(credits for researching goes to my friend Fahrenheit)

It's impressive how the of use semi open world areas - to familiarize yourself with environment on your own volition with side gigs and piling up connections instead of doing 'side quests' just to make use of it all in the main story was degenerated into the 'ubisoft open world'

The gameplay and the story are also so well synchronized (pun intended) that even the 'shortcomings' that you can experience as a result of its jank still have opposite effects and further immerse you in the game better and you could keep finding secrets on how to take advantage of its mechanics.

The game creates immersion in very simple yet organic ways, such as there not being any shops, so whenever you run out of knives, you could just ANYTIME ANYWHERE could just go on a detour and steal them from the population. Every mechanic is in such a harmony that you can't stop taking its aspects for granted, but I just kept thinking 'why are such obvious details lacking in other video games?.’

Heavy emphasis is placed on investigations to bear its fruition in the face of immersion. You can of course start investigations on each mission, gather intel and plan out how you gonna enter the area and how you gonna escape it by your own rules and then start the mission confidently, but you can also attempt to start the mission without any investigations, that will give you distinct dialogue and guide as to where could you find hints for your mission, making AC1 a game that can be perfectly played without using any kind of a map or even HUD.

The story is a bit too reddit for my taste with how it's concerned moreso about ‘dispelling the illusion’ and ideals a lot more than everyman, cultivating a bit of arrogant disbalance since I do not think fate of the population should be a matter of one on one ‘discussions’ and duels, especially in-between figures who do not have the same concerns and lives as the general population. But I appreciate that the mental states of said figures are some sort of a plea from the inner turmoil caused by the war-torn era and its never-ending disconnection.

What I could not recollect before replaying is how well structured and planned out its narrative and character work is nonetheless - maybe one of the better examples in the medium, even.

People may have been praising architecture and how districts are laid out in games like The Witcher 3 but Assassin's Creed did it before by exploring its culturally diverse and historically rich locations, actually making use of it all in regards to mechanical depth (say, building being in the middle of reconstruction have their own (dis)advantages for parkour, integral part of the gameplay).

Cities Altair visits are Damascus, Acre and of course Jerusalem. It is also worth noting that the theme songs of these cities correspond to the standing of each of these cities and thus reflect the general emotional state of the environment (as well as making use of different techniques and instruments according to their cultural difference), especially how the theme of Jerusalem is a combination of the previous one to reflect its cultural whiplash and transitory state.

Life is represented by Damascus - given its reliance on economics that distracts them from ever questioning higher matters and any of their propaganda, rather than on its own historical or religious value (to the Crusaders) that which is the very reason as to why they have not been conquered. Making it the very first city Altair visits at this most arrogance.

Death is represented by Acre - given its environmental decay and high body count on full display as it has been invaded in contrast to Damascus. Furthermore much of the Arabian and Muslim culture of the land has been eradicated with all the mosques demolished (that is single damaged one remaining that does not serve as the viewpoint anymore) to make way for churches and architectural design of buildings adopting masonry and terracotta rooftops in the richer districts. Terracotta rooftops are used to remove snowfall and since obviously there is no practical utility in building them in Syria, contradiction stands to send a message that culture is dominated by the Crusaders.

Rebirth is represented by Jerusalem - given how the city managed to revitalize itself after suffering the same fate as Acre and finally managed to move on by putting corpses in their graveyards. That said, cultural remains stuck in-between as the Crusaders influence is still intact.

The game starts by the main character committing a ‘sin’ that is used to put him on the leash and then every single encounter, in the face of an assassination mission he partakes in, seem to be (in)directly correlated to the perspective he currently possess and makes him question and finally alter his mindset by gaining faith instead of being blinded by duty and arrogance, finally reaching forgiveness from someone he wronged at the very start of the game.

Malik’s words are coherent with the themes of rebirth. He states that he doesn’t forgive Altaïr as he’s no longer the man he once knew and therefore has nothing for him to forgive - going to the point of even having enough faith in Altair to question the creed. You can see relationships like this with the other bureau leaders too (and even targets), like the Rafik in Damascus is often too arrogant and cocky and likes to mock Altaïr until he feels Altaïr has outgrown him and feels a bit jealous, the Acre Bureau Leader starts of pessimistic and places no hope in Altaïr until he sees the error in his ways and even apologizes to him

Of course assassination targets are also making maximum use of their minimal screen time to have their presence heard effectively so as for them to not break the flow of the game. My personal favourite being the one that highlights how religion dislikes his kind and only by observing his body language amidst his speech you can see the hint that the cause of this is his homosexuality on top of other personal and political nuances that makes him hate himself and the world alike, forcing him into an active role against the status quo.


Needless to say, the addition of each and every target is nuanced and further thickens the plot.

Game also starts by making use of historical context and weaponizing reputation of the fanatical religious suicidal tendencies into a strategy to defend against the siege.

And if you were to start researching history you would notice that even something as simple as the tutorial section has the assassin's indoctrination as its subtext. To put out an example, in the intro sequence of the game the animus is glitching and Altaïr is surrounded by women in a garden and there's a godlike figure in the back quoting The Book of Ecclesiastes. Symbolic of a myth surrounding the Nizari Isma’illis (aka The Assassins).

Basically a myth spread by their western foes arose where it was hypothesized that the reason why the Assassins were so fearless of death was due to their initiates being put through a process where they would be abducted by their superiors, drugged with Hashish and then taken to a garden filled with pleasures of the world such as beautiful women and exotic fruits. Here they would be granted a taste of paradise and after it would be taken away from the area, they would then be promised a return to the garden as their reward for obeying the leaders of the Nizari Isma’illis to perform their Assassinations.

This is however a myth mind you, as it was only spread by the Western foes of the Assassins and it’s also due to this that u hear the common misinformation of the word Assassin originating from the word Hashashin (meaning those who smoke Hashish) when in reality it originates from the Arabic word Assassiyun (meaning People of Principle). The game incorporates this myth ingeniously as it being the first scene of the game is not only symbolic of the game indoctrinating you as an Assassin just like the initiates were in the myth but the game also acknowledges it as something false and later on goes to dispel this myth and reveal the truth (facilitating the game’s themes of the pursuit of truth and knowledge and is why The Book of Ecclesiastes is so relevant).

