Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - PlayStation 4

EDIT:MILD SPOILERS: Having now "finished" the game again (Mission 46), I'm adding another star for the full 5. Forty Hours in, Phantom Pain is still a blast. Should there be more crazy? Absolutely. Why is the game's extended finale so truncated? There are no real answers for us. For many, the "Truth" ending will spark some degree of confusion or even dissatisfaction. But for me, this totally fits the fuzzy logic we have all become accustomed to in Metal Gear. The single wish I had wasn't a continuation of the pursuit to Eli, but perhaps a flash forward to a final battle in Outer Heaven from Metal Gear. Let's say this is the PROPER finale to the story as presented.Nevertheless, Phantom Pain is killer. The game may not be quite as dense as Bloodborne, there's so much to do and it's almost always fun. Metal Gear Solid 3 had the story, Metal Gear Solid 4 had the crazy but Phantom Pain has the controls, the missions, the freedom and the Quiet. Onward to the Platinum Trophy.MASTERFUL.ORIGINAL REVIEW 4/5Metal Gear Solid games are the Lamborghini of video games: amazingly designed, deeply flawed, outlandish, impractical, hilarious fun and complete nuts. Episode V is most certainly a Metal Gear Solid game, but it feels more like a BMW. It's the ultimate driving machine, but just not all that interesting. The Phantom Pain may star Big Boss, but it's completely different than Snake Eater and, for better or worse, is essentially a far more complicated remake of Peace Walker, even down to the story "twist" which isn't that surprising.Peace Walker had tight controls, was full of stuff to do, but was also repetitive, thin on the narrative front and sometimes, just not much fun to keep playing. It's a divisive issue when Kojima fans are asked to rank their favorite MGS games. For myself, while I love the world, gameplay and challenge in Metal Gear, what draws me back most of all is just how crazy the games can be. Even if I am in the tiny minority, I really think Metal Gear Solid 4 is my favorite. Guns of the Patriots is, at it's heart, fan service. The game is a glorified rehash of earlier games and ends up as boss rush. That and it has 9 hours of cut-scenes. NINE HOURS. It is also tons of fun and utterly bonkers. The Phantom Pain is just about the complete opposite. Sure what little story is here is genuinely weird, sure the gameplay is tighter and easier to get into. Sure the ability to farm a private army to build weapons makes more sense than buying them from Drebin but there's something missing from this game.Let's get this straight, The Phantom Pain is fantastic. The controls are impeccable and helicopter drops to Bill Idol are priceless. Even after YouTubing the "Truth" ending - I love playing it on end. It took me 30 hours to clear the main story sequence for Chapter 1 and I can easily see 100 hours on the way to a Platinum trophy for MGS completionists. But after all these years of MGS, I have some core criticisms to levy:1. I read it on Forbes and the guy is right, MGSV is basically a Far Cry 3/4 riff. You take over bases and gather herbs and animals. Not a bad thing, but kinda disappointing and more than a little generic.2. Open, but not really an open world. The maps are large but you can't actually just go anywhere. Stupid you can't climb OVER mountain areas, you have to travel specific roads to arrive at your checkpoints.3. Brown. Lots of it. MGS4 was full of environmental variety, but with some exception, Phantom Pain pretty much sends you through the same type of scenery the whole way through.4. CQC options are woefully simplistic compared to MGS4. That's great for newcomers but it feels thin on the gameplay front.5. Story genuinely feels tacked on. I have delved into a lot of the recordings and the fact is, I'm not getting into it. MGS4 may have had hours of bizzaro crap, but i'll shakily raise my hand to admit I loved all of them. Even Drebin's lectures, which made no sense.6. Boss battles. These are pretty much depreciated. The ones you encounter are still good, but I'm just not going to remember them like my epic no lethals against Boss or The End in Snake Eater. Or waiting out Crying Wolf and sniping Mantis in MGS4.The criticisms I have for the earlier games are as follows.Sons of Liberty. Controls sucked and I hated Raiden. There I said it.Snake eater encounter areas were basically small rooms with plants painted on invisible walls.MGS 4 had some complicated controls. The frame rate was often poor. Patrol Zone follow mission sucks. Also, it's still hilarious and stupid you are forced to watch Snake smoke while the game loads every act.Peace Walker: You gotta have team mates for some sections and by god, the game gets boring fast.On a pure Gameplay front, Phantom Pain is the best one. Unquestionably. But Metal Gear games are more than that. Not that I have rose-colored glasses. Sure the earlier games had their problems, some quite annoying, awful even, but as smooth as Phantom Pain plays, it's also quite uninteresting in comparison and unfortunately watered down and derivative for a Metal Gear Solid game. Metal Gear games could be quite inaccessible, but what makes them so good aren't just the puzzles, but how uniquely weird and crazy they were as a whole. Some of that is gone and so is the fun. Even if I can take down a helicopter to my own 80s soundtrack.

