Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Reviews
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain successfully translates the iconic stealth action gameplay that has defined the series into a massive open world adventure.
Hideo Kojima's farewell to Metal Gear Solid is a dream: the best ever stealth game, and the high point of a remarkable series.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is a gameplay marvel, rewarding intelligence and creativity in a way few games do.
A new standard for open-world interaction, and an incredible sign-off to a spectacular, often infuriating, series. This is one of the most ingenious, lovingly crafted games of all time.
Many missions feel like puzzles, forcing you to use your available resources to find one of many ways to complete your objective. Applying your rewards to building, expanding, and improving your base is an irresistible joy
The Phantom Pain is a bittersweet but impressive send-off for the series' creator
Kojima's open-world opus succeeds in delivering incredible gameplay and captivating storytelling.
Metal Gear Solid V practically redefines the notion of what open-world gameplay can be.
Metal Gear Solid V is the best Metal Gear yet, and has immediately become one of my favorite video games of the last few years. It's an impeccable stealth-action game, clearly inspired in all the right ways by modern series like Far Cry, and it's got a level of moment-to-moment joyfulness that kept me satisfied even when I was slogging through harder versions of levels I'd already beaten just to see the "true" ending.
The story loses a lot of momentum in the back half, and F.O.Bs aren't much more than a fun novelty, but otherwise it's a stunningly enjoyable game that almost perfectly integrates a sizable open world environment with solid stealth fundamentals and a huge arsenal. Even at its most frustrating, it's an incredibly absorbing play. We'll be talking about this one for a long time to come.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the epitome of stealth action. It contains not only some of the best combat mechanics available, but everything you could have wanted from a Metal Gear Solid game. Plus Kiefer Sutherland.
Such player-driven drama, comedy, and action eclipses anything in the disappointing scripted narrative. The Phantom Pain is one of the worst Metal Gear stories ever told. It functions neither as a standalone narrative nor as worthwhile insight into the series overall. And yet, The Phantom Pain is the best stealth-action game ever made, one where playing flawlessly is just as thrilling as outright failure. And boy – what a thrill.
As a game, The Phantom Pain excels. The stealth and action work beautifully in the open-world setting, and maintaining your Mother Base gives you plenty of rewards. It’s long, fun, and gives players tons of variety.
This isn't just the best Metal Gear game, nor is it just the best stealth game, it is one of the best games ever made.
A fitting swansong.
A round work that will go down in the annals of the sector for its structure and balance in all its aspects. A brilliant closure that results in the most complete Metal Gear ever, and one of the most profound and inspiring titles in recent times.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Make no mistake, though, the Phantom Pain is excellent. It expands and enriches Metal Gear Solid without compromising the qualities that make the series so beloved. Despite the huge scope, hollywood talent, and technical flashiness, there's a subtlety to the Phantom Pain that's truly captured our hearts.
Despite the fact that I hit a few snags along the way, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain feels like a simultaneous celebration of the series, and a decidedly new chapter. It's equal parts tough and flashy, and it's fitting that if this is Kojima's last Metal Gear, he goes out on a high note.
To everyone who grew up with Metal Gear Solid, especially the ones who bought Zone of the Enders for the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is an experience that will never be forgotten. While it is sad that we may never see another Metal Gear with Kojima's vision, he gave us one hell of a goodbye.
As an intermittent admirer of the series, I found "The Phantom Pain" unexpectedly emotional, not as a story or as an arrangement of digital things to play with, but as a parting gesture to a community of which I have occasionally been a part.