Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

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What can really be said about this one, it's basically glorified DLC, it's an hour long game, maybe two-three hours if you complete it 100%.
The gameplay is top notch, and it's a great hour, but still, it's barely more than standalone DLC.

I technically didn't pay anything for this game - I bought it as part of Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience, which cost exactly the same as The Phantom Pain on its own. (For some reason.) If you really did get it for 40 dollars, well, I can only give my deepest condolences.

As a prelude, Ground Zeroes is pretty good. I had never played any previous Metal Gear Solid games, but from listening to the (surprisingly plentiful) cassette tapes while safely hidden inside a supplies room, I could get what 'the deal' was, to a certain degree. What really sells Ground Zeroes, however, is the atmosphere - the incessant rain, the cold military floodlights cutting through the night, the shadows layered upon shadows that feel like they could betray you at any moment. It's the kind of atmosphere stealth games were made for, and the tension I felt crawling past silhouettes of guards and navigating across looming buildings was palpable, perhaps even more palpable than any tension the full game later presented.

Unfortunately, though, that's the thing: as a prelude to The Phantom Pain, it's also a bit weird. The pitch black tone set by Ground Zeroes presents a benchmark that the later game never quite reaches - not that The Phantom Pain is worse (quite the opposite), but it settles upon a considerably different mood; certainly a less asphyxiating one. Perhaps this can be explained by Ground Zeroes' much tighter focus on story, or The Phantom Pain's greater freedom of approach and potential for wacky hijinks - whichever may be the case, looking back I find it hard to connect both games to each other beyond the title and main character. Ground Zeroes finds itself in the odd position of being better as a standalone game than as a teaser for some other, rather different, game - while also being far too short to be taken as the former. As a two hour 'experience', though, it does almost everything right, and is a great appetizer for showcasing the smart and polished stealth gameplay you'll face in the main course.

This feels more like a demo then a game. Its like an intro to MGS V almost like a prelude. The game only has one main mission really, and takes place in a singe base. I mean its hard to rate because this isn't really a game, it feels more like a small add on, and for that I feel it is a bit mediocre. Sure it has some huge plot revelations and introduces the main villain of MGS V, but the gameplay isn't anything great, the game is too short to be interesting, and the mission isn't all that interesting. The only funny moment is when you can rescue Hideo Kojima.

Its a real shame that Ground Zeroes was handled the way it was. It should have been included in the main game, or alternatively, as a free demo for everyone to play as a form of advertisement from The Phantom Pain. Whatever one of those two options, it was indefinitly better than demanding 40 greenies for something that is basically a prelude to MGS5, an opening act. It takes 30 minutes to beat, more if you are completionist. It was only successful at showing the tech the team was developing for phantom pain, and in that regard it was a success.

Considering that the world didnt had a mainline entry since 2008, Ground zeroes managed to bring back everything i love about the franchise including the all the goofyness and weird characters, but finally makes the gameplay fully modernized and something i can call great. Snake has finally become the playable badass his cutscenes always showed he was. The new changes like the marking of the enemies and the oportunity to neutralize an enemy when you are spotted all make sense in the open world setting of the game. Its finally viable to go for the full on assault approach, and the shotgun in particular is really fun to use. The level design is great, allowing the player multiple ways to reach their objective and hidding a lot of secrets throughout the map.

Keifer doesnt have nearly as much personality has Hayter, but its not really noticable because of how little screen time he has. The most important thing about this one is the gameplay, not the story that is just there to shock people and make them play the second part of this entry.

Its a shame its so short, but it works very well like a teaser.