Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zero Review
​Let me begin by saying​ ​yes, everything you have heard about the finish
time of Ground Zero is true. My first play through only lasted a little over a
hour and a half. But please, you would be doing yourself a great disservice,
if you let that factor stop you from buying this game.
I’m still amazed at how such short experience still felt so powerful. Every
second of that hour and a half kept me on the edge of my seat and felt like
a Metal Gear Solid game should. A story that held more drama than most
Hollywood films, almost flawless gameplay, smooth controls and gorgeous
graphics.
So as not to give too much away on the story. Ground Zero begins one
year after the events of Peace Walker, with Snake breaking into a U.S.
military base off of Cuba to rescue Chico and Paz. There are some other
agendas that are going on, but to tell you about them would ruin the intense
ending.
Now if you are like me and didn’t play Peace Walker, then probably the
names Chico and Paz are confusing to you. Luckily Kojima was kind
enough to add in the start up a screen, a option that allows you to read up
on Peace Walker. It does a decent job of updating you on the plot so far.
Even brings up the main events of Snake Eater.
As per usual for a Metal Gear game, the cutscenes and voice acting are
superbly done. Full of intense emotion and drama. Even the dialogue is
better written this time, with the lines and words coming off more natural
and less forced from the characters. Gone are the days where Snake
questions every key word during a debriefing.
Now I know there was some heated discussions and debates with the
decision of replacing the voice of Snake (originally and iconically done by

David Hayter) with Kiefer Sutherland. Well put your minds at rest and
defuse your preconceived opinions because Sutherland nails it. As much
as Hayter’s Snake will always have a special place in my heart, with
Sutherland you are getting a higher degree of voice acting.
A change of voice actors isn't the only thing Ground Zero has updated.
The usual gameplay and control mechanics have undergone a redesign for
a better more realistic experience. Right at the start of the mission, the
game makes you aware of two tools, the binoculars and iDroid, which you
will be using a lot of. The binoculars are now hot keyed to the controller for
easy use. You won't just be just using these to take in your surroundings,
but mainly to mark enemies. Once you mark an enemy, you will be able to
see them through walls and barriers, also there location will come up on the
map.
To check your map is where the iDroid comes in. The iDroid brings up a
rotatable holographic image of the military base. With it you can set
personal waypoints or check where enemies, chopper drop zones or
special items are located. Since the military base was created like a
sandbox, any area you see is reachable. Also with the iDroid you can listen
to a bunch of tapes that delve a little deeper in the story. The one cool thing
I did notice is that you have a list of about three songs you can listen to
while still playing the mission.
The alert system has also been updated to fit a more fluid gameplay.
Now when a enemy sees or is alerted to your presences, you go into this
three second slow motion gun phase to capacitate the enemy before an
alarm is sound. This new feature feels nice and eliminates unneeded
frustrations from being spotted that plagued previous titles. With that being
said, those unneeded frustrations also taught you to play the game better.
Where now you can take more risks on being spotted with little or no
consequence.

Also gone is the alert, evasion, and caution clock. To let you know when
the close is clear or that things have cooled down, you're just going to have
to listen closely to what the enemies are calling out and watch for when
they go back to their posts. I will say, I like this because it carries a sense
of realism about it.
There is one more new thing they added to gameplay that is better than
all previous mention changes. It is the ability to finally use vehicles and gun
torrents. In one playthrough there was a tank on look out and I had to get
pass it. So for the heck of it, I hopped into the empty tank next to it and
blew it too bits. Also in another playthrough I used a gun torrent to just mow
down a group of enemies. Ya if you use these things it means an automatic
alert is sounded, but way too much fun is to be found in this new gameplay
mechanic to pass up.
Controlling Snake feels smoother this go around, thanks to the tweaked
control system. Kept is Guns of the Patriots gunplay, but with the added
touch of being able to change which shoulder side you want to shoot from.
One thing I really like is you no longer have to pause and stop the flow of
the game. Just to go through your inventory to find some gun you want. All
you have to do is press one of the D­pad buttons and bam you're using a
new weapon.
Snake also has a new sprint ability that really comes in handy if you're in
a clearing with no enemies or are trying to make a quick escape. While
sprinting you can go into this ground dive by pressing crouch if you need to
go back into hiding.
Left untouched for the most part, is the C.Q.C.(close quarter combat)
controls. Only thing different is you have a third option from kill or daze that
lets you interrogate the enemy. If you interrogate an enemy he will mark the
location of a special weapon or where cameras and other enemies are

located on the map. Out of anything it's just cool to see what new info the
enemy will give you.
Sneaking has stayed the same also. It works just like Snake Eater, to
where the sound of your footsteps depends on how much pressure you are
putting on the analog stick.
Before I wrap this up and forget, I need to speak on the graphics. Kojima's
Fox Engine presents the game just gorgeously. What I first noticed was the
lighting from the watchtowers and light posts had a very realistic brightness
to it. Also thanks to this brightness, colors seem to stand out more this
time. Much unlike the usual grey tint that other Metal Gear games seem to
share.
Graphical details appear higher too, with the most noticeable being the
rain and how realistically wet everything looks. I played this on the PS3 and
was impressed, so I would wager that it can only look better on the new
generation of consoles.
Again don’t let the length of time stop you from playing this, because it
does carry a decent amount of replayability. There are six other side
missions to unlock and play, each having a normal and hard mode. Also
each mission has a special amount of items you can unlock depending on
how high your rank is. So I would say over all, you are looking at about a
twelve hour game if you were wanting to obtain every last thing. So if you
are already Metal Gear Solid fan you will enjoy all the changes or if you are
new to the series this is a great jumping on point.
Score: 8