As every man and his dog cram their metaphorical baggage into the overhead storage of the hype train that's destined for the mysterious release date of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, I sheepishly volunteer myself to be the fuddy-duddy who yanks on the emergency stop cord and politely asks the driver to go back to Ground Zeroes-ville. Why? Because only one description lingers after the rise and fall of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes: 'the overpriced demo'. It's in my interest, as a lifetime fan of Hideo Kojima and all of his work, not to show why it isn't the case that Ground Zeroes was an overpriced demo (because let's face it, it was), but why we should be okay with Ground Zeroes being an overpriced demo.
Firstly, I think it's important to remind ourselves that Ground Zeroes always has and always will be described as a prologue to The Phantom Pain. What does this mean? This means it serves as an introduction, foreword, or prelude of sorts. So then would it be fair to ask whether you would read the prologue of a book and criticize it for lacking in length; or whether you would watch the opening action sequence of a James Bond movie until just before the opening credits, and then say there wasn't enough time for meaningful character development? Possibly. However, in only targeting its length I'm avoiding the real issue that most people have with Ground Zeroes. Kojima's prologue was short and overpriced, a killer combination that by themselves can be easily forgiven, but together can be a heavy nail in a game's coffin. It would be like paying £5 to see that explosive opening to the latest Bond movie, before the lights go up mid-Shirley Bassey and the cinema stewards audaciously ask you to piss off unless you can fork over another tenner, leaving you with a wallet that's already started collecting dust and a temper that's shorter than the prologue you just witnessed.
So I think the length of something, anything, can be easily justified. The length of Ground Zeroes can mostly be justified by way of its function as a prologue. A prologue doesn't need to be long, everyone knows that. But I cautiously point out that Ground Zeroes' length can only be mostly justified, because it's the community sentiment that the price of this prologue does not justify its length. Unfortunately, my simple answer to this is that it's just a sign of the times. How many games nowadays can genuinely justify their extortionate day-one price tag? At least Ground Zeroes was self-aware of its length and was able to undercut other games on the market by about 20-30 quid. It's also worth noting that I played Ground Zeroes parallel to Infamous: Second Son, as the two came out at around roughly the same time, and it saddens me to say that I got more game time out of Ground Zeroes than I did Second Son (I completed both), yet somehow Infamous's third series entry got a relatively easy ride in comparison to Ground Zeroes barrage of length-related hate.
So why am I jumping at the opportunity to defend Metal Gear and not-so-arsed about taking one for Infamous? Firstly, Ground Zeroes was never marketed as a full Triple-A game as Infamous was; and secondly, I believe Kojima's effort offers us some less-than-obvious deal sweeteners which exclude it from the usual mire of overpriced, length-lacking video-games. So as its first added bonus, at least we know exactly where our money is going with Ground Zeroes: straight into the development coffers of Metal Gear Solid V's Part-2, The Phantom Pain. In this sense, you can almost view the development of Metal Gear Solid V as a sort-of crowd-funding project, another in-thing at the moment with big names like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo pioneering the online movement which helps companies without the necessary financial backing reach their end-goal on a specific product. Now I'm not saying that this is definitely the case, or that Konami will definitely need this extra financial support (they probably don't), but it's certainly nice to know that we will be rewarded for investing our hard-earned cash into the series with a fully-realised, full-size game which is guaranteed to be 200 times the size of its prologue twin.
So then maybe it's fair to say that the choice to purchase Ground Zeroes could be motivated by imagining Kojima saying something along the lines of, "if you support the development of The Phantom Pain we'll reward you with this cool little prologue mission that adds a little more backstory to the full game". Comparatively, it's no worse than the video-game studios which offer the 'Mega-Super-Duper-Deluxe-C ollector's Pre-Order Package: The Limited Edition Version' of their game which comes with some arbitrary cosmetic DLC, a soundtrack, a book of concept art and a branded box of crayons for colouring it in. Occasionally, these pre-order packages (which normally cost upwards of £60) will be packaged with a small comic book which offers some insight into the backstory of the game it's been packaged with (such has been the case with the award-winning PlayStation exclusive, The Last Of Us; and the caped-crusader's critically-acclaimed stealth/ action Arkham series). Wouldn't we all rather pay that extra £20 to actually play this backstory, rather than just read it in a comic book that's been slapped together to incentivise us to buy some trivial pre-order package? I know I would.
