MGS V: Phantom Pain

[Julius]

Nearly 45 hours in, and Episode 31 complete, meaning that credits have finally rolled and–

I've been Peace Walker'd 

Quite enjoyed the boss fight in Episode 31, though the cliffhanger from Episode 30 and the actual content of the boss fight itself in Chapter 31 felt overwhelmingly like Peace Walker. Had to get D-Dog out of there though, poor guy kept getting trampled on! 

Looks like a few missions have unlocked post-credits already to pick up from the Chapter 2 tease, very curious to see how they play out, and obviously hoping that this isn't a Peace Walker situation where I'm about to be forced down the most pointless rabbit hole to grind out platforms to keep putting a guy back in prison to unlock the true ending. Fingers crossed, anyways 

So, I think I mentioned before about not really clicking with how the Side-Ops are paced because of needing to call in the chopper after completing one, go to the ACC, sortie for the next Mission, etc., rather than chaining a bunch together in a single drop like the game seems to want you to do. While I still stand by the criticism that you should be able to fly directly from one Side-Op to another (like how you can fly from one platform to another at Mother Base), I actually ironed this issue out a while ago to some degree – but this is specifically in Angola-Zaire.

You see, dropping into Angola-Zaire, the map is essentially a giant plain, and so you can reasonably drop in with your buddy of choice and a vehicle, and just beeline from one Side-Op to the next, ignoring roads and making use of some off-road treks instead. This means I can typically complete every single Side-Op available in a single drop, as even Side-Ops positioned some 2+km from my current position can generally be beelined to in vehicle (and worst case, you'll cover the last few hundred metres on foot if there's a canyon involved in your journey to the next Side-Op). 

Compare this to the first map in the game, Afghanistan, which I think excellently serves its purpose at the start of the game to narrow your focus on a single command post, for example, and its designated entrances/exits. It's very rare that there are more than two points of entry, by road, to a command post in Afghanistan (the ones which have more than one, or are more complex in their infrastructure, are typically tied first to a main mission), and so with most of these command posts and roads nestled amongst canyons, it feels like a great way to tutorialise the open world, because it is limited the factors at play and directions from which the enemy can arrive – combined with dumber enemy AI than in Angola-Zaire, I think it's a terrific way to onboard the player.

However, what becomes apparent as the game goes on, and especially once you've experienced the wide open plains of Angola-Zaire and enjoyed the flow that brings to how you access Side-Ops, is just how claustrophobic and limiting these canyons become; while there is a desert part to the map and some settlements in larger "fields", the vast majority of the map itself is divided up by these tall canyons. Some of these can be climbed through at certain points along the canyon, but by and large, you can't beeline from one side of the map to the other in a vehicle like you can in Angola-Zaire due to the canyons along the way, and so you're forced to stick to the roads...which just sucks, and unnecessarily stretches out how long it takes to get from one Side-Op to the next in Afghanistan vs Angola-Zaire. This isn't anything game breaking or particularly annoying, I just think the fact that the game continues to throw Afghanistan-based Side-Ops at you at the same rate as Side-Ops in Angola-Zaire when one map is much better suited to chaining a few Side-Ops together in a single drop (note: new Side-Ops won't appear until you've returned to the ACC, so you're limited on how many you can clear in a single drop) is a bit puzzling. 

To speak to another criticism based on my recent sessions with the game, I need to speak about Episode 25...

Spoiler

...so, for anyone viewing this, brief reminder: Episode 25 ends with learning that a strain of some sort has been making your men and women at Mother Base fall ill. The game recommends you start quarantining them on a designated Quarantine platform, but gives you no serious hint as to what is causing the illness, with you being advised to try to figure it out yourself. Looking at the 10 or so people on the platform and given some earlier story events relating to a new language specialist being gained from Angola-Zaire and some kid having a mic stuck in his throat, I pretty quickly deduced that the common denominator was that the infected were Kikongo speakers.

However! The pain came in when moving these Kikongo speakers, painstakingly, one by one, from other platforms, and having Ocelot ask if you've figured out what the pattern is – which, well, I had, but the damn guy didn't think to give me a hand moving them en masse. What's more, you can't filter soldiers by the languages they speak, nor can you move them faster than one by one (at least from what I found), and so this entire process took well over half an hour, perhaps even closer to an hour to move 326 soldiers across – and I then had to deal with new people coming in, and minimised the enemies I Fulton'd out so that I didn't need to deal with filtering out the Kikongo speakers. 

