A video game that has been criticized because of the mere length of the campaign, we take a dive into Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and give you PlayStation Gang’s honest review.
What is essentially a bridge from Peace Walker to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes is a remarkable prologue that shows off a more new and improve Solid Snake. Let’s mention the giant elephant in the room right now shall we? Yes, the main campaign in the game is short but like I said, the game is just a prologue so a first playthrough of Ground Zeroes will likely only take about two hours.
With that said, I’ll try my best to avoid spoiling any details regarding the story. However, no matter how quickly you managed to complete the main campaign, players will in fact be rewarded with several side-missions. To simply say Ground Zeroes will only give players about two hours of gameplay experience is a vast understatement.
So where does Ground Zeroes place Solid Snake? The latest Metal Gear Solid title takes you back to the year 1975 where it’s up to Solid Snake to infiltrate an American black site known as Camp Omega. Your objective, extract Paz Ortega Andrade and Ricardo Valenciano Libre aka Chico.
Metal Gear Solid titles have always predominately been stealth based video games but Ground Zeroes takes a new spin on the series by allowing players the choice of approach. Gamers who enjoy a stealth style of gameplay will find several secret entrances and tunnels to explore, new tactical tools equipped and even the ability to capture guard routines or conversations leading to important clues and tips for your mission. Regardless, those happy trigger gamers will equally have the same amount of enjoyment. The guns blazing approach is no longer an uphill battle as previous installments since Solid Snake’s health does regenerate over time.
A slew of new gadgets and features are also available for Big Boss’ disposal and will ultimately be utilized in completing the game in a number of ways. The iDroid, Snakes latest communicator and navigation system, allows players to see the entire map along with showing areas of interest and targets. I’m not going to lie, this new system takes away the clutter of past navigation systems in the Metal Gear Solid series. With iDroid, you’ll receive a great insight of surroundings and desired routes that you may wish to explore. Snake’s latest binoculars will also play a big role for taking a tactical steal approach. Deemed to be similar to the Far Cry series, players can target certain enemies to actively keep track of where they are located at any given time. These targets are basically the only way of knowing if an enemy is alerted or not. That is unless you’re able to clearly see their movements from where you are positioned.
The new reaction system incorporated with the game is a new ability where Snake is able to slow down time allowing for a quick escape or take before an alert goes out to the entire army group.
You may want to make note because while Ground Zeroes will let gamers play the game however they desire, rewards are only given out to those who take the stealthy route and avoid lethal take downs.
Overall, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes offers a great insight of what’s to come in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. That’s not to say Ground Zeroes isn’t a video game to pick up. Gameplay mechanics are smooth, the visuals are crisp, vast improvements from previous titles have been integrated in the new installment and lastly the game offers a nice selection of side-missions rewarding players with a high replay value.