Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, In this Action-Adventure game where they mixes up stealth and open world done right, you play as one of the iconic protagonists, Venom Snake in a fictional setting 1984 in a multiple regions, where you recon for a mission, recruiting person, and managing your mother base. In this 2015 Games from Konami, Killing enemies in silent in the third perspective is fun, without further ado
Stealth has never felt as satisfying as in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, an open-world stealth action game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami. Set in a fictional 1984 timeline during the Cold War, the game follows Venom Snake, a hardened mercenary who runs his private military force. Played from a third-person perspective, MGS V drops players into vast, war-torn landscapes in Afghanistan and Central Africa, where they’ll engage in tactical espionage, mercenary recruiting, and going against an evil force. Its initial release in 2015 on PC and 7th to 8th gen consoles, remains one of the more solid lineups among the Metal Gear Solid series.
Side Activities
In a nutshell, Metal Gear Solid V offers enough amounts of side activities besides the Main Story's objectives. Some of it are deep mechanics, and some of it is just accessories stuffed into the game. First, the side mission in the game, there is a lot of it and it has a wide range of mission types from hunting majestic animals, extracting prisoners, and doing target practice, to eliminating heavy armor soldiers and tanks, Some of these side missions are funny, difficult, and engaging and few of them are even unique and quirky. For example, you will fight a bear and you will have a Not-so-surprising Cameo appearance when on one of the prisoner's extractions. However, towards the end of the game, it became repetitive and felt like more of a chore.
This conflict-flooded world has just enough side activities besides the Main Story’s objectives to satisfy your hunger for things to do, with some activities being deep, well-thought-out mechanics, while others feel more like tedious little extras. First, the game throws a huge variety of side missions at you, from extracting prisoners and hunting rare animals to eliminating heavy armored soldiers, tanks and even doing some good old-fashioned target practice. Some of these missions are hilarious, some are tough, and a few are just plain weird (like, yes, you do have to fight a bear). There’s even a not-so-surprising cameo during one of the prisoner extractions. But as fun as these side quests can be, by the end of the game, they start feeling a bit repetitive, more like a checklist than an adventure.
Next, there’s a thing called Resource and you will need to gather it, a lot of it. So resource gathering will be the other activities that take up your time, and doing so is also quite fun and you can do it along with side or main missions. The resources are things like fuel or medicinal plants which is pretty straightforward and simple to do, then there’s soldier resources, you collect them by Fulton-ing people in the air which is one of the iconic mechanics of this game. All of this also integrates well into the development of the motherbase.
Another big part of the game is gathering resources, and trust me, you’ll need a lot of them. Luckily, collecting them is pretty fun and can be done alongside your main or side missions. You’ll be picking up things like fuel, medicinal plants, and other supplies, which is all pretty straightforward. But then there’s the real highlight, recruiting soldiers by Fulton-ing them into the air with a balloon, which is easily one of the most iconic (and hilarious) mechanics in the game. Also, note that these soldiers also have their own stats, with limited amount of fultons per deployment, you’re gonna have to carefully handpick your soldiers yourself. The best part? All of this ties back into upgrading and expanding your Mother Base, making it feel like your hard work is actually paying off.
If you have not played this game you might ask “What is the mother base?” well you are the leader of a private military company and you have to manage the mother base, which if you want to upgrade it to the highest level you will require a high amount of GMP, which is the money currency of the game and also resources that you gather. You will need good time management because when we upgrade our motherbases it will take real time to finish. There are also FOB Missions which are basically time-sensitive lists of missions that just deploy your soldiers to certain tasks to get more GMP and resources without you doing anything . . . . . only waiting. Lastly, you can micro-manage your staff in each department if you want. It can be fun as you can see and choose their skills.
If you haven’t played Metal Gear Solid V, you might be wondering, “What the heck is Mother Base?” Well, it’s your private military HQ, and as the boss, it’s up to you to manage and upgrade it. To max it out, you’ll need a ton of GMP (the game’s currency) and plenty of gathered resources. Upgrading takes real-time to complete, so managing your time wisely is key. There are also Combat deployment missions, which are basically set-it-and-forget-it tasks where you deploy soldiers to earn more GMP and resources, no effort required, just a bit of waiting. But, pick these quick because they are time sensitive missions with expiry periods. Or if you’re into micromanagement, you can even assign staff to different departments in the motherbase based on their skills, which can actually be pretty fun if you like optimizing everything.
Like any other game, It has the usual barebones collectibles like tapes and posters. There’s not much of a deeper meaning behind it. It’s just another thing to keep you busy if you care about it which unless you are a completionist, you won’t bother.
Like most games, Metal Gear Solid V has its basic collectibles, which are things like tapes and posters. There’s no deep meaning behind them, they’re just there if you feel like hunting them down. Unless you’re a completionist, though, you probably won’t give them much thought.
