Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Review

Title: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Format: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3

Release Date: March 18, 2014, JP March 20, 2014 (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360), EU March 20, 2014, UK March 21, 2014, AU March 27, 2014

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Kojima Productions

Original MSRP: $29.99 US

MSRB Rating: M

For this review, I'll be playing the PS4 version

of the game

As some of you may know, Ground Zeroes has been catching A LOT of flak for is short main mission, lack of information and depth, the game itself seeming as it is an affront to the Metal Gear series, and it's current $30 US price point. It's being questioned as a game that may or may not be worthy of the consumer's money, time, or even acknowledgement. I played the game for about 10 hours. Here's my review:

Story: In keeping up with the traditional fashion of recent Metal Gear games, you're dropped into your main mission with very little to go on. You play as Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss, and are told that, during your mission, you will be ex-filtrating two V.I.P.s that are being held captive on a U.S. military base. Like all the other MGS games, this will be a sneaking mission. Your job is to get these people out of harm's way as quickly and as quietly as possible, without letting anyone know you were there. 

Although it doesn't show it here, Skull Face has some kind of
electrical energy that is flowing from the top of his head and
down his neck. It's hauntingly beautiful how much detail went
into this character's design. 

Along the way, you can collect cassette tapes that further improve upon/enhance the story, giving you insight to each of the characters you're being presented. This is especially helpful when talking about the newest villain in the MGS series: Skull Face. It also adds some clarification about what has happened between this game and MGS: Peacewalker, which is the game that, chronologically, comes before Ground Zeroes. 

To do this, you are given, instead of the classic Codex, a device called the iDroid, which contains your mission data, as well as at least an hour of supplemental story which add to the depth of the world Hideo Kojima is trying to create. Kojima puts it upon the player, if they so choose, to look for the story at their convenience, as opposed to lengthy cut scenes, as is tradition. 

It's better not to question how, in the 80's, Snake has a device
that projects holograms, when there is such a strong
emphasis on letting the player know that you will be finding
cassette tapes everywhere. Again: Japan. 

Game Play: This is not your father's Metal Gear. However, veterans and newcomers alike will find that the game is fairly easy to jump into. I started playing the series since MGS1 and, after a few minutes, I figured out the controls enough to feel confident enough to start the mission. Instead of having to scroll through all of your weapons to find the right one, GZ takes the approach similar to what Gears of War has: you have one primary weapon slot where all your primary weapons are located (assigned to Up on the d-pad), your secondary weapon (Down), tertiary weapons like grenades, magazines, etc. (Right), and accessories like night-vision goggles (Left). By completing missions, you can unlock more weapons and start out with said weapons in your next mission. 

This was my second attempt. My first run put me at a
completion time of 50 minutes and change, but I did
murder a lot of soldiers. 

Once you beat the Ground Zeroes mission, four more missions unlock. There is a fifth mission that is console exclusive that can be unlocked by collecting all of the XOF badges in the main game. These are the Deja Vu mission for Sony consoles, and the Jamais Vu mission for Microsoft. Deja Vu reskins Snake and the enemies to look like thos e from MGS1, while Jamais Vu has Raiden fighting Bodysnatchers. 

What makes this game different from the others in the Solid series is that the area in which you will be exploring is completely open. You, as Snake, have an incredible amount of freedom to explore how you can get to your targets and achieve your goal. This is a welcome change of pace from the previous Metal Gear games, in which you basically move from area to area, gathering information, watching cut-scenes unfold the story, have a boss fight, rinse, and repeat. Things like throwing Marines from cliffs, running from bunker roof to bunker roof and lock-picking give the game a fresh look and feel to the series. 

You can shoot out lights, Sam Fisher style, adding new
variants to how sneaky you can be.

Having said that, do not go into this game thinking you will have the full 20+ hour Metal Gear experience. At it's core, this is a prequel to MGS5: The Phantom Pain. It's to help move along the story from Peacewalker to Phantom Pain. The main mission can take about an hour, with speedrunners knocking it out in 10 minutes or less. T3tsuyaV2, a speedrunner on Twitch, knocked this game out in 5 minutes 32 seconds. 

What is there is fantastic. The controls feel great, the environment is tense, guns feel like they are supposed to, enemies are highly intelligent on Hard mode, and the side-missions that are available after beating Ground Zeroes (although sometimes goofy) are enjoyable. After beating the main story, the game shows you that you've only done 10% of the total game. There's a ton of content here, it's just takes time to unlock it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2x4zEtDEqo if you
want to watch it. 

Visuals: Both current gen and last gen consoles look great, but the PS4 is the definite winner in terms of visual prowess. With a higher frame rate and stronger processor than the other consoles, the environments look and feel natural. I found no latency issues or texture-popping, but it seemed that enemy guns' hit detection boxes were off. 

