#NEW METAL GEAR SOLID V REVIEW SERIES#

Snake gets a spread of weapons and toys that would make Batman jealous. The idea is to reward the meticulous sneakers and let the rest of us shoot our way out. Splinter Cell: Blacklist has brought Sam Fisher to the same place. When the sneaking fails, or if you just can’t be bothered to sneak, Phantom Pain will let you Call of Duty your way along. What’s new is that this Metal Gear has achieved a compromise between stealth and action. The man harvesting is a familiar and effective way to drive the gameplay. That was the basic pattern of Peace Walker and it’s now the basic pattern of Phantom Pain. The more men you kidnap via balloons to work at your base, the better your base and therefore your weapons research, which makes it easier to kidnap more men via balloons, which makes your base better, and so on. Not since Up have balloons been so relevant to a plot. As will be the absurd concept of ferrying new manpower via balloons. The basic pattern of a feedback loop between the stealth action and base management will be familiar to anyone who played Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the PSP.

The supposedly new approach to gameplay isn’t unprecedented. This is the Metal Gear game us non-Metal Gear fans have waited almost thirty years to play. Kojima and his team deserve a lot of credit for at last balancing all the Metal Gear nonsense with actual gameplay.

#NEW METAL GEAR SOLID V REVIEW SERIES#

I have no idea how dyed-in-the-wool Metal Gear fans will react, specifically to one of the final reveals, but as a sometime Metal Gear player, this is easily as good as the series has ever been (here’s my one-star review of Metal Gear Solid 4 if you want to get a sense for what my deal is). Not that there’s anything wrong with Hideo Kojima proudly branding this installment of the franchise. And just to remind you, there will be a title card and interim credits every half hour or so.Īfter the jump, written and directed by Hideo Kojima. From the prologue, to its one and only chapter transition, to the prologue again, and to the annoying against-all-odds stand-off that actually ends the game after the credits have already rolled twice, Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain is so very Kojima.

New metal gear solid v review