Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Image
Metascore
91

Universal acclaim - based on 13 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2880 Ratings

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  • Summary: The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has brought a new edge to the Cold War, and in 1984, a one-eyed man with a prosthetic arm appears in the country. Those who know him call him Snake; the legendary mercenary who was once swept from the stage of history and left in a coma by American privateThe Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has brought a new edge to the Cold War, and in 1984, a one-eyed man with a prosthetic arm appears in the country. Those who know him call him Snake; the legendary mercenary who was once swept from the stage of history and left in a coma by American private intelligence network Cipher. Snake is accompanied by Ocelot, an old friend who saved him from attack when he finally awoke.

    Now, Snake's former partner Kazuhira Miller is being held by the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Snake must undertake a solo mission to rescue Miller and prove to the world that the legendary mercenary is not dead and gone. That first step will lead to a path of vengeance against the very Cipher that slaughtered so many of Snake's men, and to a battle that will embroil the whole world...

    What started in Ground Zeroes must finish with "V".
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E3 2014: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Director's Cut Trailer
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Sep 8, 2015
    100
    I can’t believe the amount of content squeezed into this beautiful created masterpiece.
  2. Sep 12, 2015
    100
    Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the best playing entry in the series, and while it’s not going to wrap up the entire story in a neat little bow, it’s a technical marvel that works beautifully as a playground for espionage.
  3. Sep 17, 2015
    100
    Metal Gear Solid V is the best playing game in the series by a long shot. You choose where and how to do missions, and if sneaking isn't your thing that's fine too. The base-building is a good addition, and ties into the story and world superbly. The story is a slow burn, but goes out with a bang.
  4. Sep 3, 2015
    92
    MGS5 is an enormous open-world adventure, a monster of a game that can entertain for months.
  5. PC PowerPlay
    Sep 30, 2015
    90
    It might not be the best Metal Gear Solid game ever released, but it's certainly the bravest and most interesting. [Oct 2015, p.53]
  6. Sep 16, 2015
    90
    Flawed in many, many ways, but none of those ways impact a glorious, emergent, open-world experience.
  7. Oct 8, 2015
    77
    Metal Gear Solid V is amazing at times, and I enjoyed playing it, but there are so many embarrassing blunders and contradictions. Rich tactical gameplay vs an almost dead world. Fun HQ management and interesting characters vs an unfinished narrative and boring side quests. In some regards, this is a huge step back from previous Metal Gear games.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 64 out of 377
  1. Aug 28, 2017
    10
    Un mancato capolavoro assoluto dovuto alla lite tra il maestro e Konami , nonostante tutto un gioco con un gameplay fantastico . Centinaia diUn mancato capolavoro assoluto dovuto alla lite tra il maestro e Konami , nonostante tutto un gioco con un gameplay fantastico . Centinaia di ore di gioco senza mai annoiarsi grazie anche ad una trama stupenda tipica dei Metal Gear Expand
  2. Sep 19, 2015
    10
    Best Game of my Life
    it drove my Heart,soul and **** mind from top to bottom in all expects
    Well it waz hell a lot amazingly awesome Game
    Best Game of my Life
    it drove my Heart,soul and **** mind from top to bottom in all expects
    Well it waz hell a lot amazingly awesome Game
    loved d Romance ,****g asskicked Shooting , n every Tactical mess Fulton to Suppressed Launcher
    This is something u dont get in real myi **** so have it n feel it out urself
    Expand
  3. Sep 1, 2015
    10
    I can say without a doubt that MGSV is the GOTY,maybe fallout4 can beat it.
    They missions are fun and well designed.Open world gameplay fit
    I can say without a doubt that MGSV is the GOTY,maybe fallout4 can beat it.
    They missions are fun and well designed.Open world gameplay fit well with MGS style.
    The cutscenes are epic as **** the characters are deep and interesting.Troy baker done a damn voice job again,Mother base let you keep your own crew to develop weapon or go on missions.The enemy AI is pretty smart.They know how to find you and eliminate you.There is so much fun messing around in the battlefield and mother base.The whole game is just addictive that will makes you don't want to leave you computer for weeks.
    Still exploring the game,but in my scale this game is already the best game I played this year,even better than Witcher3(I cannot believe).
    Expand
  4. Mar 21, 2023
    8
    Just text (crutch) to save the game to the list. Such things. Maybe I'll do a review later.
  5. Sep 15, 2015
    7
    Simply unfinished and unpolished game. What saves it is that it's super fun to play.
    I'd recommend the game to anyone but there's simply
    Simply unfinished and unpolished game. What saves it is that it's super fun to play.
    I'd recommend the game to anyone but there's simply things that are so criminally bad and awkward in this game that one should know before purchasing it.

