MaThoughts: Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes

 

I have been a huge fan of the Metal Gear series since the first Metal Gear Solid was released on the PS1 in 1999. While waiting for Metal Gear Solid 2 to drop, I remember being at a level of fever-pitch excitement I don’t think I’ve felt since. Regardless of how much I’ve enjoyed the Metal Gear Series, I’ve never really enjoyed “playing” Metal Gear Solid. The controls were always too complicated, the shooting always a little off and the boss fights bored my arse off; there are only so many times you can run in a circle, occasionally shooting at a boss while he spews ridiculous dialogue at you.

With Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes the gameplay has finally caught up to the lofty narrative aspirations of game designer and professional nut-job, Hideo Kojima. Never have I felt more like the “legendary soldier” as I have while playing Ground Zeroes, and it’s the smart changes to the overall gameplay systems, and the modernisation of the control scheme that has allowed this to happen.

The changes are numerous and what shocked me is just how natural these upgrades have made the game feel. Kojima has finally entered the era of modern (a relative term, I know) gaming with a more standard shooter control-system. However, don’t get it twisted, the series doesn’t lose its quirky uniqueness of flavour. Kojima has created a set of new gameplay challenges that utilise the oft used control scheme in ways we haven’t seen in a stealth game before.

Key to this controls upgrade is the animation system, no longer do you have to hold 500 buttons to get Snake/Big Boss/whatever into take cover. Now Snake will dynamically move into cover, ducking down his head, making himself less visible depending on what level of is the height your stance. There are three stances, prone, crouched and standing and switching between these is simplistic, responsive and frankly beautiful.

Gone completely is the radar system, instead relegated to handheld mini-map that has to be opened separately. Although you can move with this map equipped, it does reduce your visibility meaning it’s better to rely on your instincts.

The more mobile and responsive Snake finally makes sneaking a joy. With this new set of freedoms comes new gameplay challenges. The game requires you to slowly sneak in, identify and “mark” soldiers through the binoculars. Doing this means they appear highlighted at all times, allowing you to see them through walls, but only while you move slowly.

Now yes I can hear you shouting at me, this is fairly similar to MGS2, where you had to identify your surroundings etc before you could find the node and activate the radar, or in MGS3 where the radar was much more rudimentary and required you to pay more attention to your surroundings. However, what this game does differently, and I harken back to the beginning of this article, is give you the freedom of movement and proper camera controls to accurately do this. Add the astounding animation system and you finally have the visual feedback that coaxes you into wanting to be the ultimate super-spy. There were times peaking around corners I was stretching my actual neck that bit further as if it would somehow translate to a better vantage point in game.

For the first time playing a Metal Gear game I felt empowered. The controls had finally freed me, and allowed me to play as the Snake from the cut-scenes and not the giant Elephant with shotgun-blasts for sweat I had been before. The open world design and the marking systems means you can approach your objective however you want. My approach was to find high vantage points and mark as many enemies as possible, allowing me to sneak through, dispatching as few enemies as possible. The game also has a last chance system, meaning where if you are caught bare-arsed, you have a couple of seconds in slow motion to take a guard out. If you do this the alert phase won’t trigger. It is a brilliant system aimed at tackling one of my pet-peeves of the series. I know being caught and having to wait through 40,000 hours of alert and caution phase is your punishment in the feedback loop of MGS, but that has always been the worst part of these games to me, this at least gives me more of a chance with which to avoid this.

The missions themselves are interesting in the way they play with the mechanics and allow for different approaches. Both objectives in the main mode are to rescue prisoners, adding a new wrinkle in the gameplay. You now have to escort/carry these prisoners to a drop site, meaning you’re not anywhere near as silent, mobile or resilient as you were before picking up your cargo.

Although stupidly expensive for a demo, Ground Zeroes has me almost giddy with excitement for the full game. I await with a stupid smile on my face, and for the first time I am looking forward to playing a Metal Gear game, rather than just watching it.