Later on Al Mualim even reveals that he allows their opposition to believe this myth as it enables the Assassins to spread their fear and terror to their opponents. Furthermore the final scene of the game mirrors this first scene where Altaïr is in The Garden with Al Mualim quoting The Book of Ecclesiastes only this time we’re given context and see the memory for what it truly was (and have thus been enlightened) The utility of the animus to glitch and combine a bunch of memories to create a corrupted one to later then be dispelled after you finish the journey is ingenious as it not only enabled the team to utilize the historical & mythological context to the fullest but also to simultaneously pursue the themes of the game by dispelling the illusions presented to you

It also subtly hints to how despite their symbolic castration (at least they cut their fingers), assassins still receive earthly delights as rewards (say, prostitution), which makes them more understandable albeit hypocritical.

Assassin’s Creed is a game about what it takes to find true peace. It explores how in order to end war and vanquish the chaos poisoning the world one must first bring tranquility within themselves for it is what belongs within the heart of man that he manifests upon the world. However it also acknowledges that to authoritatively brute control into society is a solution no better than war and that one’s inner rebellion can also act as the harbinger of liberty.


Assassin’s Creed therefore provides the answer that In order to find peace in all things one must first recognize the nature of the world, that Nothing Is True and Everything Is Permitted, thus guiding us to adapt to it. Additionally it also suggests that peace is not something definite in nature to attain as if one attempts to grasp at it, it will fade into thin air like mist. It is therefore wiser to follow its trail bearing the hope in our hearts that we may one day find it

Might also be worth mentioning that the game has a stylistic philosophy of treating its events like an entire dream sequence to facilitate its themes on the power of the human mind. It also fortifies the narrative of Desmond using the animus to venture deep into his mind to discover the truth of his ancestor’s journey through enlightenment. It’s also why the animus loading screens have Altaïr traveling through a blue and white mist as it mimics the sky and clouds to reinforce that dream like state

Unfortunately the game is a bit too ambitious for its own good and thus has visible cracks as a result of being an unfinished product. Notable being traversal area that is Kingdom, which is kind of a meme outside of you seeing the environmental destruction amidst the war (this section was meant to have horse chasers and whatnot) and how entire game goes to complete shit in the endgame by turning 'assassin' simulator into 'deflect another wave', even against the final boss that completely controls Altair's movements but somehow Altair keeps moving around whenever game demands it (this section could have been changed entirely), yet still manages to maintain its narrative on thematic level at the very least and packs the story under all-new concept of (dis)illusionment, making it inherent part of human nature.

Oh yeah side gigs are also lacking in creativity in self-contained sense with how you keep repeating the same thing over and over again and for some reason initial impression and feedback of the game was that it was being too hard, so as a result the game was made a bit too easy - though I guess you could always download 'permanent rank 1' mod to compensate to a certain degree. That said, nobody really gets in your way to make the game more challenging and interesting on your own. I also have personal distaste to how you are keeping a count of how many ‘altruist’ deeds you have remained in the city, but I guess it is also up to the interpretation of the player since it can be done completely on your own volition no matter what kind of perspective Altair has in any point of the game - so it is always blurred whether it is an altruistic or calculated deed to use civilians as his pawns and even traps placed against assassination targets

Nitpicky complain I have in the process of assassination department is that even if replayability in the assassination missions are superb, it's a bit of a chore to actually restart missions - you still gonna have to get through the unskippable dialogue, replay 2-3 side gigs and some of them won't even have fast-travel available, but that's not something impossible to ignore so long as you are willing to put the effort in the game. That said, game making checkpoints depending on which phase your assassination is (be it either infiltration, murder or escape) kind of drags the mission-based nature of the game.

Talking about the base game ends here. Now I asked my friend his opinion regarding the changes done by the PC release of the game since I have not played Playstation 3 release and put his answer down below, which is in-depth and could be read in case there is interest from you all.

AC1’s rerelease on steam aimed to add variety to the investigations so that the process of gaining information was less monotonous. Whilst a noble attempt at refining the game I feel its execution was either misguided or sloppy. My main criticism comes from the fact majority of the new investigations are either superficial in nature or replace older ones which were more meaningfully designed for the Assassination. For example when investigating Tamir one of the older missions that’s replaced in the steam port is an eavesdrop where we gather the location of where Tamir will be found we also learn from the merchants being abused by Tamir are treated as his slaves and that Tamir has even executed some of them in the past.

Furthermore they remark that he’s abandoned the teachings of The Merchant’s Guild. All these details are significant in building Tamir’s profile, his executions already paints him as ruthless using fear to intimidate the workers under him to do his bidding, additionally the fact he sees them as slaves with no other purpose than to serve him displays that he is plagued by ego (this is even reinforced during his confession where he claims himself special by working with The Templars to creat A New World Order and also his ability to recognize arrogance in Altaïr too). Finally there’s the fact he’s forgotten the teachings of The Merchants Guild which portrays that abandoned a Creed he once believed in which not only makes him a good parallel for Altaïr but also reinforces the game’s commentary on faith and how the complete lack thereof can lead to the most heinous of deeds being perceived as justifiable.

All this is lost for a mission which simply requires u to race to an informant who just gives u the information about a meeting taking place at the souk for u to Assassinate Tamir. Even worse at times the additional missions can work in opposition to the game’s narrative. For example in William’s Assassination mission we know he’s been stealing people’s food so he may ration them yet the breaking stalls investigation has the narrative that they’re selling bad meat under William’s command and therefore need to be destroyed which makes no sense when it contradicts William’s goal (i.e taking away food to ration it, not provide it even if it is spoiled).

What’s most unjustifiable about all this is that investigations were always a backdrop and so missions like Eavesdrops and Pickpockets were always quick and to the point whilst being situated in places of interest for the player to study as the real meat of the game’s investigation period comes from studying the environment so to add new investigations which take even more time than older ones makes little sense as it draw attention away from what should be the game’s focus.

Overall it’s not the worst thing I the world as most of the old missions are retained at least and investigations are still a backdrop to the game to facilitate grandeur goals so this flaw is far from a deal breaker to playing the game and enjoying it but it does deserve criticism for making the game overall inferior in some way even if minor especially when it was completely unnecessary.