Love it conceptually, and very Kojima (the story too, love it) -- but not a big fan of the execution of this part. 

I'm very curious now to see how long I'll stick with the game, because there are still clearly some important story beats to hit and I'm sure I'll see those through (assuming no Peace Walker silliness), but I'm just not sure about going ham on those Afghanistan Side-Ops with the issue that I mentioned with the map design before. 

Still having a great time and that's the main thing 

On 4/18/2025 at 8:07 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

I honestly hated that scene. It really highlighted just how little dialogue there was from Sutherland in the game and how bland he was when he did speak up.

Ah, I totally get you -- for me, I think I've just got used to Snake being silent most of this game, so having someone speak at me for a while with some great music thrown in for a very tense car ride felt wonderful. Snake occasionally looking at the camera with a the hell is this guy talking about? face cracked me up, though I'm not really sure it fit with the tone of the scene 

[Julius]

That Quiet in the rain scene sure is...something. Never quite seen something like that in games before, let me tell you. Kojima isn't a Diamond Dog, he's a Dirty Dog 

Anyways, 50+ hours in now and in what feels like the home stretch in Chapter 2 (hard to tell given how long Chapter 1 was and the context of the whole Kojima/Konami fiasco). After a bit of time away from the game this past week, today the focus was on getting back into the swing of things with Side-Ops, deployments (Battle Gear is out in the field being tested) and maxing out Quiet's bond - as I'd barely used her up to this point she was way behind my other Buddies - which took a bit of time, but we got there. Much prefer D-Dog for my play style, who I think I'll probably be focusing on using for this last bit of the game. 

Subsistence and Extreme versions of previous missions have popped up, and I just don't think I'm in the mood to go that hardcore and replay a mission this far in, especially when I feel like the story (or whatever's left of it) is trying to barrel to an end. Unfortunate timing as I'd probably have been down to give it a try half a game ago  

Miller keeps going off at everyone, and I continue to not be a fan of his. He's such a negative presence around Mother Base – I've never been one for middle management. Really wish Snake would give him a good backhand to put him in his place 

[Julius]

Uh, wait...what? 

Spoiler

The Man On Fire was Volgin and the game first decides to confirm that information offhand in a radio conversation? Weird anti-climax. 

Super hype to see his model in the FOX Engine though. 

It was a bit weird being told the objective was to secure his body, but then not having it be marked by the game or D-Dog. I wandered around the base for a while before - standing next to the corpse in the middle of that square - I checked on it and chuckled at not noticing the corpse next to me. One of the only instances in the game this has happened? 

The entire handling of The Man On Fire and this Side-Op felt like some weird meta-commentary from Kojima. 

Man, I've got to say, I really love the FOX Engine. This game still looks INSANE to this day, and the way everything feels and moves just feels so tangible. There's a weight and a punch to this game's physics that I don't think many other games of this size and ambition come close to. 

Honestly, I would've loved to see the first Metal Gear Solid remade in this engine, the way Ground Zeroes and certain locales in MGSV are framed and given a similar colour palette to mirror the first game seems very purposeful and like a massive tease for what they could've gone on to accomplish with this remakes on this engine – similarly, Mother Base looking so much like Big Shell from MGS2 and the jungles being very reminiscent of MGS3, to the point that this game feels like some weird, confused, out of time celebration of MGS mechanically and visually in contrast to the hype fest that was 4 (and to be clear, there's definitely a place for both). 

Konami going the way they did and this engine going to waste outside of PES and pachinko cutscenes genuinely hurts, and playing through this makes it hard not to wonder what their plans are for the franchise at this point. If nothing else, it really pumps up my hype for Delta later this year and a potential MGS Remake in the future, though. 

Edited April 28 by Julius

[Julius]

Oh, the R&D Lv. 4 replacement for the Fulton is a blast 

if not just a tiny bit creepy...

[Julius]

Mission 43. 

Damn. 

That's all. 

Edited May 4 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Mission 43. 

