said, the game's story wasn't too hard to catch up on.
MGS, with all its flaws, has to be one of the games that I've played recently that was a lot of fun and challenging. I'm currently busy with my "second" playthrough, hoping to complete all the missions with the S-rank. When thats done, I'll be hoping to play for a third time in order to complete the optional objectives of each mission.
With that said, here goes my short review of the game...
Story
The game's story is not one to be understood by a person that is completely new to the series. If you haven't played the previous games, do yourself a favour and watch a couple videos on Youtube explaining the events that occurred up to Phantom Pain.
The game's storyline has a mixed theme of vengeance and mistrust with a lot of tense moments. The events in the game really acts as a piece of the "bigger picture" of the MGS series.
I will happily give Phantom Pain a 3/5 for its story. It has a few gaps here and there, but that is also likely due to the fact that the game is released as an incomplete product, as there are a few missions that wasn't included in the final version
Gameplay
The controls of the game aren't the same, yet not too different, from the controls of Call of Duty, for example. I did not find it hard to familiarise myself with it.
You get the ability to recruit your own private army, and within that army you divide its personnel within various divisions (Support, Intel, Research and Development, Base Development, Support) Your recruits come straight from the battlefield, either as volunteers or as captured enemies. The strength of each division unlocks new weapon, base and player upgrades. Intel, for example, assists you in the field by notifying you of enemy positions.
Other than the recruits that you have at your disposal, you also gain the assistance of buddies. I'm not going in too much detail here. Buddies directly assist you in the field, either as a means of transportation, locating enemies or even taking out enemy outposts.
The game has its currency of GMP, but also economic resources needed to develop and resupply weapons and gadgets.
The game awards you for approaching missions by using stealth, but you can also approach each mission with a full-on assault. The stealthy approach, however, takes a lot of time, you have to study your enemy's movement, assess possible points of entry and mark important targets and resources. You have the choice of either knocking out an enemy or killing him, knocking them out gives you the ability to fulton them back to your base, along with any vehicles, resources or weapons you may find.
The gameplay is vast and cannot actually be described in full detail. Just know that a lot of effort has been put into this and that it really shows. I give the gameplay aspect a 5/5
Graphics
Yeah, graphics, the center of attention.
Characters in cutscenes look very glossy sometimes, but are highly detailed. Explosions look and sound very real. The detail of a weapon is good.
I have to mention that Kojima always had an appeal for female characters with little in his games, so just a caveat.
Big Boss was also done very well, that piece of shrapnel in his head bothers me a bit, but hey that's the gaming world for you!
The cutscenes of the game really makes the game look like an animated movie very very close to a live-action one.
I'd give it a 5/5
Conclusion
As a first time player of Metal Gear Solid, Phantom Pain really blew me away. The gameplay was very detailed with a lot of focus on the little things like the enemy's reactionary measures to your play style. Graphics-wise, this game looks damn amazing, I have not seen a low-resolution texture once in this game, with the lighting also playing a huge role in various scenes and locations. The one thing that bothered me was the game's storyline for the fact that a substantial part of the story was never released, due to the drama that Konami had with Kojima, which led to his departure.
Other than the few flaws from the story, Metal Gear Solid The Phantom Pain was a tough competitor for its other titan of a rival, in the form of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
I'd give this game a strong 9/10 and strongly recommend anyone to play it!
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