Since the game is a bit too high IQ for me and thus would require from me to put an effort in writing an actual write-up, ill just throw in some incoherent ramblings I had on discord since recent chainsaw man chapter got me in good old hotline miami mood

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Hotline Miami blurs the line between human and inhuman, whether 'humans are still animals or not' idea is just an excuse, is their humanity a pretense or is it their animalistic behaviour thats a pretense?

anyway you can see Hotline Miami 2 cast as different type of characters that could have been protagonists of the sequel and I think after coming up for so many backstories, writer had an idea to make meta commentary and the subversion on the concept of sequels

difference in level design in contrast to the first installment makes it rather obvious that not a single individual from the ensemble cast is really up to being 'Jacket' that is an idea. On top of them having their individual type of gameplay to reflect their psyche, they all are also a bit too methodical and calculating to their approach to murder and are not as much into delirium when compared to Jacket who was merely seeing things in coma a lot of times and hence his dreamscape being a bit less realistic.

you see Jacket and how his behaviour influences different type of deranged people with their own masks and animals to live with and not only they can never live up to the standards of how Jacket is being idolized and immortalized, but they also never really grasp that whatever they take out from it is not the reality. reality is more fucked up but they get reality check, memento mori and reminded of their mortality

oh the game also has 'recorded' type of presentation when you are supposed to 'eject' the game for it to end, as if it was some cassete shit
it can be interpreted as scattered records to understand the truth on your own (sorta like Higurashi)
but its also usually used to visualize sociopathy (like in Kane and Lynch 2, where 'camera' is basically behaving like a camera man constantly following the main character behind)
there are a lot of interpretable shit

the monster The Son fought in the end was basically him killing The Fans but he was tripping, thinking he was entering valhalla but merely killed himself, he achieved catharsis only in his delusions while just randomly killed himself in reality. fan trip is also probably a result of him projecting jacket into the fans. they are inspired by jacket and were comrades to him in the war (son doesnt know this but its still relevant to the fans' character) and them wearing masks and then targeting the russian stronghold in the finale probably influenced sons mind in that regard

in hotline, we see jackets daily life and how he behaves extensively. his home is mostly empty. we do not see him interact with anyone up until he saves the girl kidnapped by the russians. there doesnt seem to him having anything whatsoever that doesnt make his life completely barren. we dont even see him doing his actual job and his life outside of his apartment and hits on the mafia. these all build up for his sociopathy, making it seem as if he is unable to connect with anyone or be able to complete anything outside of his violent missions. him being mute may just a trope. regarding the events of the games, beard and jacket served together in hawaii and jackets life is then saved by beard. later both of them are discharged and are assumed to have maintained contact with each other. however, towards the end of the war, russians nuke san fransisco, where beard is located. jacket is devastated by beards death, as he sees him in his dreams in the hospital, indicating that he formed a close friendship. this however may be interpreted in a different manner. it may be that due to jackets completely barren life and his unresponsive character, he simply may have exacerbated beards connection and attitude towards him, which build up his sociopathy and social ineptitude even more. after the nuking of sanfran, russia and america governments form a coalition to put a stop to future conflict, and america is humiliated. huge waves of russian immigrants flood america. this flooding is implied by the fact that bolshevik russia was an economical shithole while america was prosperous in the 80s. russians taking advantage of this as well as the indiscriminate bombings and humiliations in the war heightens tensions between the russian immigrants and american citizens. the russian mafia expanding in various parts of the country complicates this even further. the general from beard missions founds 50 blessings organization with other individuals who are disillusioned

with the american governments handling of the things. they attract others into their organization by putting up a patriotic front, but the exact motivations and mannerisms of the higher ups is left to different interpretations with the janitors and the generals behaviour. going back to jacket, as 50 blessings starts recruiting or forcing others to hit russian locales to further their so called patriotic front, jacket is also recruited. jacket accepts everything that is thrown at him. he doesnt ask questions. he doesnt wonder why he is doing what he is doing. he simply seems to not care. he brutalizes russians and their american associates (politicians, fat black enemies in levels, 3rd party drug dealers) without a hint of emotion. the major interpretation is that jacket despises russians because of them killing beard. whether jackets relationship with beard was genuinely mutual or it was his sociopathy and delusions manifesting as early as the hawaiian conflict is up to your interpretation. but in the very first level, despite not showing a single hint of character and personality when killing the russians, he beats a homeless man because of him being a witness to his operation and kills him. and then he pukes. jacket is so far removed psychologically that he feels genuine remorse and/or shock for killing any other guy, but his behaviour is twisted with the russians. he does not have any relationships, and is a complete recluse. he is unable to connect with anyone but then finds the girl tortured, raped and drugged in one of the russians dens and starts an intimate relationship with her. because of her presence, he starts to clean his apartment and seems to correct his errors more often. they eventually are implied to even have sex. the girl may be way over his head because of the trauma she recieved, and such situations cause people to haywire in the head, ie create feelings for people who rescued them instinctually. but jacket does not give a fuck.

he simply relishes in the girls affection for him and either tries to genuinely correct himself or deludes himself due to his erratic psychology. again, this double interpretation is due to jackets sociopathic nature already established with his treatment of the russians regardless of which way you wanna pull it, and so you can either view a lot of stuff he does as genuine or irrational. the latter part i have mostly not seen being said in any hotline community, but i dont interact with them anyways. yet all of that we see is unreliable anyway, because richter shot jacket and jacket was in the hospital dreaming of all the events that transpired before him waking up. this part concludes jackets sociopathy which the video talks about. his ignorance is his other major side of his character. not once does jacket question the authority that tells him to bomb this and kill that. he doesnt give the slightest fuck about why he is doing any of the things he is doing. he never even tries to pick up the pieces together even when there are major hints right in front of him. richter, jake, the original tiger mask guy and plenty of others can be found throughout the levels tortured or murdered by the russians or locked up. they were doing the exact same thing as jacket did, but he never even cared, he didnt even make an effort to notice. richter pleads uselessly to jacket but when he does he also alludes to 50 blessings and how they are connected to everything. instead jacket refuses to listen, and thinks that it was the russians all along. since he doesnt give a shit, he makes up his mind on how the events transpired and concludes that there were rivaling russian factions that wanted to destroy the other ones, and that jacket was simply used by one of them against the other. he stands on trial and gives that statement to the judge. that is his ignorance. instead of trying to get a grip and focus on what is really happening, he just pleases himself with violating russians.

this ignorance and cowardice is also represented in other characters like biker, fans, son and evan. like i have said before, it mocks those who are capable of dealing with the issues at hand but choose to satisfy their base desires instead, and so the generals deranged speech is the clearest statement of what is going on in the minds of those characters. the meta comes into play here. just like how the characters dont give a shit and refuse to reason, to think, to understand, the players themselves also do not care for hotlines story, and the devs criticize them for that, as they think the story and what its saying is important. most hotline fans couldnt give a fuck about anything other than the ultra violence you can perform in the games, and so they complain about all these nitpicky issues about games length, level designs and gameplay issues, which are valid, but neglect the heart of hotlines story and do not want to bother with what the devs are trying to say. so to them what happened is just delirious meme-y bullshit that they couldnt take seriously. and the devs clearly give a huge fuck about the story because look at how intricately woven it is inside the various events of the chapters and how it stretches and interconnects between the perspectives of the various characters between the games. and so richard berates jacket and the others for their inability and cowardice. not because he thought they truly had any power to stop any of what happened, but because they chose to remain lowly while neglecting everything. this is what richard is. an omen that tells people about their impending doom and criticizes them in a completely humane manner, like any other sane person looking at what the people of hotline were doing.

