Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Reviews
Flawed in many, many ways, but none of those ways impact a glorious, emergent, open-world experience.
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
If The Phantom Pain is really going to be goodbye, it's a farewell worthy of the name it bears.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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
I've had more fun playing Metal Gear Solid V than probably every other action or stealth game I've played in the past decade.
But how does it stack up as a Metal Gear Solid game? As the final entry in the series, can its ending and its out-of-left-field plot twist really be accepted as the ultimate farewell to this long-running story? Not unlike the man who sold the world, MGSV feels like it’s lost its way a little, resulting in an ending that feels strangely unsatisfying. As tempted as I am to praise the game for its crazy plot twists and overdramatic moments, it’s hard to do so, knowing that this insanely wild ride ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.
The Phantom Pain is an unusual Metal Gear experience, one that not everybody may enjoy if they cling to systems of old. If they're willing to adapt and accept this new way of exploring Kojima's world however, they are going to be blown away, absolutely, and one hundred percent guaranteed. This new open world is one that is begging to be played with, in whatever way a player wishes.
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.
An impressive epic, even if it falls several steps shy of the open-world grandeur realized by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
As an intermittent admirer of the series, I found "The Phantom Pain" unexpectedly emotional, not as a story or as an arrangement of digital things to play with, but as a parting gesture to a community of which I have occasionally been a part.
The Phantom Pain, the final Metal Gear game from Hideo Kojima, is one of the best stealth games ever conceived. The story doesn't match the usual excellent Metal Gear Solid standard, but the game's interlocking pieces are exquisite.
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.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's deep, open-world stealth and troop management, fun music, and excellent combat add up to an absorbing, stunning experience, despite some significant flaws.
Does this impact our verdict on Metal Gear Solid 5 overall? Not really.
Despite some of its logical fallacies and niggles, The Phantom Pain remains a technical and highly polished effort with great production values, solid gameplay and oodles of content for players to sink their time into. If this is indeed Kojima's Metal Gear swan song, it's ending on a high note. It's easily one of the best games of the year or any year for that matter.
This is the Metal Gear universe as it was always meant to be.
Big Boss' supposedly final outing puts players in the middle of the most ambitious entry in the series yet, and it delivers on almost everything it promises. If this is Hideo Kojima's final game, then he is stepping out at the top floor of the industry.
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.
If this is indeed the final Metal Gear title from Hideo Kojima, he's gone out on an impeccably-produced high. Although the story doesn't match that of past games, The Phantom Pain's gameplay delivers in a way that only a select few open world games manage.
With The Phantom Pain Hideo Kojima has realised his Metal Gear dream.