10 Reasons Why Metal Gear Solid V Disappointed

Just for the record, I love the Metal Gear Solid franchise. The gameplay, the story, the boss fights. Solid Snake is also arguably the greatest character in gaming history. So when Big Boss came back (also without David Hayter), I was slightly disappointed. Then I played Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and not only was I disappointed, I was crushed. I was disappointed on so many levels and also disappointed to see popular game companies such as IGN and Gamespot give it a perfect ten. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is far from a perfect ten. Some things they got right, such as gameplay and the voice acting. But they also failed on so many levels. Here is my opinion on why Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain disappointed.

The story starts with Big Boss waking up from a 9-year coma, followed by a failed assassination, escaping a hospital raided by soldiers, battling a mini Psycho Mantis and his bodyguard, a flaming Volgin. So far, so good, but soon after the action died down, and most of the story was focused on building the Mother Base, something that just didn’t belong in a Metal Gear Solid game. And speaking of the Mother Base…

Most of the story was focused on building the Mother Base, which meant sourcing materials, capturing soldiers, hijacking vehicles, and countless missions, all just so we could unlock some more guns for Snake and his buddies. The end result failed to deliver, leading to many wasted hours and countless frustrations.

Snake and Dr. Emmerich were good; the rest weren’t. Ocelot felt bland, boring, and uninteresting compared to his previous appearances. Miller was missing too many limbs and had too many 90s movie clichés, which was hard to take seriously. Quiet was also a missed opportunity; while reliable on the battlefield, her lack of dialogue made it hard to really care about her.

Metal Gear Solid has had many classic boss battles over the franchise. While hard to choose the best, my favourite from each franchise are Psycho Mantis in the first, Vamp in the second, The End in the third, and Ocelot in the fourth. The 5th game, however, wasn’t hard to choose from because it only really has one boss battle, Sahelanthropus (an army of tanks doesn’t count). The Sahelanthropus boss battle wasn’t even great due to the fact that we’ve faced a Metal Gear several times in the previous games. No boss fight against Skullface and mini Psycho Mantis was also a major disappointment.

Throughout Metal Gear Solid 5, I missed the radio. Not being able to call a range of great characters for different purposes, such as help in boss battles, saving the game, or just for a laugh. Instead of what could’ve been a great radio with several members of the Mother Base helping you along the way, we got Ocelot repeating the same basic tutorials over and over, including how to open the menu and begin a mission…

While not everyone’s cup of tea, one of my favourite parts of the Metal Gear Solid franchise is the long cutscenes, which usually involve great voice acting, fantastic combat, or both. Metal Gear Solid 5 had fewer and shorter cutscenes than the rest, with most of it coming from the Mother Base—usually an argument between Ocelot and Miller on how to run the Mother Base. Again with the Mother Base!

Metal Gear Solid 5 has only two maps, both outside locations and too large for its own good. Most of Metal Gear Solid 1 took place inside the great shadow Moses, which meant relying on stealth and the use of your trusty tranquilizer gun. Metal Gear Solid 2 also had memorable maps, both the ship and the plant, which also required a large amount of stealth and tranquilizers. The lack of indoor locations in Metal Gear Solid 5 meant less stealth was required and more running about, which, to me, was boring and too time-consuming.

I have never seen so much repetition in a game before. Metal Gear Solid 5 has 200 missions in total, 50 main missions and 150 side missions, which sounds impressive, but every mission involved extracting soldiers, prisoners, or blueprints from the same locations. It lacked major creativity in my opinion compared to the previous game missions, which included clever gadgets, stealth, and great boss battles.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has 3 endings (4 if you count the one that was cut, also disappointing). The first ending wasn’t an ending because it was only 1/3 of the way through the game, which led to confusion and a bit of Google searching on my part for clarity. The second ending also had the same issues. The third ending, however, was the most frustrating of the three. The first frustration of this ending was actually unlocking it, which meant replaying previous missions on expert mode and finishing mission 46, which takes a lot of time to unlock due to the Mother Base. The ending itself also involved a frustrating twist, which was confusing even for Metal Gear Solid standards, and left too much open, leaving us with too much to think about until the next Metal Gear Solid title…

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots was released in June 2008. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was released in September 2015. A 7-year wait, and we got a game with 2 maps, 1 boss battle, repetitive missions, and a bad Hideo Kojima cameo. The wait was definitely not worth it, as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was the worst in what was, until now, an amazing franchise.

And there you go – 10 reasons why Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain disappointed. Thanks again for reading. Like, share, and feel free to comment if you think I’ve missed something. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter X @rhysbritton.