Metal Gear Solid V is a 2015 video game available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Directed by the renowned Hideo Kojima, it is the newest (and final) chapter of the cult-classic Metal Gear Solid series. The game is rated M for mature.

The game is set in 1984. After waking from a coma, the main character of the series, Big Boss, discovers he is being pursued by paramilitary squads, a female assassin, and foes with supernatural abilities. After he escapes, he vows to take revenge on CIPHER, the organization that destroyed his life and private military. This sets the events of the game in motion. You control Big Boss (a.k.a. “Snake”), completing various goals to upgrade and expand your Mother Base and find out more information about CIPHER to progress the story. The story can be confusing if you are not familiar with the rest of the franchise, but a couple of YouTube videos can easily explain away the gaps. The game is open world, with multiple sandbox settings to play with, including Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. You have total freedom in terms of how you can play the game. You can take advantage of the sophisticated mechanics to move stealthily through a mission, or crash through the gates in a jeep and kill everyone in a gunfight. It’s up to the player to complete the objective however they want.

I had a lot of fun with this game. There is simply tons of content to enjoy. There are many story missions and cut scenes which communicate the story in interesting ways, and the stealth mechanics and combat are raw, brutal, and lots of fun. I had a great time shooting my way through bombastic set pieces, surrounded by explosions and gunfire, but my favourite part is that I could replay the exact same mission, constantly starting over and over again until I could pull off the perfect stealth victory. I think you will find that the game is very accommodating to all play styles (you can even adjust the difficulty), and there are no penalties for failing at stealth, only rewards for success.

I rate the game four stars out of five, just because some aspects of the game feel unpolished, and certain bits of important story content have clearly been left out of the game because of controversy surrounding the game’s development. The grind is also real, and sometimes my enjoyment of the game was stunted by the fact that I had to spend a few hours doing side missions and kidnapping high-level soldiers to upgrade my base to a sufficient level before I could continue with the story. Overall, MGSV is a very solid game, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys open-world action games, military shooters, stealth games, or games with an engrossing story.