Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in Test - Outstanding Open-World Adventure

Metal Gear Solid is one of the most popular action series of game history. With the fifth part “The Phantom Pain”, inventor Hideo Kojima concludes the saga he created. How well the Metal Gear Solid 5 succeeds, we show you in the test.


Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in the Test - Story


The story and its presentation has always been a hallmark of Metal Gear Solid. The Phantom Pain is no exception: already in the opening scene, the game offers us a true firework of intensity, explosions and the typical, slanting features. In order to stay in the prologue, they press themselves out, for example, in fire-breathing robots, thundering like cannon balls through the air, and a burning whale breaks from the ground

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in the Test - Gameplay


Compared to Metal Gear Solid 4, however, the 30 to 35 hours of history does not convince very convincingly. The first half of the story is too slow to follow the prologue. The second part of The Phantom Pain, after all, clearly increases the tempo, but offers too many foreseeable phrases. Because of the spoiler risk, we can save information on the story here.


Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in the Test - Graphics & Sound


The most important gameplay feature in The Phantom Pain is the open game world, which is divided into the two extensive areas of Afghanistan and Africa. Within this world, we can move freely - which can bring advantages in the exploration before performing one of the approximately 50 main missions.


Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain in the Test - Conclusion


Although the mission objectives in Metal Gear Solid 5 are simple, but how we want to achieve them is completely up to us. So we can do the goal of eliminating a high-ranking officer either from a safe distance with a sniper rifle or choose the variant with brutal violence and a machine gun.


Creative heads sneak into the base and unintentionally attach C4 explosives to a guard and wait until they pass the mission goal - the rest is self-explanatory. However, it is necessary to take caution when it comes to creep emissions: the excellent AI opponent makes this project very challenging, but in most cases, it makes it possible to remain fair. If you fail too often on a mission, there is the "chicken bonnet" for beginners, which makes the player invisible for a few minutes.


Another important part in Metal Gear Solid 5 is the Motherbase, which is the main base in the Seychelles. In the freely accessible base, earned upgrades can be unlocked by earned units of the game currency and conversations with companions, which in turn also reveal new missions and gimmicks. In addition, the motherbase can be customized almost completely - so you are all too often caught up with how your stay in the base has a higher priority than the missions.


The graphic is the load of the last generation of consoles to be noted. This is how the appearance of the game has a little bit of a touch due to the same development for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (We tested on the Xbox One).


But the sound is in a class of its own. Outstanding speakers, a realistic soundscape and a great soundtrack make Metal Gear Solid 5 the audio standard for any game of the coming years.


Metal Gear Solid is and remains a phenomenon: The fifth part of "The Phantom Pain" again shows splendid action in the midst of explosions, stealth action and basic construction and remains true to its line.

The novelty of transferring the game into an open world is an absolute hit, but is at the expense of the story, which is not quite as much a part of Hideo Kojima as the genius predecessor. Nevertheless, The Phantom Pain is a very good Metal Gear Solid, which can convince veterans and beginners alike.