The infamous lost child of the Metal Gear Solid series. Where mighty ambitions of finally bringing the series’ story full circle met the development capability to see it through, only to be tragically cut short by well-documented behind-the-scenes drama.
Despite being the fifth numbered game in the series, MGSV has little to do with MGSIV, being instead a direct sequel to the formerly PSP exclusive Peace Walker spinoff. From which the vast majority of its writing and mechanics are taken directly from. Indeed the only major addition is the replacement of PW’s various menus with explorable open worlds.
MGSV is quite an anomaly among its kind. Most rushed and unfinished games make this label apparent as soon as you boot them up, if you even can. For MGSV’s entire first act, however, you’d be hard pressed to realize it too fell into this camp. Which is to say, despite the new game engine and additional complexities of its expanded mechanics, this machine ticks along with surprisingly few issues. Levels are generally well designed, stealth mechanics are engaging and satisfying, and there’s just enough variety and depth to keep you on your toes.
Complaints are inevitable, though, and my most common would be against the game’s vague rules regarding detection by enemies. Hopping genres into action is nothing new for the MGS series, but I found MGSV’s mechanics and design particularly poorly suited to it. Both of these though can be worked around, however.
On a broader note, MGSV is mechanically surprisingly deep, yet most of these mechanics will rarely, if ever, come into play. There’s a complex system of communications which reaches all the way down to alert levels being raised if a soldier is interrupted while on the radio. There’s a dynamic difficulty system where enemies gain new equipment to counter specific overused strategies. There’s a full day-night cycle and variable weather, both of which influence enemy patrol and behavior. Yet none of this will stop enemy soldiers gleefully trundling off into the darkness one-by-one to investigate strange noises while their comrades remain blissfully unbothered by their rapidly emptying surroundings.
This attention to detail in the micro combined with a failure to make that detail meaningful in the macro is a throughline of MGSV’s design, from its overly large and badly paced tech tree to the surprisingly meaningless intricacies of running Mother Base.
This is one of the most grounded, in many cases downright grim, Metal Gear Solid story. Something that makes the series’ trademark zany moments jarring in an unpleasantly unique way. Still, it was never enough to fully pull me out of the experience and the series’ flare for the dramatic remained intact and, if nothing else, very entertaining.
MGSV is a rare case of a game whose shortcoming stem not from misguided direction or fatally flawed mechanics, but from simply not being given enough time. The end result is the videogame equivalent of an expertly designed and poured concrete foundation used to support a single room wooden shack. Nevertheless what’s there is good enough to earn a recommendation. What could have been will remain forever a phantom.
