Some later missions are ridiculously hard (yet *almost* always fair), and I restarted several 20-30 times. However, it's no accident you're incentivized to bond with Quiet, and you'll be ultimately thankful. Your sniper buddy Quiet is perhaps too powerful in the game's latter stages, so you're 'forced' to use her spending missions sprinting comically across the Afghan plains rather than using D-Horse. Few games force you to rethink scenarios and events so fervently, or fantasize about how you'd tackle them with better kit. MGS5, deliberately, puts you through mental anguish, allowing you to pass missions with, say, four of seven objectives complete – a hardcore player's nightmare – but this is failure as strength. I spent nights dreaming about slow-motion Reflex takedowns and days mulling fresh tactics for an evil cargo extraction mission. Thomas Hardy's acclaimed study of a man in turmoil, The Mayor of Casterbridge, bears some parallels, but doesn't let you knock out a bear with rubber bullets and extract him on a balloon to live In your mobile zoo.Īt times, the tacit, self-imposed, pressure to finish missions properly can feel overwhelming, and the game haunts your thoughts. This is a powerful philosophical work which merits comparison to literary greats. It sounds intense, but it's rarely intrusive.

There are no 20 minute cut-scenes about the role of The Patriots in 20th century history like in MGS4, but MGS5's events offer astute, sometimes profound, commentary on race, religion, societal systems, the nature of communication, legacy and the dangers of obsession. (Mild spoiler) MGS5 takes this game-system-as-theme metaphorical context a step further, with devastating impact (Spoiler ends). However, if you hadn't seen MGS2's ending, you'd be forgiven for criticizing hero Raiden as unrealistically naive – without realizing the character's importance to MGS2's deliberately formulaic, and highly meta, structure. If anything, hardcore fans might be a touch disappointed with the brevity of cut-scenes, and the core plot is slightly vanilla for those weaned on the meta-concepts of the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo. At least, that's Kojima 'simple' but… hey, that's for another article. From the intro's opening seconds, you're funneled to learn the controls, and your motivations are clear: it's a revenge tale, pure and simple. You don't even need to know the plot of Ground Zeroes, and the game recaps it for you anyway.

MGS5 is full of nods to the series' lore, but all the hardcore, fan-prodding, plot nuances are hidden in the optional cassette tapes to be listened to as you roam the battlefield.

If you've struggled with previous MGS games, this is the most intuitive, self-contained entry yet.

Buy metal gear solid v the phantom pain