Kojima took a page right out of J.J. Abrams' book and threw TONS of lens flares and particle effects into his game. I didn't find myself getting as annoyed as I thought, as the weather effects, shadows, face textures and environments quickly put those fears to rest. Simply put: everything looks good. Even the part at the end of the mission that involves Kaz, albeit a rather disgusting part, looked beautiful. I found myself clenching both the controller and myself, waiting to see what happens next. 

This happened more than once: enemies were in an alerted
state, near my location, knew that I was in a room, and body
parts and guns would just phase through doors and walls 

Audio: Ground Zeroes' musical score, although minimal, provides the right atmosphere for the game: simple, soft in the necessary parts, heavy while in the fray. Classic sound effects like the sound made when an enemy is alerted is back, adding in a sense of nostalgia to the game. Weapons make the sounds that they are supposed to. There is a noticeable difference between a silenced SMG and a long-range sniper rifle, and time was put into making sure that the player recognized the difference among them. 

Voice acting in GZ is also superb. David Hayter is no longer in the role of Snake, and has been replaced by Kiefer Sutherland. After a few minutes of thinking to myself "Everybody get down!", I found myself rather enjoying Sutherland's work. Not only did he command the role, but for the few parts that he spoke, I became intrigued by what was going to be said next. The same can be said for Skull Face, voiced by James Horan, What little was spoken in the game was supplemented by the cassette tape recordings, turning Skull Face into a true villain, as opposed to the Saturday morning cartoon villain that he is initially presented. 

Online/Multiplayer: There is no online content or multiplayer in this game. 

Tossing an empty magazine down this hall will not only
alert the enemy down the hall, but the sound will resonate
much more than if you were tossing it outside. 

Pros: strong visuals/audio; the game fits well into the open world environment; high replayability; lots of bonus content; side missions are kinda fun

Cons: If you're looking for the full MGS experience, you're not going to find it for another year until The Phantom Pain comes out; location is somewhat small; may not appeal to all fans of the series; you have to dig for content

Final Score: 7.0/10      right direction, but could have easily been put into Phantom Pain as an optional side mission for the player. 

Agree/Disagree with the score? Have a suggestion for a game? Questions about the ratings system, or anything in general? Ask me on Twitter @AdHocMan, or on Google+ at +Zac Hockin

Next week - inFAMOUS: Second Son for PS4

South Park: The Stick of Truth - Review

Title: South Park: The Stick of Truth

Format: Steam download, Windows PC DVD, Xbox 360, PS3

Release Date: March 4, 2014 (NA), March 6 (AU) March 7 (EU)

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment, South Park Digital Studios

Original MSRP: $59.99

MSRB Rating: M

For this review, I’ll be playing the 360 version of the game

The highly-anticipated South Park game has finally come out after several years in production. Does it pay homage to the South Park that we have come to know and love, or foes this fantasy RPG fall apart worse than a D&D character sheet soaked from water balloons thrown by the jocks? Here’s my review:

The Grand Wizard himself

Story: The Stick of Truth’s opening cut scenes present practically the entire story within the first five minutes. The humans, led by the Grand Wizard (Cartman), are in a struggle with the Drow Elves (led by Kyle) over the relic known only as The Stick of Truth. Whomever controls the Stick, controls the game.


You play as the new kid who has just moved into town for a reason that is not explained until much later in the game. Your parents suggest you head out and explore the town and make some new friends. After which, you meet Butters, who is being attacked by a Drow Elf minion. Once you save Butters, he takes you to the house of the Grand Wizard where Cartman runs you through the opening tutorial of the game. I won’t go into too much detail about the main story because half of the fun is getting to experience the game on your own. I will say that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are at their best in this game.

You can create your ideal "you" with several hundred
custom items. 

Game play: If you’re familiar with an Obsidian game (Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: KOTOR 2, Alpha Protocol), you already have an idea what you’re getting into: a deep RPG with a solid amount of inventory management, status ailments, and status-dealing special attacks. If you’re not familiar with what to expect: TSOT is a turn-based Role-Playing Game that is a callback to older RPGs like Final Fantasy 2, Super Mario RPG, and Earthbound. Each turn, before you attack, you have the option to heal with an item or summon an ally to your side. Your partner can do the same on his turn but, instead of summoning, they have a special attack that can either buff your team or inhibit the enemy.

Each attack has two separate strengths: a regular attack that works against shielded/non-armored

Butters is, by far, my favorite character in this game

enemies, and a power attack which works well on your enemies counterparts. Weapons can have stickers placed on them, allowing different buffs such as: negating enemy armor, extra fire damage, increasing your armor/HP/magic, and several others. The amount of detail that went into the RPG elements of this game is impressive and fans of older RPGs will appreciate Obsidian’s work. Another classic trope Obsidian uses is the concept of “first strike”. In the over world, if you see an enemy, you can use your bow to stun your enemy and get in an extra strike before your foes have a chance to counterattack.

