for some reason this is probably the only time a piece of media has ever made me feel "triggered" to the point of trembling white hot panic and rage and I'm very lucky to be able to say that because it was a fucking horrible experience and I hated it a lot!!! As someone who watches a lot of "transgressive" or politically indefensible genre media and has a complicated fragmentary interest in it I'm no stranger to sadist exploitation and the justification of horrific, perverse acts committed against women as a callous means to reinforce a fictional world's steely hopelessness but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. The way this game doles out such repugnant torments to its one female character, a child (who was previously presented as a duplicitous saucy nubile cartoon temptress in a way that felt indefensibly racist and pedophilic), granting her zero dignity or humanity and utilizing her sexualized abuse as some cheap suggestion of a new "darkly-real, Kiefer Sutherland's war on terror" stylistic direction for this series.. is just... fucking grotesque and too ghoulish for me to even process. Kojima's misogyny was always something I had to internally justify or excuse up until this point--undeniably objectifying and ignorant but mostly absurd in a schlocky horny genre way I was personally able to overlook--and i think part of what I found so fraught about GZ was how intensely it laid bare how adjacent to abject misanthropy and callous hatred his views on female characters always were. I mean there are hints of this in MGS4 as well with the BnB's--the body oil moaning nymphoid war crime victim sequences that immediately transition into narrated monologues (not from them of course) about how these women had dealt with like the most lurid and sensationally violent trauma possible and you freed them via murder actually bc that was your job and right 2 do! That was disgusting to me at the time as well, but something about the treatment of Paz: an unrelenting violation of a character as a means of stylistic/thematic transition and an intended vehicle to generate hype (Metal Gear pulls no punches now this aint your momma's genre game we put Liveleak ISIS torture in it!) just utterly revolts me and makes me feel queasy 2 my core. The insult to injury was seeing this games attempt at some hateful cruel stylistic baptism for the series and then having Quiet's design revealed... Ground Zeroes isnt even an honest statement of intent for the series; Kojima isnt heralding in a new misanthropic world of mutilated dignity and constant desecration... he's simply incorporating that into his world where women are also sexy cartoon sidekicks with coo coo pulpy character designs... I think part of what upset me so much about this is envisioning the mental landscape of someone who is able to justify a narrative universe in which both of these ideas can non-schizophrenically coexist, let alone communicate anything valuable about geopolitics or war crimes. Utterly vile / fuck this piece of shit 4eva and tbh while I found so much of death stranding to be arresting and sprawling and deeply felt I also am unable to remove the stain of this fucking filthy worthless game from any of his other works! u marred your library forever u fucker I hate you!!!!!

I absolutely would've hated being a Metal Gear fan when this game first came out, but with the price drop, this is now worth the price it's at very much. It's quite strange to see an entire prequel game, basically a demo of the main game, be sold separately and still be vital to the plot. Regardless, what's here is a very solid, if short, definitive Metal Gear experience.

I actually think I like this type of stealth gameplay the best out of every game. It's not completely linear like in the first four MGS titles, but it's not completely open world like MGSV. What you have is a prison camp that you're free to roam around in and complete objectives with whatever means you see fit. Take any route, use any weapons you find, it's up to you. This isn't saying that the other MGS styles of stealth are bad, not at all, but I think this open world type gameplay contained in a decently large map is perfect.

There's a surprising amount of content beyond face value. You've got your main mission, which shouldn't take you much longer than an hour if you just want to play it for the story, five shorter missions, and two non canon missions. I want to address the elephant in the room now with the main missions and the story present within it. The story is simple and is as follows: Paz is still alive after the events of Peace Walker and is being held at the prison camp, along with Chico, who attempted to rescue her on his own. Big Boss rescues them both, but unfortunately, Mother Base is attacked and brought down by Cipher in the process, resulting in only a few soldiers, Big Boss, and Miller surviving. A helicopter crash results in the death of the remaining survivors except for Big Boss and Miller. The story is then continued in TPP. Nothing crazy, but provides good setup and is interesting enough for a short game.

