Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is an open world Action Adventure Stealth Based Game developed by Kojima Productions, directed, designed, co-produced and co-written by Hideo Kojima, and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It was released worldwide on September 1, 2015. The game is the eleventh canonical and final installment in the Metal Gear series and the fifth within the series' chronology. It serves as a sequel to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and a continuation of the narrative established there, and a prequel to the original Metal Gear game. It carries over the tagline of Tactical Espionage Operations first used in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Set in 1984, the game follows the mercenary leader Punished "Venom" Snake as he ventures into Afghanistan and the Angola–Zaire border region to exact revenge on the people who destroyed his forces and came close to killing him during the climax of Ground Zeroes.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a separated composite of two previously announced Kojima Productions projects. These two, separately released games combined are Metal Gear Solid V, with The Phantom Pain constituting the bulk of the title.

The Phantom Pain was critically acclaimed upon release, with its gameplay drawing praise for featuring a variety of mechanics and interconnected systems which allow a high degree of player freedom in approaching objectives. While the story drew criticism from a few reviewers for its lack of focus, others acknowledged its emotional power and exploration of mature themes.


 * AKA-47: The weapons in the game have fake names in place of real names, even having slight modifications in some cases to avoid ripping off real world trademarks, but it's still very obvious what they are stand-ins for, with the Renov sniper rifle being a renamed SVD Dragunov, the Burkov is actually a Makarov, and the SVG-76 is actually an AK-47 variant, just for a few examples.
 * Somewhat averted with the Stinger Missile Launcher, whose prototype becomes available for use (as it did in Real Life around the same period), though it's only referred to by it's prototype name.
 * Body Double:
 * Call Forward:
 * Although seen only in photographs, a young boy named Hal Emmerich, aka Otacon plays a rather significant if tragic role in the plot.
 * Metal Gear Sahelanthropus bears more than a passing resemblance to the chronologically later Metal Gear REX in its bipedal form.
 * Eli, the hardened child soldier Venom encounters in Africa.
 * Walker Gears/D-Walkers are essentially earlier versions of the TX-55 Metal Gear.
 * The use of the parasites by the Big Bad foreshadows FOXDIE and the presence of nanomachines down the line.
 * Chicken Walker: Walker Gears, also known as D-Walkers, have a bird like strut to them
 * A Commander Is You: One of the mechanics is an expanded version of the base commander aspects of Peace Walker, and a decent chunk of the gameplay is devoted to micromanaging your army.
 * Creator Cameo: Hideo Kojima returns to service under Big Boss once again.
 * Equal Opportunity Evil: While Diamond Dogs isn't necessarily evil (at least by this point), it's rather indiscriminate when it comes to recruits. Given how they come from various cultures, nationalities and even gender.
 * Executive Meddling: While Konami gave Kojima relatively free rein over the game's development, Word of God is that rather substantial portion had to be altered if not left on the cutting room floor. This includes a chapter simply titled "Peace."
 * Fish Out of Temporal Water: Downplayed, but Venom is a relative newcomer to The Eighties. Given how he tries to keep up to date with contemporary developments upon coming to and how Diamond Dogs tends to operate in countries and combat theaters away from pop-cultural centers, it's not much of a concern.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Skull Face went from being a Hungarian assassin to become the "face" of Cipher.
 * Heel Face Door Slam: is revealed to be The Atoner and had been trying to undo what he helped set in motion.
 * Heel Face Turn: Quiet, who's one of those sent in to kill Big Boss at the intro, becomes one of Venom's closest comrades-in-arms.
 * Legendary in the Sequel: A peculiar case as this game is ultimately about how Big Boss comes to be a legend by the time the later Metal Gear games take place.
 * Magical Native American: Subverted with Code Talker, who only seems to be this because of his manner of speaking as well as the self-experimentation.
 * Magnum Opus: The game is considered one of Kojima's best games.
 * Mundane Utility: The player can eventually get their hands on what amounts to a teleportation device, but it's use is limited to simply being used as a better version of the Fulton Device.
 * Misplaced Vegetation: Averted. The few plants you can pick up would plausibly be found in the regions you can acquire them.
 * Multinational Team: Diamond Dogs can have members from literally all over the world, and their pickiness in recruiting is so low Afghan mujahideen serve alongside former Soviets and African mercenaries from different tribal areas (many of which bitter enemies normally) are comrades in arms.
 * Never My Fault: The game really does an unsettling job showing Huey's true colors.
 * Organic Technology: Used quite extensively by Cipher..
 * Poor Communication Kills: One the major themes in the game is language and the power of words.
 * Private Army: You run one. In fact, so do a lot of people, many of which will be your enemies.
 * Red Herring Twist: Zero is propped as being the ultimate antagonist.
 * Russians With Rifles: The Soviet 40th Red Army motorized rifle division is the primary enemy force in Afghanistan.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A running theme throughout the plot. Everyone involved in the story is after some form of vengeance.
 * Schizo-Tech: While the Metal Gear universe tends to play fast and loose with what tech actually existed yet usually bases it on tech that did exist in some form (if only as a concept) during the time period of the game in question, this game even gives the player the chance to get their own wormhole device.
 * Secret War: Miller and Diamond Dogs have been waging one against XOF, which is nominally under Cipher's command.
 * Shout Out: The Afghanistan sections bear more than a few homages to Rambo III and The Living Daylights, which also involved the Soviet occupation.
 * Soviet Superscience: Sahelanthropus is technically a Soviet-produced weapon under Huey's direction. Also, the Man on Fire is also mentioned as being the result of Soviet experimention.
 * Start of Darkness: The game really marks this for Big Boss. Diamond Dogs in particular is much murkier than MSF and sets the foundations for Outer Heaven later on.
 * They still have some scruples, like not utilizing child soldiers (and trying to rehabilitate them) and being willing to decline jobs that basically amount to committing full on war crimes,.
 * The Eighties: The game is set in 1984 and has Venom going into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and a war-ravaged African frontier.
 * Time Skip: Compared to Ground Zeroes, the game is set in 1984.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass: Miller is noticeably angrier and much more bitter. Given what happened over the past decade, it's justified.
 * Wide Open Sandbox: Quite wide, with two very large world areas. They do have eventual borders, but the area one can cover is quite vast in both. Some parts of the area of each world are blocked off in some minor ways due to certain missions, but otherwise the world spaces of Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border are quite huge.
 * Zoo Tycoon: It's possible to send back various animals, including bears, with the Fulton Device.