Metal Gear Solid V Gamplay and Narrative Review (SPOILERS)

* SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't played Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain yet be warned - there are elements of the text here that reveal plotlines.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the most narratively-unique, open-world game I’ve played in recent years. Published by Japanese developer Konami and running on their latest FOX engine, Metal Gear Solid is a tactical combat game—narrowed down a stealth third-person shooter. The game has a delightful sense of unprecedented photorealism, immersive sounds and high attention to even the slightest detail in AI mechanics.

After a riveting escape from a troupe of unknown villains, I was entrenched stepping into the desiccant dune of Afghanistan or into the humid marsh of Africa, gripping Snake’s horse as I trod through the open canyon. The game is simply visually-stunning with accurate weather affects offering various cover and tactical advantages—at most during day/night cycles.
The game offers many aspects of weapon customization, squad, and home base upgrades with numerous resources you may retrieve around the massive map; this offers a total advantage in later levels as you progress further into the game or playing competitively in Metal Gear Online.
Players can complete missions in any order and the story will flow seamlessly; there are a multitude of side missions that allow you to gain experience, roam the map to collect useful resources for upgrades and to recruit personnel.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain follows the story of Big Boss (known as Snake and Foxhound’s most skilled soldier and medic) directly from the events of its predecessor, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. After the massive 1975 XOF mother base attack, Big Boss landed into an eight year-coma; as soon your eyes open, you enter Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, in the year 1984.

The game features several original supernatural enemies that could only have been conjured from the mind of creator, Hideo Kojima. This is especially true for the franchise’s newest central character, Quiet.

At first glance, the scantily-clad sniper seems anything but dangerous; that is until you enter Mission 1 when she tries to kill you and seeks a revenge mission later in the game.
Fittingly, Quiet doesn’t speak much, as she primarily communicates through gestures and other monosyllables, (although so does Snake, as he has very few lines of dialogue.)
I find that to be incredibly powerful as you can’t help but to become attached to her character. Quiet makes an interesting first impression that grows into a natural understanding of her sentiments, to an organic fan-favorite the franchise needs.
Formally an XOF assassin appointed to rid Snake, despite the two of them absolutely having an enemy in common—she still doesn’t trust him. After you meet Quiet once again in Afghanistan, if you take her down and spare her, she later joins your team—much both to the advisement and disproval of Snake’s XOs Ocelot and Miller.

Seeing the distrust build to reliance, appreciation to affection between Snake and Quiet was nothing short of narrative beauty. I was surprised how well it had been pulled off in between the wonderfully-convoluted storyline. It was exciting and very welcome to see their relationship blossom into something so meaningful and deep—all in practical silence.

Not to mention that’s something especially difficult to do in a game with a military setting, avoiding becoming clichéd or occupying an extensive part of the story. This is all wonderfully-executed—unexpected, but anticipated.

Delving into the main storyline, the game’s central enemy, Skullface, was an orphan child who was forced to abandon his native tongue, after his family and village were mercilessly slaughtered. He seeks revenge through forcing that reality upon others. His shadow organization XOF devised a biological weapon that has a strain of parasite develop into a lethal disease, once exposed. These parasites leech off of the host’s vocal cord vibrations—flourishing off of the cadence and speech patterns of a particular language.

Quiet is one of the infected victims with the English strain of the disease. If she utters a word of English, the parasites will take over her body and kill her.
 The XOF operation needs to be shut down.
Skullface needs to be killed.

Being force to kill the infected was the pivotal trigger than that turned Snake into the rogue we know in Metal Gear Solid.
A later patch allows you to reunite with Quiet, as after mission 45 you weren’t able see her again, (which was crippling, not only to combat out in the field, but to the storyline!)

The gameplay and combat system are additional strongpoints in MGS V. It’s liberating to stealthily climb through the environment, hiding within the shadows and aligning my reticle onto an oblivious enemy’s head. The injuries sustained are realistic, as Snake develops bullet wounds from incoming lines of fire. The endless amount of ways to take down enemies cement MGS into being nothing like the sandbox shooter of its predecessors.

You can commandeer tanks, trucks, weapons, explosives and people; along with collecting resources and diamonds from enemy bases to upgrade your equipment. You can also collect animals for your own Mother Base petting zoo—and if you hear a song playing nearby, you can snatch the cassette to listen to an 80s hit while you’re snapping necks.

Metal Gear Solid V, the franchise’s first open-world iteration feels like it could be a Fallout game with its extensive weapon modification crossed with Grand Theft Auto—with a huge area to explore and comprehensive mission-based gameplay.

To me, I feel as though the two main villains introduced early on in the game are killed suddenly and effortlessly … also pretty early on in the game. I believe this could be purposefully done for story-based reasons however—to prepare the player not only to realize the true enemy in betrayal, but also as fertile ground foreshadowing the grim reality of how Snake truly becomes the “man who sold the world.”

Watching the character development unfold as Big Boss transforms before your very eyes from Punished Snake into Venom Snake is unbelievable.

Metal Gear offers an extremely complex storyline that ties into the main narrative of the original Metal Gear Solid—essentially as a prequel, or perhaps a reboot (or even a total retcon), as subsequent games will tell.

The Metal Gear Solid series has always had a strong narrative and driven by gameplay; Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is no exception.