It’s been around a year since I completed MGS1, 2 and 3, and that in itself is idiotic of me to take that long to get around to this game, nevermind not trying it for nearly an entire decade since its release. Much like every other game in this series, it is unsurprisingly a masterpiece - boundary-pushing, innovative and far ahead of the curve. I firmly believe if this game was released today it’s mechanics would still be hailed as unparalleled because they truly are, and I have absolutely no clue how a game this polished and advanced came out 9 years ago (10 if you’re counting Ground Zeroes which is honestly even more impressive).
Practically every system in this game is refined and contributes heavily to how a mission might play out; whether it be the weather, weapons, or even something like driving handles pretty well for something that’s mostly irrelevant. The adaptive enemy AI once it gets working is extremely cool and forces players to change their methods of approaching missions which reinforces what this game is really all about in terms of gameplay - there’s such a wide sandbox to use and a lot of the enjoyability I had with this game is trial and error with different ideas, and if something that I cobbled together in my mind actually worked it was so fulfilling. Even seeing how other people approached missions was really interesting - sometimes, I would complete the mission in the most efficient but risky way instead of doing what you’re “supposed” (there’s really no one correct way) to do, or vice-versa. It’s this level of freedom that truly makes MGS5 such a wonder to play, and really I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like it - not even something as open to experimentation as BotW. Because of implementations like the reflex system, it makes every attempt of a mission never feel too similar, you never know what crazy shit might happen since there will be multiple changes on the next try. But it's also these changes that make the stealth so thrilling - yes you can go in guns blazing but honestly it's sometimes more fun to try and not get spotted at all - which can result in some awesome moments like tranquilizing an enemy from very far away. Obviously not every level is flawlessly crafted, there are some duds whether they be too easy or far too difficult and sometimes frustrating at points (the Skulls missions, or missions with limited checkpoints for whatever reason), and some don’t even function correctly at times, but for how many there are, it’s pretty insane to think of how many of them work perfectly.
The world is pretty hard to define - it’s not exactly open but it’s clearly not confined, it’s almost in a category of it’s own - and I found that it worked really well most of the time, and sometimes was a pain in the ass to navigate because for some reason Snake can’t climb the tiniest hill sometimes, but can climb up a huge rock. Calling in a helicopter every time was often annoying as well as the landing zone would be far away but that brings me to what I feel is the main point of MGS5, and that is repetition.
This game is very repetitive by nature, almost everything you do just becomes a subconscious action at a certain point as you get more accustomed to how the game works, but this feels very intentional. Whether it be the same voice lines from Pequod when “he’s landing at the LZ” or Ocelot’s “That’s an enemy gunship”, sending droves of your own army to random places for some obscure missions, riding the same helicopter for the 50th time after watching the same cutscene of zooming in on Snake and seeing the same credits of whoever created the mission, or even just doing these random missions that clients ask for, for no real reason, there is repetition to everything yet it works because the gameplay is just that fun, but I almost feel like that’s a bit scary. It reflects our (or my) daily life as just going through the motions, but for what purpose? Why am I conforming to society’s needs by exchanging my precious limited time for something like money, why is Snake wandering aimlessly around Afghanistan and Africa, moving from one place to the next while being constantly lied to, why is a machine in real life telling me what to do, why is a machine in game telling Snake to kill all these people, and most importantly why are we both going along with it. And I think this is the message that MGS5 presents, and it’s also why I feel like people are unsatisfied with it. It took me a while to understand that this is really what the game wants to say, all the supposedly “deep” and profound lines have no real meaning to them, everyone is just saying shit for no reason, and a lot of the speeches hold barely any weight and feel comical (and pointless) at times. Even the speech after Mission 43 holds a lot of intent, but it goes nowhere.
Really, the themes do connect with what a lot of the MGS series is about, mostly with 2, but just in a much less explicit way, there are no lengthy cutscenes with a bunch of dialogue describing everything that’s happening, it’s all just shown through gameplay. There are moments that have impact (Blood Runs Deep and Shining Light) but that isn’t really what the story is about, there are no shocking plot-twists (and even if there are, they are quickly suppressed, there is no everlasting effect), the antagonists are reduced to nothing after what they are supposedly built up to be like - the jeep scene in Mission 30 is absolutely hilarious even if Sins of the Father is an awesome song -, and there are multiple plot-threads that literally go nowhere, as people have pointed out there is a titular but cliche “phantom pain” that is felt once the game is “over”, but again that feels intentional. There is a heavy reliance on recontextualisation like every other game in the series, but it isn't used in a way as groundbreaking as earlier games.
The final scene does hold a lot of weight though because it is challenging many player’s reasons for playing games - which is an escape from our rapidly declining world. The game confronts the player straight up with a mirror, a reflection of Snake’s former identity, but also a way to question my own identity. Who am I? Big Boss tells Venom Snake that he is now him, but I too, am both Big Boss and Venom Snake, for now. I am just a boy going through my daily life with no end or goal or reason for what I do. Unless I go outside to live my life, to form my own identity, I will be the same as Big Boss just 40 years later. I am forced to conform to random systems and power that I am helpless against - I would argue that this is the most profound Kojima has ever been at, even more than 2. MGS5 is ultimately Kojima's boldest and most daring game, a game that challenges our purpose in life and asks what we as people who play video games are doing with our life, through this very medium.