It's like Gauntlet, only more vulgar and racist

One downside to the game is that your maximum level only goes up to 15 so you miss out on some of the stronger versions of your special attacks. Each special attack is custom to each class in the game: Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Jew. For my first run through the game, I chose Fighter. I later checked out Thief and the first few levels of Mage and Jew. Each character feels about the same, but their specials can really make the difference in battle. When upgraded enough, you can deal large area of effect damage to all opponents, making it easier to clear lots of enemies reasonably quick. 

There are several side-quests within the game, which lead to several sub-bosses that can be harder than the final boss if you don't have the right character. Despite their toughness, they are incredibly fun. Something about lighting Cartman's farts on fire and taking out Al Gore and his Secret Service minions is highly rewarding. 

Unfortunately, there's no Kurt Russel to be found

All together the game, including sidequests, will take you around 10-15 hours to complete. The default setting is on normal mode, with a hard mode that increases its replay value. I ran through about the first 1/3 of the game on hard and didn't see any noticeable differences to the game, other than damage dealt/received and a few different pieces of loot. There is no New Game+, so you'll be starting from scratch once again.  

Visuals: The entire game plays out as if you are watching an episode of South Park. Characters move as if you would expect them to: with minimal leg movement and bouncing around to move. Environments are rendered relatively quickly, however loading times can be longer than normal. With Obsidian games, this is kind of expected, but the times are much shorter than Fallout: New Vegas's load screens. The time's aren't too terribly long but with basic environments and textures beg the question: why? 

The most visual action that takes place is within the battle system. Animations are fluid with little to no latency issues (I was playing on an older 360 and it struggles for a few seconds, but nothing too obnoxious to turn me away from the game), and the status effects that are placed on enemies are relevant to their reactions: enemies on fire will bounce around and scream, frozen/slowed enemies will shiver and say "brrrrr", bleeding enemies will grab their side and a pool of blood will appear underneath them. I could find no screen tearing anywhere in the game. I did have a moment where my underwear was being stolen by the Underwear Gnomes and although my character was supposed to be looking at them in amazement, he was nowhere to be found. That was on a second play through so it didn't bother me much. 

What happens after this scene was censored in several
other countries. There's a good reason, but man, I was
laughing more than I thought I would have.

Environments are, to say the least, entertaining. Places such as the Underwear Gnomes' Secret Hideout, Mr. Slave, an alien spaceship, an abortion clinic, and others are all in-game locations that you get to visit. Each location has its own unique charm, whether it be incredibly disgusting or amusing. However, make sure to get everything in an area, as most places you can not go back to. If you forgot to get that last Chinpokomon before exiting the spaceship: too bad. 

Audio: The audio in TSOT is rather good. The over world has two or three (?) songs that play as you explore South Park with your companion. Couple that with the sound effects and music from the show that you have come to know and you have a fantastic soundtrack that compliments the game terrifically. The Gothic-style music of Skyrim with the catchy shanties from Assassin's Creed and you have a spectacular vibe that can quickly immerse the player into this unusually serious world that blurs the lines between comedy and drama. 

Online/Multiplayer: No online/multiplayer currently exists for TSOT. 

Pros: 15 hour game is just the right length; writing is spot-on and translates well from the show to the game; callback to previous RPGs done well; solid inventory management; ability to skip over encounters with enemies; more weapons/power-ups than you can shake a stick at (sorry...)

Cons: If you're not a fan of South Park or RPGs, you probably won't enjoy this game; map is somewhat clunky, as is the inventory management system; no way to compare attachments that are currently on your weapon to the ones that are in your inventory (it's a small gripe, but I feel that it would help the item management aspect ten-fold); enough visual bugs to temporarily take you out of the atmosphere of the game

Final Score: 8.0/10 - Great game, but a little more polish is needed

Agree/Disagree with the score? Have a suggestion for a game? Questions about the ratings system, or anything in general? Ask me on Twitter @AdHocMan, or on Google+ at +Zac Hockin

This Thursday: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for multi-plat

Review Written by Zachary Hockin

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f Review for PSVita

Title: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f

Format: Digital Download through PlayStation Store

Release Date: March 4, 2014

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega, Crypton Future Media

Original MSRP: $29.99

MSRB Rating: T

Have you ever been playing Dance Dance Revolution and wondered to yourself: “You know what this needs? More J-pop and big-eyed anime characters!” No? Well, that’s too bad, because that’s exactly what, in a nutshell, Project Diva f brings to the table. Does the game do a good job at delivering, or is this another game that should be delegated to the darker realm of Japanese gaming? Let’s find out. Here’s my review.

