Metal Gear-The Phantom Pain-The Jam Solo Review

Full disclosure: I didn't finish the game yet, but I felt like writing the review already.

Except for a short burst of playing a borrowed NES copy of the original Metal Gear (which apparently was a bad port of an MSX game), I'm new to this series. The story that is presented in this game feels disjointed and utterly weird. It's a real mashup of real-world events and Japanese anime zaniness. I don't really mind as I will suspend my disbelief whenever I get a chance, and there are some really cool moments in the cutscenes in this game.

Thing is...I don't give a rats ass about the story in this game. What I like...no LOVE about it, is the gameplay! This feels like an open-world arcade game where everything moves at a buttery smooth 60 frames-a-second and collision detection is spot on. There is also something about the camera shaking a bit when you are running or jumping into the chopper after a mission and the way things are smoothly transitioning from cutscene to gameplay. Also, most of the story is optional, backstory will be provided by listening to old-school cassette tapes. That's a great activity to do while marking enemies from afar with your binoculars or upgrading your weapons with the resources earned from completing missions.

The systems for upgrading your espionage tools in this game are absolutely mind-bogglingly complex and approachable at the same time. Options unlock while you get deeper into the game and it really is a neat system that you can sink a lot of time into. It can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, but a lot of it is optional. There is also a base-building system where adding more buildings will grant you more knowledge to develop better weapons, or maybe more soldiers that can be sent on missions to gather more resources and so on. The system is complex, but also very smooth and rewarding.

One of my favorite things about this game is the way the AI reacts to you and interact with each other. Metal Gear has always been about stealthing around missions and do things in a smooth, Tom Cruise-like fashion. The game gives you tons of tools to be a super-spy, from the iconic cardboard box to the Predator-style stealth suit. On the other hand, you could also just roll in with a tank and blow everything to pieces. Several (if not most) missions give you this choice and it's always a dynamic process. There is, however, a big reward for going in with as little bloodshed as possible. First of all, the game can get tough as nails when soldiers are alerted to your presence. They will call for reinforcements and you might find yourself biting the dust before you can spell "surrounded". There is always the option to call in air-support, bombing raids or more ammo, but the beauty of this game is that sneaking around is a lot of fun. I always found this mechanic tedious, slow and boring in other games, but the way the AI works and their lifelike reactions to my actions make the enemy soldiers a great challenge to outsmart in different ways. One of the simple methods would be to throw a magazine to the side of them, let them be alerted and curious. Sneak behind them as they ruffle through the shrubbery to find out where that sound was coming from, and choke them out before they can alert any other guards. You could also interrogate them at gunpoint. Send them back to your own base with a ridiculous balloon-contraption or...if you feel particulary mean...just execute them. If you DO send them back to your base, you can use them as staff for your ever-expanding​ mother-base. I got addicted to attaching balloons to soldiers, jeeps, artillery and even tanks.

If you are driving a tank, sneaking up on an enemy soldier or using an anti-aircraft gun on an enemy chopper, this game controls so damn well. Every weapon and vehicle in the game feels perfectly polished and I never felt like I didn't want to use any specific weapon. If I'm nitpicking I could say that grenades should be more easily accessible​, but the way the weapon selection system worksmake​​ it very logical and fast to switch between weapons and gadgets. I wouldn't exactly call it intuitive as it took me at least 10 hours to be really comfortable, but when the system starts clicking...it feels GOOD!

This game also keeps you on your toes by upgrading the enemy-soldiers weapons and armor​ to deal with your tactics. I had to switch to a combination of chokeholds and grenade launchers when guards started wearing full body armor​. I guess they started getting tired of me kidnapping every guard after using sleep-darts on them.

This game oozes quality and feels great to play. The story is atmospheric​ but very hard to make sense out of (I think even fans of the series must agree with me there...). The original music puts me in the mood for espionage, but I can also steal cassette tapes in enemy bases and choose to run'n gun while listening to A-HA (all the licensed music is from the 80's...the whole game is set in the 80's). The base-building and upgrading systems are addictive and will probably keep me playing after I finish the games main missions and the only reason I haven't finished all of it yet is that it feels like a nice collection of hand-made chocolate. It's great to eat all in one sitting, but going in with a clean palate for every pice is even nicer. This is also one of the few single-player games I've felt like playing with a friend​, hotseat style. It's just that much fun to see the systems in the game unfold.

It's not a perfect game, but it feels like one.

Jam Solo Score 9/10