This game deserves a better reputation than what it has, I don't believe this is "The Metal Gear with the best gameplay but the worst story" at all. Going too far into why would become spoilerly and I'd prefer not to, but this deserves to stand alongside the other enteries as a great story with excellent characters and just really brilliant moments. The (phantom) pain of never seeing the complete vision of what was planned will always string, but what we still have, still got to hold on to, is a blessing to itself.

For a take that's far less bold, the gameplay in this is excellent, this game getting close to being a decade old is one of the most visually stunning, technically impressive marvels of game design I've ever seen and carries on the series tradition of being revolutionary for the age it was made. This is a fun game to play with a lot of replayability and content, extremely dense and fun to experiment with.

I'm extremely happy with the way this ends the franchise, the perfect loop it creates going back to MG1, a close circle that ends the final game as the perfect narrative set up for the first.