Damn. 

That's all. 

Wipe them out....all of them.

[Julius]

After 63 hours, 39 Missions, 89 Side-Ops, scores of weapons and pieces of gear developed, hundreds of soldiers, vehicles, and their weapons Fulton'd and repurposed for use as part of the Diamond Dogs cause...credits have at long last rolled on my time with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

And what a time it was. 

Mother Base Progress:

Spoiler

Man, what have I got left to say about MGSV before I stew on it for a while? 

It's Peace Walker 2, perhaps to a fault at times. Needing to grind out Side-Ops to progress the main story and as a way to "pass time" for endings to unlock super late into the game would have been a bit of a pain...if not for the fact it allowed me to go on a bit of a farewell tour and just swim in the perfection that is this game's moment-to-moment gameplay and mechanics. 

To speak to Mission 43 that I mentioned before, specifically...

Spoiler

...the entire thing was Kojima at his damn finest, not only having to shoot your own recruits from your time with the game, but also the way he manipulates you at your gaming core, with your score continuing to "drop" as you act swiftly and decisively to stop the outbreak. 

Staff Died [Heroism -60]

Staff Died [Heroism -60]

Staff Died [Heroism -60]

Can't say the man doesn't know his audience. It adds to the brutality and reality of the situation that the UI updates with your actions here, and of course, the whole thing stunk of a scene from Resident Evil. 

The worst part was walking into that room with soldiers and doctors saluting you, humming along to the Main Theme from Peace Walker. My night-vision goggles already on, I unlocked the door, hoping for a few survivors...and other than that one in the corner, everyone's throats lit up like a damn Christmas tree light. I shuffled my way through them, and grabbed the cassette, reloaded my assault rifle, levelled it at their eye-level...and tore through them as quickly as I could with headshots. It was a horrible feeling, but such an excellent culmination of the game's base-building mechanics and your position as Snake. Huey calling you out on this – despite the truth you later learn – only added to the heartbreak. 

Which we'll get to...

The treatment of the ashes - making them diamonds, one of which ends up on your patch! - was such a rad move. This felt like the moment Venom finally became Big Boss to me. 

Mission 45 was probably another favourite of mine...

Spoiler

...with Quiet's farewell mission. Some dramatic irony about her going out following the mission which was by far the loudest and most explosive. 

This one took me a while, actually, a few attempts anyways, purely because I always ended up getting the opposition down to just one or two tanks and finding myself getting one-hit from some impossible angle quite a few times. But I got there in the end, and that's all that matters! 

The level itself I actually enjoyed, but the cutscenes and the farewell to Quiet were the true standout. Seems like she had a horrible time (not much less the guy trying to rape her after drowning her...like wtf man) but her badass vengeance against her captors was a joy to behold.

The tense scene of her and Snake hiding behind a rock while Snake fights off a snake for that soldier to go back and forth and ultimately have them pass out, to then have that incredible scene with Quiet finally speaking to guide the chopper to aid Snake through the sandstorm. Awesome stuff. 

There was an additional sense of melancholy following this mission. The entire game I'd made a point to visit Quiet in her cell every chance I got, and it was often where I both started and ended sessions – I'll be honest, it was less to see her, and more to listen to the music. Returning after Mission 45 to no music, no Quiet, just the dark and a new and uncomfortable type of quiet all its own...

...by design or not, because perhaps it was led more by my own choices as the player, this cell became my own Firelink in this game. It forced a wry smile out of me, because it was at this point that the game coming to an end well and truly settled in. 

And, to talk to the final mission...

Spoiler

...yeah, okay, I'd known for ages at this point that my Snake wasn't the Snake, and honestly, as far as Kojima twists go? This one didn't seem all that crazy when compared to some of the others. 

While there were some additional moments in this final mission compared to the prologue, it was ultimately just going through that same mission, which felt like such a missed opportunity to me. I thought it would've been brilliant if we actually played as "Ishmael"/Big Boss and found ourselves defending and teaching Ahab through this section, though I've got to say, some of the foreshadowing really came into play here – for example, teaching Ahab to fix his injuries felt like Big Boss calling back to Snake Eater and how you treat injuries in that game. I also love that in the mission prior to this you're referred to as "Ahab" too by the pilot communicating with Quiet, very cheeky Mr Kojima. 

