The game went from okay shooter to challenging live-action lateral thinking puzzle. After the urging of a developer friend I went back to the series and tried them in a higher difficulty setting. My first pass through the series I played them like clunky shooters with a light stealth element, mostly enjoying the big action setpieces. A single Metal Gear Solid game can be viewed through a very specific angle without consideration for the whole. Most of these cries seem to ignore that the value of a Metal Gear Solid game has always varied depending on who’s playing it. The other is that, having worked at a bank for years, I know that $35 means drastically different things to different people, and that that’s usually none of my goddamn business. The first reason is that in a year the game will be heavily discounted, so spending 1000 words on an issue that will be moot in a few months seems silly.
Ground Zeroes has problems, and I will get into them, but price isn’t one I’ll address.
The game was split into two parts, a prelude released now and the rest released next year. The biggest criticism being lobbed at Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is that, given its length, it costs too much.