Practically every system in this game is refined and contributes heavily to how a mission might play out; whether it be the weather, weapons, or even something like driving handles pretty well for something that’s mostly irrelevant. The adaptive enemy AI once it gets working is extremely cool and forces players to change their methods of approaching missions which reinforces what this game is really all about in terms of gameplay - there’s such a wide sandbox to use and a lot of the enjoyability I had with this game is trial and error with different ideas, and if something that I cobbled together in my mind actually worked it was so fulfilling. Even seeing how other people approached missions was really interesting - sometimes, I would complete the mission in the most efficient but risky way instead of doing what you’re “supposed” (there’s really no one correct way) to do, or vice-versa. It’s this level of freedom that truly makes MGS5 such a wonder to play, and really I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like it - not even something as open to experimentation as BotW. Because of implementations like the reflex system, it makes every attempt of a mission never feel too similar, you never know what crazy shit might happen since there will be multiple changes on the next try. But it's also these changes that make the stealth so thrilling - yes you can go in guns blazing but honestly it's sometimes more fun to try and not get spotted at all - which can result in some awesome moments like tranquilizing an enemy from very far away. Obviously not every level is flawlessly crafted, there are some duds whether they be too easy or far too difficult and sometimes frustrating at points (the Skulls missions, or missions with limited checkpoints for whatever reason), and some don’t even function correctly at times, but for how many there are, it’s pretty insane to think of how many of them work perfectly.
The world is pretty hard to define - it’s not exactly open but it’s clearly not confined, it’s almost in a category of it’s own - and I found that it worked really well most of the time, and sometimes was a pain in the ass to navigate because for some reason Snake can’t climb the tiniest hill sometimes, but can climb up a huge rock. Calling in a helicopter every time was often annoying as well as the landing zone would be far away but that brings me to what I feel is the main point of MGS5, and that is repetition.
This game is very repetitive by nature, almost everything you do just becomes a subconscious action at a certain point as you get more accustomed to how the game works, but this feels very intentional. Whether it be the same voice lines from Pequod when “he’s landing at the LZ” or Ocelot’s “That’s an enemy gunship”, sending droves of your own army to random places for some obscure missions, riding the same helicopter for the 50th time after watching the same cutscene of zooming in on Snake and seeing the same credits of whoever created the mission, or even just doing these random missions that clients ask for, for no real reason, there is repetition to everything yet it works because the gameplay is just that fun, but I almost feel like that’s a bit scary. It reflects our (or my) daily life as just going through the motions, but for what purpose? Why am I conforming to society’s needs by exchanging my precious limited time for something like money, why is Snake wandering aimlessly around Afghanistan and Africa, moving from one place to the next while being constantly lied to, why is a machine in real life telling me what to do, why is a machine in game telling Snake to kill all these people, and most importantly why are we both going along with it. And I think this is the message that MGS5 presents, and it’s also why I feel like people are unsatisfied with it. It took me a while to understand that this is really what the game wants to say, all the supposedly “deep” and profound lines have no real meaning to them, everyone is just saying shit for no reason, and a lot of the speeches hold barely any weight and feel comical (and pointless) at times. Even the speech after Mission 43 holds a lot of intent, but it goes nowhere.
Really, the themes do connect with what a lot of the MGS series is about, mostly with 2, but just in a much less explicit way, there are no lengthy cutscenes with a bunch of dialogue describing everything that’s happening, it’s all just shown through gameplay. There are moments that have impact (Blood Runs Deep and Shining Light) but that isn’t really what the story is about, there are no shocking plot-twists (and even if there are, they are quickly suppressed, there is no everlasting effect), the antagonists are reduced to nothing after what they are supposedly built up to be like - the jeep scene in Mission 30 is absolutely hilarious even if Sins of the Father is an awesome song -, and there are multiple plot-threads that literally go nowhere, as people have pointed out there is a titular but cliche “phantom pain” that is felt once the game is “over”, but again that feels intentional. There is a heavy reliance on recontextualisation like every other game in the series, but it isn't used in a way as groundbreaking as earlier games.
The final scene does hold a lot of weight though because it is challenging many player’s reasons for playing games - which is an escape from our rapidly declining world. The game confronts the player straight up with a mirror, a reflection of Snake’s former identity, but also a way to question my own identity. Who am I? Big Boss tells Venom Snake that he is now him, but I too, am both Big Boss and Venom Snake, for now. I am just a boy going through my daily life with no end or goal or reason for what I do. Unless I go outside to live my life, to form my own identity, I will be the same as Big Boss just 40 years later. I am forced to conform to random systems and power that I am helpless against - I would argue that this is the most profound Kojima has ever been at, even more than 2. MGS5 is ultimately Kojima's boldest and most daring game, a game that challenges our purpose in life and asks what we as people who play video games are doing with our life, through this very medium.