A new standard for open-world interaction, and an incredible sign-off to a spectacular, often infuriating, series. This is one of the most ingenious, lovingly crafted games of all time.

Staggeringly deep open-world with huge variety of strategies and item upgrades; Impeccable production values and haunting audio; The most-accessible MGS game yet; Ingenious game-structure-as-metaphor; with philosophical depths; Attaching an upgraded fulton balloon to *anything

Intense pacing; from initially daunting to incredibly tough

Welcome back to the Metal Gear Solid universe as we are once again introduced to legendary and iconic video game character "Snake" ( aka Big Boss ) who awakes from a nine year coma and is forced to rebuild his mercenary army known as the Diamond Dogs to end the reign of the organisation of Cipher...

i played it until i beat it, then i stuck it in my butt

Following the events of Big Boss rescuing both Paz and Chico from an American black site located in Cuba, Boss, Paz and Miller are ambushed at the Mother Base to devastating effect. It is believed that a Special Forces Unit going by the name of XOF were behind the attacks.

An insane amount of variety and possibilities; a sandbox game in its finest form; The maps are HUGE in every sense of the word; Rebuilding Mother Base brings a sense of pride and ownership; this is your baby; Breathtaking visuals; Fluid and open approached lethal/non-lethal combat; Superb voice...

Could have done with an manual save function

Even though they've generally been great, there have been so many Metal Gear Solid games over the years that it can be hard to get excited for each new release. But with Metal Gear Solid V, which is likely the last MGS game creator Hideo Kojima will be involved with, Konami has outdone itself with a...

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is effectively an ending. Although Metal Gear may continue, many important people behind it, including creator Hideo Kojima, will no longer be involved. Yet the Phantom Pain doesn't feel like an ending, but rather a beginning.

'Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain' isn't just great a stealth experience by 'Metal Gear' standards, it's a great stealth tour for this generation of gaming. The devs have built on the great prequel series and made an extremely sympathetic character of Big Boss.

Here it is: review impressions spliced with final conclusions. We're finally ready to offer our verdict on one of the year's biggest games.

+ Huge open world; plenty to do; thought-provoking; new ideas well implemented

- Some recycled content in the second act

I have experience with MGS from MGS1, 2 played to death, MGS3 didn't like, didn't play MGS4 because of that. So when TPP was coming out I wasn't interested. I then played Ground Zeroes, read the previews/reviews of TPP and knew I had to give it a go. I was certainly not disappointed.

(Reviewer's Note: This review covers only the single player aspect of MGS V: The Phantom Pain, as the online component, Metal Gear Online was not available at the time of this review.