Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain



"It is no nation that we inhabit, but a language. Make no mistake; our native tongue is our true fatherland."

- Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher

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, Play Station 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.


 * Afghanistan: One of the major settings of the game, set during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan period.
 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A reason why Skull Face isn't a fan of artificial intelligence and instead tries to rely on Tretij Rebenok.
 * AKA-47: In a departure from previous games in the series, all of the guns use fictional names. While a few are simple renames, the majority are entirely fictionally, usually being combinations of several real-world guns. It is usually apparent, however, which real gun they are standing in for, such as the "MRS-4" series for the AR-15/M16 series, and the "SVG-76" for the AK-74.
 * Artificial Stupidity: Both Soviet soldiers and Africa mercenaries will do some dumb things:
 * It's sometimes worth not sending men to destroy stashes of enemy flashlights. While they do help enemies see you better in the dark, as long as stay still and shoot them before they stop waving the flashlight around, they are basically sitting ducks, and it's possible to goad them into doing this if you have trouble getting them to stand still long enough.
 * D-Dog will always be told to shoo by enemies, even if he's wearing an Eyepatch of Power and decked out in combat gear, which no one seems to find the least bit suspicious. This gets really stupid in Africa, as he's not even remotely like any breed of dog or wolf in that region, but no one seems to pick up on this.
 * Award Bait Song: Sins of the Father by Donna Burke and Quiet's Theme, sung by Stefanie Joosten.
 * Because Destiny Says So:.
 * Bigger Bad:
 * Bilingual Bonus: The usage of languages as varied as Russian, Kikongo, Hungarian and even Navajo is impressive.
 * Body Double:
 * Bowel-Breaking Bricks: D-Horse can weaponize this. Having him take a crap on a road can foul up enemy vehicles.
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: Both in-universe and in a meta sense. Having lots of money and resources to keep Mother Base well supplied only makes your job easier, and being willing to blow money on Real Life micro-transactions makes the former more easy to accomplish, though the game itself is perfectly beatable without this.
 * 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.
 * Ocelot observes that not only are Zero's plans  already well underway, but that the seeds of a "war economy" have taken root, though he suspects it'd take decades before it comes to its own. Which since proves to have become reality by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
 * Chicken Walker: Walker Gears, also known as D-Walkers, have a bird like strut to them
 * Child Soldiers: Show up prominently in the African levels.
 * 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.
 * Could Have Avoided This Plot: Over the course of the plot, it's revealed that many events in the timeline could have been avoided had certain characters not died and had fatal, tragic miscommunications been prevented.
 * Creator Cameo: Hideo Kojima returns to service under Big Boss once again.
 * Darkest Africa: The African sections of the game are set along the Angola-Zaire border, and filled with mercenaries and child soldiers.
 * Dead All Along:
 * Defector From Decadence:.
 * Demonic Spiders: You will learn to HATE riot suited soldiers and child soldiers. The former can only be easily taken out by heavy weapons or excellent use of stealth (if you don't have the former and are bad at the latter, this makes several levels suck hard), and the latter cannot be killed or you get instant mission failure, forcing the player to either play completely nonviolent or be very stealthy.
 * Distressed Dude: The first proper mission of the game involves Snake rescuing Miller from the soviets.
 * Easy Logistics: Averted hard. Supplies cost money and resources, and you have to supply them most of the time. You can raise the level of the Base Development team and they'll scrounge up some supplies on occasion, but most of the work of doing that falls on you.
 * Elite Mooks: Ranging from Soviet Spetsnaz in Afghanistan to XOF personnel and the parasite-enhanced Skulls.
 * End of an Age: In multiple ways.
 * The game is set during the twilight years of the Cold War, as Private Military Contractors become more prominent. Already, the machinations that would culminate in the Patriots' War Economy in MGS4 are shown to be well underway.
 * It also marks the point in which Big Boss makes the transition from the misguided hero in Snake Eater to the supposed Big Bad of the original Metal Gear games.
 * Meta-wise, this is the last Metal Gear game to be made by Kojima, at least as part of Konami.
 * Enfant Terrible: It's revealed that Les Enfant Terribles has since been set in motion.
 * 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."
 * Everyone Has Standards: Just about everyone, from Ocelot to Skull Face, has some reason or another to express disgust.
 * 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.
 * Foil: XOF is this to Diamond Dogs, being an amoral Private Army that answers to Cipher. Or rather, Skull Face.
 * Foregone Conclusion: Whatever happens, it's certain that Big Boss, Miller and Ocelot would survive well into the future. Huey also has to survive so he can later drown when he sees Otacon in the bed with his step-mother.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Skull Face went from being a Hungarian assassin to become the "face" of Cipher.
 * Deadly Change-of-Heart: is revealed to be The Atoner and had been trying to undo what he helped set in motion.
 * Good Bad Bugs: The game gets slightly weird if an enemy falls off the side of a tall structure, occasionally forcing them to vastly overshoot their landing, meaning you can shoot a guy off a landing and he falls much farther than he ever would in Real Life.
 * Geo Effects: Sandstorms will occur in Afghanistan, but are easily navigated with night vision goggles. Rain will fall in Africa, and it mostly suppresses footstep noise, and, if you move around in it long enough, washes blood off your uniform.
 * 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.
 * Hidden in Plain Sight: One mission has you recover what turns out to be copper ore and some Yellowcake. The former is assumed to be unimportant, and the latter important because it has enriched uranium, but otherwise not notable in and of itself. Later, both take on greater significance once what was hidden in plain sight is explained..
 * Humongous Mecha: Skull Face reveals in the mission "Where Do The Bees Sleep" he is control of a Metal Gear.
