Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes review

[Sketcz]

They do have ragdoll. What's happened there is that he's found a flat piece of ground to line them up on. Big Boss places corpses he's carrying down with a very specific anim that drops them close to the ground so they don't have much room to flail about.
You never notice this when you are playing.

Fascinating! That... actually makes sense. He has a technique for placing them down

[Guts]

Gotta love the fact that Sketcz never fails to bring the refreshing amount of crazy to any thread.

[chopemon]

After finishing Dark Souls 2 I have gone back to this to do the side ops.

I like a great many things about this game a great deal more than a great deal of other games. The thing I like most is how controlling Snake makes you feel like a damn superstar. He responds to every input without annoying animation priority and with total grace. His animations are concise and he takes up a very small foot print in world space. As he runs, vaults, crouches, takes cover, etc, I always feel like I am in control and everything I do is a consequence of my input. I can respond to every threat, every change in a guard's movement and every shifting mission objective because Snake moves like a ninja. He lacks the weight of some other modern game characters but this means there is a precision to controlling him rather than the feeling of pushing round an obstinate mannequin.

This is combined with an easy to read and learn world layout which means I can confidently complete every objective. I played a side op where you have to assassinate a target. I clocked the target as I made my way to him he moved to a new part of the level. Since I know the level layout and Snake is a joy to expertly control, I could very rapidly and sneakily traverse a great expanse of level to get into an opportune ambush spot and kill him cleanly and stealthily.

This game is a triumph of level and control design.

EDIT - You see, Snake still looks great despite them giving him break out points on many of his animations. As long as you aren't locked into a ladder or something, touch the stick and Snake moves in that direction. He looks great because after he finishes moving he does a little settle animation. He's an old, weary guy and that settle shows him taking a breath and getting ready for the next arduous task thrust upon him. The key thing is that while he is doing that settle, you can break him out of it. He doesn't have to finish it, he doesn't have a huge turning circle, he just responds by moving and stopping when and where you want him too. It feels so good to play.

[Uli]

i really don't see the greatness in the level design here, i found the tanker level in the MGS2 demo far more impressive. even if a bit smaller it was more fun to explore and even featured a boss fight. all that for free! and control-wise i think MGS4 has the better, more precise gunplay and i like the classic scrolling side menus better.

most of all this demo is a poor showing of the new Fox Engine. no dynamic shadowing of objects and not a single perfect round object in the entire game - even the tires of the vehicles look angled on my Xbox One. if Phantom Pain will be released in such a conditon it will be a massive embarrassment.

[chopemon]

For a start it wasn't free. It might have said 'free' on the box (I don't remember if it did) but you had to pay to get that box. Just because it came with another game, it wasn't free. Some people used to try to convince me to go to a terrible nightclub. They said it was good because you paid (at the time) ?5 and when you got in you got a 'free' drink. No, you have paid for a drink then paid a bit extra on top to sit in an awful environment full of other gullible idiots.

Secondly, there is nothing perfectly round because curves in games are made up lots of little straight lines. To make something perfectly round takes up a decent amount of polygons, all of which cost memory. If you look at what this game keeps in memory (the entire base, several body variants including a very details main character, various vehicles etc) and keep in mind that it is running not only on a PS4 but also a PS3, not having perfectly round wheels is not a "massive embarrassment". It is quite the achievement for this game to run as well as it does on PS360. You might say "Why not remake all the assets for PS4 and Xbox One?" My answer is that making all of those assets once costs millions of dollars. To make them again would at least add another 50% to that cost.

To address the greatness in level design you should consider other modern games where you are funnelled down corridors or placed into utterly boring situations where you are constantly directed to perform certain actions. Often certain routes are obviously highlighted because they are so deathly afraid not everyone will know exactly what to do at all times.

The GZ base naturally blends between open and cluttered environments with different and shifting enemy patrols. An objective is placed on one side and the player on the other. The player is asked to learn how to safely traverse these areas and given the space to poke and prod at the game systems. They learn guard vision cones and behaviours. They can instantly read cover layouts and form plans of attack or movements. They can experiment in trying to do daring runs. They can try to find shortcuts or new ways of getting somewhere. You are given a sandbox that reacts to you. You initiate real cause and effect within it. This is when games are the most enjoyable. The player plays and is rewarded with feedback and learns how to make better decisions. You compare that to a lot of single player games and you see there is very little to learn in boring environments with a limited set of player actions. GZ gives you freedom, a wide range of actions and doesn't breathe down your neck when you're just playing and working out how to accomplish your objective. It does all that without oppressive voice overs and on screen indicators (unless you turn them on).

[Brad]

How remote play friendly is this?

[chopemon]

Not tried it but the game uses all four triggers so will involve some screen touching.

[Uli]

@ chopemon

i think you are right the MGS2 demo wasn't for free - at least not initially. but 5 bucks compared to 30 makes a big difference for me.

in regard to the technical side of things i can't really agree with you. as much as i like the game and this franchise - this is a very poor showing of a new supposedly Next Gen-ready Engine and no cost arguments can excuse this. if a mayor player like Konami produces a demo of a next gen blockbuster game but doesn't even care to implement a sufficient number of polygons to not make the game look outdated then this is either stupidity or laziness!

[chopemon]

You mean "cross gen blockbuster" not "next gen".

The engine is next gen ready but because it runs across two generations they have to build to the lowest spec. Making games is not easy. Making cross gen games is harder still. Making a cross gen AAA open world stealth simulator is right up there with the hardest things you can choose to make for a whole variety of reasons.

I completely agree that we should always hold games to the highest level of critique but you have to accept reality at some point.

[Uli]

well as fans of the series i guess we have little choice left. but this doesn't mean we should **** ourself about the quality of the games we like, right?

a cross-gen release is no excuse either, even on PS3 and 360 this demo is everything else but amazing. apart from the low poly approach the lack of dynamic object shadows is - for an Engine that supposedly cares so much about lighting - unacceptable in my opinion. and this isn't a next gen feature - games like Half-Life 2 did this 6 years back already.

[J0e Musashi]

ZOE was not $5 new. What does MGS V look outdated next to?

[jamesy]

It's up there with the best looking 360 titles for sure.

[Uli]

fanboy-blindness?

[J0e Musashi]

I've not played that.

[djtickle]

Has anyone tried the DLC Card on xbox one? Mine says something went wrong.