10 Triple-A Video Games You Just Gave Up On
4. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid has always been a big melodramatic diva, focused more on being this ornate, theatrical experience first and a traditional game second. This was further typified when Metal Gear Solid 4 came around, a game which has cutscenes which last as long as a feature-length movie (one is 71 minutes long).
So, when Metal Gear Solid 5 came around, it was a huge shock to see that formula completely upended - instead of a story-heavy, gameplay-light experience with intricate, bespoke-crafted scenarios, MGS5 was so focused on its core gameplay loop that it forewent all the other stuff entirely, with story being barebones and missions comprised of copy-pasted, generic objectives.
If MGS4 was a wheelie bin full of pate with only a single cracker to spread it on, MGS5 was a thimbleful of that same pate served up with one trillion slices of dry, toasted Warburton’s.
Yet, even an initially-satisfying playground feel couldn’t detract from those tedious, samey-feeling missions (I think I reached about mission 35 before realising I was literally playing the same thing over and over).
It’s okay, I just guessed how it’d end.
Nanomachines?