Earlier I posted an in-progress review of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, lauding it as an impeccable triumph of the stealth-action genre and a great final entry to the Metal Gear series. Having now completed the game, I feel as though I should talk about the latter half of the game, and where I thought a serious dip in the development quality occurred - and why.
I will be discussing the plot of the game and revealing details of the locales encountered later on. If you do not wish for these details to be spoiled, please refrain from reading this article until you have finished MGS V.
****SPOILER CONTENT AHEAD
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Despite my misgivings with the last half of the game, I still believe the gameplay is the best in the series and among the best of all stealth-action games ever released. In fact, if you don't give two shakes about the pacing or story of your games, you'll probably be able to ignore the problems that arise in the game's narrative and pacing. I was still able to achieve my own personal metric of game worthiness, the one-dollar-per-hour baseline. I had a ton of fun going back and S-ranking missions, and approaching the game with a multitude of different tactics and self-imposed rules, from a Red Dead Redemption-esque horseback run, to a "loud stealth" run.
Kojima's falling-out with Konami had a pretty devastating effect on Metal Gear Solid V, from a plot and pacing point of view. The game is, in its current form, divided into two acts. The first act is very engaging and the plot moves in a sensible fashion. This is Kojima working his magic, unrestricted, and delivering a great experience that sees you performing missions across Afghanistan and Central Africa, all with the goal of getting one step closer to vengeance against Cipher, and the mysterious character Skullface. Every mission brings you to a new place in the world.
Act two, however, is a completely different story. You go on a a series of missions that don't seem to have any real sense of advancing the plot, wherein Snake and Diamond Dogs perform a bunch of strange missions with a humanitarian bent, or you simply do a boring "eliminate this random guy" or "rescue this prisoner" missions - and what's more, they're in locations you've already been to. It just feels like cheap filler and leaves with a sense that the game is just beating around the bush for 20 missions. I started to get irritated that I couldn't seem to advance towards any sort of resolution for a long time.
There was one part of the game which came just shy of being an actual, amazing moment of storytelling and a turning point for the series as a whole. Late in the game, during a mission called Shining Lights, Even in Death, Big Boss is investigating a quarantined area during an outbreak of a deadly vocal parasite on Mother Base. All of your soldiers are infected, however, and are doomed to die. You have to put them out of their misery. Some of them accept their fate. Some of them lose it and try to desperately shoot you. You watch as the game deducts you points for having your soldiers die, many of which probably helped you in the field in some way. Finally, the climactic moment was when I came upon a room full of infected soldiers. They all know they're going to die, and face you in a wavering salute. "We live and die by your command, Boss," they told me. I gunned them down with tears streaming down my face. I felt like a monster. I had to stop playing for a while.
The whole time, Huey Emmerich, the cowardly father of Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, is yelling at you, telling you what a horrible person you are and blaming you for this situation. This, I thought, was the moment where Snake turns from legendary war hero to hated villain. It was all leading up to this - the devil-like imagery of his shrapnel horn, the teaser promo images of him with blood on his face, the "Kaz, I'm already a demon" memes, this was it.
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| Look at me! I'm a tragic anti-hero! Descent into madness! Plot! |
Except, it wasn't even your fucking fault. It was that bastard Huey's. Not only that, but Big Boss doesn't even do anything villainous. He kicks Huey off of Mother Base, then he cremates the soldiers and forges diamonds out of their ashes in a beautifully symbolic gesture - but not one that someone who would later become the villain of MGS 1 would do. It doesn't really make sense.
As if this weren't badly executed enough, guess what. You're not even Big Boss. The whole time, you are playing as the medic from Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, surgically modified to look like Big Boss, while he goes into hiding and you carry on his legacy. It cheapens the effect and removes any real explanation of just what made Big Boss turn bad after or during the events of MGS V.
There are even more giant cliffhangers at the end of the story, however these are most likely due to funding issues arising from the conflict between Kojima and Konami. During his time on Mother Base, Huey reconstructs Sahelanthropus, a giant bipedal mecha. Eli, who is heavily implied to grow up to be Liquid (I'm probably just dumb and that really is the case), steals it and runs off, along with what looks like a younger Psycho Mantis. You are shown teaser footage of this happening and it is implied you will get to see the aftermath. All signs point to there being an Act 3. However, it just doesn't happen. It got cut. I can't really blame Kojima here, but that still doesn't really excuse the gaping hole it leaves unanswered.
Despite all this, I really do insist that MGS V is still one of my favorite games in the series, albeit from a mostly gameplay standpoint - I just can't dislike a game with mechanics this good. The cassette tapes deliver great classic MGS moments of chilling story and quirky humor, but the real meat of the game is in unparalleled freedom of approach to solving problems. I'm big on gameplay, so I can excuse the flaws of the rushed and mangled story. It's not all just because of a shaky foundation - I'm sure the truly completed game would have answered more questions.
Hopefully this hasn't discouraged anyone or prevented them from playing the game. I just didn't want it to be left unsaid in my overall review of MGS V, since this can ruin a game for many people.
As always, thanks for reading. Please leave feedback if you wish, and happy gaming!
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