As most reviewers seem to have pointed out at some point or another, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is short to the point where it is very easy to complete the game within the period of a couple of hours if not less. While I wouldn’t go as far as defining MGSV: Ground Zeroes as a “mini-game”, it is very reminiscent of Gran Turismo’s former “Prologue” line of titles that aim to give a glimpse of what is to come in a future instalment… in this case Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which is set to be released at a later date and purportedly will be significantly larger than what we have been presented with now.
In terms of the Metal Gear chronology, Ground Zeroes takes place a year after the formerly PlayStation Portable exclusive “Peace Walker” which was later ported over to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 as part of the HD collections that followed. Haven’t played the game in a while OR not at all? You would be wise to pick up / whip out a copy as the game throws only a rudimentary text-only summary of the events in the main menu.
Essentially the purpose of Ground Zeroes is to serve as a prologue that links both Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain together. It sees you taking control of Big Boss “Snake” as he infiltrates a military base in order to rescue Ricardo “Chico” Valenciano Libre and Paz Ortega Andrade. While there is just enough to whet one’s appetite for things to come, and does so quite well, it still ends up being incredibly short and still lacked much of the appeal that other instalments including Peace Walker managed to provide. Even if this is just a “Prologue” title for what has taken them almost an entire console generation to develop, I was personally expecting more.
To give credit where it is rightfully deserved, for a game of its length Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes provides a great open world environment that delivers much more of a non-linear experience than earlier titles. You are welcome to explore the island to your hearts content (Provided Big Boss doesn’t end up penetrated by a barrage of bullets) and enjoy what I would consider the most vesatile “Snake” yet. As with any open world game there are small side-missions that eventually avail themselves to you, and can add precious minutes and hours to your playtime.
The general gameplay mechanics should be very approachable to veterans of the series and still retains the third-person action-adventure / shooter mechanics present in previous games. You can choose to complete the game by sneakily wandering around the environment, picking up a firearm and taking down a target or hijacking a vehicle to move around the environment less conspicuously but more securely. The open world is big enough not to hinder you progressing the way you want to play, however is small enough that it doesn’t hamper the experience. The user interface has also been minimalized in comparison to past games, and also came with a few additional tweaks such as a greater emphasis on using binoculars to identify and mark enemies as well as a new “bullet time” mode which gives Big Boss a few seconds after being shot to identify and shoot down attacker(s) before the alarms are raised.
It is a good game in theory however as mentioned before there is not enough of a main campaign to put everything to good use.
Metal Gear Solid IV was a gold standard for visual quality even in the later days of the PlayStation 3 era. While it may have more competition being considered “the best” in the design department, Ground Zeroes still presents a visually impressive experience. I playtested the PlayStation 4 edition of the game which has been hailed as the best of all four console releases in terms of screen resolution and frame rate, and everything from the environment and character designs to the lighting and weather were all impressively handled. Let’s hope they can continue this standard with The Phantom Pain.
While there is nothing unique about the soundtrack of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the voice acting hits the right notes, even with Kiefer Sutherland taking over the role of Big Boss from David Hayter.
Konami were wise to knock down the price of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes to $49.95 AUD, even if it could have stood to have another $10 shaved off the price along with it. MGS V: Ground Zeroes serves as a solid prologue to what will hopefully be a fantastic main game in the next couple of years, however with a playtime of only a couple of hours they really needed to offer more to ensure that Ground Zeroes stood out in its own right rather than just as a slightly long demo.
But I will say this…. come on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain! Impress me!
A PlayStation 4 copy of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was kindly provided by the team at Mindscape (Australia) for the purpose of this review.
