Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes (PS3/PS4) Review

One of the games that many people have high hopes for is the release of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. While the release date is nowhere in sight as it’s still currently in development, Kojima has instead released a prologue game to prepare fans for the upcoming release of The Phantom Pain.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is a game that fills the gap between the storyline for Peace Walker and the upcoming The Phantom Pain. Those who have played Peace Walker on the PSP or consoles will see several familiar faces that will contribute and shape up the story that will start in The Phantom Pain. Characters like Chico, Paz, and Miller are among the characters that are expected to appear in the game. For fans of the popular series, they will be pleased to see these characters return for one more round.

In Ground Zeroes, what you will play is not exactly a whole full game that will take you hours to complete. In fact, you can complete the game in roughly one to two hours depending on how you tackle the mission. That being said, the game will not offer full length cutscenes nor will it be deep in narrative as what you will see in the game is simply a taste on what’s to come in The Phantom Pain. There are still cutscenes, but they are brief and will only discuss what is currently happening in your mission. Fans who are looking forward to see what Kojima has in store for us in terms of what to expect in his upcoming game, Ground Zeroes will pretty much show you that.

There are a total of six missions that are playable in the game, one being the main mission that you will actually play to unlock the others. In the mission “Ground Zeroes”, your objective is to rescue the prisoners Chico and Paz and extract them at any of the three extraction points. There is actually no background story as to how they got there whatsoever but after you finish the mission, you will see a somewhat decent length cutscene to make fans excited for the upcoming release. Following the cutscene, more missions will be unlocked, but they are simply side ops where objectives like kill two guards will be given out. Those wanting to get the most of out of their game will definitely have to check out the missions and beat them to give them trophies and achievements. Platinum hunters? Unfortunately the game offers no platinum trophy which is a tad disappointing.

The moment you play Ground Zeroes, you will immediately see how beautiful the game is. Fans who are playing the PS4 version, what you will encounter is a seamless playthrough as the frame rates are smooth at 60 frames per second and the resolution is set at 1080p. During my time with the game, I never encountered any slowdowns unlike the PS3 version where the framerate occasionally stutters a bit, which is not surprising as it’s set to 30 frames per second. In terms of visual clarity, the PS4 version looks very good as the environments, textures and character models are crisp and very detailed. Those who are getting the game on the PS3, the visuals are not as good as the PS4 but it’s decent enough knowing that the game is playing on an old machine. If you have the option between the PS3 and PS4 version, I suggest you get the PS4 version to get the full experience but those who don’t care much about graphics should simply stick to the PS3 version and save their $10 as it’s much cheaper than the PS4 version.

Gameplay wise, Ground Zeroes shows improvement over the Guns of the Patriots that was released on the PS3 many years ago. The controls are much better and are easy to follow. They are not the same controls as the previous games, but those who are worried on the learning curve shouldn’t worry too much as it’s easy to grasp and fans can get used to it within the matter of minutes.