Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Review (PS3)

Released: March 18, 2014

Rating: Mature (M17+)

The Metal Gear franchise, or when it comes to its evolved title- Metal Gear Solid- has become well known in the industry for its confusing, yet engaging stories, its line of characters, and for the creation of the stealth action genre. Believe me, I can go on for miles about each of these titles. And when it comes to the next installment of the franchise- The Phantom Pain- there are not enough words to express how much I want this damn game to come out NOW.

Turns out, I wasn’t the only one. Since the game still needed a lot of development, and because of the PS4’s imminent launch- Hideo Kojima, the creator/director of the franchise, decided to release the prologue of the Phantom Pain- otherwise known as Ground Zeroes, in order for fans to get a taste of what is to come for the long awaited sequel.

And while it may be just a small appetizer for a much bigger conflict in Phantom Pain, it does help soothe the not-so-Phantom Pain called waiting.

On one side of the box art, we have Snake giving us a really cold stare.

Ground Zeroes takes place approximately a year after the events of Peace Walker- 1975. It focuses on a solo operation led by Snake (otherwise known as Big Boss), to rescue two prisoners inside a US “blacksite” army base in Cuba. The targets: Paz Ortega Andrade- an enemy spy who may have information on an intelligence agency known as Cipher. And then Chico Libre- a young member of Snake’s army who had tried to rescue Paz himself but failed. Meanwhile, Kazuhira “Kaz”  Miller, Snake’s right hand man, tries to ready up their headquarters Mother Base for a nuclear inspection by the UN, while assisting you via radio.

It also introduces a new villain, a horribly burned and scarred man who goes by the identity of Skull Face, and leads his own military group- only known as XOF (free cookie to anyone who figures that out). They seem to appear as an invisible force, using tactics to erase evidence of themselves, such as using a special type of light to hide their name on vehicles, and throwing their squad patches out of a helicopter.

For those who have been with the franchise for quite some time, it is disappointing that this is the shortest MGS title in its history, with the main mission taking as long as a feature-length movie- 90 minutes, possibly shorter with multiple playthroughs. But either way, I enjoyed my time in the story mission, and I was thrilled to see Snake in action again in one way or another. Basically, GZ accomplishes what it needed to do: set the stage of revenge for when the story continues nine years later in Phantom Pain.

Also in contrast to the previous installments’ numerous lengthy cutscenes, there were only two big cinematics in GZ, both in the beginning and end of the mission, and each lasts about 10 minutes. These cinematics cut seamlessly to and from gameplay, and still captures the action all in a single take, all in-engine. They’re spectacular to look at, and the game overall looks great running on the new FOX Engine. It’s not as well-detailed in some areas as its next-gen counterpart, and I have noticed a couple graphical quirks, such as an enemy or object not showing up until getting closer or zooming in with binoculars, but this could be from the graphical capabilities of the PS3.

Gameplay still focuses on stealth, but expands upon elements from previous installments. Almost the whole base itself is free to explore, with various ways of accomplishing the mission, and makes excellent use of your equipment and abilities. Your binoculars (which I used more frequently in this than in the previous installments) give the chance to mark enemies and objectives to monitor as you sneak around the base.  You can also monitor these markers via the iDroid, a very handy device which gives you a detailed map of the base, as well as options to call in a helicopter for evacuation, and for listening to music and cassette tapes you can acquire throughout the game’s missions. And of course, the cassette tapes you pick up gives more backstory into the characters, including diaries from Chico about his time at the base, which I love in story-filled games like this. (plus, I always love the music in these titles too!) There is also an iPhone/Android (get the joke yet?) app to access more iDroid capabilities outside of the main game, but I wasn’t able to get that to work at all on my phone.

There are also some new gameplay additions, which I had some initial issues about, but surprisingly, they didn’t seem to hurt my overall experience once I started playing. The game brings a new “Reflex Mode”, which, once Snake’s been spotted, slows down the action to a point where you can try to take the enemy out before he can call out for reinforcements. This can be pretty useful for people not used to these kind of titles, but for those who would rather learn the hard way (i.e- me), it can be turned off in the options menu. GZ also introduces regenerating health, instead of the previous installments use of rations as health packs. This in particular bothered me the most as the game got closer to release day, because of this severe change from the previous games, but it became a change I gave a pass once I got ahold of the game. The reason is If you get hit in a critical place, you will need to escape from your pursuers, and use a First-Aid spray to heal that damage before all the rest can go away. It still gives Snake some mortality, and makes you have to rethink your tactics.

Driving is also introduced in GZ, as Snake can get behind the wheel of several vehicles within the base. But while they can get you around the base faster, or lug around enemies or recovered prisoners, it has its problems. The controls are basic, but it does take a while to get used to, due to the supposed realistic nature of the vehicles. But even with that, it’s also more susceptible to enemies if they can see you close up, or if you drive in a vehicle that’s too revealing.

Each of the six missions (Ground Zeroes, four ‘pseudo-historical’ side-ops, and a console exclusive mission) have a Normal difficulty, and an unlockable Hard difficulty for those wanting a challenge. This would reduce the amount of weapons you start with, and making it harder to avoid being seen by enemies. After completing the mission once, you can unlock special time trials and records for certain smaller goals (eg: going through a mission WITHOUT firing a weapon, farthest headshot, etc.) which are taken for online leaderboards, and access to weapons at the start of that mission. How you get these bonuses, is based upon an S-D ranking system, with stats that gives/takes away points based on completion time, times caught, as well as side-objectives and other stats. However, these last about a half-hour each, which could suck for some others, but I was fine with the content I was given. These missions were intent for replayability, and it hits this on the head hard, as I had some fun with replaying them for new strategies and for better times, ranks and scores.  I probably must’ve been playing for almost 15 hours overall just trying to learn avoiding being spotted for the umpteenth time.

The controls for the game hasn’t changed much since MGS4, which is a good thing, and I am glad they had decided to move restrained enemy actions to the buttons instead of being press sensitive to the R1 button back in MGS3. (that crap was really annoying) The enemy AI feels natural, as they will react realistically in alert situations, and will even group up with each other to search for you, although they do have their occasional flaw, especially in the daytime. They should be able to see me somewhat better in the daylight, even when I’m edging onto their “cone of vision”, in plain view, they don’t seem to notice me until I start to move again. The CQC (close-quarters combat) movements are simple to do, and pretty cool to look at, like snatching a gun off an enemy and holding him up with it, to merely slamming an enemy against a wall to knock him out. But even though they tell you how to do these in the game’s digital manual, I do wish there was something of an tutorial to show you how these moves could be done..

And on the flip side, we have a sketch of Snake looking like a major badass.

In despite of a few *cough cough* shortcomings , I still found plenty to enjoy within Ground Zeroes. The prologue itself still had some punch to give, and its replayability factor can be used to somewhat overcome the long wait to The Phantom Pain’s release in 201V, if only temporarily.

However, for those that are somewhat interested in the series should NOT start with this title. Despite the game having a backstory summarizing the events of MGS3 and Peace Walker in the main menu, I would highly suggest picking up the earlier main titles (in RELEASED order) to get a better feeling of what’s happening before eventually picking up The Phantom Pain.

Final Verdict- 8/10

Here is the E3 2013 trailer for the next part of the full Phantom Pain itself. The trailer is an amazing display of what the MGS series can really do, and the song that plays throughout the entire thing, is an incredible fit for what can be an really emotional finale to Big Boss' saga.