Though, the side activities here are not wow or anything, it still has a good amount of activities to choose from and keep you wandering off from the main missions. It closes but it’s passed. GREEN
The side activities here aren’t exactly mind-blowing, but there’s still a decent variety to keep you distracted from the main story. There’s just enough to keep you busy for a while, barely passing this aspect.
Area Freedom
When it comes to area of freedom, Metal Gear Solid V keeps things pretty simple. There are three main areas: Mother Base, Afghanistan, and later on, Africa. You can easily travel between them whenever you want. The world is still split into 3 regions, though, so the world can feel a bit segmented since each area are clearly separate and doesn’t connect with the others.
What we mean by this is that traveling between areas isn’t as simple as just walking to the edge of the map and jumping to another location. Instead, you have to call in a helicopter, one that you don’t even control, and wait for them to pick you up. It feels a bit like a fancy long loading screen just to transition between regions, which kind of breaks the immersion and takes away from the smooth seamless feeling of traveling.
The good news is that each map is a huge, open world space that gives you freedom to roam wherever you want and do whatever you feel like doing. However, the downside is that the game does have a few invisible walls, from soft invisible walls at the edge of the map, to not being able to climb over a hill. Then, you also can’t go through a thick forest in the comfort of your vehicle, which leaves you with either going by foot through it or find a way around it.
With this kind of world's structure, you might feel the world is segmented and too separate without an effort of seamlessness, but it’s still open nonetheless. (Yellow)
With this kind of world design, it might feel a bit segmented and disconnected than it should, partially passing this aspect.
Liveliness
The world that MGS V recreated is very realistic and vibrant, from the desert of Afghanistan to swampy forest of Africa, and finally base located in the middle of the sea. They show their own characteristic but nothing stands out, you get the feeling of the same view when you travel within one region. With some epic and unique score accompanying across mission. And that is not always, sometimes you just have generic background music.
The world in MGS V is pretty realistic and full of variety, from the desert of Afghanistan to the swampy forests of Africa, and even a base out in the middle of the sea. Each area has its own vibe, but after a while, they start to feel a bit similar as you move within a region. The soundtrack in the MGS V take the more minimal approach with the game relying on ambient sounds to add stealth immersion. However, the game does feel empty with minimal amount of music to accompany your gameplay.
Onto the NPC, If you play the game, you will notice immediately that this aspect is perhaps the weakest aspect of the game, because it's just a barren desert and terrain. There's little wildlife here and there, and an occasional NPC solider in the motherbase, but that’s about it.
When it comes to NPCs, it’s pretty clear that this is one of the weakest parts of the game. The world feels empty, where its mostly just barren desert and terrain with only a few animals and the occasional soldier at Mother Base. All in all, there’s not much going on.
Other than that, there’s basically no NPCs in the open world. The only people you’ll run into are your enemies, who are mostly hanging around military bases, outposts, and villages. It’s kind of strange that even in a country full of military presence, there are no civilians wandering around the villages, just enemies. It feels a bit odd that there’s almost no sign of regular people.
As you travel around, you’ll notice there are only a few enemy vehicles scattered across the map, and if you head off-road, it’s pretty much nothing. There’s not much reason to drive from one point to another. Honestly, you’ll probably just drop in near your mission and take the helicopter to get around the map. It’s way faster and way more convenient.
Though it has few moments, A world filled only with very few NPC and enemies in a certain area. It makes the game very lonely. As a result, Metal Gear Solid V clearly failed in the liveliness aspect. RED
To sum it up, Metal Gear Solid V doesn’t really succeed in making the world feel alive.
Customizations
In contrast, the game shines on this aspect. It allows you to customize all of the tools and gear in the game. You will have a wide variety of weapons to choose from and develop, it doesn’t stop there, the weapons are branching with different enhancements and modifications, which makes them unique and have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, you can choose sniper with 1 shot kill but loud, or silent sniper but you don’t know it can be one shot or not, or the same weapon but with the choice of lethal or tranquilizer.
On the flip side, the game really shines when it comes to customization. You can tweak pretty much all your tools and gear. There’s a huge range of weapons to choose from and develop, each with its own set branches of enhancements and mods, making them unique with their own pros and cons. For example, you can pick a sniper that’s super loud but a one-shot kill, or a silent one where you’re not sure if it’ll be a one-shot. You can even choose to upgrade between lethal or tranquilizer versions of the same weapon.
The customizations also let you choose clothes or armor that is not only a cosmetic option to personalize your look but they also have their own stats to help you to have better stealth or better mobility. Not to mention, that is the case for Vehicles as well, they even have categories like cars and motorcycles to get you from point A to B, then you have tanks and armored vehicles if you want chaotic approach for your missions/side missions, and like any other gear, more options and the overpowered option will be more open up towards the end of the game.
The customization doesn’t stop at weapons, you can also choose clothes and armor that not only change your look but also boost your stats for better stealth or mobility. The same goes for vehicles! You’ve got everything from cars and motorcycles for smooth travel between points to tanks and armored vehicles if you’re in the mood for a more chaotic approach to your missions. And just like with your gear, more options, as well as more powerful ones, unlock as you get further into the game.
