Here’s the setup — Kojima Productions will be releasing a very high profiled game called Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain soon but until that comes out their team has released Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes which acts as sort of a prelude to the bigger game.

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes leaves the door open to many questions but does provide some answers.  Can Kiefer Sutherland slip into the voice acting and motion capture boots of Big Boss — answer YES.  Can Kojima Productions deliver high quality gameplay with their new FOX Engine — answer YES.  Can you sell a glorified tech demo of a game to the masses for a pretty hefty price — answer YES.

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes will run you $29.95 and is available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3.  The game is basically one level in which you must seek out and rescue a couple of captives and save them.  Depending on your play-style it can take 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

PROS:

  • Solid game mechanics for both stealth and combat
  • Visually appealing and cut scenes not overly drawn-out
  • Great teaser for upcoming game – anticipation level increased
  • Simultaneous release on both current-gen and previous-gen platforms

CONS:

  • At $30 it’s hard to justify this as an actual ‘game release’
  • Using the map and navigating – problematic
  • Melee combat could be improved – un-intentional deaths ensued
  • Anyway to turn off the ‘you’ve been spotted’ bullet-time reaction ‘reflex mode’?

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes is available now – once you finish the main mission other side quests will unlock for you to play.  We hope to see more of Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain at the upcoming E3 Expo 2013.

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VauBtc06pjs