The overall plot is disjointed and weak, with most of its interesting scenes and visuals feeling unearned due to the lack of connective tissue, its obsession with 'parasites' being just as silly as MGS4's 'nanomachines', and generally feeling like a framing device to accommodate the gameplay rather than a true labor of love and vision. Onto a less positive subject, let's talk story (and I'll try to limit myself to the bare minimum observations here).Ĭharacters are merely a shadow of their former selves, especially Ocelot who is being reduced to an exposition-spouting bore devoid of any personality and a far cry from his Magnificent Bastard status of previous entries. Diving out of the way of an inquisitive spotlight, waiting for a patrol to pass, sneaking up behind a guard and taking him out without being spotted, and shaving a precious few seconds off of your flawless Ghost run has quite simply never felt so good than in this game. Ground Zeroes probably remains the game's mechanical highlight, perfectly showcasing the brilliant enemy AI and condensed level design of Camp Omega while leaving plenty of room for strategy and experimentation, all within a neat little package with enormous replay value.

Negatives would have to be the boss fights, the sheer amount of empty space in-between relevant locations, and the uninspired checklist-style side missions, however. It's clear that the developers wanted to give the player the tense feeling of infiltrating these intimidating enemy bases, and I think they succeeded in doing so for the most part. Gameplay in general is really tight thanks to the refined controls, great visibility and a very broad spectrum of polished mechanical options that allows for a great deal of agency without ever devaluing its core principles. Almost 100 hours of repetitive missions and underwhelming story beats later, I was left with little more than a crushing sense of heart-breaking disappointment instead. Playing Ground Zeroes for the first time in early 2014 after watching that superb Guns of Navarone-inspired introduction made my heart beat faster at the thought of experiencing what could possibly be the glorious conclusion of my favorite video game franchise.

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