Ah, Metal Gear Solid. What can I say about it that hasn't already been said? Hideo Kojima's signature franchise that started all the way back on the MSX computers but didn't make the popularity until the PS1 days with the first MGS game that added a layer of stealth, story telling, characters and a cinematic presentation to boot making it one of the best games on the system and the franchise continued with multiple sequels, spin-offs and ports onto various consoles (i.e. Twin Snakes on the Gamecube and both Subsistance games on the PS2 and Xbox).
I haven't been the biggest fan of the series but have been playing a lot of the games as far as I can remember as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty being my favourite despite it being called the black sheep of the series by the die-hard fans and while I can understand why at certain points, they don't detract me that I just couldn't stop playing it over and over again back in the day.
After the 4th game in the main series subtitled Guns of Patriots on the Playstation 3, I thought it would be the end of Snake's legacy and Kojima and the rest of his production company as well as publisher Konami can leave the series behind to work on something fresh and new.
I was wrong...Dead wrong.
First shown sometime last year as Ground Zeroes then later as The Phantom Pain at the Spike Video Game Awards to finally announcing the true title at GDC earlier this year. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a new game in development from Kojima. While a lot of people will no doubt be excited for this game, I can honestly say that I am not one of them and I'll explain why.
First off, why do we need another Metal Gear game? Most of the plot points that lead up to the 4th game were pretty much wrapped up as far as I can tell so why does the entire series need to be extended even more? Well to be fair, from what I've gathered, this game is meant to take place after the PSP exclusive game Peace Walker as it's more has to do with a different Snake rather than Solid Snake, so it could mean like Big Boss or a different Snake altogether but that being said, does the back story of his character and others like Ocelot need to be further developed? I feel it's rather unnecessary, mainly because I don't think many people have played Peace Walker considering it was on a platform that not many people owned compared to the Nintendo DS but that said, the game was also included with the HD collection on the PS3/Xbox 360.
Another reason is that Kojima has stated in the past that he wants to do another Zone of the Enders game and personally, I was more excited for that than another Metal Gear title but alas, that's not going to happen as the release of the HD collection for Zone of the Enders kinda fell short in terms of a few promises and left the game on indefinite hold for the time being which I find that to be rather disheartening as I did like what I played from the first game on the PS2 back in the day, even if I did get it to play the MGS 2 demo.
That being said, will he work on something new then?...Well....
Anyone who knows Kojima from reports online that he's very "careful" of this franchise and doesn't want anyone screwing it up, even if he did let a different developer work on a game in relation to the franchise but to be fair it was a spin off (MGR: Revengeance is awesome btw), so I can't really fault him much for that. But what also baffles me on how Konami wants him to keep going with the franchise as it's the only thing they have left (aside from Castlevania) because in this day and age, new IPs don't sell very well because developers and publishers want to rely on franchises that they know will make a profit rather than taking risks which is something I might have to rant at another time but not right now.
So it really hurts me on how a developer like Kojima with a huge level of talent is locked up like a slave in order to work on something that he's best known for, whenever it's his decision or not. I just feel he needs to break out of the series and do a new IP and the more he and the rest at Kojima Productions as well as Konami hears this, the better (imo).
Now with my negative statements towards MGS V, I'm not saying it'll be a terrible game. From what I've seen in the Red Band trailer (WARNING: Shocking content featured), it does look very impressive with the tone, graphics, new mechanics and other aspects that we know and love of the series are in this game even if it's odd hearing Keifer Sutherland voicing as Snake in this game rather than David Hayter.
So I'm not writing it off completely, I'm just not excited for it as much as other people are because I feel the series should have been done with he 4th game and I'm very burned out on the series as a whole. I will play this one but won't be getting it within the first few weeks.
That's just how I feel and I hope Kojima can work on something new in the future.
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