There's some uproar online about the depiction of Paz being incredibly misogynistic, and while I can see where the arguments are coming from, I can't say I completely agree. For those unaware, there are some cassette tapes you can find which depict interrogations between Skull Face (the main villain), Chico, and Paz. One such interrogation depicts stuff that I'm probably not allowed to spell out here, so I'll redirect you to this screenshot of Paz's page on the Metal Gear wiki so you can read for yourself. Yes, what happens to her is horrible, but also, this is a series where horrible things happen to good people all the time. One of the main themes throughout the whole series is that war is fucking awful, and its depicted here in its fullest.

I can see why people think this is misogynistic, but make no mistake, not every instance of something bad happening to a woman is misogynistic. Compared to previous torture sequences, (which are literally minigames) this is treated as dead serious. What happens to Paz could be argued as the worst thing happening to anyone in this series, but similar things happen to other characters (namely Hal, whose stepmother seduced him when he was just a kid). But just because the worst thing happens to a female character does not make the game misogynistic. What if something even worse happened to a male character? Would it be sexist then? Of course not, that's stupid. It should also be noted that in these games, men and women are treated equal on the battlefield. Female characters save male characters just as much as the other way around.

Another argument I see is that this is only done to "develop" the villain, Skull Face, in a very lazy way. This is also wrong. This is not done as a replacement to his development, it's done in tandem with it. We understand him much better in TPP, most notably the jeep scene, so no, this torture sequence does not attempt to develop his character in any meaningful way. If anything, it pushes the extent of his cruelty, as a similar situation happens with him and Code Talker later on. He interrogates Code Talker by using a bell to ring every time Code Talker refuses to give him info. At the ring of this bell, he essentially kills one of Code Talker's people, which is the last thing he wants because he wants his bloodline to endure. He's basically playing with human lives, even throwing the bell down the stairs once he's done. And, in the end, he wasn't actually killing any of Code Talker's people, showing that simple interrogations like these mean nothing to him in the grand scheme of things and are a simple game for him to play. In short, this scene alone does not attempt to develop Skull Face, and if it did, there's other similar scenes that work with it to show us the extent of his cruelty.

Feel free to disagree with me, that's just my take on it. Maybe I'm wrong, but the cool thing about art is that I'm allowed to interpret it however I want. Anyway, the actual missions do depict another interesting side to Big Boss' escapades. They're all set before Ground Zeroes' main mission. Each mission shows Big Boss and Miller being played for fools repeatedly, which is similar to the ultimate downfall of Mother Base. A sniper duo that apaprently terrorized the warzone are actually two men haunted by their past. Most notably, after destroying anti-air crafts to help an outsider take control of the camp, the whole camp ends up getting bombed due to a coverup by the US. Not the most interesting of stories, but it adds some insight into the fate of the main cast.

Two extra missions are unlocked if you find all the XOF patches in the main mission, which isn't the hardest thing ever, but you will probably need a guide. I found quite a few on my own, but there's only so much ground I'm willing to cover to find a needle in a haystack. The first of these is Deja Vu, where Big Boss is set to recreate scenes from the first MGS. This mission is way more fun than it should be. Each time you recreate a scene, Robin Atkin Downes (Miller's voice actor) does an impression of a character from the first game, including Meryl, which had me dying. What's crazy is his impersonations aren't even bad. You could easily fool me with his Psycho Mantis and Liquid Snake voice lines. What's also funny is Kiefer Sutherland basically talks more in this mission than he does in the entirety of TPP.

This isn't as simple as just running up to an object and looking at it a certain way, either. Some of these require some extra footwork on your part. Like the car scene, where you have to take a car underneath a bridge, similar to the escape sequence in MGS which took place in a tunnel. As a reward for getting every scene, you'll be faced with an MGS quiz at the end of the mission. If you get all the questions right, you'll unlock a PS1 Solid Snake skin in all of its polygonal glory. Using it during the Deja Vu mission will also have certain other characters in PS1 models. Overall, a nice nod back to the series' breakout.

Jamais Vu is the other mission and it had me pissing myself with excitement. In this mission, you play as Raiden, who traveled from the future to help Big Boss exterminate some body snatchers, who attached themselves to soldiers at the base and could spread if not dealt with. Raiden (unfortunately) refuses to use his sword and instead uses basic firearms. The main difference between him and Big Boss is that he runs WAY faster. It's insane how much ground you can cover, and you'll need it because of the constant swarms of enemies that show up. I found it funny they didn't change his run animation to fit MGR so it looks goofy as hell. They also swap out the music for Metal Gear Rising tracks. Sadly, none of the lyrical ones are present, but you still love to see it.

