"one hell of a challenge"
Even by anyone’s standards, Metal Gear Solid on the
original PlayStation was a mind-blowing game. A million miles away from
its badly translated, humble beginnings on the NES a decade earlier.
Due to the PlayStation’s limited power, guards had
an extremely narrow field of vision. Now, thanks to the might of the new
generation of consoles, enemies are far more aware of their
surroundings. The result is a massive spike in difficultly over the
previous episodes.
When a stealth game features an option to basically
sneak around undetected (the chicken hat) and leaflets in the box
promoting the official game guide, you know you’re in for one hell of a
challenge.
The tight corridors of earlier games, predictable
enemy patrols and plenty of suitable hiding-spots gave the game a more
forgiving arcade feel. Metal Gear Solid V, however, does everything it
can to impede your progress.
No one can deny the attention and care put into the
game, but unless you’re a particularly skilled gamer or not adverse to
some cheating, Metal Gear Solid V is infuriatingly hard. A bit of a
design flaw, since nothing was wrong with the difficulty when the series
began.
Unbelievably, for a Metal Gear Solid game, the
story is a bit weak too. A bit more storytelling wouldn’t have gone
amiss.
Of course if you’re prepared to put in the work,
the game has its moments, but is it a 10/10 best game of the series? No.
