PS4 Top 10 -- #10 Metal Gear Solid V

#10 Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience

     First off, I'm shocked that a Metal Gear title is at the bottom of a top 10 list written by me. I have adored the series since way back on the PS1 with MGS 1. I've played each consecutive game in the series, yes even the Ac!d titles, and my favorite is MGS 3 Snake Eater for the PS2. It's a series that I've always bought regardless of what others thought. The story lines are always very cerebral and as action-packed as they come. Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience is a massive game consisting of two titles. MGS V: Ground Zeroes and MGS V: The Phantom Pain. The former released a few months ahead of the main game and honestly felt like an expensive tech demo at the time. It wasn't bad, but it was an extremely small taste of what would be The Phantom Pain. Speedrunners have even managed to complete it in just a few minutes. Packaged together with TPP, this doesn't stick out nearly as much. It feels like what it is, which is a nice prequel and introduction to all the new game mechanics featured in TPP.

    

    Past Metal Gear titles were extremely linear to the point of feeling on rails. This is not remotely the case in MGS V; freedom is everything. TPP introduced open world gameplay to Metal Gear and its size can be intimidating. The game gives you an overwhelming amount of freedom in how you handle almost every situation. The series has always been known for its stealth gameplay and if you tried to run and gun your way through the past games you would see the game over screen countless times. That play style just never worked in a Metal Gear game. In MGS V, you have the freedom to make the protagonist, Snake, be any type of soldier you want him to be. Sure, it's a lot harder to go in guns blazing, but it certainly isn't the death sentence that it used to be. A lot of the game played out like a straight up action flick, but barely any of it was scripted to be so. Almost every situation can play out in multiple ways and figuring out what works best for you is where lies most of the fun. Making mistakes in MGS V was actually exciting rather than frustrating. Each one was a learning experience that taught me what would and wouldn't work in a given situation. You are given a goal, but the path to that goal is completely up to you. I'm not saying that I never got frustrated during the game, but I always had fun learning to adapt to each new encounter. The gameplay was deep and every little facet had a purpose.

     If you are a graphics whore, then MGS V is something you just HAVE to see up close and personal. The game is so gorgeous that I promise you your jaw will drop. It features stunning visuals that are still hard to beat to this day. The only game that I think beats it visually is Horizon Zero Dawn (which I just started playing; I may have to update the list after it). Usually, Metal Gear titles put their great visuals to wonderful use in the games' cerebral stories. The story in MGS V was actually its weakest link. It still featured wonderful characters, tons of action, and wonderful boss fights just like all the games that came before it, but the story was just missing something. Series' creator Hideo Kojima usually paves the way in the gaming industry for cinematic storytelling. I'm used to sitting back for extended periods of time when I play a MGS title. It was a bit odd controlling Snake as often as I did. Though, with all the gameplay mechanics and freedom that the game gave me, I chose to forgive it. With its wonderful shooting and stealth, beautiful graphics and enormous open world, MGS V ate up over 100 hours of my time. The game turned my idea of what a MGS game was on its head. While I do think the game's story was lacking, this package contains an amazing amount of content. I feel the need to mention that there is a full online mode, called Metal Gear Online, included for those that like that sort of thing. I'm not that into multiplayer games, so I haven't tried it out myself. The single player alone is very much worth the purchase. If you are a fan of action games and own a PS4, then you should definitely add this game to your library.