This mission is just to eliminate enemies and not die, but playing as Raiden is fun enough on its own. I wish the mission was a bit more deep than it is. Running as fast as possible around the base makes doing any other missions somewhat of a slog. I also love how it's portrayed as an actual story, just not canon. Raiden just traveled from the future and is here to help. I wish Metal Gear did more wacky shit like this. I know there's a costume of him you can use in TPP, but it's not the same as when you actually get to play as the character.

I went into this expecting it to be a short tech demo of TPP, and that's all I got on my first playthrough. Revisiting a couple months later showed me that there's quite a bit to this game hidden underneath the surface. A decent story that flows into TPP pretty well, combined with what I think is the best stealth gameplay to date. The missions are pretty basic and easy all things considered, but they're enjoyable enough. Deja Vu and Jamais Vu are two stupid fun missions and I wish the series did more fun stuff like this. It's still basically just a demo of TPP, but it's a pretty good one at that, and I'm glad I gave it a more fair chance going in again. Despite its shortcomings, I think I enjoyed this more than Peace Walker.

Kojima's most cynical and scathing criticism of video game fans. The stealth 'playground' is a detention center modeled on Guantanamo Bay/Abu Ghraib, the collectable items are recordings of the horrific rape and torture of two teenagers, and you're on a rescue mission to save said teenagers because they might just spill the beans on this whole extra-governmental, Geneva Convention breaking private military enterprise you're running in the middle of the ocean.

This critique was expanded and formalised in a more sophisticated way in The Phantom Pain, but damn, do I appreciate the sheer vitriol of this game, Kojima held back NONE of his contempt for the average Metal Gear fan in this one.

The fact that this game recreates the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but then makes it canonically run not by the US government, but by the paramilitary force of a shadowy Illuminati-esque global cabal headed by a supervillain with a literal skull for a face, which the US military then bombs because it would presumably be an international scandal if word of a black site being run on US-controlled soil ever got out, tells you kind of everything you need to know about Kojima's approach to politics.

Ground Zeroes was a solid foundation for the future of Metal Gear and the stealth genre more broadly. I’ve always associated Metal Gear Solid with connected level design. I haven’t played much of 1, but I’ve heard there’s backtracking and Shadow Moses is relatively small. Sons of Liberty is the epitome of this, but Snake Eater has some too. Guns of the Patriots was more of a shift to levels, but there’s some room for backtracking and connectedness in the first two acts. Ground Zeroes is level-based Metal Gear done right. There’s so much to the black site; so many ways to enter and exit, so many ways to move through it, so many things to find. Add on top of that the way different missions redesign the placement of enemies, items, and objectives, playing off what remains consistent to put it in a new light. It’s incredible, really. Small play areas have always worked the best for me in stealth games, perhaps because I’m not very good at them (I’m not very good at many games, or many things in general). When it comes to something like Hitman (2016), for example, I kind of loved the demo areas but hated the first actual level. I was overwhelmed by the scope and complexity, and while I understand that that’s what really makes those games fun, I do appreciate the small areas. It’s part of why Splinter Cell: Blacklist was such a guilty pleasure of mine. The different areas of the camp act as mini-staging grounds for stealthy engagements, threaded together as part of a bigger (but not too big) whole. The changes to controls also make it more comfortable to bring a more straightforward shooter mentality to Metal Gear, something others might consider heretical but it’s an option I appreciate. Metal Gear Solid has always been about killing, thematically if not necessarily ludically. It might only be one level, but it’s an awesome level to mess around with.

Unfortunately, the black site isn’t perfectly designed. It often feels cramped, too easy to be spotted, too many open stretches of road and landing zones that Snake can get exposed in. There aren’t many tools for players to mitigate the challenges posed, constrained as Ground Zeroes is by its demo-like nature. It’s still satisfying enough – see my first paragraph, but it’s hard to say whether it needed to give you more items, more choices, or simply be laid out differently. Maybe it’s fine as it is. I had a lot of fun, after all, especially for it only being one level – one that should have been the first of many.

