The Examiner Reviews MGS: Ground Zeroes (1/5)

Er, yes? if you take your fanbase for granted enough that you would release a $30 or $40 demo that lasts 20-30 minutes on one playthrough, I think that's reason enough for me to never give you my full trust like I did before?

It's like Microsoft- they tried forcing that stupid DRM bullshit, and they backtracked, but they damaged gamers' trust, they're not getting that back any time soon.

Similarly, where before a Kojima game automatically meant a great experience, now I'm going to double and triple guess a purchasing decision. Yes, maybe it was the suits who forced him into releasing such an abusive product, but then, the suits could similarly compromise his future products too.

If you're an aware consumer, then yes, he's squandered all his goodwill.

@charizard1605: I'm still amused at how much of face-value people are taking the "game lenght" and how little details anyone is giving about the WHOLE GAME

Five additional missions unlocked, one of which has ridiculous requirements to unlock to begin with, but each of which last you another twenty minutes each?

What WHOLE GAME is there to talk about? There is no WHOLE GAME. This is a glorified demo, but you know what, at least demos are provided for free.

Hell, I can actually respect the vision behind trying to deliver an episodic form of storytelling, but then price your episodes accordingly. Charging full price for each episode, especially an episode that by your own admission is '1/100th of the full game' is asinine.

I'm interested in knowing why you're putting so much stock in this trollish 'review' that could have been put together by any random person that never played the game (given its lack of specifics) while ignoring the dozens of other fleshed out impressions that completely contradict what that guy is saying.

Hell, forget other outside sources Char. I played the game for 5 hours and can tell you that review is BS. And you know I'm not one to be forgiving with MGS, I'm the ultimate MGS4 hater on this board.

If you just mean to troll though, then carry on. :P

Demo's haven't been free for a while now. All this "early access" shit has become a mean's for devs to get paid for having others Q/A their product.

Is it bad that I still want to get this?

@Wiimotefan: Okay, you know, I'm willing to not trust this review. Let's put it to the side and wait for the actual real reviews to come out.

The reason I am so ready to jump the gun on this game though, if that is what you are asking, is that everything that has been shown about it so far has rubbed me off the wrong way. After how bad MGS4 was, Kojima had won me back with Peace Walker, but this game looks to be conceding to all the EA/Activison/Microsoft practises that are reducing video games to services, and are designed to be as exploitative as possible.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe it won't be like that- I'm willing to wait for the real reviews to see what they think. But as far as my early impressions go, this game comes off as a royal middle finger to the fans.

Ouch, There Will Be Blood....

Maybe some developers. But hey, I could still get the demo for Ace Attorney Dual Destinies, Bravely Default, Toukiden, Etrian Odyssey, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and so on for free. And you know what, a lot of those demos were very full featured- Toukiden, Bravely Default, and Etrian Oyssey all offered more than ten hours of content each, and they allowed you to carry over your save and progress into the full game.

Meanwhile, there is Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

One mistake and he's squandered it all? People have done much worse than release a short game.

I'm sure he'll be alright GZ and Phantom pain will sell well. Also if you look that deeply into what he's doing you have a problem. It's simple. Buy it or don't or wait for a reduced price. He didn't squander all of his good will with one bad decision that's not even that big of a deal to begin with

From what I played, I'm willing to pony up the cash to do it again and see the rest of the content. I can safely say I had more fun in my 5 hours with the game than I did with the entirety of MGS4.

Will the value strike the same notes with everyone else? Of course not. Could Konami have handled this better? Absolutely. It really should have been bundled in with something like LoS2.

I'm just saying that this review is WAY off base man. There really is a lot to this game. Enough to qualify as a budget title imo. $20 is a fair deal for this. $30 is pushing it, but still within reason.

Who is this man and why should I care about his opinion? It's pretty unprofessional to spoil a game just because he didn't like it.

Most media outlets have said that the main mission is 2-3 hours. The side content makes up many more in terms of gameplay.

@Wiimotefan: Okay, fine, I'll lower my guns for now and see how the game really is then lol. At the very least, it sounds like it is more fun to play than Metal Gear Solid 4, which... okay, that doesn't take much, but it's a step in the right direction I guess?