Everything I've said so far is almost preliminary to what I'm about to say (ironic, I know, considering I previously concluded that prologues were meant to be short), and that is: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is not a short game. "Yah u wot m8 tell that 2 da bloke who did a 15 minute speed-run on U tube". I can assure you that the bloke who did a fifteen minute speed run on YouTube will have put 15+ hours into Ground Zeroes (more than the average play-length of a single-player campaign nowadays), because I can assure you that that bloke loves the stealth genre, and probably more than likely, loves Kojima's beloved Metal Gear Solid franchise.
Kojima's overhaul of Metal Gear's gameplay and stealth mechanics really pay dividends when fully realising the Metal Gear Solid subtitle: 'Tactical Espionage Action', as this is the first time in Kojima's 12-year-old stealth series that we have been able to employ genuine espionage tactics (thanks to the all-new sandbox style of gameplay). What this means is a brand-new outlook on my favourite system of trial and error so persistent in modern day stealth games that has been so frequently absent from past installments in the Metal Gear Solid series. That familiar feeling of thinking, "Should I go over there, knock that guy out, distract that other guy, and peg it over to the door? Or should I take the long route round the building and do this and that... etc.", has never felt more genuinely real and immersive in a Metal Gear Solid game as it has been in Metal Gear Solid V's prologue. Of course, if we get spotted, we'll get that other familiar feeling of thinking, "Shit - time to reload". But that's not the point. The point is that Kojima has given us a stealth game with the tools that allow us to spend hours on just one mission, exercising and exhausting every single possible route and tactic in effort of finding the best and most efficient way to complete the missions (a trying task that any speed-runner-to-be would have to endure), and anyone who genuinely loves stealth and/ or the Metal Gear Solid series will be taking full control of those tools and unknowingly washing their time down the sink. But what if you don't enjoy stealth or indeed Metal Gear? Well then my honest advice is to steer clear of this self-indulgent prologue title that boasts, above all, stealth and, well, Metal Gear Solid-ness. Nobody's forcing you to buy it, guys.
Kojima's stealth series could offer us in the near future.
I've sank over 20 hours into Ground Zeroes, and achieved 100% completion on all missions. And no, I'm not a so-called 'Platinum Hunter' or 'Trophy Digger' or whatever the hell they're being labelled nowadays; I don't give a French Fancy what my gamer score is and I very infrequently complete a game (regardless of its size) 100%. What I can say about myself is that I am a die-hard Metal Gear fan, and this is the best sandbox stealth game I can remember playing, despite the experience sadly ending before it had even really began. Fundamentally, I am more than happy to give my money to a developer intent on putting it towards creating 200 times more of the same, great experience in the form of The Phantom Pain all for me and thousands of others to joyously sink our Foxhound-like teeth into. If you're the same as me I implore you to blissfully ignore length and price related criticism geared towards this otherwise fantastic little package, because if you're the same as me, I promise it will not matter.
Now with that finally off my chest, I think I'm finally ready to join in picking up my metaphorical bags, wave goodbye to Ground Zeroes-ville, say toodles to Camp Omega and eagerly board this over-populated hype train headed for The Phantom Pain. So as long as there's nothing else to say on the matter - wait - what? People also thought Ground Zeroes was too easy? Hold the phone everyone, where's that emergency stop cord gone?
Apparently the bus service wasn't good enough for Snake.
Camp Omega, Ground Zeroes' hauntingly stunning setting, was a sight to behold on next-gen.
Whilst Camp Omega wasn't the largest open world map in the, er, world; it did offer us a tasty glimpse at the enormous sandbox potential that Kojima's stealth series could offer us in the near future.
Ground Zeroes to Major Zero. Take your Pentazemin Pills and put your eye-patch on.
Bandai Namco just released a free demo of its upcoming anime JRPG Sand Land for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PC ahead of the game's release.
The game was on my radar anyway but now I almost feel obligated to buy it after what happened. I will definitely check the demo out.
I wasn't a fan of the demo just a open world combat demo no story I'm sure the full game story will be good.
Got an Xbox and a Game Pass subscription and want something spooky to play? Here are the best horror games on Xbox Game Pass.
Screen Rant writes, "Helldivers 2's galactic war effort would go smoother if Helldivers followed this simple strategy when embarking against the enemies of Super Earth."
The game is good, but not really worth $30. Luckily PSN was having a sale on the game a month or so ago, and it was just under $7. $10 or below seems about the sweet spot for the game.