10 Video Games That Overstayed Their Welcome
2. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
Metal Gear has never been a series known for its brevity. If anything, Hideo Kojima’s genre-defining stealth series is renowned for its over-the-top storytelling and zany mechanics.
When Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was announced at E3 in 2013, it was sold as being the biggest and most comprehensive entry in an already massively ambitious series. Fans were naturally thrilled to finally get their hands on it two years later, but nobody could have predicted just how ridiculously big The Phantom Pain was. In fact, this game was a little too big to make the impact it should have.
After completing the drawn-out, hour-long prologue sequence (the first clue how freakishly long this game is), it was time to dig into the Indepth sandbox. And while the freedom the main game offers when approaching objectives results in limitless scope for opportunity, the game's numerous and comprehensive systems will easily overwhelm anyone unfamiliar with the series.
Moreover, when the plot takes a backseat for most of the 45-hour campaign, the momentum to dig deeper into the increasingly complex story and mechanics starts to wane. And for those who did make it to the end, a disappointing finale was hardly worth the effort.