Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

I've had this for ages and not played it because I feared the experience would be what it actually turned out to be. My only other involvement with the series is playing the original games on the NES and then Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation, I did enjoy that - but this, not so much.

Snake (Kiefer Sutherland) infiltrates an island black site to rescue two prisoners and bring them home. The prisoners, Paz (Tara Strong) and Chico (Antony Del Rio) have information related to Cipher, a person or group that are of interest to Snake's MSF but also the villainous XOF and their leader Skull Face (James Horan).

It's a tough one to review as it's not like I can't appreciate that this game is well made. It's essentially a demo, which is fine if the price reflects that, and the island has several different missions that can be undertaken, each with different targets or goals to be completed. The story is typical Kojima nonsense, but the game makes it clear enough what your next goal is - and is generally free about how you undertake it. Graphically it's good (I was playing the PS4) version and the vocal performances are OK.

I don't like stealth though, when it's imposed into a 3D world. I think it works much better in a 2D game, as it's much clearer when someone can see you and when they can't. My playthroughs generally broke down into me shooting my way out of a scenario more often than not, and in that case the gunplay doesn't approach some of the other 3rd person shooters. The controls were very fiddly for me to get a handle on too, with me often turning on my infrared glasses and being unable to turn them off, in the height of combat.

With time I could probably have got more used to the controls and maybe even settled into the routines of the island a bit more, but as it was, one playthrough of the main story and a couple of the side missions was enough for me. You can see from the reviews that generally it's well thought of, but it just wasn't for me.