metal gear solid review
Test: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, verdict on the pivotal adventure of Big BossConfirmed 7 years ago, Metal Gear Solid V finally delivered to us for the second time out of three. After a prologue called Ground Zeroes tested in our columns in March 2014, now The Phantom Pain arrives and brings us to the heart of this fifth opus: a striking and confusing solo epic for fans of the saga. As for multiplayer, the last stone in the MGS5 building, it will land in October and will be the subject of a supplement in this test. A few days separate us from the release of the game and it is high time to take stock to find out what the last jewel of the work of Hideo Kojima is really worth ...
Test conditions:
To be completely transparent with you, know that we have (for the sake of usable backups), tested the game on a build close to the final version, Konami did not wish to provide final versions a few weeks before the release of the game to avoid possible leaks. The game was therefore tested on a PlayStation 4 Debug, on a version which proved unstable in 3 key places (end of mission impossible to validate). Logically, these problems will not be present on the marketed versions.First of all, and for you to have a global vision of what Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is, we invite you to read, on the one hand, the test of Ground Zeroes, its prologue, and on the other share our overview on the title, made after 15 hours of play, in which we deliver our impressions as well as a description of the different sections that make up the adventure. This test will therefore not deal with the basics of the gameplay of this 5th episode since it would repeat with our previous articles. If you are not "up to date" in the Metal Gear Solid saga, we encourage you to look at our review "There Was Once" on Metal Gear, available above, which partially summarizes the previous episodes and which lasts only a quarter of an hour. As you can see, The Phantom Pain is apparently aimed at a niche of players brave enough to remember a storyline that has been in use for over 25 years now. However, do not go astray, because this fifth episode manages to open up to various audiences whether it is initiated into the series or not, perfect infiltration lover or fond of narrative action-infiltration TPS.
A pivotal epoch, a mine of references and an ideal departure for the profane
So put the facts in context: here we embody "Boss", code name "Venom Snake", for this new iteration highlighting the mythical father of "Terrible Children". Our hero is not at his first try in the series and was already at the heart of the story of Metal Gear Solid 3 and Peace Walker, two titles that must be done if possible to understand the issues upstream of Metal Gear Solid V. As for the other games in the series, know that they are chronologically posterior to the facts told in The Phantom Pain and will therefore give the latter a very tasty "prequel" aspect if you were lucky to do them before. The newcomers will still be able to play MGS5 and enjoy it, the title being measured enough on its narrative to never lose its audience, unlike other games which often tended to drown the player under a torrent of details and sub - intrigue. Kojima therefore wanted to transform its recipe to make it more flexible, more affordable, more varied, and moreover applies its new credo to all stages of its production: level design, game design, narration & staging, soundtrack, replay value… Everything goes, which will necessarily confuse more than one.
THE MAIN THEMES OF THIS EPISODE AND A TIP TO FOLLOW IN THE LETTER
The story of our hero in spite of himself rocks at the end of the Ground Zeroes prologue, when Snake (one-eyed since Metal Gear Solid 3) finds himself amputated of an arm and plunged into a coma long nine years. When he wakes up, which serves as a sublime introduction to The Phantom Pain, the Cypriot hospital in which Boss is slowly recovering from his injuries is attacked by an elite commando who obviously is there for him. Supported by the mysterious Ishmael (key element of Kojima's teasing around the title) and by the charismatic Ocelot, Snake succeeds in extremis to escape, chased by two mysterious Nemesis that we could see in the trailers: "the man on fire ”and the“ little boy in the gas mask ”, two entities that fans had fun discovering during the many years of waiting.This opus therefore really begins after this introduction, when Boss resumes service and contributes to restoring the coat of arms of his army of Militaires Sans Frontières, which has since become Diamond Dogs after the destruction of their Mother Base by the XOF commando of Skull Face, nine years more early. An attack that riddled Snake's body with schrapnel and offered him a nice metal horn that touches his cerebral cortex. Our hero's army has erected a whole new offshore platform, and it's up to you to participate in the success of this dantesque project called Outer Heaven, the nation of free soldiers, so dear to the ideals of Big Boss since the death of his mentor The Boss in MGS3. After this episode, the whole plot, initiated by Metal Gear on MSX, gets under way, during which we follow Solid Snake, cloned son of Big Boss, who faces his father, Ocelot and his two other cloned brothers on behalf of the United States government.