jake was so loyal to the cause and just showed genuine support for the faction and was ready to go berserk but they killed him canonically actually, executed by 50 blessings, it builds generals jadedness and how he doesnt give a fuck about nationalism or patriotism actually

general being coerced to force his soldiers to perform suicide ops because of goverment pressure and patriotic rhetoric being flipped in current hotline era by how he tricks losers by nationalist rhetoric and sends them on suicide missions themselves to unravel russian political dominance

pardo is a mentally stunted attention whore. his personality can be regarded as an aspect of masculinity(though its not exclusive to masculinity). the desire to be on top and be recognized by all. having all the lights shine on his ass and get all the fame. jacket is publicized and his murders are all over everywhere. everyone talks about it and discusses why this mf did what he did. he also has anger issues. we see him suicidally charging into drug dens and cartel bases killing everyone. thats his way of cooling off. and he also has done some pretty fucked up stuff that would cost his job and evan knows this, hence why evan forces him to give info, saying that pardo owes him big time. being pissed about jackets rise, pardo then starts his own murder spree. at first he doesnt know or understand what would get hot on the press, as he didnt murder people meticulously but just gunned down criminals. so he just slits someones throat and thinks its all good. then the cops arrive at the scene and he keeps telling both them and evan that this miami mutilator case is much more sophisticated, subconsciously trying to exert his presence and overtake that of jackets. there is an instance where lightning flashes and we see camera crew filming pardo and the scene. both are more hints to figure out his craving for attention. later, the fans become famous and that makes the jacket case and the situation with the masked murderers across miami even more hot. this pisses off pardo so he tries to get more violent with his methods. disembowels his second victim. then goes berserk and charges into colombuian ship. in his latest murder he slips and leaves evidence for police to find him. the scene is also much more gruesome as this time he flayed the skin of the victim when he was alive, then ripped open his chest. both him slipping and being more grotesque can be interpreted as his subconscious giving way for his apprehension, as that is the quickest way to fame, to stand on trial

like jacket is on trial right now. afterwards he realizes he left his gun at the crime scene and encounters his other criminally insane self, which is a very basic bitch scene. he then dreams of how his apprehension would play out. him being all regretful and telling he had no choice but to do it, killing all the officers trying to take him out, etc. which is even more emphasis on his attention craving fantasy as that is even more newsline worthy material. just like what jacket did to confront richter in the police precinct, gunning down all the cops there. then he wakes up and gets a call thinking his fellow lawmen are gonna bust his ass. he gets paranoid and barricades himself and drinks. but in reality it was them calling him because the russians were gonna nuke the place and his help was needed. and then he dies in his manic state, getting nuked into oblivion like evan, jacket and richter. pardo is the sideman who got delusional into thinking that he needs to be at the center of everything and destroys his life to do so. but in the end it doesnt even matter. no one had the opportunity to figure him out and he died like all the rest.

beards relationship with jacket is also kind of fascinating in regards to how jacket percieves it. he wanted revenge for Beard but probably also thought he was as cool as Beard

Him seeing beard dead next to Richter was already a hint to him slowly ‘remembering’ and blaming it all to Richter, but there is more to it

beard missions portray jacket and beard as comrades but they arent shown as close friends, beard is just a good guy that did what he thought best, the photo scene can be just jacket doing at least some sort of action to establish human contact, but his perception of beard in his dreams and how little interaction there is between the two in reality gives way to jacket being delusional cunt exacerbating his relationship and finding reason to commit mass slaughter without a good excuse

beard and jacket relationship is open to two interpretations. jacket being emotional because of beard death simply because they were friends. You could also say that the other aspect fits more in character with jacket is jacket deluding himself with beards perception and reception of him and then exacerbating it

the idea that someone could do all that shit to Russians was probably plausible since The Beard was just that good so nonchalantly, unlike literally anyone else who holds malice in heart, and all of it got catalyzed by something that was not done in malice at all, hence the cover of the game where Beard is looking into atomic explosion that came out of nowhere to him, he was just doing army gigs after all but somehow it kickstarted environmental destruction on which he had zero awareness and control over. Sort of like ‘death of the author’

i doubt Jacket genuinely cares about beard in a way that would be considered genuine or emotionally healthy and he is using beard as an excuse for his own bullshit desire to go berserk and massacre russians, but he still has gripes as the only time he didnt kill russians and others that werent adverseries made him puke his guts out, like he doesnt question what he is doing with shaking the russian mafia even once during the events of the game, he just goes along with everything 50B is telling him to do, he is senseless and doesnt care, he just likes hurting other people

and thats why richard reprimands and scolds him. because its too late and he never even tried to understand what was happening around him. did you notice what he was saying in his testimony in trial chapter - he was saying how rival russian factions manipulated him to take each other out - fucking dumbfuck.

he would not care about Beard, he was just nervously smoking shit in army and was not talking to anyone

in stories like Apocalypse Now and stuff influenced by it, we always only get stuff about army and how it turns people psychotic and full of PTSD but they always leave the rest up to interpretation. in HM, Apocalypse Now shit is moreso an army backstory, while consequences of such an experience are shown and taken to the extreme

Richter man just lives in shit and has to take care of a mother thats pretty much dying with natural causes instead of violence or anything and he can't really fight it in any shape or form. It's a conflict that can even be associated with Superman

richter in actually is a normal dude who cares about his loved ones and is forced into take action by others threatening to take that away from him, but jacket just sees him as basic villain and richter is also apologetic and sympathetic towards him when he gets confronted in prison, he also makes richter responsible for all the stuff happened so that builds into him deluding himself into thinking russians were just doing their own shit and take each other out, he also makes richter evil by him saying diabolical shit and shooting his woman

i dont even know if richter was the one who shot jackets woman

Its also cool how HM2 menu is nuclear blast and they basically bomb the idea that HM3 could ever exist, pretty much a final nail to the so-called ‘sequel’ coffinn

Don’t remember if I mentioned it above but theres also a cool detail in the game that you can’t actually hurt women in the game and you get punished for even attempting it.

