Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Reviews
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.
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: The Phantom Pain will go down as the best-looking, best-playing, and most ambitious game in the series -- one that utilizes the new-gen hardware and the incredible Fox Engine to deliver both a visual masterpiece and more robust gameplay experience than its predecessors.
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.
The latest Metal Gear instalment somehow lives up to the hype and expectations, providing a luxurious cinematic gaming experience without equal
Perhaps MGSV's best quality is how in pulling gameplay to the foreground and letting much of the exposition remain optional, it opens it up to be enjoyed by people who have in the past been put off by its weirdness, serving as both the perfect entry point and a satisfying conclusion. MGSV takes the best of a great series and creates a series' best in the process.
The Phantom Pain is the kind of game that actually feels as if every seemingly insignificant gameplay detail actually has a real purpose. Every mission, side-op and minute spent assigning staff back at Mother Base makes a real difference to what can or cannot be achieved out on the field. At its core, it is still a stealth-action game, but it never ties you down to just being stealthy. Every mission can be approached in a multitude of different ways and it's left up to the player how to progress. The more manageable approach to storytelling may not seem true to the Metal Gear Solid series to date, but it fits in well with the game's more flexible approach, which lets people attack the game head on or play in smaller bites without needing to worry that at any moment they may have to set aside an hour purely to watch a surprise cut-scene.
Which is what makes Metal Gear Solid so relevant today: its unwavering capacity to adapt and evolve. It's a game that understands everything about itself and how it works. It's the best stealth game ever made and feels like a game-changer for the medium as a whole - through its scope, the freedom it offers its players, and its deft structure.
With Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Hideo Kojima did not just create a final masterpiece but he wanted to leave a much stronger mark by renewing the series and literally reinventing the genre of infiltration.
Review in French | Read full review
It’s a vast game that, some backtracking aside, could engross you with fresh ideas for dozens upon dozens of hours.
In The Phantom Pain, Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions have pulled off the rarest kind of balancing act, delivering a story that will satisfy many franchise fans while also being the most beginner-accessible Metal Gear game to date.
Incredibly, unbelievably, what we have here is a nearly perfect finale to the Metal Gear franchise. I truly believe that The Phantom Pain is where Kojima always envisioned he would take the franchise. This is personalized, open-world infiltration at its finest.
It's difficult to effectively describe everything this game has to offer. It's difficult to think about the next time we see a new Metal Gear Solid and when that will be. It is, however, not difficult to say that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the best game of the year so far.
Though diehard fans intent on playing the same old Metal Gear may be upset with a few of the changes here, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain stands as a crowning achievement for Kojima and one of this console generation's best games.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is not a game like any other. It is one of those who respect the intelligence of the players by offering them almost total freedom, without too visible of a guide.
Review in French | Read full review
Undoubtedly great, ambitious, fun and spontaneous Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain could very well teach a thing or two to other modern video game developers, who lost between their quantities and their generic worlds, have completely forgotten that control is The most important thing that exists in a video game, perhaps the truth is that all this spontaneity is a controlled illusion but no other game has made me feel so responsible for such feats mission by mission, if the goal of video games is to create the illusion of power its users find it hard to think of a better example.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Kojima's last is Metal Gear's best. Astounding.
It's gorgeous, it has a fantastic soundtrack -- including a satisfying array of 80s pop hits to remind you of the time period -- and you always feel like you have perfect control over Punished Snake. And yeah, the story's bananas but... you absolutely have to play this game.