"The world calls for wetwork, and we answer. No greater good, no just cause. Cipher sent us to hell... but we're going even deeper."

"I know. I'm already a demon. Heaven's not my kind of place anyway."

The Phantom Pain is a lot. It's a conclusion to the Metal Gear Solid story, while also being a prequel to most of it. It's an innovative open-ended stealth sandbox adventure, while also being a base management game. It's about how the cost of war and the cycle of revenge cannot coexist with ideologies of heroism and peace, while also being about how fun it is to strap a balloon to a man and watch him fly away. It does all of these things perfectly. Now, you might be asking yourself how that's possible. Everyone has said their piece on this before; "it's unfinished, the story is undercooked, the gameplay is repetitive, it's not a satisfactory conclusion to the series etc." I'm not going to try and change anyone's mind, it doesn't matter to me if you hate this game or not, but I have a lot to say that might prove insightful, at the very least mildly interesting. This is going to be a long one.

I'll start with the story. Firstly, if you haven't played Peace Walker it's impossible to get everything you possibly can out of this. There's a ton of payoff and parallels that stem from that story, The Phantom Pain is essentially the anti-Peace Walker. Secondly, the cassette tapes are the codec calls, they've just been changed to where you have to go out of your way to listen to them. I've come to love this change overall, even if sometimes I do miss getting a call while in the field. There's much less over explaining in this than the other games. Kojima is known for going into too much detail at times, and while it still happens here, it feels a lot less aggregious. This is probably due to many of these kind of conversations being in the tapes, this way you can get the extra information you might want without it interrupting the narrative.

Punished "Venom" Snake is one of the most mischaracterised figures in gaming history. Many people wish that he had spoken more, wish that he had more agency, wish that he was more light-hearted, much like how Big Boss used to be. But Snake's lack of spoken dialogue, lack of agency, lack of anything you'd expect of him to have is incredibe characterisation. His silence speaks volumes as to the kind of man he is and to the kind of place he's in, both mentally and physically. Seeing him in charge of an extremely formidable military force, while also having a literal devil (Kaz) on his shoulder and an angel (Ocelot) on the other, both vying for approval from a man who's not all there, it's amazing. And at the end of it all, Snake and Kaz's quest for revenge ends on a whimper. It leaves them empty, it's an embarrassing display from both of them. All they can think of is back to the good old days, back to Peace Walker. They're both longing for a way of life that they shouldn't want, a life they pretty much still have. Stuck in the same cycle over and over and over and over again.

The gameplay is obviously great, anyone can see that, even just mere minutes into your first real mission in Afghanistan. I don't need to go into detail about the quality, it's one of, if not the best game in terms of moment to moment gameplay ever made. What it does exceptionally well it how it marriages it's themes and narrative into that gameplay loop.

Snake is trapped in a war without end, all he knows how to do is fight. Your own side ops keep piling up, you've always got something to do, someone to save, someone to kill. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much heroism you gain, no matter how many people you spare and save, that horn is never going away. You're a demon and you always will be. The feeling will never go away, you'll never be finished in a war without end. And just to top it off, just to add insult to injury, you're not even the man you think you are. You're not Big Boss. You're just some guy he knew. And when the truth is revealed, Big Boss talks for one final time in the entire franchise, directly to us; "I cheated death thanks to you. And thanks to you I've left my mark. You have too. You've written your own history. You're your own man. I'm Big Boss, and you are too. No... he's the two of us together. Where we are today, we built it. This story, this 'legend', it's ours. We can change the world, and with it the future. I am you, and you are me. Carry that with you wherever you go. Thank you, my friend. From here on out... you're Big Boss."