10 FANTASTIC Video Games (You Should Never Play)
8. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Hideo Kojima, bless him, was finally let loose from Konami's clutches following the release of Metal Gear's fifth installment, but the soured relationship between the two parties had an indelible effect on The Phantom Pain. The first half of Venom Snake's romp across Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War represents pinnacle Metal Gear in every sense. Open-ended stealth that awards the player agency to tackle objectives as they see fit in an open world culminates in a formula nurtured and perfected over decades.
Snake and his retinue of Diamond Dogs' pursuit of Skull Face hit the ground running and maintained a frantic pace for the first few dozen hours. Had quality persisted into Phantom Pain's second half, release review scores would have been wholly justified.
Then the second act comes along and upends everything. The constant momentum building toward Skull Face's demise gives way to a dull, repetitive plodding that sees Snake sent back out into the field to grind out a laundry list of missions the player already completed hours previously, just with added difficulty.
To add salt to the wound, Konami would follow-up the dross of Phantom Pain's second act in 2018 with Metal Gear Survive. An asset flip in all but name.