Metal Gear Solid V the Definitive Experience Review
Another vacation season is most upon us (yikes), which means it's time to practise that think we do and await back on concluding year'south biggest games. First up? Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - a game that has inspired much discussion in the year since its original release.
The timing works peculiarly well because Konami but announced their "Definitive Version," which will include Footing Zeroes and a scattering of DLC but not the much-desired Mission 51. According to Konami, Mission 51 was never intended to exist the game's actual catastrophe, all but killing any hope that it will somewhen find its way into a complete version. Naturally, plenty of fans are upset, merely it begs the question of whether Metal Gear Solid 5 needs Mission 51 to exist successful. Let'south discuss.
Annotation: Spoilers abound! Please keep that in mind every bit you read this piece.
What nosotros said at the time
From my review at the time: "The hardest thing virtually writing this review is that Metal Gear Solid V defies an actual score. I can point out the occasional bouts of repetition and filler, just in that location's no question that it is a masterfully executed game that will figure heavily into this year's Game of the Year discussions. Even at its virtually abrasive, when yous die deep in an enemy base and have to current of air all the manner through its defenses once more, it's undeniably absorbing. Information technology makes you want to try your best. If this is truly Hideo Kojima'south swan song, then it is a terrific end to a distinguished career. Something tells me he'due south not done, though. If The Phantom Pain is whatsoever indication, he still has a great deal to contribute to gaming. I look forrad to seeing what's next."
Metal Gear Solid V was ane of the crazier reviews I've ever done. Information technology involved flying downward to LA for a week and basically being locked in a room from 9am to midnight for 3 solid days. By the time I emerged babbling from Konami's sensory impecuniousness chamber, I was barely able to course a coherent idea, let alone a review. Thus, I opted to offset MGS V as a review-in-progress so I could become some altitude and spend some fourth dimension with the game in the comfort of my own home.
The game itself was vintage Kojima: bold, cheesy, smart, and often flatout crazy. At times it could be insanely frustrating - fighting a mass of powerful Skull commandos while trying to steal a truck, for instance - but the sandbox-like gameplay mixed extremely well with the refined stealth mechanics. Irritating as it could be, it was absorbing as hell, and one of the generation's most attractive games to boot. Oh, and information technology had D-Canis familiaris - the best dog.
In hindsight...
I see a lot of fans say, "Metal Gear Solid V was a fabled game, but non a corking entry in the Metal Gear Solid series." The main knock confronting it seems to be that its mission-based construction makes for a less coherent and interesting story. At a minimum, it's quite different from the Metal Gear Solid that we know and honey.
My own retention is of a game filled with effective story moments: The fight with the boy who would go Liquid Ocelot, the initial duel with Quiet, the virus that overtakes Female parent Base of operations and kills your favorite soldiers, the hospital scene reminiscent of Resident Evil 4. Mother Base of operations as well has plenty of effective moments of its own, encouraging y'all to explore and delve into various side-stories.
Of course, this existence a Metal Gear Solid game, the story is also completely bonkers. You have a lady who has to breathe through her skin, a virus that lays dormant until certain words are spoken, and a zombie burn monster. And at that place's the about controversial chemical element of all: The large retcon that establishes that the Big Boss nosotros know from the original Metal Gear is non the one introduced in Ophidian Eater - still the best game in the series.
Subsequently all this time, I'm all the same not sure how I feel near information technology. Kotaku'southward Jason Schreier made a pretty good statement for why it was a fleck of a messy copout. We think nosotros get to see Big Boss complete his development into the villain of the original Metallic Gear, and it'south not even really him. It doesn't exactly ruin the series - the Big Dominate nosotros make it Metallic Gear ii and beyond is very much a product of Peace Walker and its successors - but it serves to undo a lot of the buildup from the previous games.
But this is Metallic Gear, and the lore is so twisted and convoluted at this point that having two Big Bosses is pretty much par for the course (hell, there are at least three Snakes). Story aside, there'south so much virtually Metal Gear Solid V's gameplay that works. Just the act of riding around on your horse or meticulously plotting out a raid on a heavily-dedicated base is keen. It features a nice corporeality of weapons and companions, and it's refreshing in the way that information technology generally lets you have things at your own pace.
