Are Metal Gear and Front Mission the Same Universe UPDATED

Are Metal Gear and Front Mission the Same Universe

What do you lot desire start: the good news or the bad news? Let'south first with the bad, shall we - Metallic Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes' main campaign isn't two hours long. For a lot of players it volition exist fifty-fifty shorter. The good news? After eight hours, information technology remains fun - if but but.

Let'south get the facts out of the fashion. Ground Zeroes' main campaign is a single mission. Depending on 1'south play style and a scrap of luck, this could realistically be completed in nether an hr. Others volition take it slow, experiment and maybe start over every time they're spotted. Nether these conditions it could last upwards of four hours. It took me about two and a half, when I played it at Konami's camp in Nasu, Nippon. But here's the twist: Ground Zeroes' primary mission is only a tiny sliver of what the game has to offer.

Upon completing it, you lot'll unlock 4 side missions set in the same environment. Some of these are entirely combat-focused, while others are stealth-based. Some flesh out the series' incredibly convoluted narrative, while others are airheaded one-off scenarios. All range between 15 and 45 minutes, and come with their own truncated finish credits sequence equally well as the serial' trademark cryptic audio easter eggs teasing further plot revelations upon completion. Irritatingly, the ii best side missions are split between console-exclusive bonuses and are stupidly difficult to unlock, simply more than on that later.

Taking these bonus missions into consideration roughly doubles the two-hour playtime, only information technology'southward after that where things get lean. Sure, at that place are banal-sounding trials similar competing on the leaderboards for who tin can tag all the enemies the quickest, and you can tackle harder difficulties or scavenge for subconscious trinkets, simply there's just so much one map can support before a sense of ennui wears in.

In the options menu you can tailor the soundtrack for when the chopper arrives. Naturally, it pairs well with Ride of the Valkyries.

That beingness the example, Kojima Productions has done its very best to foreclose that from happening. Footing Zeroes' sole level is meticulously engineered, and sorting out its secrets remains engaging long past when the end credits scroll.

The entirety of Basis Zeroes is set in Camp Omega, a loose yet obvious riff on Guantanamo Bay. Snake has arrived at this mysterious facility to rescue Paz and Chico, a couple of kids Serpent met in Peace Walker who accept since become followers of the homo who volition i day exist known as Large Dominate. On the surface, rescuing kids is an easy enough objective to understand, simply if you want further context as to who these children are and why we should care, that info is in Ground Zeroes. Skilful luck trying to empathise it, though.

A Backstory option can be selected from the title screen which offers the longest, most detailed summary imaginable of the plot of Peace Walker (a game I played only a couple of years ago and have completely forgotten the plot details of) and there'south a tonne of incredibly lengthy audio recordings that flesh things out even further. At least you take the option to listen to these while skulking most, but if you're able to follow gaming's most convoluted story while avoiding detection, you're a far better multi-tasker than I.

The truth is I tried to persevere through the murky narrative terrain Kojima laid out for us, I really did, but ultimately found information technology so arduous and at odds with the joy of sneaking that I just couldn't exist bothered. Asking a grouping of Metal Gear fans/journalists at the same event if they actually understood the intricacies of the plot, every ane of them offered a sheepish admission they were lost on the specifics. Some argued that it's probably meant to be confusing and then that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain can clear everything up. I remain sceptical, just on a bones level nosotros all understood the general ready-up for Metallic Gear'southward long-awaited numbered sequel.

Footing Zeroes is mercifully brief on cutscenes, excluding its lengthy intro and closer. Unfortunately, many of its best bits take been shown off in trailers for The Phantom Pain, further establishing that this prologue was never conceived as a standalone release.

Short and confusing may non the be nearly ringing endorsement of Ground Zeroes, merely the truth is one time you lot get past its micro scale and bewildering back-story, this prelude to MGS5 delivers the appurtenances in means the series has only hinted at in the past.