Let's see what the real critics think of it. Hopefully you are right and Kojima has still delivered a product that is worth it.

@Animal-Mother: We'll see, but my inkling is, if this game is as barebones as it seems (though Wiimotefan tells me it actually has a lot of meat to it, and I trust his opinion on things unless they are called Ninja Gaiden :p), then Kojima will have damaged his equity and his goodwill a fair bit.

Like, Final Fantasy. One bad entry and now its lost a whole lot of its standing.

don't forget about Square.

Final Fantasy didn't squander it's will on one bad entry. Square squandered it on about 3-4 games worth ( and there are still people who enjoy those games and buy them)

One sub-par to decent game won't stop people from buying the phantom pain at all ( I'm willing to be ground zeroes will be a solid title that will get panned due to it's length and price)

But all the cry baby gamers who whine and moan when they've wasted money on far far worse things will be the ones crying wolf and missing out on something potentially awesome when they most likely haven't bought the game to see if it's actually any good to begin with. Another thing, i'm sure you've wasted $20-30 dollars on bad dates, movies, games, etc. So if you spend $20 bucks on a digital release ( i'm willing to assume you don't own a PS4 but do have access to one) it's not that big of a loss to begin with. On a side bar if you're patient enough i'm sure GZ will be $20 within a month.

@Animal-Mother: I'm getting a PS4 this summer. Gonna be my graduation present to myself xD

Like I said, I'm willing to give this game a fair shot. As for why I have been so ready to jump the gun on it, it's because everything I know of it so far has just rubbed me the wrong way.

@charizard1605:

Ah the Ninja Gaiden low blow, eh?

Sigma > Black lololol

But yeah man, I think the reviews will be split. Most will agree it's a good game, but the length/value will definitely remain in grey area. Understandably so.

This guys review just happened to be in the far extreme. There is no way you'll see all of what GZ has to offer in 30 minutes, or anything close to that mark.

Metal Gear Solid isn't a relevant or quality franchise any more.

@Bigboi500: But Metal Gear's last release was Peace Walker... which was great...

@Wiimotefan: Of course, I'm never letting you live that down :-3

How much of the game did you play? Apparently you can play through the mission differently each time, and usually that's just marketing speak, is it true for GZ though?

And that's fair. I can see why the game is rubbing people the wrong way as well as kojima or the suits decision to do this.

Kojima may have done some crazy shit with his games and the stories are just completely out there. But nonetheless he's a good developer. That's why I get on your case sometimes I mean if you learn to take things with a grain of salt and do the research you'll hardly be burnt as a gamer and we're a hard bunch to satisfy but I don't take things too personally as developers don't set out to make bad games or make gamers unhappy. They run a business first and foremost and may have mouths to feed and have to have a roof over their heads.

It's a complicated machine everyone has to run in order to get a game out.

@Animal-Mother: Yeah, that sounds about right. I just don't want developers to become about making money more than making good games, basically becoming soulless corporate machines like EA for instance has so obviously become. At least have some love of the craft you are practicing.

Maybe I jumped the gun on Kojima, and yeah, the man has definitely earned the benefit of the doubt, so let's see what Ground Zeroes is like.

Well said

You shouldn't be so paranoid TC, i know some people are telling you some stuff, but i'm gonna tell you from what I played:

-GZ has absolutely no indication of becoming a "service", all the "online" it seems to offer is online leaderboards (wich were also present on PW)

-I played the game like I played PW, stealth, no kills and trying to avoid alerts, nowhere did it feel like CoD or any other dudebro shooter

-The "reflex" mechanic seems to be a 5 second chance to avoid an alert, the game actually encourages you to avoid using it (or rather avoid being seen) in the results

-The game as a whole has the same format as PW, with the campaign missions made as separate levels to play, going by that "main mission" alone i'd say the extra missions are fleshed out enough to warrant at least 2 hours of gameplay each if you approach this like a metal gear game and don't feel like rushing it

-The requirement for the platform exclusive mission isn't different from how you got the stealth cammo in MGS3, just collect emblems scattered through the game

All in all the game made me feel pumped for The Phantom Pain, I will agree the game is still overpriced, it should have been $20-25 for last gen and $30 for current gen, it's more like a "small game" and not a "glorified demo"

Will be buying. Not an issue for me to drop the money.

