Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Platform: PS4
Duration: 68 Hours
(SPOILER FREE, as I would never take the joy of experiencing this game away from anyone)
Let me paint you a picture.
This is a game where I was able to do something as stupid as this:
https://www.facebook.com/trevor.page.90/videos/1128693890493326/
...and then turn around and bawl like a child 10 hours later and one of the saddest things I have ever seen.
A game where I can literally suck a donkey through a wormhole...
...and be absolutely terrified and on the edge of my seat as the world crashes down around me during the same play session.
This game is beautiful. Not in the visual sense (though it is a beauty in that department) but in the sense that it gives me great pleasure to see, hear, think about, and experience. This is what I hope for every time I launch a title, the thing that drives me to be a part of this industry. Let me come right out and say it. This is the best game I played all year, and is one of my top five games of all time.
I have played dozens of games this year which have felt somehow incomplete to me. Games that could have used more time to really refine and close the loop on some systems, or maybe clean up the UI just a tad (or at all, Fallout 4). Metal Gear felt FINISHED. Complete. Polished to a level I have scarcely seen. Everything you did in this game had a purpose and resulted in an increase in player power or was just plain fun. It presented a world where every situation was a puzzle and it was up to me to figure out the correct tool for the job. If I failed, I knew it was my fault and I just had to approach the scenario a different way. I learned from every mistake, every incorrect loadout, every triggered alarm. I got better because the game challenged me to do so without ever feeling unfair.
Success felt wonderful, and was incredibly rewarding. I still don't know how they managed to pull off providing such an amazing sense of increasing your player power while making sure I never felt overpowered. The game was just as balanced if I tried to complete Mission 2 after only a few hours of play as it was if I did side quests for 40 hours before starting it, yet in both scenarios I felt powerful in different ways. I can look back at the start of the game and think "Man, I am a badass." and have that same thought loading up my save now. Every system in this game feeds into a perfect progression loop, hell even the goddamn MAIN THEME of the game has different meanings depending on how far through the story you are.
Through the gameplay and your management of Mother Base, I essentially felt like I had created my own world. This was MY base. These were MY recruits. MY Snake was silent and brutal. MY helicopter played MY theme when I deployed. The whole game felt personal, which I think just served to pull me in even deeper to this experience.
Speaking of pulling me in, the story was incredibly satisfying to me, hitting some great highs and some incredibly saddening lows. I don't think I have ever experienced a game that tied the story in so well to game systems either. Sure some games may unlock new systems after progressing, but Metal Gear intertwines them so much that they never feel separate. I wish I could go into detail, but explaining it any more would give things away. Gameplay was not sacrificed for story, and story was not sacrificed for gameplay. They were both part of the same whole.
Look, if you're reading this you probably know me pretty well. I am a hard person to please with games and I really don't like riding hype trains. This is genuine, unbiased respect and admiration for the game. If it was shit, I would call it out, and being popular wouldn't save it (just wait for the Fallout 4 post.) If you have a love for games, you need to play this. It's that simple.
After beating this game, I felt a number of things. Pride in myself for finishing the journey. Satisfaction with what the last moments presented. But more than anything, I was sad. Like, REALLY sad, because I knew this was the end and I wouldn't get to experience anything like this again. I will miss Metal Gear terribly, but even through the sadness I was glad I went along for the ride.
Thank you, Snake.
https://gifsound.com/?gif=i.imgur.com/yUlM6WD.jpg&v=QiPon8lr48U&s=161
(SPOILER FREE, as I would never take the joy of experiencing this game away from anyone)
Let me paint you a picture.
This is a game where I was able to do something as stupid as this:
https://www.facebook.com/trevor.page.90/videos/1128693890493326/
...and then turn around and bawl like a child 10 hours later and one of the saddest things I have ever seen.
A game where I can literally suck a donkey through a wormhole...
This game is beautiful. Not in the visual sense (though it is a beauty in that department) but in the sense that it gives me great pleasure to see, hear, think about, and experience. This is what I hope for every time I launch a title, the thing that drives me to be a part of this industry. Let me come right out and say it. This is the best game I played all year, and is one of my top five games of all time.
I have played dozens of games this year which have felt somehow incomplete to me. Games that could have used more time to really refine and close the loop on some systems, or maybe clean up the UI just a tad (or at all, Fallout 4). Metal Gear felt FINISHED. Complete. Polished to a level I have scarcely seen. Everything you did in this game had a purpose and resulted in an increase in player power or was just plain fun. It presented a world where every situation was a puzzle and it was up to me to figure out the correct tool for the job. If I failed, I knew it was my fault and I just had to approach the scenario a different way. I learned from every mistake, every incorrect loadout, every triggered alarm. I got better because the game challenged me to do so without ever feeling unfair.
Success felt wonderful, and was incredibly rewarding. I still don't know how they managed to pull off providing such an amazing sense of increasing your player power while making sure I never felt overpowered. The game was just as balanced if I tried to complete Mission 2 after only a few hours of play as it was if I did side quests for 40 hours before starting it, yet in both scenarios I felt powerful in different ways. I can look back at the start of the game and think "Man, I am a badass." and have that same thought loading up my save now. Every system in this game feeds into a perfect progression loop, hell even the goddamn MAIN THEME of the game has different meanings depending on how far through the story you are.
Through the gameplay and your management of Mother Base, I essentially felt like I had created my own world. This was MY base. These were MY recruits. MY Snake was silent and brutal. MY helicopter played MY theme when I deployed. The whole game felt personal, which I think just served to pull me in even deeper to this experience.
Speaking of pulling me in, the story was incredibly satisfying to me, hitting some great highs and some incredibly saddening lows. I don't think I have ever experienced a game that tied the story in so well to game systems either. Sure some games may unlock new systems after progressing, but Metal Gear intertwines them so much that they never feel separate. I wish I could go into detail, but explaining it any more would give things away. Gameplay was not sacrificed for story, and story was not sacrificed for gameplay. They were both part of the same whole.
Look, if you're reading this you probably know me pretty well. I am a hard person to please with games and I really don't like riding hype trains. This is genuine, unbiased respect and admiration for the game. If it was shit, I would call it out, and being popular wouldn't save it (just wait for the Fallout 4 post.) If you have a love for games, you need to play this. It's that simple.
After beating this game, I felt a number of things. Pride in myself for finishing the journey. Satisfaction with what the last moments presented. But more than anything, I was sad. Like, REALLY sad, because I knew this was the end and I wouldn't get to experience anything like this again. I will miss Metal Gear terribly, but even through the sadness I was glad I went along for the ride.
Thank you, Snake.
https://gifsound.com/?gif=i.imgur.com/yUlM6WD.jpg&v=QiPon8lr48U&s=161
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