Also small to really be considered an open-world, Basis Zeroes is still an open up level, with its wide terrain hosting a spaghetti-like blueprint of routes devoted to different play-styles. Since your principal mission'southward goal is so elementary - rescue 2 kids - it leaves the player entirely on their own equally to how to practise this. One of your targets is vaguely marked on your map, while the other is farther hidden. It's an excuse to explore the map in farther detail.

Like any good Metallic Gear, the more you put into it the more than you become out of it. Even later on eight hours on this map I was still discovering new strategies. I won't spoil them, equally figuring these for yourself is much of the fun - only let's just say that Konami capped its preview event past showing a skilled member of the dev team race through the primary mission in under 18 minutes without raising a single alert. Naturally, he utilised a lot of secret techniques that hinted at only how deep this rabbit pigsty goes.

Before you starting time piecing together its detailed systems, you lot'll discover that the basic mechanics and design have been minimised since MGS4, a determination that's sure to be divisive. You lot no longer have a camouflage percent dictating how hidden y'all are, so you lot'll have to rely on trial and error to gauge the event things similar darkness and shrubbery have on your concealment. Ophidian also doesn't take a "stamina" or "psyche" meter this time around, nor does he have a radar. Instead, players must zoom in with binoculars to "tag" enemies, making their movements visible even backside walls.

Kojima boasts that JJ Abrams has complimented him on his use of lens flare. No, really.

Elsewhere, the formerly virtually-sighted enemies are at present improve equipped for open terrain and tin spot yous from further away, especially if they're manning searchlights. Further stacking the odds confronting you, aiming is a lot harder to pull off from a altitude as bullets are affected by distance and gravity. In order to get that delicious insta-snooze headshot with your MK22, y'all'll have to aim a smidge in front of or above an enemy's noggin. Thankfully, the punishment for a missed shot is less astringent than it used to be, with foes sometimes attributing a stray tranquilizer dart to a mosquito.

Another nifty detail this more open format brings with it is player-controlled extraction points. At whatever time Snake can summon a chopper to specific landing zones where he can leave the area or deposit POWs. The commencement time this happens it feels like a scripted event, only by the end of the principal mission it shows its truthful colours as a piece of truthful tactical decision making. Exercise yous try to articulate out a landing zone of its enemy population, or do you try to carry someone to a more remote location further away? Maybe y'all'll be able to clear out simply enough enemy forces that even if the helicopter is under attack y'all tin can make i risky push for it amongst enemy fire? If you get with plan C, is disabling the enemy'due south anti-air turrets plenty or should you gamble making a scene by planting C4 on that tank? Basis Zeroes' modest earth is packed with such choices.

Exterior of the core game a conclusion you may be making is which platform to get Ground Zeroes on. Digital Foundry will have the graphics and performance comparison, so I'll focus on each console manufacturer'due south exclusive bonus missions.

Can you tell which scenes are from The Phantom Pain and which are from Ground Zeroes? Hint: GZ Snake doesn't take a ponytail or cyborg arm.

The Xbox Ane's Jamais Vu mission stars Raiden, who runs a lot faster than Snake, but otherwise operates the same. Your goal in this mission is to eliminate a gang of torso snatchers who can only exist detected by tagging them with your binoculars. It'southward a fun little jaunt and it gives non-lethal-focused players like yours truly a run a risk to muck near with the game'due south deadlier weaponry, simply information technology'due south ultimately insubstantial and ends with a frustrating, overly long shooting sequence.

The PS4'due south Deja Vu mission is the existent surprise. In this goofy side-quest you're tasked with recreating photographs of areas in the level that think the starting time Metal Gear Solid. Find the right angle to snap a pic of a chopper and two soldiers and the picture is automatically taken, which brings with it a funny cutscene comparing the new game to its 1998 forbear. Like Jamais Vu, it's not a huge benefaction, merely information technology is an amusing aside for exploration-loving, underground-hunting players like myself.

