MGS5: The Phantom Pain is unique, though not necessarily in a good way. It uses familiar characters to deliver a story that has almost nothing to do with the Metal Gear series, as well as somewhat unfamiliar gameplay. It was clearly intended for a wider audience, meaning that there's less in it for Metal Gear fans. If you enjoy fooling around in Batman or GTA style games then you will enjoy this title. The same goes for OCD patients who are fond of maxing out their score in Hitman games. If you are hoping for a continuation of the Metal Gear series then you are SOL.

The story is pretentious, but well executed. The gameplay is repetitive, even tedious at times, but it works. The unskippable travel sequences add to the already long loading screens, and there are unavoidable credits popping up on the screen before every mission. The controls are not very good even once you get used to them, and the options are lacking, especially the sound options. It is not uncommon to have two or even three layers of voice comm playing simultaneously. I have yet to test the multiplayer properly but from what I can see it is essentially based on everyone using the same super armour and literally rolling for miles, because rolls are still glitched.

Despite all of these problems, and despite not fully living up to the hype, I still enjoyed this title a whole lot. A cautious recommendation of what is very much a love/hate kind of game.

MGS5: The Phantom Pain is unique, though not necessarily in a good way. It uses familiar characters to deliver a story that has almost nothing to do with the Metal Gear series, as well as somewhat unfamiliar gameplay. It was clearly intended for a wider audience, meaning that there's less in it for Metal Gear fans. If you enjoy fooling around in Batman or GTA style games then you will enjoy this title. The same goes for OCD patients who are fond of maxing out their score in Hitman games. If you are hoping for a continuation of the Metal Gear series then you are SOL. The story is pretentious, but well executed. The gameplay is repetitive, even tedious at times, but it works. The unskippable travel sequences add to the already long loading screens, and there are unavoidable credits popping up on the screen before every mission. The controls are not very good even once you get used to them, and the options are lacking, especially the sound options. It is not uncommon to have two or even three layers of voice comm playing simultaneously. I have yet to test the multiplayer properly but from what I can see it is essentially based on everyone using the same super armour and literally rolling for miles, because rolls are still glitched. Despite all of these problems, and despite not fully living up to the hype, I still enjoyed this title a whole lot. A cautious recommendation of what is very much a love/hate kind of game.