We all know, though, that Ground Zeroes wasn’t the foundation for a level-based masterclass in flexible stealth gameplay design. Instead, Phantom Pain sprung more from its questionable narrative foundation, reincorporating the admittedly somewhat interesting (but grindy, oh so grindy) progression mechanics of Peace Walker alongside the more refined Fox Engine gameplay, and straddling that in an open world. But not an engaging, flexible world that serves as an interesting battleground upon which all these disparate systems come together to form the ultimate open space for tactical espionage action. The open world of Phantom Pain would prove so boring that prerelease videos would fast-forward travel between moments of interest. Not the greatest showcase, even if I ultimately did like both Afghanistan and Africa. The Phantom Pain wasn’t too great, though, and it feels like Ground Zeroes might have been the last great stealth game. Sniper Elite is trying. The ghost of the immersive sim genre is stacking boxes in the corner. Mimimi Games are doing their thing. Stealth is also ubiquitous in the AAA sludge, everywhere yet nowhere, confined to simplification as part of generically approachable corporate-mandated mechanical packages. Ground Zeroes should have been the beginning of both an incredible series of levels, and a resurgence in the genre. It was failed by its successors on all counts.

El prologo al capitulo perdido de esa saga que medita sobre la dualidad.
Inesperado plot twist. Ground Zeroes es un reflejo del primer episodio de MGS2, pura pornografia de accion y espionaje que deriva hacia un final turbio y extraño que parece enganchar la fantasia con la realidad. Tambien es, como MGS2, un reflejo sobre la imposibilidad de desligarnos de las nociones de lo que es "un buen videojuego"

Jugar con la linea que separa la explotacion, la parodia y la autocritica parece estar prohibido en los videojuegos, la necesidad de brindar un punto de acceso asequible para el jugador por medio de un centro moral facil donde se acepta antes la accion cartoon que la posibilidad de manejar la pornografia estetica y la abstraccion. Casi todos los acercamientos formales parecen basarse en la calidad del apartado, el tejido en si, por encima de la expresion y el retrato, confundiendo forma con materia y calidad con profundidad que, partiendo de ahi, ese razonamiento se arrastra hasta lo narrativo, lo literal y lo moral. la sustraccion selectiva a la que juegos como MGSV se ven sometidos es prueba de lo poco que en ocasiones entendemos realmente (me incluyo, por supuesto), ya no de videojuegos, si no de posibilidades. Con Sustraccion selectiva me refiero a la focalizacion de aspectos concretos que nos hacen salvar o condenar un videojuego concreto, en MGSVgz:

-La bomba en la vagina como condena.
-La jugabilidad como redencion.

Para mi ninguno tiene sentido.
La cuestion de la misoginia interiorizada de Kojima es evidente y una absoluta lastima, tan evidente que el mismo la reconoce de forma casi abierta. ha intentado varias veces de manera honesta tratar la sexualidad como parte de sus mundos, siempre una mix entre la nocion japonesa y Norte-americana del sexo y los cuerpos, el exhibicionismo y el empoderamiento, tanto para hombre como para mujeres, aunque claramente al ser MGS una saga que maneja la masculinidad y el mito del heroe, la peor parte se la lleva el genero femenino.
Dicho esto, el asunto de la bomba me parece mas una super-dramatizacion de un acto atroz que sadismo sexual en si. Quiza me equivoque, pero no veo mas atencion en ello que la incomodidad y el retrato de una tragedia de guerra, crafteada dentro de un momento intencionalmente incomodo, Y Quiet me hace sentir demasiado incomodo, entiendo que forme parte del punto de TPP, me gusta la teoria, pero no comparto las formas.
La cuestion de la jugabilidad es el punto de sustraccion selectiva mas grande y en la que mas "Criticos" caen: Apuntan a una ausencia de autocritica mientras alaban las posibilidades del gameplay cuando ven un video de Dunkey, sin pensar en disociar o hilar lo que sucede con nada que no este dentro del videojuego, siempre desde la relacion avatar-jugador. lo que vemos es lo que hay y los videojuegos son literales.
Es un modo de ver las cosas con el que cada vez concuerdo menos.
Aparte,hay algo mas anti- americano que ofrecerte guantanamo como un campo de juego para despues desatar un 9/11 sobre el hogar del avatar/protagonista??
Bastante genio.

