I had a chance to play through the opening chapter to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain over the weekend, and I was absolutely floored. I don’t want to give anything away, but the game doesn’t pull any punches from the beginning. The player is almost immediately thrown into danger, and the game ensures that you understand how helpless you are at the start. You are weak with atrophied limbs, weaponless, pursued by multiple forces and forced to rely on a complete stranger for help. The opening serves as a testament to Kojima’s prowess in video game development. But what have the critics had to say?
Most praise has been favorable. Vince Ingenito, a reviewer for IGN, said “The Phantom Pain is the kind of game I thought would never exist- one where every minute gameplay detail has true purpose. Its lack of story focus is sure to be divisive for the Metal Gear faithful, but the resulting emphasis on my story, my tales of espionage action, easily make It my favorite in the series.” Forbes has an article on the game as well, saying that while fun, the game suffers from its open-world approach, creating a vast map that becomes more repetitive than anything. The sales have been phenomenal, with the game topping charts in both Japan and the U.K.
The Guardian emphasizes the game's customizability and the plethora of options for building your base, completing missions, and approaching the world. It hails it as the greatest stealth game to be released yet both for its flexibility in approach and its skillful employment in its resources. This is a game where every tool is viable and useful.
These reviews create an interesting picture of the game. There isn’t really any doubt at this point as to whether or not it’s good- it is. The question is how faithful it is to the series. Kojima has long been both celebrated and criticized for his overly cinematic approach to games: MGS4 has a 71-minute series of cutscenes, without interruption. That’s the length of a short movie, and it comes within a game full of player interaction. In The Phantom Pain, however, the infamous cutscenes have taken a backseat to the gameplay itself.
In a lot of ways to many longtime fans, this feels like selling out. At least to me, a fan of the series since I first picked up MGS2 on the recommendation of a friend, it does. This is a series that has poured so much heart and soul into its story that it feels like a betrayal to see the game put it aside in favor of the gameplay. But is it really? Metal Gear Solid has always interwoven meaning into the gameplay itself, and The Phantom Pain is no different. Players are given an open world. As some of the reviews have said, they are given the choice to create their own story. The Phantom Pain is their story, and whether they receive this departure for the norm for the series as positive or negative is up to them. However they see it, Metal Gear Solid V is the end of an era, and as Kojima has departed Konami, it is probably the end to the franchise. In it is the turning over of the series and it’s legacy to the fans who have played and celebrated it over the last thirty years.
