Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Xbox 360

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is the prologue to 2015's Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Story is solid and the characters are well done. You play as Snake and have to rescue Chico and Paz from being imprisoned in a Cuban military base. It's straight forward even though the entire base is open world. You can accomplish your objectives how you see fit but stealth is better suited than going in guns blazing. Graphically, the game looks great and could very be the best looking Xbox 360 game thus far. The character models are very well done and extremely detailed. The military base and area that surrounds it is also very well detailed and while you can see far away with great detail, pop-in happens here and there but is nothing major. Audio wise, the music, sound and voice acting is all top notch as expected. Kiefer Sutherland plays Snake and while I agree that Hideo Kojima should have kept David Hayter, Sutherland does an excellent job and is far better than the guy who replaced Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell Blacklist. Sound effects, footsteps, etc. all sound great and detailed. Gameplay wise, the worse thing is the cover system. It works like The Last Of Us in which you go behind an object and push up on the left analog stick to go into cover but it doesnt always work the way you want it to. Sometimes, you'll get stuck to the cover when you want to get out of cover and when you want to stay in cover yet just face the other side, it doesnt work and can cause a problem. I was spotted and detected more times because of this than anything else. Its very frustrating at times. Other than that, the gameplay is excellent but because you will depend on cover to be stealth, it hurts the overall grade of the gameplay. The enemy AI though is very intelligent. On Normal, they have great vision and will inspect every noise if you're close to them. At the same time, none of the AI feels cheap or like its cheating. As for length, its not as short as many reviews say it is. There's a lot of replay value and extras to collect as well as side ops. I would say that I put in around ten hours total and only had 25% completion. Its up to the player if they want to replay levels or find the hidden extras. I played through the main Ground Zeroes op, the four side ops and the Raiden side op. The side ops become available after completing the Ground Zeroes op while the Raiden side op becomes available if you collect all nine patches that are hidden in the Ground Zeroes op. The Raiden side op which is what led to me buying on 360 was a disappointment. You're supposed to eliminate all the Snatchers but its short, easy and very disappointing. The rest of the side ops were okay. The worse part is that all the side ops take place in the same military base which I guess should have been expected but its still a disappointment. In conclusion, if you're a fan of the franchise, then you'll most likely enjoy this game. In general, MGS: GZ is a solid 8/10 for me but im definitely hoping the cover system gets changed/fixed in The Phantom Pain. Hope this review helps.

I picked up this game because I hadn't played an MGS for a few years. I got bored with the series. I was hoping to be a revived fan. While the game is fun, mostly, it is difficult. If you like episodic play then this game is for you, but I am more into one storyline through a game without too much interruption (unless I choose to veer off the main storyline path).

This game is basically a preview/introduction to the actual game due to ship on 9/1/15 (MGS V: Phantom Pain). It's a very short game or demo if you will. It can be beat (if played straight through) in less than 10-15 minutes. There are however side missions and objectives to extend the experience. This shouldn't have been released to retail for the cost. At most it should have been a $5.00 DLC. Graphics, dialog, voice actors, & sound effects are top notch. Just lacking and misleading to make you think this is actually a full fledge game. Which is not the case.