Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - 10 Things We Now Know About The Phantom Pain

5. Less Focus On Cut-Scenes

If the ratio of cut-scene to gameplay in Ground Zeroes is a good indicator to go off of - and it probably is considering that Ground Zeroes is essentially the first chapter of The Phantom Pain sold in a separate packaging - then The Phantom Pain may not contain some of those lengthy stretches of cinematics that Kojima loves to indulge in, regardless of it dividing the people playing his game or not. For reference, the ending to Metal Gear Solid 4 with its credits included runs at 76 minutes. Immediately after starting Ground Zeroes it's evidently clear that here too, conventional tropes are seeping their way into the franchise. The most disappointing omission is codec calls between your field operatives; instead it's just Miller talking to Snake in the background while you continue with gameplay like every other action title. It really does feel like the franchise is having its identity stripped from it - in both gameplay and story - which is disheartening. By far the most disappointing aspect is just how much exposition is littered throughout cassette tapes, AKA the franchise's audio log items. This would feel acceptable if the audio logs contained information of lesser importance, but a heavy chunk of the story in Ground Zeroes can only be accessed through these cassette tapes. Ground Zeroes is just one 90 minute mission of a much larger game too, so who knows how much relevant story content can be skipped right over in The Phantom Pain. It's understandable that the cinematics of the franchise can come across as overbearingly long to some people, but it's simply a crucial portion of the franchise's identity. Unfortunately, it feels like Kojima is swapping the franchise's roots for what's popular in gaming today, which is again disheartening.