    Now, to begin with, what are you in for?
    Before you can do anything you are in for a ~90 minutes intro mission with various cutscenes and not much fun in terms of gameplay. Afterwards the real game starts.
    Basically you have an open world with various main and side missions that tell you to infiltrate some base, however you'd like to do that then, finish an objective, and get out again.
    In order to get in and out you can call in a heli that can pick you up and drop you off at various locations around the target - which is pretty atmospheric, even after doing it a hundred times.

    On top of that you have the opportunity to upgrade your mother base and compete with others online. You hire soldiers that defend your base, and you can attack other bases. Never tried that though.

    Now, if that sounds fun to you, and it is, here's the problems:
    Controls:
    The controls are basically good, the problem is more the reaction your controls have in the gameworld.
    For instance, if you push forward against a wall, like only 30% of the time he actually attaches to the wall. It doesn't work with all walls either. Some do, some don't... some sometimes do.

    The other issue is with climbing terrain. I'm not talking Skyrim laziness level: I'm trying to climb High Hrothgar from the Northeast in a straight line. I'm talking: there's a 20% angle upwards, you can't go... sometimes you can though. Also sometimes you can hit E to climb up a wall, sometimes you can't.

    Missions:
    If you thought Skyrim was lazy in terms of recycling locations you better fasten your seatbelt because this game brings a whole new quality to this.
    To begin with, yes - locations are recycled and used for various missions and side missions. No problem.

    But, even missions themselves are recycled. To be perfect, pretty much everything in the second chapter is doing chapter 1 missions (same cutscenes btw.) on ridiculously hard. Like: you can't get detected or, we just make that really hard bossfight a tick harder to make the game longer. Where we are at it...

    Bossfights:
    This is the number one atrocity in MGS5 Phantom Pain. I've never seen anything like it. The last MGS I played was the first MGS on the PSX. And those bossfights were hard, but original and had some tactic to them.

    Here though the tactic looks like this:
    Skulls: 4 guys jumping around that take ~30 Bazooka shots each that will grant you hours and hours of frustration. (On Extreme (Mission 42) - one mistake, you're dead... which sets you back around 30 minutes if you almost just made it)
    Quiet: That one was fun actually, basically it was a sniper duel in a valley. Even on Extreme I enjoyed it.
    Sniper Skulls: That one was okayish, basically you fight against 4 weaker versions of Quiet. Still not fun. Just aim at them, let them shoot, dock, then aim - take your shot. They'll run, and after a few seconds they go back to their old position. Rinse and repeat.
    Sahelanthropus: Yea, basically shoot your bazooka in his chest for 20 minutes... towards the end a single shot from him instakills you though.
    Eli: Since you're also in Africa there ought to be child soldiers... with a white kid commander that is a boss.... basically he jumps around, attacks you, quicktime... then he runs away again. Chase after him, rinse and repeat. Oh and hit him with your tranqus in between. (For whatever reason kids are almost immune to tranqus and take 3 headshots (regular kid soldiers, not this one))

    Story:
    The story is badly implemented into the game. The fact that there is a chapter 2 and that it sends you back to story missions from chapter 1 on hard should be proof enough for that.
    Still, whenever the story progresses, it's interesting.

    Quiet - yes she deserves her own section:
    Basically she's a a really likeable, but underdeveloped and hypersexualized character that deserved more. It feels more like after the sniper battle you tamed her.
    Having done her whole storyline it feels like this character was written this way solely for the purpose of trolling Anita Sarkeesian.

    Quiet is still a great buddy and I wished they did more with her.

    Small positive stuff:
    Soundtrack is great 80's music and you can collect tapes you can then listen to on your walkman.
    Extracting persons and animals is a fun, comical feature.
    AI will adapt to your tactics - in my case they now all wear helmets and there's heavy units all over the place.
    Game is 100% worth replaying and you can always just replay single missions.
    You find a stray pup at some point that then gets bigger and trained and he can accompany you at missions.

    Bottom line - buy it, play it - it's great. But oh so flawed.
    Expand
  6. May 10, 2017
    6
    Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a open-world third-person stealth shooter with lots of action and various RPG elements. It has a goodMetal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a open-world third-person stealth shooter with lots of action and various RPG elements. It has a good number of gameplay mechanics and also sports a commendable amount of content, but many a times feels too much. On top of its usual cringeworthy cinematics, MGSV:TPP presents its bad and repetitive game design in an annoying fashion. Expand
  7. Feb 28, 2016
    0
    You need about 30 minutes to play the game for 15 minutes. When you load it you're prompted with a software log about every update. When youYou need about 30 minutes to play the game for 15 minutes. When you load it you're prompted with a software log about every update. When you select a mission the credits roll, then you fly in the helo for 1 min while it loads the game you felt like playing earlier that day. It's an awful presentation. Many times I had an open shot at the enemy but my character would roll instead of standing up. Pulls out the wrong weapon and gets detected and killed. The controls are so robotic it sucks the fun out. Expand

See all 377 User Reviews

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