The adventure of the 5th episode places us here in 1984 and proposes to face for good Skull Face, the enigmatic graded initially with the boot of Cipher (the organization which manages in secret the United States). The man with the marked face will therefore be your enemy and the main puppeteer of the epic, who will take you to Afghanistan and Africa. In these two semi-open areas you are spoiled for choice in terms of your actions, you can perform main scripted missions, Side Ops (side quests of the game), but also ensure the proper functioning of your base in l '' by supplying resources, by sending troops on mission, by managing Human Resources or even Research & Development for your equipment. If we detail here the "activities" that can be done, it is not for nothing, since it is strongly advised to alternate your occupations without thinking too much about rushing the main adventure. Because if you do that, you’ll miss out on a lot of narrative, and gameplay possibilities.
A BEGINNING AT THE LAST OF US: A SUBLIME INTRO THAT LEAVES A FEW HOURS OF TUTORIAL ON THE BACKGROUND OF SCENARISTIC STAGNATION
Remember, the first question we had when we left the preview a few weeks before E3 was about the tempo of the adventure. Indeed, our first 10 hours of play looked like a giant tutorial at a slightly uneven pace. If the intro bordered on perfection in terms of its intensity, the next 4 or 5 hours were relatively flat in terms of staging since we mainly learned to use gameplay features on the ground and explored the mysteries of the Mother Base during missions sometimes not specially inspired. With a slightly wider vision of the fabric (and a few extra hours in the legs), we notice the exploitation of apparently unrelated themes such as water, oil, child soldiers, mineral resources, uprooting, language and of course the classic themes of cloning and nuclear.
What annoys most in all this when you do your first part of MGSV: TPP is the fact of changing the theme very quickly after a climax, whether it is a long-term mission at the end or a cinematic sequence advancing the main story. These rapid transitions happen repeatedly and often leave us hungry if we want to learn more without losing the usual breadcrumb. This frustration can be explained very simply: Kojima wanted to change the way he told the story. Tired of the very long sequences of archival or Codec communication videos once swayed at each minor branch of the adventure, the director here wished to drastically shorten the "time spent as a spectator" of his title to barter it for a narration in the background in the form of cassettes that we can listen to during our various activities in order to learn more about tons and tons of subjects related to history.
GO COME! LOOK AT EVERYTHING WE CAN DO ... IT'S GREAT, ISN'T IT?
Ingenious system which forces the player to occupy himself in the open world to listen to the ten or fifteen minutes of additional cassettes he has just obtained, making himself useful as he can by performing Side Ops, by seeking resources or by cultivating guards in order to swell the ranks of his Mother Base. In the latter, he took the opportunity to order new work and for example wanted to create a zoological wing to come at his leisure to observe the captured animals. He also takes advantage of listening to this audio cassette to make some changes in the teams of Outer Heaven in order to boost the statistics of the R&D team, which can finally work on a new model of rocket launcher which will be vital for the last mission to do before moving on to another main quest cluster. Now you can understand why MGSV is not like other Metal Gear.The narration, once too heavy, is now partly composed of an audio dimension that is savored while optimizing his adventure. Without this audio, the script has many shortcomings and it is therefore strongly encouraged to trudge between missions, to pause the frame for a moment. Forget the WTF side of certain batches of cinematics of yesteryear since here, we are rarely entitled to a scene that leaves us on the side, as the series has the secret. Too bad for lovers of superb sequences who can nevertheless fall back on half a dozen videos that are truly impactful during the adventure. The concern in the story is that this somewhat shy narration finds itself diluted in a game with a lifespan that has largely tripled since the standard episodes, which makes the narrative intensity suddenly lower compared to what is expected from an MGS. Admittedly, it is a drastic turn for a series which often shone by its breathtaking cinematics, and which are here relatively timid (albeit ...), but the new narrative structure perfectly suits the new concept of the game. goes from a narrative infiltration game to an action-infiltration TPS in open areas with an entire section dedicated to the management of its base, its resources, projects to be undertaken and personnel to be recruited in the field.