But, yeah, I'll be honest, it wasn't much of a surprise how things played out. That's not a bad thing, mind you, and I loved the touch of flipping the cassette - as someone who has scant memories of messing around with cassettes from when I was a little kid (floppy disks, too – my parents ran a little slow in terms of tech I suppose!) the last thing on my mind was that he'd flip the cassette to play the other side, but as soon as he picked it back up, I knew exactly what he was doing with it. Loved it. 

And so, yeah, that's it for The Phantom Pain, meaning my time with the main Metal Gear Solid games has come to an end just over 5 years after it started in the early months of COVID. In that time, this series has undoubtedly become one of my favourites in gaming.

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back playing MGS sooner rather than later, as there's plenty of hype for me going into the Snake Eater remake, and I'm keen to revisit the first two games in particular besides that, too. The Metal Gear games are now firmly on my radar, and, well, having caught up on Kojima's main offerings (at least over here in the West), the next big game of his I'll be tackling for the first time will be Death Stranding – but I'm in no rush to get that journey started just yet. 

In the meantime, perhaps it's time to revisit my Metal Gear Solid rankings that I shared after completing Peace Walker, and rank Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain amongst them – this is my ranking for the games after an initial playthrough of each: 

1. Snake Eater - no question. Best story, one of the best soundtracks, pretty huge shakeup in terms of mechanics pulled off with complete aplomb, I love the Bond-esque vibe and approach to it all. Snake Eater is up there as one of the best vocal songs in gaming, period. 
2. Metal Gear Solid - it is absolutely insane what Konami had cooking in their kitchen in the late 90s. It's not the easiest game to go back to, but good lord, is it still worth checking out today just to see the ideas they were working on -- showcases more originality and ideas than most modern releases. 
3. The Phantom Pain - look, the story has problems in that it feels connected again the start, seems to forget itself until about 20 chapters later, has silly triggers at times which you need to grind out, and this is the Snake with the least character in any of the games I've played...but this is by far and away the best playing MGS of the bunch. Incredibly moreish, building off the base-building mechanics of Peace Walker and taking everything else it had to offer to eleven, The Phantom Pain is my new favourite stealth/action game alongside The Last of Us Part II – both very different takes on a genre which seems so underrepresented today. And even though it is lacking in story, it'll still hit you with a gut punch or two, and other moments where your jaw is on the floor, despite feeling incomplete, for a whole host of reasons. This is to me what Revenge of the Sith is for Star Wars – you ask me every day of the week which MGS I want to play at that very moment, and nine times out of ten, I'm going to say The Phantom Pain. 
4. Sons of Liberty - insanely ahead of its time in themes, and I'm going to argue that it's got the best individual soundtrack of the bunch. This game gets nutty - and feels like the absolute best balance of how meta Kojima likes to get with the player, while also still being a great game. Still looks freaking spectacular for a game from 2001 too, by the way. No lie, this is probably the MGS which randomly drifts into my mind the most. 
5. Peace Walker - I'm kind of shocked to say this, but yeah, I think this is my #4? I love the short, episodic snippets of gameplay. Love the style of cutscenes and their interactivity. Loved the base-building aspect of Mother Base, stupid grind for the true ending aside. A more than worthy epilogue to Snake Eater. 
6. Guns of the Patriots - Kojima and MGS at its most unhinged and fan service-y, and probably the one with the most hype moments. Hype alone doesn't make a great game, mind, and though I don't mind the number of or length of cutscenes in this game, I don't think it's quite as strong and, perhaps most importantly, not as focused as the games I'd rank above it. 
7. Ground Zeroes - a nice interstitial between Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain, and an essential one to experience at that. It looks gorgeous to this day. It feels a bit unfair putting this so low purely because I didn't experience so much of what it had to offer - just replaying the main mission a few times when I played through it last year - but as a shorter MGS experience which is an epilogue for PW and prologue for TPP, I'm okay putting it here. For now. 

Which all reminds me – guess one way to close the curtain on my time with the game would be to finally allow myself to deep dive into what little is out there and known about the phantom pain that is Chapter 3! 

Edited Sunday at 10:25 PM by Julius