Hands down the best game of 2015 in almost everyway. This is Metal Gear set in an open world and it's executed almost perfectly. The gameplay of this game is staggeringly deep, and so much fun. I can't stress enough how much of a joy this is to play and how rewarding it is as well. It's also multidimensional. At its core is the best stealth mechanics in the genre IMO, but also it gives you options for treating it like an action games and going loud. Unlike many other stealth action games, this one doesn't leave you nearly helpless when trying to execute an all out assault.This is not only the best gameplay in the Metal Gear Solid series, but IMO the best gameplay in the stealth genre ever.One of the things that makes this game so great is the many tools that you can use to complete your mission. It allows for complex techniques and strategies that are easy to figure out but very rewarding when executed to perfection. Some of them involving your "buddies", which are companions that you can take on mission with you that provide various types of support that all have their merits, though Quiet is the best IMO. The boss fights also feel better than ever because they take place on such a scale that wasn't really possible before.Further more, there is TONS of content. It took me 107 hours just to complete the main story. Now, I did take my time, but this game is substantial, and I still have plenty left to do.It is also, one of the absolute best technical achievements on PS4 as well. It not only looks gorgeous, with some of the best lighting and effects on PS4, but it somehow manages to be native 1080p and 60 fps at the same time, WITH ZERO DROPS!!! That is something that has not been achieved on PS4, or at least not with a game of this massive scale. Because of this, the controls are incredibly tight and responsive which allows you to be connected to the game almost seemlesslythe hallmark of the Metal Gear Solid series is the story, and this one doesn't disappoint. It is as entertaining as it is intriguing with a familiar tale of espionage, corruption, and the threat of world domination but it is done so at a very interesting time in the series overall story arch.Another hallmark of the series is its characters, and this is another way MGS 5 shines. Returning characters are better than ever, you really learn more about them than in previous and the new characters are amazing. Especially Quiet, who has quickly become one of my favorite characters in the series.The way the game is presented is excellent although very different. Sadly, no more codec calls, but there is an extensive library of cassette tapes you are giving that basically replace the codec calls, and you can listen to them at basically any time.Cutscenes are definitely better than ever as well. Kojima is basically at his directing peak. He's never been better at presenting action packed cutscenes and it really shows. Voice acting is excellent, although the exclusion of David Hayter is mind bogglingly stupid, otherwise the voice acting is excellent, as is the soundtrack. Metal Gear Solid has always had great soundtracks and this is one of the best IMOThere are some negatives and some things that aren't really negatives but are just different. For one is the fact that its open world. This is part of the reason the game can take SO MUCH LONGER to complete than any other game in the series. If you know what you're doing, of course, you can speedrun missions in mere minutes, however, if you want to take your time and do things the right way on your first playthrough, it takes a lot of time. I think this is actually a positive, although I also did love the linearity of the previous games in the series.The biggest negatives are probably the story and the lack of David Hayter as Snake. Now, like I mentioned before, the story is EXCELLENT and entertaining, but, compared to the stories of MGS 1, 3, and 4, I think it's just not nearly as incredible as those are. It's still FAR better than the stories in most video games, and better than the story in Peace Walker, it's just not as mind blowing and memorable as MGS 1,3,or 4. Another issue of the story is that one major thread was left unfinished. I won't spoil it, but it seems like Konami forced Kojima to finish the game before it was done.David hayter is just too iconic of a voice to replace. I'm actually a big fan of Kiefer Sutherland, and a HUGE FAN of 24, but it wouldn't matter what actor they picked, you just can't replace David Hayter. No one sounds like him. HE IS SNAKE. Without his voice, it just doesn't feel like snake to me.But in the end, these negatives are COMPLETELY overshadowed by what an incredible game this is. I can't stress enough how good this game is, and how much better it is than any other game that has come out on PS4. Which says a lot because 2015 was an amazing year for games, and PS4 has got a lot of brilliant games so far, but MGS 5 frankly takes a steaming crap over all of them, and I wouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't get topped.

