Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain - 10 Huge Problems Nobody Wants To Admit

2. It Was Falsely Advertised

These last two points will contain MAJOR spoilers for the game's plot, so consider yourself warned. So if you've beaten the game, you'll know the big switcheroo was not being Boss throughout the game, which I'm personally fine with. It goes some way to explaining Boss' far more silent demeanour, hints at the notion of Big Boss as a symbol being more important to the world than the man himself, and when taken with the idea of Skull Face being a former comrade helping out from behind the scenes, essentially grounds Big Boss/Jack/Naked Snake as just another soldier underneath the inflated ideology. However... that's not what we signed up for. The entire point of MGS V was supposed to provide the 'missing link' between Peace Walker and the original Metal Gear, charting the swift descent of Boss from military liberator and caring figure, to total maniacal madman hellbent on world destruction. The trailers literally stated this, and the vast majority of footage for the game leant heavily on bloody, violent imagery, shots of Boss screaming in agony or loss - the whole thing looking to paint him as a thoroughly isolated figure pushed to the breaking point. In the game though? None of that happens. None of it. Scenes in the village? Nowhere to be seen. That shot of Boss covered in blood? Nope. Even the launch trailer of Boss turning into Skull Face? Not a second. There's one mission where you're randomly told "Hey Snake, your troops have a virus and must be killed" and it does have emotional weight, but there's no effect on Boss. He takes their ashes and spreads them on his face in a very weird-yet-serious scene - and then states they should be made into diamonds instead; essentially moving past the potential emotional turmoil that could've (should've?) been his driving force. It's weird, it's empty, and it feels like we've been given an inferior product, leading to the biggest problem with the entire game once you've seen all it has to offer...