Oh yeah music and level design also fucks in this game idc

TLOU is painfully mediocre. Except for Ellie, everything else in it is too aimless, too simple, too cynical, has no replay value whatsoever and writing is too weak to care about it. The most of the game feels like a filler and it does not even have fun set-pieces with its cinema-wannabe presentation. Strange to see how people craving towards full freedom in video games make such an exception for this game.

I had the highest amount of technical issues while playing this game than any other one - plot-important doors not opening, FPS being very unstable, walking animation being nullified and characters starting to move in T poses, textures not loading to the point of me just standing in the void and so on and so forth - but I would not say it was anything significant, as I got used to FPS and the bugs disappear from the game moment you reload from the last checkpoint

The Last of Us is immersive but merely on a micro level, with very small details that people usually do not really care about while playing games, aside of companionship with Ellie that feels very natural and there is a lot of effort put to flesh out their dynamic... and generally facial expressions and body language is good to capitalize on it further. Although conversations themselves in general are good in how they flow, as the game does not over-explain itself and establishes the kind of relationship several characters may have with one another, as well as making some neat wordplay (such as Ellie asking Joel about the gunfire and him answer 'cicadas', meaning both the group of people and how short-lived the actual cicadas by nature are).

Meanwhile, literally everything else is very lacking - such as, only having three type of monsters or fighting against fodders (who also have attempts to be humanized, but they all feel like one character anyway... hell the moment you arrive to your brother, you start seeing girls and generally more individuality in the camp, but every enemy (bar one girl in the ending) is the same face maniac guy) in cover shooters and that makes it super repetitive. In the whole game, you really only get caught by fodders in some small ares and trying to deal with them by killing or running away/stealth (You basically either repeat some simple stealth stuff or just run around to not get hit...). At least, these things have weight behind them, with heavy gunfire, close-range weapons that can be used only once most of the time, scarce ammo, how deadly the enemies are despite their small numbers and how destructive the playable characters are instead of being un-diagnosed schizophreniacs.

I did not particularly care about the opposing A.I. and they were coming off goofy whenever they tried to come at me bare handed in the middle of two-sided gunfire, even when I had more than Ellie as an ally. A.I. for the companions are good (or, at least, convincing enough for me), though and they do not really do anything that breaks the immersion despite them performing things that usually warrant flow-breaking cutscenes even in many other PS3 games and is generally convincing and entertaining, even if most of the things they do are predetermined and they even are invisible amidst the stealth, I still like it because of how puzzles would not work for a lonely brooding character, communication in the fights, delivery of some items and them being visible in stealth scenes would make the game way too insufferable.

That said, the game not having co-op option only switching POV with Ellie in a very convenient moments really does feel like a cop-out, because Ellie can disappear anytime from Joel's vision and then spawned wherever the story wants her to be. I would say RE: Revelations 2 (even if its nowhere near as immersive as TLOU - but that is not the point I am making right here, so let us ignore it) did a better job at it and it also gave each of the supporting characters different roles.

Puzzles as a breathing room? Haha, you literally just drag ladder/'boat' from one place to another obvious place like 15 times and that's it, every pathway is almost identical. It is mostly used for mundane interactions to bond the characters further, so here is that.

Of course, it has zero replay value because it is trying too much to come off as a movie, but is not good enough even at that. You can even kill zombies just by punching them. Not only that, but it virtually has no story - seasons are basically episodic story-lines with abrupt and forced plot advancements, to the point of feeling like fillers because they barely (if at all) have any importance and get immediately forgotten, making the story drag a lot despite all of these story-lines being rushed as hell (you waste whole game to get to one place and you only have one scene there... there is a story-line where Ellie gets kidnapped by a faction, Ellie kills some guy in their camp and the plot-line immediately ends in the middle of nowhere... There is also a guy and his brother you befriend, but the moment they finish their job in the plot, brother gets turned into a zombie out-of-nowhere and his older brother immediately kills himself - all this getting zero foreshadowing, internally or externally).

And there is also a weird habit of cutting the scene and immediately skipping the time, dropping as in tonally different scene the moment after something supposedly emotional happens in the story. Prominent example of this being the very prologue - first, story wants us to get attached to father and his daughter with a speed of light and even cheaply plays on the expectation by giving as 3 minute gameplay section for the daughter. 10 minutes later she dies at the hand of the soldier, who is spawned out-of-nowhere and who gets completely unjustified order and he gets confused as if he was a teenager (because that's within the characteristics for such an important job, right?). Then instead of seeing Joel's grief to at least emphasize to his grief by his own very emotions to connect with the scene, story simply does not let us and skips 20 years of his life. Needless to say, both pacing and structure of this story is quite unappealing to me personally.

Aside of Ellie, not only none of the characters give you much reason to either care about them or find interesting and be intrigued about their placement in the overarching plot, but even main characters themselves do not care about them or get affected - Joel's inseparable best friend? Dies a meaningless death at the start and Joel does not even raise an eyebrow (well he does a bit more than that, but its just not enough to be convincing)... Ellie gets assaulted? Kills someone for the first time? Someone she befriended turned into a zombie in front of her AGAIN? Well too bad, no reaction (aside of Joel being proud of her...), in the next scene she will start whistling or something I guess... Like yeah, it is mature and all with how selfish and survival oriented everyone is as the result of civilization's fall and how even the main characters can commit bad deeds without feeling bad about it, but it is just too cynical when there are not exceptions made for people they have established attachment and thus very dry for me to experience. Joel only really gets mad and tortures the random fodders, so the full potential to communicate is not reached. Oh and characters also change their minds pretty fast as well - you have Joel who does not want to take Ellie with him because he trusts his brother more than himself (that was a nice bit of confession, I must admit) and fights with her, but in the next minute he takes Ellie back... Joel's brother does not want to help Joel because he does not want to risk his family, but then sees Joel killing people and talking to Ellie and immediately changes his mind...

Also, you can't really try to come off hyper realistic and, at the same time, let some 50 years old guy (do not know his actual age, but you get the point), who can't even make proper jumps and whines about his age, to massacre an army equivalent of soldiers in their own base AND then allow him to somehow slip through the rest of the army in their own building with predictable exit routes while he is carrying a child with him. You also can't make the girl 'easy to track' in the middle of the camp full of people hunting her down and, at the same time, let her get away completely scot-free (funnily, the story-line ends before they even get out from that place). So, basically, Ellie (virtually alone) not only ruined the whole camp, but did that without any consequences whatsoever. Hell, they never get injured at someone else's hand throughout the whole game, Joel only gets injured once and that's just because he drops on something. That is not a characteristic of a plausible cinematic experience (well, not counting blockbusters), but good old FPS shooter.