Just wow

Product arrived timely. Assistance always at hand to support with courtesy.

Perfecto para la gente que no tiene tanto tiempo para este tipo de hobbies... puedes solo prenderlo hacer una misión de 15 min y con esto des-estresarte un poco al desestabilizar una red terrorista!Puedes jugarlo de la manera que quieras tipo “Rambo” con armas poderosas, disparando y destruyendo todo a tu paso, o tipo “Stealth” como operación encubierta, escondiéndote entre las sombras terminando tu misión sin que nadie se entere que estuviste ahí, o hasta que ya es demasiado tarde para que los enemigos puedan responder de una manera efectiva.El mundo abierto te da muchas posibilidades, siendo que puedes incluso estar fuera de una misión y encontrarte con un pueblo o alguna patrulla de hostiles. También el que puedas modificar tus armas, vehículos, base y compañeros también te da muchas posibilidades de planificar tus estrategias de ataque, el tener compañeros NPCs que te ayuden en las misiones (el perro es mi favorito), es esencial para facilitarte algunas misiones que pudieran parecer imposibles de completar.Excelentes gráficos, muy buena "jugabilidad” en cuanto al control de tu personaje, mundo abierto que parece interminable, buena acción, enemigos con una inteligencia artificial sorprendente que efectivamente hacen que el juego te de un muy buen reto en cuento a dificultad.

I played through all past Metal Gear games except Peace walker (haven't finished them all), and I can say this is one, if not the best one, and a fitting tribute to the end of the game series.The pacing during the prologue mission is very slow, but just go with it as the game really picks it's pace during the first mission. The open world system offers a lot of freedom when it comes to mission (both side ops and main) playing order. Stealth is still an integral part of the game, however getting caught doesn't mean you have to restart the game; an arsenal of weapons, which you develop from your own privately run base of operations, allows you to go load and still finish the mission with a good rating.The controls are perfectly responsive and the graphics are beautiful with no frame rate issues whatsoever.Game length should be anywhere from 34 to a 100+ hours depending on play style.True to Kojima, the game has a lot of funny quirks in the mission types, the ways to complete a mission and some other elements which you'll enjoy even more if they weren't spoiled before playing the game.Fans of the series should definitely play it, while newcomers will still find a solid game with a lot of replay value.

Es mi primera vez jugando un MGS, mi hermano había jugado los de PS1 y yo lo veía... así que sabía un poco del mundo Snake. Ahora ya jugándolo solo yo, me gusto mucho mucho. Tarda un poco al empezar, entender la complejidad de los menús, el juego con tu compañero, sin embargo la curva de aprendizaje esta muy bien llevada. Tal vez el exceso sea el uso de audios para entender la historia (complicaciones Kojima). Ya una vez en el mundo MGS, ha sido un juego que he disfrutado montones y le he metido muchas horas. Lo volvería a jugar de cero.