Chris Cooper reviews Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes...For nearly 15 years now
Metal Gear Solid has been my favourite game, top of a list including such greats as
Super Mario Bros 3,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Half Life, and
RoboCop vs Terminator, amongst others. It laid the foundations for a series that I have followed ever since.
If you asked me to rank the series so far (entries I've played) then it would look like this:
1. Metal Gear Solid - A cool main character. Action. Double and triple crosses. Ridiculous names. Breaking the fourth wall. 556ers and pineapples. It had it all. A game I still play and enjoy now. Have at you Snake!
2. MGS 3: Snake Eater - Took us back to the 60's as we followed Snake's Dad Big Boss. Starting with a great Bondesque opening sequence, and setting the scene for future stories, it pushed the PS2 to the limit to create a jungle environment that was a joy to sneak through.
3. MGS: Peace Walker - Originally released on the PSP system, I picked it up when it was released on the Xbox 360. Not only did it play well but it took the Boss on a journey that pleasingly explained his change from famous soldier to leader of an 'army without a nation'. We're left with him in possession of his own nuclear equipped Metal Gear, and a stern determination to do things his own way now.
4. MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots - The series one full 6th generation entry again wowed us with its looks, and tied up everything we had seen so far. With some well placed nostalgia it seemed a fitting end for Solid Snake.
5. MGS 2: Sons of Liberty - The tanker section was brilliant. I played that demo so many times I could probably still do a half decent speed run on it. But then they replaced Snake with Raiden (did you say nerd?) for the majority of the story and completely overcomplicated things the more it went on. Technically brilliant but convoluted.
A set of games that consistently pushed graphical limits, with complicated themes and interesting characters whilst striving to be cinematic. It also made great use of cardboard boxes. What was not to like?
Well....that cinematic quality was both a blessing and a curse, with radio conversations and cut scenes routinely lasting over ten minutes. I'd often just put the controller down and watch. It took until the fourth game to be able to pause them! If I got called away whilst one was running I had a tricky choice to make.
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| Listen to Otacon for ten minutes or have my dinner? Hmmmm. |
Then there was the control scheme, which stubbornly refused to conform to modern conventions. You'd always have to feel your way in as you remembered that 'X' was cancel and 'O' was confirm.
The stories were also labyrinthine in their scale and complexity, with terms such as the 'La-li-lu-le-lo', and 'The Patriots' completing bamboozling me several times (and I thought I had a handle on it!).
So now, we have a new
MGS.
Ground Zeroes is the first part of
Metal Gear Solid V. With 4 years passing since the release of
Peace Walker, and 6 since the last big console release (
MGS 4), has creator Hideo Kojima learnt anything? Or is he still being stubborn?
From the looks of this very expensive demo, it would appear not.
Let's deal with the two big cardboard boxes in the room first. The game's length and Big Boss's voice.
I completed the main story mission in 90 minutes. That's not long however you cut it. But as far as I'm concerned this is a prologue and it's if you want to buy it it's up to you. There are side missions and other objectives which I haven't really got into yet (maybe I'll cover that at another point).
What I have been doing is running around shooting everything and blowing things up. Not exactly in the spirit of a sneaking mission! But it's fun. Moving to an open world and just letting you get on it with it is a great move. Much like
GTA, if you want to get on with things you can, but if you want to muck around, then fill your boots. Considering it will be at least a year before we get the main title
The Phantom Pain, I'll take what I can get. What we've got is an area that lends itself to exploration and far more than the initial 90 minutes in replay value.
Onto the bigger deal now. David Hayter
is Snake. Having played both Solid Snake and Big Boss, Hayter's growly "Metal Gear!?" is one of the most recognisable voices in gaming. I, like many others, was up in arms when Kiefer Sutherland was announced as the new voice of Big Boss.
How dare they! They're raping my gaming memories! They touched me whilst I was sleeping! I won't buy the game!
Ridiculous I know, but all bar one of those thought went through my mind.
When I first heard Big Boss speak it was jarring. Seeing "Kiefer Sutherland" produced a snort of derision. But then it was all finished, and I realised that not only did I not mind the new voice, but I think I get it. I get why Hideo Kojima ditched Hayter and picked up Jack Bauer.
Hayter's Boss/Snake was a caricature. A larger than life action hero who defied expectations.
Sutherland's Boss is a real person.
A lot of this may be due to the script, which whilst still full of jargon, doesn't meander like in in previous games. Regardless, there is a realism and level of nuance that just wasn't there before.
We also need to bear in mind that Big Boss is present in
MGS4, yet Hayter didn't voice him then. It would have been weird having an old Snake taking to an Old Boss and them sound the same. I'd like to think the gap is being opened so that Hayter can come back to voice Snake when
Metal Gear and
Metal Gear 2 are remade or future games retcon them. Could be jarring, but it would be cool.
But how does the game play?
Big Boss's movements are fluid and convincing, with the transitions between stances and speeds of movements particular impressive. The main character of an
MGS can finally sprint properly! Obstacles that would have flummoxed out hero in the past, such as fences, are now cleared easily, whilst taking cover is context sensitive with no button press needed.
Selecting weapons and equipment has now moved to the D-pad. No more holding a shoulder button and selecting. This is not only welcome, but necessary, as using weapons has finally adopted the 'L2 to aim/R2 to fire' convention for a main console release. Much nicer.
You can now tag enemies using your binoculars. This leaves a marker on them that you can always see, giving you situational awareness. A nice substitute for the Soliton Radar.
If you're so inclined, there is a mobile app you can download to accompany the game. Download it and link it to your console (pretty simple), and voilà! You have your own version of Big Boss's iDroid (yes it's rather on the nose) gear on your phone/tablet! There was no latency between the devices, with the map turning on my phone as Big Boss changed his viewpoint in game. It doesn't make any difference to how you play the game, but gives another layer of interaction, and is a cool toy.
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As I've pointed out, each title has been a benchmark for console graphics in its time. Ground Zeroes is no exception. I wasn't that impressed with some of the textures on the the main menu screen, but the opening sequence (using the same FOX Engine as the game) soon made me forget that. It looks fantastic. Textures hold up to close scrutiny whilst fabrics move realistically in the wind and rain of Camp Omega. You can see great details on soldiers holsters and weaponry, whilst even the dogs were motion captured! The Fox Engine has been well thought out it seems, working on the previous generations hardware whilst still delivering a next gen feeling.
The attention to detail extends to the audio, with the noise the binoculars make when being equipped and unequipped feeling reassuringly solid.
I won't spoil any story details for you. But I will say that this is the most adult story series creator Kojima has written. One scene in particular left me squinting. I had no problem with it though, as I've seen plenty worse in other media. Once I find more collectibles and find out further story details that could always change (I've heard about some other more unsettling aspects to the story but have yet to experience them).
Ground Zeroes may be a glorified demo when all's said and done. But with streamlined storytelling, top notch graphics and audio, modern controls and strong replay value it's worth paying out for. On first impressions it currently sits around
Peace Walker on my list. A good start, but I'll know for sure when the full experience is released next year in
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Age hasn't slowed this series down one bit.
Chris Cooper is a Flickering Myth Staff Writer, and owner of the blog Super Duper Stuff. Follow him on Twitter @SDCCooper or visit the blog's Facebook page.