And the story is full of such convenient developments in favor of main characters - like in Winter, we have a smart guy who deduced just by girls' impressive skills and need for medicine, that she was with Joel and trailed the girl, BUT somehow, his whole camp ONLY came after Ellie and completely forgot Joel's existence... - while everyone else are just always suffer heavy consequences - so even if they are not really winning anything, I still was not really invested in their conflicts, because at least they were not losing things, in comparison to everyone else - the ending was probably the only exception (and it standing out highlights how the rest of the story does not have much effort put into it), because you get like 1-2 tapes (which is quite very little) where you can see the people you are killing are struggling too and doing something for the better, while we have selfish Joel lying to even Ellie. That being said, game being so cynical and dead AND still trying to make you believe that a sacrifice of one girl WITH NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS can have any worthwhile effect on the world is iffy to me, given the damage seems irreversible and I fail to grasp what exactly would Ellie's sacrifice fix. Although, that probably makes the ordeal better, rather than dampening its quality.

TLOU is fine in terms of showing the consequences over the world, what the zombie attack ha done to society and an individual, but the presence of something that would deny the zombie virus and how denying people of that miraculous chance is not provided.

Already much prefer TLOU2 to it and I have not even played it

“You're still happy now. Changing your lies to suit the listener, and getting by on slipping through the cracks. Building layer upon layer of convenient stories until nothing means anything to you anymore. You're happy all the time, because you don't even notice you're doing it. Think hard. Who are you really? You're not a victim, and you're not the silent majority. You're a perpetrator. And a petty hypocrite. The real world doesn't make you suffer. It's the other way around!”

You most likely have already heard just how much of a technical marvel this game is and yeah, that indeed is the case and many would probably agree that the gameplay is treated quite fairly at least when compared to the games of its time. Now where the game is not being treated fairly, I think, is its story-telling and even if I do not mind players not caring about narratives in video games, I will still try to appreciate it here, since I consider MGSV’s plot to be at least as good as the rest of the series and quite frankly I do not have much else to talk about.

That being said, this will be a mini-review and I won’t really be talking about a wide variety of things that can be discussed about it and won’t really bring many examples.

I think people mostly not click with Phantom Pain because it connects to the entire series in an overly subtle manner but otherwise has very grounded and small scale conflict and its not as expressive as the rest and also it requires from the player to take it into account that its moreso a prologue (you could overthinking as it coming back to the very first Metal Gear game to form an ouroboros from various angles) to the rest of the series and thus they should not be expecting a cathartic ending - which is also highlighted by how it fundamentally mirrors Sons of Liberty - but the way its using the entire series for its own good is what makes it the best

How well do MGS2 and MGSV contrast one another is already elaborated here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV4wY2rjAWY and to put it shortly, we have two cases of identity crisis being born by the influences of the Snakes and how the reaction (or lack of thereof) by these people (re)shapes the MGS world. A spontaneous descent into ‘evil’. Many might have been disappointed by how said promised descent was not really directly focused in long-winded sequences and instead we have not even played as Big Boss as he was absent for the whole game, but that is exactly what makes it more natural and plausible to me. We did not have to witness the change in Big Boss, we only needed one big reality check to realize that he has always been one, come make the point sounds. As a result, we get a room to sense the noticeable (unless you are Venom) change in Big Boss after the events of Ground Zeroes as the ‘ideological clash’ - of what kind of a person everyone (by the most closest one, The Medic) thought Naked Snake was in the romanticized lenses and what kind of a person he actually turned out - is born between his current self and his present self, or rather what Venom (We) understood of him in Snake Eater and Peace Walker. Vices come from short-sightedness, after all…

... the 'evil' of Big Boss being, of course, doing the very thing that was done to The Boss to his comrade, essentially becomin whatever he sought to fight against...

… in 1984 Metal Gear universe is full of aimless proxy wars and impending apocalypse of information.

Everything is a lie to establish another lie.
Everything is a trap to establish another trap.
Everything is a gambit to establish another gambit.

And then we have ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes, the Diamond Dogs - on the surface, a group seeking to appease their loss and establish a place gathering people regardless of their age, ethnicity and gender (diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and a dog is a man’s) all while letting them learn to use their skills for good and leave whenever they please, as well as building separate territory to the ones not indulging in warmongership and educating them in civil manner.
Beneath the surface, we have good old manipulators, accomplices, puppets, rapists, war-criminals, victims, perpetrators, traitors, torturers and whatnot, all keeping the 'Outer Heaven' grounded to the existing reality.

Contrary to the RPG nerds' beliefs, MGSV's pseudo open-world is doing exactly what it should be doing - we are not getting a talking simulator full of lousily connected (if at all) side-quests detracting from the main plot, but the aspect exists with the sole reason to immerse as in the freedom of espionage. It may feel bland, sure, but it is 'an official' war-zone between people with a thick language barrier, all that is left to them is to kill and manipulate and be killed and manipulated. Not to mention how emptying the environment (to safety) is also a part of their job and that's a refreshing thing about Phantom Pain's world, it is not about what quests you are taking and what is the extra context that characters are telling you about their lives, but what you yourself are doing and how are you doing it (the world having to adapt to your legendary status) every bit of task and mechanic further drives that point, with no unnecessary content to be found.

All in all, we get a game completely focused on (in)direct progression of its mechanics and narrative. Although, side-ops would have benefited if the locations had missions with different contexts instead of repeating the same thing over and over again, especially when, say, you are supposed to rescue someone in a certain location, they will always be at one fixed location. And if I mention another issue I have with the game, it is the boss battles - Now unlike others, I do not think we got the small amount of boss and battles with them, in fact there is a very good amount of fights and part of them are simply more than just fights-to-death like in other MGS games, showing clear maturity, but that very maturity and realism gets a bit too much when these boss fights are not getting their own 'stage' of sort, to give them their own unique flamboyance to them, as the boss fights get influenced too much by the game being open-world to the point that they feel like engaging in average MMORPG type action with them and there really is not much to do against them, they come off as very easy, be it you getting free missile launchers, airplane help or just blatantly run away from them easily without you being affected in any negative form because it does not even affect your mission rank.

The game would also massively benefit from more indoor sequences/set-pieces and whatnot. Prologue showcased a fantastic example of what could have been achieved, but unfortunately it is never repeated.