Alas, the online hasn't held upward quite besides. Metal Gear Online concluded upwardly being panned by critics and fans alike, and the Frontwards Operating Bases - platforms where two players could play a game of cat and mouse - ended upward feeling similar pointless distractions. Luckily, Metal Gear Solid V could exist enjoyed but fine with the online components turned off.
The content since release
As I mentioned above, Konami appear earlier this week that they are releasing Metallic Gear Solid 5: The Definitive Experience, which volition include MGS V, its prologue Footing Zeroes, Metal Gear Online, and the diverse DLC, most of which consists of weapons and costumes.
In that location is, nevertheless, an omission: The aforementioned Mission 51, which sets upward a confrontation with Eli and finishes laying the groundwork for the original Metallic Gear Solid. That mission was ultimately cutting from the original game, with merely concept fine art, narration, and one-half-finished cutscenes making it to the Collector'southward Edition. Metal Gear fans were upset by what they felt amounted to the game's finale being left on the cut room floor.
Unfortunately, at that place announced to be no electric current plans to restore this mission, making the "Definitive Edition" somewhat less... definitive. What might take been the version that every true Metal Gear Solid fan had to own is instead merely another Game of the Year Edition. And with Kojima at present long gone from Konami, Metallic Gear Solid Five seems destined to remain unfinished.
But on the other hand, it's not a crippling omission by any stretch of the imagination. In the unfinished scenes, the Diamond Dogs face up Eli and the Sahelanthropus i last fourth dimension on an infected isle, and Venom Ophidian ultimately spares Eli'due south life. These scenes, while interesting, ultimately don't add a huge corporeality to Eli's graphic symbol. His conflict with Venom Ophidian and Big Dominate is established and built up throughout the course of the main game, and the battle on the island brings with it little in the way of resolution. The final scene ends upwards roofing much the same ground as the one in the game - both of them ending with Liquid and Ocelot flying into the sunset.
Equally for the virus, it's honestly tough to care. It drives the activeness and serves every bit a metaphor for the sickness of war infecting Mother Base, but it has no impact on the rest of the serial. It serves its purpose without needing to be completely destroyed. For my coin, the game'south existent finale is the mission that takes Venom Snake into the bowels of Female parent Base and forces him to impale his ain infected soldiers one past one - a chilling but constructive sequence that features Metal Gear Solid at its cinematic best. That catastrophe, more than anything else, shows united states the Venom Ophidian that volition end upwardly taking control of Outer Heaven.
As for the missing Mission 51, its content is less important than what information technology represents. To many people, Metal Gear Solid V feels oddly unfinished in the style that it but sort of peters out, which is due in no small part to its strange pacing. Mission 51 might not have fixed that perception, but information technology might have helped. In that respect, not including it in the Definitive Edition is a missed opportunity.
Does it hold up?
Yes, I call back and then, even with the somewhat disappointing ending and strange pacing. It was a bold stroke for the serial - a risky and aggressive attempt to revitalize the cadre gameplay that had served the franchise so well. And you know? It worked. Metallic Gear Solid 5 was the first game in the serial where I actually felt like a badass super soldier and not a passive observer watching a movie.
It certainly has its flaws. In abandoning a linear format for a more than fragmented mission-based approach, the story is more disjointed than earlier, and there are long periods where not much happens. I'm fine with it - it's i of the sacrifices you make when you go for a less cinematic approach - only I tin can see how more traditional Metal Gear Solid fans might observe information technology frustrating. Information technology as well gets a tad repetitive in the style that it requires you to continually revisit its somewhat generic prisons and command posts.
On the flipside, it's an admittedly beautiful game with some of the most polished mechanics in the series, and its often insane narrative and artful choices stand out in a commercial environs where every other game is adamant to play information technology safe. And as I said earlier, it has moments that volition remain lodged in your retention for a long time to come.
Then if y'all haven't played it, now is as skilful a fourth dimension equally whatsoever. Would it have been better if Kojima had been given another 6 months or so to work on it? Peradventure. Is information technology still a great game? Absolutely. Go play it.
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Source: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/does-it-hold-up-metal-gear-solid-v-the-definitive-edition-and-the-missing-chapter
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