http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-05-metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-preview
By Jeffrey Matulef
Published Wednesday, 5 March 2014
What do you want first: the good news or the bad news? Let's start with the bad, shall we - Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes' main campaign isn't two hours long. For a lot of players it will be even
shorter. The good news? After eight hours, it remains fun - if only just.
Let's get the facts out of the way. Ground Zeroes' main campaign is a single mission. Depending on one's play style and a bit of luck, this could realistically be completed in under an hour. Others will take it slow, experiment and maybe start over every time they're spotted. Under 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, Japan. But here's the twist: Ground Zeroes' main mission is only a tiny sliver of what the game has to offer.
Upon completing it, you'll unlock four 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 silly one-off scenarios. All range between 15 and 45 minutes, and come with their own truncated end credits sequence as well as the series' trademark cryptic audio easter eggs teasing further plot revelations upon completion. Irritatingly, the two best side missions are split between console-exclusive bonuses and are stupidly difficult to unlock, but more on that later.
Taking these bonus missions into consideration roughly doubles the two-hour playtime, but it's after that where things get lean. Sure, there are banal-sounding trials like competing on the leaderboards for who can tag all the enemies the quickest, and you can tackle harder difficulties or scavenge for hidden trinkets, but there's only 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 being the case, Kojima Productions has done its very best to prevent that from happening. Ground Zeroes' sole level is meticulously engineered, and sorting out its secrets remains engaging long past when the end credits roll.
The entirety of Ground 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 Snake met in Peace Walker who have since become followers of the man who will one day be known as Big Boss. On the surface, rescuing kids is an easy enough objective to understand, but if you want further context as to who these children are and why we should care, that info is in Ground Zeroes. Good luck trying to understand 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's a tonne of incredibly lengthy audio recordings that flesh things out even further. At least you have the option to listen to these while skulking about, 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 it so arduous and at odds with the joy of sneaking that I just couldn't be bothered. Asking a group of Metal Gear fans/journalists at the same event if they actually understood the intricacies of the plot, every one of them offered a sheepish admission they were lost on the specifics. Some argued that it's probably meant to be confusing so that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain can clear everything up. I remain sceptical, but on a basic level we all understood the general set-up for Metal Gear's long-awaited numbered sequel.
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