Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes first impressions arrive online
This week, members of the press attending a launch event in Japan finally got to play Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, Hideo Kojima's prequel taster for the next Solid Snake adventure. This wasn't just a quick ten minute hands-on with one part of the game, but complete unobstructed access to the whole thing.
Needless to say, many of the western journalists in attendance have been sharing their thoughts online, and they make for tantalising reading.
I'd like to point out that this game is not a 2 hour game, tweeted Dazz Brown from The VG Resource, referring to claims that the game only lasts a few hours. Ground Zeroes is a great demonstration of the FOX Engine.
The game doesn't play like a standard MGS game in this sense, he added. Several missions, each range from 30 mins to 2 hours. It's super easy to miss additional story items though, adding to replay value.
Sam Smith from Play Magazine backed this up. Finished GZ for the first time in about 90 minutes, he tweeted. Total game completion? 9%. I think that tells you all you need to know.
Other revelations from the event are that the game rarely uses cutscenes, preferring instead to deliver story exposition through recordings and other audio sources that allow you to keep playing. It also seems that the new FOX Engine will make for a tougher stealth experience, as every object in the game world can now be moved or knocked over, creating noise.
It's the ending that has got the journalists in a tizzy though. The cliffhanger will lead directly into te events of The Phantom Pain, which picks up the story years into the future. The ending to Ground Zeroes is crazy exciting, tweets Smith. Kojima is still the absolute best at what he does.
Just saw the ending, tweeted Samuel Casado of Power Unlimited. Goosebumps. Disbelief. Shock. *reboots game* I'm going back in.
Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is a mid-priced release, due on March 20 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.