Eric Welch
Staff Writer/Cartoonist
“Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” is the latest installment to the Metal Gear franchise and features stunning visuals, creative gameplay, and a twist ending that shook the gaming world.
To say “The Phantom Pain” is anything short of a visual masterpiece would be an understatement. The characters, environments, weapons, and animals have been supremely detailed to the point where you could count the freckles on a character’s face or see individual strands of an animal’s fur.
The core gameplay of stealth infiltration, which is a staple for the series, is still present but is more flexible than previous titles. This is because players are encouraged to find their own way of completing missions at their own pace.
A common mission objective is to rescue a hostage from a certain location, but the game doesn’t force you down a single “correct” path. Meaning that one player could choose to escape a situation quietly, or by using brute force, making each playthrough potentially different.
There are also several references to other titles in the series, which long time fans will enjoy, but may pass over the heads of newcomers to the series.
In contrast to the series’s fourth installment, “Metal Gear Solid V,” doesn’t feature many long cutscenes and has periods of gameplay where there isn’t much going on
The story is a revenge tale about mercenary leader Big Boss who wakes up from a coma nine years after the destruction of his military base. After his recovery, Boss makes it his mission to find out who destroyed the base and why, no matter what the cost.
Big Boss’s thirst for revenge is motivated by a ‘phantom pain,’ an internal pain that lingers long after a recent injury or incident, allowing players to see him turn to a much darker side of himself.
“It is important for me to explain to the players how this hero became an evil to the entire world. That’s why it needed to become a very dramatic story,” Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid V director, said in an interview with SpazioGames.
The game tackles big issues such as the morality of child soldiers, nuclear deterrents, and the subjective nature of truth. However, the story is occasionally offset by light hearted moments, such as characters playing with water, and a character on a quest to make the ultimate hamburger.
The story and lore of the Metal Gear series has always been known for being convoluted, but this time Konami, the company that owns the ‘Metal Gear’ franchise, admits to cutting a 51st mission from the final product.
An article on GamingBolt.com reveals some evidence found in the games files of a third chapter being removed from the game including a chapter three title card and unused character textures.
Overall, I found “Metal Gear Solid V” to be an amazingly fun game that earns its place in the franchise. It provides hours of entertaining gameplay, and the story kept me guessing all the way through. I recommend it for anyone who is a fan of the previous games.