MORE OPEN AREAS THAN OPEN WORLD
Be careful, however, do not get me wrong when we talk about the open world, do not hope to land in urban areas with stalls selling arms and equipment between two Afghan taverns. None of this is available in Phantom Pain, which remains an undercover title in a militarized zone. Thus, apart from a few ruined villages occupied by garrisons and a large number of unique and explorable places (caves, abandoned villa, bases, ruins, desert, factories, etc.), you will not find much that reminds you of civilization. . This is all the better since the open nature of the map allows free navigation based on drop-off by helicopter, or fast-travel via the cardboard delivery system. And if we regret some concerns about collisions with the decor, depending on whether it is exploitable or not for Snake, it is clear that the field often does honor to the talents of the guy. Between its extremely rich panoply of lethal tools and accessories and the presence of the Companions, we will have to choose how to act among a multitude in order to address each situation.BFF SIMULATOR
One of the peculiarities of our Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is obviously the presence of "buddies", the companions, who accompany you to the front and can sometimes serve as a mount (D-Horse and D-Walker) sometimes serve as an asset tactical on the ground (Quiet and D-Dog). The 4 Boss allies are obviously customizable like just about anything else you will have to interact with during the game. New orders appear as we equip our buddies with new equipment, like with D-Dog, the charming doggie of our hero, who by changing outfit can afford a knife and a murder order. Once unlocked, at the press of a command, D-Dog grabs a knife between his teeth, stored in his wolfdog outfit, and will jump on the chinstrap of your enemies. It's classy, efficient, funny, in short, Kojima-style. It is also important to note that your adventure will be less "social" than the previous ones despite the presence of one of these companions on the ground. Not very talkative since his 9 years of coma, Boss offers us here a convincing acting performance with a Keifer Sutherland who does not arrive at the level of David Hayter but who approaches him. As for the other actors, on the other hand, they are somewhat crowded out by the staging. Ocelot and Kaz are relatively absent and deprived of their "moment", as for Quiet, it says nothing (see its nickname) but embodies your mark in the storm, and sings a very particular melody while adjusting its viewfinder on the head of your enemies ... Here, enemies, let's talk a little ...WHERE IS THE BAD BAND OF THE BAD?
As you know, this Metal Gear Solid V has no "gang of enemies" like in the other episodes. In their place, we find a panel of relatively varied enemies, ranging from the basic troufion to the boss (very rarely) through a multitude of types of soldiers, more or less equipped defensively and offensively and with or without tools ( walkie-talkie, mortar, contact with an external relay, etc.). You will therefore have to take into account not only your infiltration, but also the external factors which concern the enemies and their environment.Thus, if during an infiltration you fear that a guard will warn the neighboring outposts, you will be able to clear the communication relays in order to avoid a drama. Similarly, during a fight against the famous Skulls (who are there to annoy you and offer you extremely long fights), it will be fashionable to say "what tools do I have at my disposal to avoid a direct confrontation who, by the way, just made me start this damn mission 20 times ... "And it is often by looking through the menus of the iDroid that we find the solution, whether it is a request for air support, artillery, change of equipment or companion delivery. So there is good as well as less good in the casting of enemies but we are still a little on our hunger concerning the bosses… They were once the opportunity to sequence the adventure, to learn more about a character generally tortured and charismatic, all on a splendid OST… Besides, speaking of the latter, know that it benefits from the presence of cassettes audio and that the main theme of the series unfortunately seems to have deserted.
Erratum: Following a rechecking of the end of the story, we wanted to make a modification on our assessment and more particularly on the negative point relating to the 4th wall. During our first run, we unfortunately did not see certain particularly intense and stunning sequences. We therefore remove this negative point. We apologize for the boondoggle, while thanking the people who pointed out this inaccuracy in our test.
The notes
+ Positive points
Consistent lifetime (around thirty hours of main mission and more than 150 side missions)
Good performance from Fox Engine
A vast open world
Affordable for newcomers
The perfect junction with the first episodes of the series
A mine of references for fans
Narration and scenario more exploded than before but of good quality
Action / infiltration gameplay with little onions
Quite simply.
Tons of bonuses to unlock
Customization possibilities on each floor via R&D (weapons, outfits, companions and skills of the latter, accessories)
A fairly pleasant "managing your army and base" aspect
See your Mother Base evolve and return from time to time to have some surprises ...
Negative points
Some dull environments
Inevitably disappointing at certain levels for the fans (OST, number of cutscenes, boss squad ...)
We could talk about it for hours and dive into the various aspects of the game back and forth, but that would not change the fact that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a success and should be discovered by the player rather than explained in detail. Perfect example of a series a bit landlocked in its model, elitist by the richness of its scenario, which decides to change everything to move to an open, welcoming and varied model. This change of model is accompanied by an upheaval in the codes of the game, be it the gameplay, the narrative rhythm, and the lifespan which briskly exceeds thirty hours for "normal people" and fifty for completists. So yes, it may not be the Metal Gear Solid V that fans were waiting for, because a lot of elements are neglected here in favor of the new recipe (no boss squad, few cutscenes ...), nonetheless, this is a title that fans will enjoy finishing, and which new ones will love discovering. The video game world can say thank you to Hideo Kojima.
0 comments:
Post a Comment