La posibilidad de crear mundos digitales donde el autor pueda integrar personificaciones de sus predilecciones, preocupaciones y, por que no? Fallos y problemas personales como un mashup se ve lapidada por las cuestiones de tono, necesidad de un ancla moral y la necesidad de satisfacer al jugador, claro, un juego se supone que debe ser divertido.
Pues No.
No necesariamente.
En que punto perdimos la capacidad de entender que el contenido ideologico cuestionable que un autor incluya en su obra no tiene que ser una personificacion 1 a 1 del mismo? Ni idea, pero en videojuegos es algo extendido. Quiza porque gozan de menor reconocimiento cultural? Por sus cualidades inmediatas? Porque son divertidos?
En ocasiones uno debe separar para ver con perspectiva, encontrar ese algo especial, pero habria que empezar a pensar como separar mejor para reencajar mejor todo.

"Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes" é incrível, mas desnecessário

Ground Zeroes está cercado por um estigma que o torna difícil analisá-lo ou que desanima aqueles que querem conhecê-lo, sendo um jogo muito curto e que claramente devia estar integrado no Phantom Pain e eu não culpo aqueles que o desprezam por esses motivos, a minha opinião vem de alguém que comprou o Ground Zeroes e o Phantom Pain por apenas 20 reais e de alguém que nunca zerou um MGS na vida, se a minha opinião vale mais ou menos do que a de um fã da franquia depende de cada um.

Ground Zeroes tem como influência os acontecimentos na Baía de Guantánamo, uma prisão dos EUA, construída em Cuba que serve (até hoje) para abrigar terroristas e que foi usada após o 11 de setembro para torturar milhares de prisioneiros, a maioria desses prisioneiros não tinham evidência substancial contra eles, muitos não tiveram um julgamento ou possibilidade de soltura, muitos desses prisioneiros eram crianças, muitos foram soltos anos depois sem queixas e muitas organizações confirmaram que humilhações religiosas e sexuais, junto de métodos de tortura proibidos, aconteciam rotineiramente na prisão, esse, é o local que Ground Zeroes nos convida a visitar.

Ground Zeroes é um dos jogos mais políticos que eu já joguei. sua representação dos prisioneiros com capuz preto de Abu Ghraib, e as referências a Sacco e Vanzetti tornam o um jogo interessante de conhecer e de se aprofundar no que ele usa como influência, porém, ele não trata desses assuntos de forma apropriada, esses assuntos não fazem uma boa justaposição com a gameplay e tom geral de MGS, você vai passar boa parte do tempo aprendendo as mecânicas, se divertindo dando mata leão em soldados, se infiltrando em uma base militar secreta pra descobrir que a sua recompensa é desvendar por quais torturas uma criança de 13 anos e uma adolescente de 16 passaram, isso sem contar que boa parte da interrogação é opcional, o que significa que a maioria dos jogadores vai experienciar uma história incompleta, e a busca por essas gravações extras não é prazerosa, eu não me senti satisfeito indo atrás delas, o que eu senti foi vergonha alheia ouvindo o seu conteúdo.

Há também a questão da desconexão das Operações Secundárias, algo que foi certamente feito para fazer valer a existência dessa experiencia como um jogo inteiro, você tem missões que mudam totalmente o tom do jogo, nessas missões você vai resgatar o próprio Kojima, metralhar aliens com um ciborgue e reencenar cenas do primeiro MGS, elas com certeza são divertidas de fazer, mas fazer essas missões pra depois voltar pra campanha principal é desgostoso pra dizer o mínimo.

Mesmo com esses problemas, é possível apreciar o Ground Zeroes, seja pelo seu valor nominal ou simplesmente aprecia-lo mesmo com suas falhas, o jogo oferece uma gameplay refinada para aqueles que buscam um equilíbrio entre Stealth e Ação, gostei tanto que fui atrás de todas as conquistas e peguei Rank S em todas as missões, e reconhecidamente, o Ground Zeroes trouxe uma atenção para todos os tópicos históricos mencionados acima, e me fez ir atrás e aprender sobre eles, por causa de tudo isso, acredito que ele é um jogo que vale a pena conhecer, mesmo que você não goste da experiencia.