Unfortunately both console-exclusive missions have a lot of doing to unlock. Konami won't let me say how you lot unlock them, just let's only say that it'due south something that would take taken me a very long fourth dimension to practise without outside help. Being the stubborn role player that I am, I really never unlocked them on my file and simply switched demo stations to scope them out.

I'd be remiss to non at least mention one of Ground Zeroes' biggest changes to the series: the newly cast Kiefer Sutherland voicing the lead. It'southward difficult to come to a proper conclusion from this sparse slice of content equally Snake is a human of few words, but based on his handful of lines I'm not sold on this new interpretation of the protagonist. On a base level, Sutherland'south softer, raspier tones sound an atrocious lot similar those of Robin Atkin Downes, who plays Snake's primary compatriot Kaz. This problem makes itself nowadays in the opening cutscene where the ii accept a conversation off-screen and even later on my tertiary viewing of this I had a hard fourth dimension sorting who was talking at times.

Beyond that, this new Snake - whom I like to phone call Kiefer Slytherin - only sounds too human. I've ever felt that office of Snake's appeal was due to him existence not being a realistic graphic symbol, but rather an impossibly sexy cipher. Ophidian was always tough, but never particularly angry or emotional, and I'm not certain there'southward ever been a more innocent, inquisitive growl than David Hayter's comically ane-note take on the character. Snake never behaved like an actual person, but rather an emotionally afar outsider. He was the Man Who Cruel To Globe: David Bowie in military scrubs. (And indeed in The Phantom Pain he'll sport a Diamond Dogs biker jacket.)

Kojima Productions has cribbed the radial zone of detection form Splinter Cell, where if you're in danger of existence spotted a white glow will emit nearly the eye of the screen indicating where the threat is coming from.

In a lot of ways, in that location's really a lot to Footing Zeroes. Its small scale is more than compensated for by its robust depth, but its conclusion is anticlimactic, despite its bombastic and lengthy denouement cutscene being heady in and of itself. Indeed the biggest issue with Ground Zeroes isn't its length: it'southward a lack of closure.

Gone Domicile may have lasted a scant three hours, but its conclusion left the player feeling like they'd experienced a full story. Ground Zeroes, on the other hand, doesn't only end in a bewilderment - much like MGS2'southward Tanker opening - it doesn't fifty-fifty effort to spin a total yarn. That mysterious burned homo in the opening named Skull Confront piques our marvel only to completely disappear with nary a mention (though he does inexplicably leave behind a seven-plus infinitesimal audio recording where he gives a pretentious philosophical monologue to a Prisoner of war he's torturing). Footing Zeroes may be marketed as a standalone brusk story, merely information technology'southward not even that. Information technology's only a stranded scene or two, floating in isolation for newcomers and lacking in the narrative nourishment series fans wait (despite its marathon hidden audio recordings).

The truth is perhaps that Basis Zeroes was never intended equally a standalone release. Konami's always passed it off as an appetiser to tide us over until the main course, but despite The Phantom Pain's gargantuan publisher-backed budget, this feels like a crowdfunding effort in a disguise as obvious every bit a cardboard box. As Kickstarter has proven time and time once more, people are willing to pay pinnacle dollar not simply for early access, but because they want to support a project - and the actress coin towards the Phantom Pain'south no-doubt immense development bill provided by Ground Zeroes will no doubt be appreciated by Kojima and Konami.

So Ground Zeroes is hardly essential, but it accomplishes what it set out to do in giving players a taste of how a more open-ended Metallic Gear chance might experience. Its wealth of strategies and secrets unearth plenty of tactical treasure for those willing to dig - something the premium price deviously encourages. Those expecting a total game are going to be disappointed, however - Ground Zeroes does feel similar a very expensive demo. But information technology's also a very, very good i.

This article was based on a printing trip to Japan. Konami paid for travel and accommodation.

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Are Metal Gear and Front Mission the Same Universe UPDATED

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