Kind of laughable they would attempt a 30$ price point on this. looking forward to playing it free on psn in a couple months.

Quit fapping on Kojima ANimal... he needs to pay for his sins and lies. fap fap....

+1 bro +1. They were amazing not only in SNES era but in PS1 or damn even PS2.

Wow! Those comments are fucking hilarious! Why would people expect the guy to write up a ten page review for a 20 minute demo/game?

The free Bravely Default demo is almost three times longer than this tech demo.

Wait, wait, wait. They're charging $29.99 for a SINGLE LEVEL?

That is unbelievably sleazy. There goes any possibility that I was going to buy it OR the other one coming out.

http://www.psu.com/a022776/Metal-Gear-Solid-5--The-Phantom-Pain-almost-200-times-larger-than-Ground-Zeroes-says-Hideo-Kojima

Fixed.

Firstly, as soon as I heard there would be two games and one was a prequel, I was worried this would happen and from the looks of things, I was right. It's just milkage to the max. That being said, people bashing it simply because it's short are somewhat hypocritical. I get 30 bucks is A LOT of money to spend on a game that's little more than an hour long, but there are tons of other short games that are priced highly and recieve butt tons of praise (coughJourneycoughcough). Like I said, in thsi particular case, I can understand the hatred, but people seem to be hating it more because of the length and not because it's blatant milkage.

I'll pay 10$ but no more. This is crap

Still gonna buy it. I am not taking money with me when I die, have wasted money on alcohol which wears off, and other games. I like MGS and I'll have fun with it.

Lol at people saying Metal Gear isn't relevant anymore. Is that why Guns of the Patriots was one of the highest rated games of last generation? You having too short of an attention span to appreciate an amazing narrative doesn't make a game bad. Metal Gear Solid is one of the greatest gaming franchises of all time, deal with it.

This is so ridiculous. ANY game can be completed in virtually no time flat if that is the determination of the player.

Can we quit referring to this as a game? "Demo" or just "that one mission" would be far more apt.

It's called an opinion.

If it's not that, then have you ever heard of a 'honeymoon period'?

You talk like a butthurt lemming. Destiny will be #GOTY best on PS4.

Don't port beg when Phantom Pain scores 10s.

Luis Santos getting torn apart in the comments. Good. Prick needs to learn actions have consequences.

If you haven't done so already, report the article for being unprofessional.

I love all the whining from lem scum upset they're getting a gimped version on their gimped hardware.

I expect 9/10 on GS. You know GS can't score anything MGS, a Rockstar game and Halo lower than 9.

Quit fapping on garrus and we'll talk.

I hope this dosent sell well so that we dont see other companies selling demo's for money

Industry's already fucked. At least this way we get a bit of Metal Gear this year; better that than low player count MOBA shit in MP FPS' being copied.

Besides my point.

Titanfall is a $60 map pack.

I don't think Ground Zeroes is worth my money and I will wait until it it is $10 or cheaper or probably bundled in with Phantom Pain. But if people are willing to buy it then this product has a market and don't understand why all the complaining. Don't like, it don't buy it. That simple.

Good to see that the game is getting an honest review but I still worry about the mainstream critics, Kevin VanOrd will surley give the game a 10/10 because of storytelling just like he did with MGS4, it may win GOTY awards as well, speaking of MGS4, how come people see Ground Zeroes as the first cash grab, MGS4 was a 4 hours game with microtransaction multiplayer, so how come no one else saw it as a cash grab? I understand that people a delusional when it comes to flaws in story driven games but surely a few people would have noticed this.

Hideo Kojima is simply the greediest person in the gaming industry, not even EA of Activision have done anything this wrong, Hideo Kojima knows that the majority of gamers nowadays are ignorant story whores so he is taking full advantage of their ignorance, I really hope this game sells horribly and gets negative reviews, maybe, just maybe that will help gameplay make a comeback in gaming.