Moreover, whenever you are on a mission or open world, you will get a buddy that helps you throughout the game. which again, offers options and deep customizations for both functionality and cosmetics for each of the buddies, they range from a person buddy, or animal, to a robot. This option also helps you to approach the mission very differently.
On top of that, you’ll always have a buddy with you during missions or while exploring the open world. These buddies come with plenty of customization options, both for how they look and how they help you out. Whether it's a superhuman companion, an animal, or even a robot, each one lets you approach missions in a whole new way. For example, a horse helps you travel easier and faster. Others might help you in other ways, all of which you’ll find out in the later part of the game.
Overall, it’s obvious that the game gives you tons of freedom to personalize your character, letting you customize just about everything.
Engagement
The gameplay loop on its own could be categorized as repetitive at some point, you feel like that on the middle to end part of the game. However, the gear which means your weapons, clothes, and buddy really affects your gameplay and how you approach missions. What makes it even more engaging is that as you progress, the mission are getting harder but your gear is getting significantly better too. In a way, it evolved how you play and you will always end up wanting to develop new and better weapons. Starting from a normal handgun with a tranquilizer, in the late game the same gun can be upgraded to automatic, adding a silencer and overpowered scope. Though those upgrades sound insignificant to you, going from having a scope to no scope, helps you neutralize enemies with further distance, silencer of course, once you have it, it makes every mission easier, because you are going to be harder to notice when you fire the gun. Those weapons upgrades will only be available to develop when you have a lot of resources and fulfill the high-level requirements that are only achievable in the late game and basically playing it more. Because of that, the game will keep you engaged until the end.
The gameplay loop, completing story missions, doing side quests, gathering resources for Mother Base, and continuing the story, can start to feel repetitive, especially in the later parts of the game. But the cool part is that your gear, like weapons, clothes, and your buddy, really affects how you approach missions. What keeps it interesting is that as the missions get tougher, your gear gets way better too. It’s like the game evolves with you. You’ll always be itching to upgrade to newer, more powerful weapons. For example, you will have options from a basic handgun, but by the end, you can turn it into an automatic weapon with a silencer, tranquilizer, and an overpowered scope. These upgrades might sound small, but trust me, having a scope and a silencer makes a huge difference. You’ll be able to take out enemies from farther away, and the silencer will make missions a lot easier since you're harder to spot when you fire. These upgrades require a ton of resources and high-level requirements, which means they’re mostly unlocked in the late game. But that’s what keeps you hooked and invested all the way to the end.
In other words, MGS V passed the engagement aspect as well and was very good at doing so.GREEN
Uniqueness
Last but not least, Uniqueness. With lots of available games that especially feature stealth mechanics or gameplay. MGS V has one of the most rewarding feelings when you actually play stealth approach on the missions, thus making you want to be better and better in your stealth approach for later missions. Even sometimes it feels impossible to play the mission if you are not using the Stealth approach and just blasting through the enemies, which is going to be harder on itself or impossible, so it is discouraged to go on direct attack. On top of that, like the typical Japanese games, the fictional settings are unique and interesting where it is set in the 1980s but you have mechas running around, you dont hear that kind of setting often other than the games from Kojima himself. To top it off, you often have to beat those giant mechas with the limitations that you have as you are just a person with some weapon, which makes it very challenging. Finally, all of the above is mixed with an open-world mechanic, creating a unique experience from the gameplay and setting standpoint.
Last but definitely not least, let's talk about what makes MGS V stand out. In a sea of stealth games, MGS V really nails that rewarding feeling when you successfully pull off a stealth approach in a mission. It makes you want to keep improving your stealth game for those tougher missions later on. Honestly, sometimes it feels nearly impossible to get through a mission without sneaking around, going in guns blazing only makes things way harder or maybe impossible, so you're better off avoiding the direct attack. And, like most of Kojima's games, the setting is super unique and interesting. It's set in the '80s, but you’ll find mechs running around, which you don’t see often outside of his games. To make things even more challenging, you’ll sometimes have to face off against giant mechs with nothing but your human body and some weapons, which mind you, is definitely no easy feat. And, to top it all off, the game blends all of this with an open-world mechanic, giving you a totally unique experience and setting.
With all of the combinations mentioned above, MGS V is truly a unique and one-of-a-kind experience that gamers rarely get nowadays. GREEN
With everything we've mentioned, MGS V really stands out as a one-of-a-kind experience that you don’t see too often in games these days.
Verdict
MGS V really shines in a lot of areas, especially when it comes to customization, making you feel more connected to the protagonist. The unique blend of stealth and open-world gameplay in interesting settings keeps things fresh, and the game keeps you engaged all the way to the end. There’s also a decent amount of side activities to keep you busy. That said, it is still shadowed by its shortcomings. The game's world is DOES feel very empty and segmented at times. But overall, it's still a solid B tier in our books.
