New addition to Metal Gear proves creator’s brilliance


With the latest release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Hideo Kojima ends his role as director and creator of the 28-year-old franchise. Having elevated the position of video games to a legitimate art form in the eyes of many, the series has sparked debate and has been used as a key piece of evidence that proves video games are a legitimate art form. The Phantom Pain is a true testament to Hideo Kojima’s brilliance and features the best gameplay to date out of the entire series.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain features gameplay on a scale that has never been attempted before with its open-world capabilities. Players will be dumbfounded at how much content is actually packed into this game. Playing as the character Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss, the player is tasked with rebuilding a base that was destroyed in the prologue, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and gaining enough resources and personnel to get revenge on those who destroyed it in the first place. To do this, the players must complete the main missions that advance the narrative and will ultimately wrap up the entire series. To make these missions easier, however, players are encouraged to do a number of side activities that can be accomplished at any time in the game. For instance, on a mission in which Snake has to rescue a prisoner, they can interrogate the enemy to make the prisoner’s whereabouts known. In order to do this, players need to have previously recruited a language interpreter who speaks the language of the enemy in that specific area. Doing so will let players understand what the enemy is saying, despite speaking a completely different language. This doesn’t have to be done and is completely up to players. Players are still able to search high and low for the prisoner, but being able to understand the enemy’s language will cut the time spent searching considerably.

This is just one example of how much freedom players are given in regard to how they approach a mission: Players can infiltrate at any time of day in the game thanks to a day-night cycle, creating an endless number of playing styles. The players can refer to the previous installments of the series and sneak their way through an entire mission without setting off an alarm or making contact with the enemy whatsoever. Or, in a departure from previous Metal Gear themes, players can go in guns blazing and kill anything that moves while still being able to complete the objective and not getting punished for it. Longtime fans will know that in the games before The Phantom Pain, stealth was key — getting spotted nearly meant game over and killing the enemy instead of taking a non-lethal option would come back to haunt the player later. Kojima wanted to make the game more accessible to players by not punishing them for being creative with how they chose to infiltrate, so setting off an alarm and racking up the body count is just as legitimate of a play-style as slipping in and out as if the player was never there. The Artificial Intelligence is the most intelligent it has ever been in a Metal Gear game, so the player must take many things into account before acting on their plan. Shooting everything isn’t always the best way to get things done, but it is an option.

The only punishment for killing enemies is losing the ability to recruit soldiers for players’ Mother Base. Throughout the game, players have the ability to build up their Mother Base with different platforms that aid the player in different ways. For example, the research and development staff will unlock more customizable weapons and gadgets for the player and allies to the player to use that will make missions considerably easier. If the player feels that a sniper is needed for an upcoming mission, they can have the R&D team develop it. R&D isn’t the only team on Mother Base, and the player will undoubtedly be amazed at just how much thought went into making each individual’s experience with the game a unique one. The way to expand the staff is to recruit them, which is accomplished by loading them on a chopper, or using the Fulton Recovery System, where the player ties a balloon onto a soldier that is humorously lifted in the air with great force and transported to Mother Base. Different soldiers are skilled in different categories, so if players come across a soldier with high stats in one area, it’s up to players how they want to make their next move. They could kill him, permanently removing him as a threat, but players lose a potentially skilled recruit that will aid them later on in the game.

One of the major selling points of this game is watching Mother Base grow as the player collects resources to expand it. Players have the option of visiting their own Mother Base and seeing the progress and growth that has occurred as a direct result of the player’s actions. Players are able to interact with the staff, see the vehicles and weapons they’ve extracted and visit all the platforms and units they’ve sunk their hard-earned cash into. If players don’t visit their base for a while or run low on in-game currency, the staff’s morale will drop, and the staff may resort to infighting, which can result in the hospitalization of staff members. The player can also connect online and manage a Forward Operating Base that will help players in the same way Mother Base does, but it is susceptible to other players online who want to invade and steal other players’ resources. This is an optional part of the game, and players can turn it off if they choose, and it is likely a taste of what the online functionality will be like in the future.

Hideo Kojima is a visionary. He has done for video games what directors like Orson Welles and Francis Ford Coppola have done for movies: created legendary art to be critiqued and adored by critics, scholars and fans alike. His legacy with the Metal Gear franchise will be remembered, and The Phantom Pain is truly the best contender for game of the year so far. As for what’s next for Kojima, it’s not set in stone. After a tense unknown snafu with Konami, the company that has been releasing the Metal Gear games, it is expected that Kojima will leave the company soon. He has stated that he would like to make games that are catered to the indie market or some other game that is separate from the stealth genre. Whatever he decides, he will no doubt be successful in his future endeavors. His run on the series will never be forgotten, and gamers everywhere owe him their sincerest thanks.