What I appreciate a lot in MGSV is that it is up to the players to decide whether story content gets in their way or not. Or we can just get the minimal amount of information or just dig in the cassettes and interpret various things in various ways. We can take the name of the series as an example. Hell, we can take one letter from the name as an example - V - and take connections such as… it is not a proper number because the game is some sort of a spin-off… it being two lines mirroring one another… it represents peace or victory… or maybe it is Vendetta... or it could also be used by the villain to give a hint with double meaning as to where the bomb is located…

… there is a mission in MSGV where Venom Snake is being bit by venomous snake so funny and full of meaning he biting himself and generally Snakes and clones all die by other snakes' hands… and this is basically how MGSV manages to be a free resident of my mind, you can connect to one another as much as you like.

Sure there are a lot of questionable plot development and connections to the lore established in the previous installments… for example, how the final mission with Skull Face starts, our veteran Venom Snake almost announcing to Skull Face that he was indeed approaching him for the kill, in the open field, which seems very weird at first, but then we can look at the mask of the Third Child (who is in fact Psycho Mantis, but never gets named for exactly the lore reasons) and it becomes clear that he was manipulating Venom through his bloodlust, given the visible horn on him, the detail that keeps changing according to who the child is manipulating at the moment. So yeah, slowly and surely, thinking about such satisfying details and making sense out of the game is exactly what makes it age so well for me.

Basically, you could even skip all of these cutscenes and just play the missions, indulging in the mechanics as you please, the story won’t get in your way, aside from explaining some mechanics here and there. What’s more, gameplay itself plays a vital part in the development of at least one narrative point. You can see Automata’s Ending E being praised by anyone and anything and it is quite easy to do so, given how blatant and shoved down your throat it is (not to say that I do not like the ending), but barely anyone appreciates MGSV doing the same thing with its nuclear disarmament, but in much more subtle manner.

I know, I know… having to listen to cassettes is the gravest sin towards writing and all… but on one hand they are not really necessary and on the other hand, video games are not advanced enough (if they will ever be) to hold such high standards for them in this very medium, so I really do not see the reason to be so unforgivable and harsh towards MGSV.

Of course, there are other interesting mechanics… one of the memorable ones being how the soldiers you recruit learn to speak more and more languages, which then gets directly revealed as a theme, language’s power, that which was very well elaborated in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8EJyHh2xfM

"Your favorite song... Nicola, Bart — immigrants, wrongly executed... But their deaths served as a message to others: that ours is a society that murders the innocent. Do you, too, believe that your sacrifice will change the world?"

(says the guy who basically proudly delivered everything catastrophic that was about to happen in the MGS-verse before he himself - or should I say, got turned into a phantom pain to the world? Alright, sorry for the lame joke… and he is as much of a shadow to Big Boss as much Venom Snake is… foreshadowing, foreshadowing…)

what I love about Phantom Pain, aside of its relatable language power theme that serves as clear message in comparison to pure emotions that other series are trying to convey via vague resolutions that are not really saying anything, is that even if characters are doing questionable things in a harsh world, it's not a 'necessary evil' propaganda, but Venom Snake's squad is constantly improvising and questioning the missions they are provided to complete. Were they vaguely asked to kill and it turns out they were asked to kill children? They just record fake video and if it works it works, if it does not work then they won't care about the mission and when they take children back, they don't turn them into soldiers, but make separate space for them to get educated. it starts as a seemingly random band but it grows and shapes as an interesting system in itself

And then all of it crumbles… the final nail being put by Big Boss himself… making Venom realize that the point of no return has been crossed by not only himself, but his present environment too, and it's too late for him to fight for his own good, so he should do it for the next generation.

Well I love the whole cast - even Ocelot, who is seemingly ‘not himself’, but actually cleverly plays with the expectations once again and Huey who I find as a fantastic subversion to the expectations built by his son (in addition to the proofless and self-(un)aware bickering between Huey, Ocelot and Miller that makes the matter unreadable and unpredictable through the various possible outcomes) - but I will solely focus on Venom here. The shadow of Big Boss that still remained as the expendable shadow even after literally turning himself into the Big Boss himself. Or on meta level, us, the players, towards whom the Venom is looking as we break the mirror and there remains nothing to reflect on.

The way he was given the most freedom and agency out of the protagonists and at the same time he was the least person you would call 'free', the way he can bond with the system he built and various individuals and commit atrocities towards enemies and his own people alike, all with their own consequences and having psychological issues of his own on top of that, while also make poor choices both in how he judges people and how convincing he is - in just a single game - makes me appreciate him on quite a high level, as it is an achievement that none of the protagonists have achieved (and Sutherland nails it the way I do not see Hayter being able to do, for this particular character)

I also liked how it does not really feel like the game is making a 'twist' out of his identity and it is only a fault of main character's identity crisis/twisted perception and maybe player not giving much attention to A LOT of details telling you that he is not the real Snake (heard people already knew he was not Big Boss, from the original trailer alone... with very simple and natural details like what they are smoking and etc). But then again, all of the Snakes and 'clones' in general are very close, so I don't really care about their ranking. He kinda lacks catharsis and is probably the most brooding of them all in how silent he is, that downplays him a bit, but at least he is not pushing people away like you would expect from such an archetype and its also done with its own interesting purpose (as he is supposed to be the self-insert, in comparison to Raiden who was supposed to have his own life and it could not have been suppressed in favor of Snake's role machinations)

Venom might be ‘mute’, but he still an individual, making his own choices that can go against his surroundings, not being influenced by them, as seen in his judgment of releasing Huey and most definitely not using nuclear weapons in action, but just as a symbol, to completely negate Naked Snake in him. He is, of course, also capable of going with reasonable suggestions and change his mind, as seen by him changing his mind about the kids once Miller affirmed his stance to treat them well and put them outside the warfare. And, of course, he could be forced to commit things he does not want to commit or not commit just for the satisfaction’s sake, which can be seen in Skull Face’s final moments, Miller forcing his hand… and Miller himself is the one who respect Venom for not indulging in vengeance as his character progresses. After all, he has always been a medic and the role he is forced into is the complete anti-thesis to him.

See, everyone but Venom Snake desires revenge in the game. One might think that expressing the desire to vengeance is what would define someone and thus Venom Snake does not really have personality, but one thing is clear, that very specific desire is made universal in the game and not admitting to it can only be defined as the trait.

