Earlier this week several journalists attending the Metal Gear Solid V Preview Event got to talk about their impressions, sharing their enthusiasm with their readers. Now, it’s time for the European media outlets to let us know what they think. After having played the game extensively in the LA studio, they were allowed to tweet for one hour, after which the embargo until June 9 went up again.
Tonally, this mission is played quite straight – but have no fear, the game does feature full-on Kojima madness, too. My favourite part? You can steal tapes of 80s pop songs and play them mid-mission as your own soundtrack. Blowing up tanks to The Man Who Sold the World is pretty spectacular. I also upgraded my iDroid so I can play music out loud – not great for stealthy runs, but good for dramatic entrance.
I’ve played Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online for the first time for 10 hours, I’ll talk about one mission. I’ll tell you about the sixth mission, set in Afghanistan.
Before the mission it’s possible to select initial equipment, with two primary weapons, two secondary, gadgets. Also, Snake’s uniforms, the companion and his equipment (in this case, the horse).
When the mission starts, it’s presented like a film, with the cast, the important protagonists and the guest stars.
As soon as you’re on the map, you’re joined by the horse, which controls with square to run and the analoge stick for direction. With x it’s possible to position yourself on the left or right side of the horse to avoid detection, and of course it’s possible to use weapons while driving.
With the touch pad, the lower left side uses the iDroid, and from here you can see the map, select markers (also multiple). But also ask support from Mother Base, call the helicopter, etc. With R1, you use the binoculars with multiple levels of zoom. It’s vital for marking enemies and getting an idea of what awaits you.
When the mission starts you can choose the hour of departure, night, 6 or 18.
In mission 6 you had to recover an particularly important missile launcher and there are various optional submissions.
The Afghan map seems to be decisively large, made up of sections but while flying it’s possible to explore it without exiting or loading. On your way to the destination there are always outposts to capture or materials to obtain. The materials are obviously for all the personalizing and upgrades in the game. For example, in mission 6 I’ve upgraded the Fulton system, now aside from persons I can also send heavier things to the base.
In mission 6 things were tougher since there’s an enemy helicopter. I have therefor started to run and hide in a valley, and at this point I came across a camp based in the rocks. After having eliminated almost everyone, I recovered the rocket launcher and called a helicopter, but when I came out it was foggy and the Skulls have appeared, aggressive enemies which I could only eliminate using the launcher. Very cool aesthetically and definitely part of the story, graphically the game is very fluent most of the time. The map and environments are much bigger than Ground Zeroes, improvements here and there, beautiful light sources. To me the code seems near finished, probably these 2,5 months are for polishing and testing the online.
Regarding Kojima, Konami said they will provide clarity soon. In the game however, he is present everywhere, from the titles to the posters.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is undoubtedly a game carrying Kojima’s signature. It’s full of his brilliant and genius ideas.
Came into conflict with Quiet among splendid ravines. Beautiful: a boss fight integrated into open world progression. Tension at the highest levels. Kojima has a passion for snipers.
The opening sequence of MGSV alone is once again classic Kojima. Cinematically presented and quite a number of WTF moments.
Last day @ Konami Los Angeles Studio. Got 30 minutes to tweet about the mission I’m on in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Game’s massive. And gorgeous. The mission I’m on, the 6th, reminded me of Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade in terms of locale. This sixth mission offers as much freedom and stuff to do as the entirety of Ground Zeroes. Truly GOTY material.
Arrived at a temple carved into a mountain on a horse that’s pimped with camo-armor. The moonlight makes me look like Zorro. I spent most of the 1st hour of the mission gathering medicinal plants and hunting birds. Yeah, you can do that. And it’s ace.
Fan of David Lynch? Yeah, you’ll enjoy playing what I’m playing now.
OK, one last thing: if a certain MGS1’s villain’s mindfuckery was your thing, then The Phantom Pain will be right up your alley.
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