Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Reviews
It's the final Kojima-led Metal Gear Solid game, and while the story falls apart, the gameplay is surprisingly enjoyable. It's worth checking out just for that gameplay experience.
Overall, the release proves to be a fitting, brutally brilliant finale to Hideo Kojima's beloved saga.
The Phantom Pain, the final Metal Gear game from Hideo Kojima, is one of the best stealth games ever conceived. The story doesn't match the usual excellent Metal Gear Solid standard, but the game's interlocking pieces are exquisite.
[This is] a game I admire yet refuse to sugarcoat because of its deep flaws. There's no question it's visually and aurally excellent with its balanced performance and graphics, confident aesthetics, persistent sound effects, and phenomenal score. It may also feel perfect to play, but the seams fall apart when examining the lack of objective diversity, bosses, and standout moments that rarely raise the execution of gameplay to creative or clever lengths. [...] That sounds damning, doesn't it? Yet I can't help but highly recommend this game because I had a blast with it.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain requires some investment. This is not a game that is easy to pick up and play for just a few minutes. Players will find themselves sinking many hours into this game even though the story does fall short of what fans were expecting.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a forgettable and shallow Metal Gear experience, and fans expecting this to be on par with any of the previous mainline releases will be disappointed, and, quite possibly, drop the game altogether before the lacklustre story decides to show up. It looks and plays fantastic, and the freedom to apply weapons and items to effective strategic use is second to none, but after hours of similar, tiring missions, with no incentive to drive forward or even return to once it's all done and dusted, it can't help but be wondered how on earth this turned out the way it did. This is no phantom pain, it's a physical one.
Does this impact our verdict on Metal Gear Solid 5 overall? Not really.
The game provided us with a unique experience.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Whether you are a fan of the saga or a newcomer, this is a game you must play, it completely redefines military tactics and espionaje games. This is a game that will give you around 100-150 hours of gameplay. We can only imagine how much greater this game would've been had Konami allowed Kojima to fully realize his vision. This would definitely be a 10 where not for this issues.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Metal Gear Solid V is riddled with flaws - the story makes no sense and is paced woefully inconsistently, the menu systems could be a lot more intuitive, and as previously mentioned, its treatment of women could stand to improve (sigh). But damn it, the core stealth mechanics and sense of progression are so strong, it's compulsive playing.
It’s a vast game that, some backtracking aside, could engross you with fresh ideas for dozens upon dozens of hours.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's deep, open-world stealth and troop management, fun music, and excellent combat add up to an absorbing, stunning experience, despite some significant flaws.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain offers an excellent gameplay and presentation package, and if not for a few weakness, it could have been one of the all-time bests. Instead, it's just really, really good.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a gameplay triumph, that's for sure. Kojima managed to marry the stealth/action elements of MGS with the open world setting in a way that no one could have predicted. While not perfect, this is a masterpiece that everyone should enjoy; let's just hope it's not the last we'll see of Snake.
Luckily, the package as a whole is satisfying enough to overlook most of its flaws. The only one that came up to bother me time and time again is that the story is very weak in comparison to the rest of the series, and oddly enough given the wide-open gameplay, it's very linear. There's no weird questions, or whodunits when it's over, it's all spelled out for you and that's just not how Metal Gear is supposed to be. However, with Kojima's track record of innovation and tenacity, regardless of any announcement that he's no longer involved with the series, I believe he'll make sure that the legacy of the Metal Gear series lives on in some form or another. Even though Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain wraps up the saga of Big Boss, I feel we've only just begun...
If you're a MGS purist, buy it on sale. If you're simply looking for an engaging stealth/action experience, you'd be doing yourself a major disservice if you steered clear of The Phantom Pain.
It's been a long wait for the latest Metal Gear Solid instalment, but wait no more. Sadly this seems to be the last masterpiece of the beloved franchise created by Hideo Kojima; thankfully however it's going out with a bang! Or a silent "pop" if you take the stealth approach, the choice is yours.
With The Phantom Pain, Metal Gear has had its arm removed and replaced with something technically far more impressive.
Hideo Kojima did it again. The Phantom Pain is an unique experience, full of superb details that you'll keep discovering even after sixty hours. Great narrative complemented by a tailor-made graphic design will fully satisfy you and you won't feel that the developers are forcing you to do illogical tasks.
Review in Slovak | Read full review