 * Irony: Way back in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, it was mentioned that it didn't make a lot of sense for a machine to have legs, especially ones that let it walk upright. This game explains why that's not true at all.
 * It's All About Me:, who does it so well and so naturally that he doesn't even notice it, let alone care about anything other than himself and self-preservation.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: "The world calls for wet-work, and we answer! No greater good. No just cause!"
 * Keystone Army: Averted with XOF.
 * 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.
 * Made of Explodium: Sahelanthropus' armor is comprised of depleted uranium that can be significantly enriched through "metallic archaea," effectively making the Metal Gear itself a walking nuke that Skull Face could detonate should the need arise.
 * Ironically, the yield of the bomb in questions revealed to be rather unimpressive..
 * 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.
 * Male Gaze: Sort of justified. If Venom decides to spare Quiet, we get a cutscene focusing on her midriff and chest on the helicopter as Venom put her unconscious body in a safe position, but the camera is in first-person, implying he is perving over her.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: The Hamburgers of Kazuhira Miller tapes.
 * 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 mujaheddin serve alongside former Soviets and African mercenaries from different tribal areas (many of which bitter enemies normally) as comrades in arms.
 * DD members can even be heard commenting on how their nationality is not considered important or held against them, they all serve with any bias towards their origins.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: It's revealed that underwent this at some point.
 * Never My Fault: The game really does an unsettling job showing Huey's true colors. Ocelot  observes how he does it so well that he never even realizes that he's doing it.
 * Once More, with Clarity: The real final mission.
 * Organic Technology: Used quite extensively by Cipher..
 * Origin Story:
 * Poor Communication Kills: One of the major themes in the game is language and the power of words.
 * Post Script Season: The fall of Skull Face and his Metal Gear doesn't mean the story is over. In fact, you spend the time after that cleaning up the loose ends.
 * Private Army/Private Military Contractors: You run one. In fact, so do a lot of people, many of which will be your enemies such as the PFs in Africa as well as rival PMCs in multiplayer.
 * Punch Clock Villain: The PFs in Africa operate on this model, merely doing what they are paid to do, meaning they are just doing their jobs when they shoot at you, since defending the various areas of the Angola-Zaire border region is their reason for getting a paycheck. Of course, Diamond Dogs themselves aren't exempt from this, though they do try to maintain a baseline level of ethics and morality in their operations.
 * Red Herring Mole: Subverted with Ocelot. Given his canon tendency to betray those he nominally works for, one would expect him to do this to Diamond Dogs.
 * Red Herring Twist:
 * Zero is propped as being the ultimate antagonist.
 * Skull Face is also propped up over the course of the plot as being akin to a Final Boss.
 * Retcon:
 * A meta-retcon occurs with the Walker Gears. Similar machines were set to appear in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake but were cut, and the ones in this game are essentially recycling the idea that the cut MG2 versions had, retroactively canonizing their existence earlier on.
 * 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.
 * The Africa sections meanwhile call to mind The Wild Geese.
 * David Bowie's work is referenced several times in the game, including Diamond Dogs' name.
 * Sins of the Father: Much of what happens in the game are the consequences of the events of Snake Eater and Peace Walker, whose fallout in turn is passed on to the likes of Solid Snake and Otacon to deal with.
 * Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: The Diamond Dogs are on the very end of the scale if not outright Class V. They help groups as bad as Cipher like the MPLA, that are are only less of a threat.
 * Suspiciously Apropos Music: Some of the collectible '80s hits in the game have some connection to the plot or overall theme. Among the most notable being the cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World.
 * 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 experimentation.
 * 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,.
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's made very evident that no one in Diamond Dogs has any love for Huey In addition, Diamond Dogs itself devolves into this should its morale plummet.
 * As Ocelot explains, Cipher under Zero was basically this soon after Big Boss left. Without him around, they barely saw eye to eye except on the basic aspects of their core mission.
 * Within Diamond Dogs, Miller and Ocelot have a lot of moments where they disagree vehemently with one another..
 * Averted with the PFs in Africa. They have established an gentleman's agreement to claim various turf and will cooperate only if hired on a job where more than one is paid to work with the other, otherwise they make a point of leaving each other be.
 * The Eighties: The game is set in 1984 and has Venom going into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and a war-ravaged African frontier.
 * The Undead: The Skulls and those infested by them have a deathlike pallor, zombielike gaits, and are technically no longer alive in a conscious sense. However, they aren't CLINICALLY dead, since the parasites that animate them also keep their bodies from decomposing and the cells in operation.
 * Time Skip: Compared to Ground Zeroes, the game is set in 1984.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: There are subtle hints sprinkled throughout the game implying that Venom.
 * Tranquil Fury: Not really "tranquil," but Miller has been seething in rage for the better part of a decade, seeking vengeance on Cipher.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass: Miller is noticeably angrier and much more bitter. Given what happened over the past decade, it's justified.
 * Subverted with Ocelot, who became a LOT nicer. This is partially justified by the fact you are on the same side..
 * What You Are in the Dark: Venom is forced into more than a few situations that push his willingness to do what's necessary to the breaking point.
 * 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.
 * Would Hurt A Child: Some of Snake's enemies are Child Soldiers. Though you can hurt them, there is a Game Over if you kill them.
 * You Are in Command Now: Subverted.
 * Zoo Tycoon: It's possible to send back various animals, including bears, with the Fulton Device.
 * Zoo Tycoon: It's possible to send back various animals, including bears, with the Fulton Device.