I love how Venom has memory problems and only retains romanticized view of Big Boss and then is trying to uphold it, thinking it's him and he feels more and more comfortable in it but at the same time feels guilty and pessimistic about his previous identity, self-unaware as he can’t even recollect in objective manner the most crucial event in his life, the one he feels guilty about. That he was unable to locate the bomb and got Paz killed. Or so he thinks, to not shift the blame to someone else, like Eli, but to himself. It was his fault. He should have been better… and that’s the transformation that occurs to Venom, he embraced his fate to weaponize in favor of the Boss’ wish.

Everything comes and culminates together in the final scene in front of the mirror. In the mirror. Which is in itself mirroring. It's his 'phantom self’ looking at what he has become on the one hand and despising, but another (something that is presented as ‘reflection’ to us, as the Phantom is reflecting on his life) probably is his gradual change looking at his 'phantom' self at every change and despising himself even more on top of that, as it is drifting further and further away.

I don’t feel like I have unpacked all of the scene myself, so bear with my rambling.

As the game starts by the view going into the tape and ends out of the tape too, the whole game is indeed what Venom was reflecting into.

That scene does not take place in one fixed time, but throughout the whole ‘Venom’s Life’ (you have heard of the life flashing in eyes before one is about to die). Blue color is about it happening in his gaslighted mind (the whole room is in blue and it is moreso when he is playing the second recording and we heard the noises, likely placed by Ocelot, who was also brainwashing even his own self), red is being influenced by emotions of vengeance (of the real Big Boss, that does not belong him so it is on the outside and not being accepted as part of Venom identity, he does not care about vengeance throughout the whole MGSV, but about himself. That is, up until the MGSV ends and MG1 starts) and then breaking the mirror (his face neither red nor blue, but moreso green/yellow, color of peace) seeing the general picture, sorta absorbing the blood, coming clean AND then starting uprising at Outer Heaven on his own from thereon to ruin the reputation of 'Big Boss' (lashing out, as that was the sole purpose that Big Boss reduced his life to) and maybe sacrifice himself to Solid Snake, to do with Solid what the Boss did to Big Boss and just like Skull Face leaving his phantom pain, he would leave one through Solid Snake... while OG Big Boss was doing MG1 plot to catch two birds by sending Solid Snake for them to kill Venom or/and die trying and freely continue the rest of his goals in Zanzibar.

Also, Venom is colorblind, so he mixes red and blue (as we see at the start of the game, blue bloodbath in the hospital) and that might symbolize his unawareness and confusion in the grand scheme of things as well. Red and Blue is also basically a subversion of Red Oni and Blue Oni tale that I need to research a bit, but the game was called Project Ogre initially (ogre = oni), the intent is present. Also how Ocelot is dressed yellow-ish, while having red scarf on the surface (probably symbolising how he does not really care about the revenge and is just there to help out OG Big Boss), to contrast Miller who is dressed yellow-ish on the surface but beneath its all red (and not forgiving OG Big Boss for what he did in MGSV, because revenge is important to him. Of course there were many other examples in the game (such as Huey’s judgment - between red and yellow) as the color symbolism is quite prevalent there.

Venom smiling after hearing how he too is a Big Boss would basically be something like 'you are telling me this now, huh' and then shifting the expression immediately, making his mind up about ruining Big Boss because his whole existence in basically Big Boss reputation at this point and by looking at the mirror, its him realizing what exactly going on and negating the attempts of brainwash and then breaking the mirror on his own, embracing what he is right now and making it unable for himself to reflect on himself ever again and stepping into the mist, being wiped not only from the history but from his mind as well (foil to Skull Face - who ironically dresses and acts as over-the-top American ideal chad while taking revenge on America... and like Venom, he understood the Boss' will (or lack of thereof) too... but when SF satisfied his personal desires despite failing at his goals, Venom achieved his goals, all of it to go in an exact opposite way as he would have wished) and that would at least give meaning to his and his fallen comrades forgotten lives, who would all have been already lost as the sacrifices to Big Boss’ grander plan.

There never was neither ‘You’ nor your idea of Big Boss. Nor did anyone have any proof of consent to do something so horrible, to rob someone of his life, to Venom Snake. That very idea of Big Boss has fled away in the mist with us. Venom Snake never needed the title of Big Boss to exist, but it is all to late now, no matter what he will try to do about it - he is Big Boss and will always be one, he sees himself as Big Boss and will always see himself as one, everyone sees him as Big Boss and will always view him as such, he has commited sins and there is neither redemption nor heaven awaiting for him, but at least there is future for Solid Snake, but for that he has to embrace embrace what he was made into.

As one of the tapes goes: “It is just a dream. It is all a dream. I am in it, and you are in it too. I am the dreamer, but you are having my dream. Do you get it now? You do, don’t you? Peace Day never came … Our wishes do not come true. We just cling on to our dreams, our phantoms. Mine and yours.”

Naturally, there is room for the head-canon in this interpretation (considering we only had revealed the connection between Venom Snake and the final boss of MG1, but not the answers as to how it all could have happened) and they all would be connected to Miller purposely going to Solid Snake and training him for this exact plot development, as he wishes ever since it was revealed to him as to what Big Boss did (likely after he was rescued by Big Boss at the start of the game - which would explain why would he be opposing Ocelot’s (towards which we were naturally catering) decisions throughout the game… it has always been interesting as to why would he be presented as someone so bickering despite how everything he was advocating for was in the framework of rational decision-making, so we had a nice ‘little’ pay-off to that)

Implications towards this can be found once achieving the unachievable, getting rid of every single nuclear in the online gameplay of MGSV and we get Venom talking to ‘the phantom that the Boss has left behind’: “I haven’t forgotten what you told me Boss. We have no tomorrow, but there is still hope for the future. In our struggle to survive the present, we push the future further away. Will I see it in my lifetime? Probably not. Which means there is no time to waste. Some day the world will no longer need us, no need for the gun or the hand to pull the trigger. I have to drag out this demon inside me and build a better future. That’s what I…heh…what we will leave as our legacy. Another mission, right Boss?”

As well as Miller’s reaction to Big Boss’ doings: “No…Big Boss can go to hell. I’ll make the phantom and his sons stronger, to send him there. For that… I’ll keep playing my role.” - Venom is about to become the weapon that would attack the very thing he was meant to protect. He might not get any achievements of his own, no celebration whatsoever and not even leave behind small bits of himself in any shape or form as he will be nullified from history, but at least he will indirectly destroy Big Boss’ whole being. And the better future might come through Solid Snake guiding Raiden, what could and should have been the relationship between Big Boss and The Medic.