Why I Still Trust Hideo Kojima

A lot of Metal Gear Solid fans have stated in these past months that they’ve gone off the franchise and the creator Hideo Kojima all together, saying he’s only in it for the money and doesn’t care about fans any more.

This all sparked up when the first half of the fifth installment of the franchise Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was released back in March and people were claiming this £30 game could be completed in less than 10 minutes.

Fans were shocked that a game of this length was originally £40 for a physical new-gen copy,  before Konami eventually lowered it to £30, five months before release. Although people that pre-ordered Ground Zeroes did get the difference in money back - unlike some other companies as of late. Thus people started to call Ground Zeroes a “demo”.

So I’m going to explain why I enjoyed Ground Zeroes, why I think Hideo Kojima is not some money hungry creator and why I’m still planning on buying Phantom Pain.

First, I’ll start off by pointing out that I live in the UK, so over here we usually get games released later than the US. Although its only by a couple days, it’s still long enough that I see websites, tweets and videos all before I get my hands on the game. And almost everywhere I looked people from the US were bad-mouthing this game’s duration.

 

I saw all these negative comments online before I even got a chance to play Ground Zeroes myself.

I’ve learnt that the old saying: “don’t knock it till you tried it” applies heavily when it comes to games I want to try. I honestly enjoyed this game and felt I got my money’s worth.

Now you could say I’m partly biased as this is my favourite franchise; but I have other reasons why I enjoyed this game. Since everyone was telling me the playthrough time was quite short, I was expecting this to be done in one sitting. So I took my time, played a little bit in the morning and then finished it that night. And I’ve got to say, I thought the game credits would roll way sooner than anticipated.

I finished the campaign in an hour and ten minutes. A few people told me that was surprisingly long considering everyone else’s experience . A big negative for me was I found the story to be lacking for a Metal Gear game. I also found it strange there were no boxes to hide in.

To be honest £30 for the campaign is rather stingy. But Ground Zeroes doesn’t just have the campaign! 

One thing no one seems to mention when bad mouthing this game is all the side missions, the easter eggs, the collectable tapes and not to mention the exclusive “Deja vu” mission if you buy Ground Zeroes on Playstation. Or the “Jamis Vu” mission If you purchase on Xbox, although they’ve recently made both missions available on either platforms for free.

People need to understand that Ground Zeroes is like the “Tanker Chapter” or the “Virtuous Mission” of Metal Gear Solid V: they were only about one fifth of the entire game.

In my opinion this game is more than replayable. It’s the smoothest gameplay I’ve ever experienced on a Metal Gear title before and it looks gorgeous on new gen. But that being said, I also think this game should have been released with Phantom Pain, just like the titles before it.

The people who post on the forums and upload the ranting Youtube videos don’t really seem to mention any of the positives in this game. Everyone is focused on the fact that this game is too short and it’s a shame because maybe if it was released at a lower price or released with Phantom Pain it could have really turned some heads.

People make mistakes. Did Hideo just want to show off? Or Maybe they were doing the fans a favour by releasing the prologue? Regardless I have a feeling that Hideo Kojima probably won’t do anything like this again.

If you’re not a Metal Gear fan and haven’t really seen any of the other games then I recommend you not buy this game yet. At least wait for the price to drop or get it with Phantom Pain.

Now onto Phantom Pain and why I’m still planning on throwing my money at it.

I feel like they’ve set this game to right all wrongs. For starters, the game is going to be massive, “hundreds” of times bigger than Ground Zeroes. Hideo has wanted a realistic open world game with real time weather and stunning graphics for a long time and now with the Fox Engine he has the processing power to do so.

Phantom Pain Map compared to previous Metal Gear titles

But the number one reason why I’m going to get this game is the demo released on Konami Station a week ago.

We can expect pretty much the same game mechanics and interface from Ground Zeroes but with a few more improvements. Kojima and his team have listened to fans’ feedback and have brought back the iconic boxes with more actions! These include popping out the top of the box and shooting enemies

and rolling out of boxes before your cover is blown. Even “knocking” on the walls to distract enemies have returned.

The exclusive Phantom Pain demo was on from the closed-door Booth at E3. Since they got such a positive response from attendees they wanted to show it off to everyone.

You can watch the English Gameplay Demo here!

 I personally can’t wait for the next installment to learn more about how Big Boss turned into the cold villain we all originally know him as.