Story: Project Diva f opens up with a well-designed FMV movie showing all of the characters you’ll be playing as: Hatsune Miku (the blue-haired songstress), Kagamine Rin and Len (who are, I’m guessing, brother and sister), Megurine Luka (who is a more reserved songstress), KAITO (a semi-androgynous male singer), and MEIKO (the trademark large-“eyed” character) having fun and being friends. After about three minutes of this, we’re greeted by the game’s opening screen. That’s about all I could gather about the story, which is to be expected for a rhythm game.

Gameplay: Project Diva f is the Vita version of Project Diva F for the PS3. Although there’s not much different from the PS3 version, it is a solid port that does the series justice. Rhythm games are not really my forte, but I did have an enjoyable time with the game. The core mechanics of the game are timing and pressing the right buttons. However, whereas DDR has your next move flowing from the bottom to the top, and Guitar Hero/Rock Band has them moving towards you, Project Diva f decided on a different mechanic: a circular progression of the future notes moving from the sides and corners of the screen, into the center. I have to say: I enjoyed the hell out of it. It adds a new level of focus and concentration into the game. Like most rhythm games, you can kind of figure out the pattern of the next command through the lyrics and the beat. Even though the songs are in Japanese (with the exception of Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!, which is an homage to the Nyan Cat song), it’s fairly easy to follow along with.

There’s 9 different input commands that you have in Project Diva f: cross, circle, triangle, square, the d-pad, and the touch screen. Depending on the timing of your button press, you will get a message of how well you timed the hit. These five grades range from Cool (which is a perfect hit) to Awful (which can be anything from a wrong button press to a very early/late button press). Within each song, there are two “technical” sections and one “Chance Time” section per song. Getting 100% on the technical sections give a boost to your score, and getting a high enough score before the “Chance Time” sections leads to a bonus video playing at the end of the stage.

At the end of each stage, you’re given a grade. To complete a song, you need to get at least an 80%. After completing the song, you are then given a grade of either Standard (80.0%-89.9% of correct notes hit), Great (90.0%-94.9%), Excellent (95.0%-99.9%), or Perfect (100%). This leads to a HUGE amount of replay-ability within the game. I found myself going back several times to see if I could get 100% on any of the songs. I didn’t, but I tried. Also upon completing a stage, you receive “Diva Points”. Diva Points allow you to play the meta-game within Project Diva f, which allows you to interact with your performers, purchase alternate costumes, new decorations, food, and decorations that can be placed in each performer’s room. Or, you can just rub their faces to increase their mood and affinity towards you. It wouldn’t be a Japanese game if it wasn’t a little creepy (I’m looking at you, Persona 4). It’s an interesting addition that adds a little more replay-ability to the game. Plus, some of the costumes and items you can unlock are kind of neat.

Visuals: The visuals in Project Diva f, although animated, look surprisingly good. Each song has a music video that accompanies it through the duration of the song and, once the song has been beat, you can go back and watch the video. There are a few songs that offer a bit of fan-service to the player (pretty much any song that involves MEIKO), as well as some exceptionally well done videos such as Black Rock Shooter, Sadistic Music Factory, Unhappy Refrain, and The MMORPG Addict’s Theme. As unpleasant or dark as these songs seem to sound, they are contrasted by vivid colors, upbeat music, and interesting videos that supplement whichever character is currently singing on-screen.

A major problem this game suffers from is: wanting to jam too much onto the screen at once. Although the Vita has a decent sized screen, the game does an alright job at not over-crowding the space it has, albeit somewhat limited. There are never really more than 10 targets on screen at any given time, and the prompts themselves follow an inward-spiraling direction pattern that becomes easier to follow and predict the more you play the game.

With this being a port, some of the graphics have been toned down, but not too much where it hinders the game. The characters themselves aren’t as clearly defined as they are on the PS3 version, but that doesn’t really inhibit the game. The commands, however, are crisp and are clearly seen so you know what button(s) need to be hit.

Audio: Catchy J-pop tunes are your friend here, as every song is simply that. Each song is different, and more than once I found myself becoming enthralled with the music. Simply put: the music is fantastic. There were a couple of songs that I didn’t particularly care for. However, the quality of the songs/audio sounds fantastic on the Vita. Headphones will also improve this experience to a point where I kept a spare set around. The songs themselves have a strong variety in tempo, ranging from 80 Beats per Minute, all the way to 232BPM.

The drawback here is, if you’re not a fan of J-Pop, or Pop music in general, you may not enjoy the songs.

In the harder levels, I noticed myself focusing less on the music, and more on trying to find the beat and rhythm of the button presses. Specifically, on the Hard and Extreme difficulties, the game becomes less about enjoying the song, and more about seeing how fast you can press the correct button.

Online/Multiplayer: A new feature was added to Project Diva f that allows you to edit songs on your Vita, place them online, and do the same with other people’s songs. The catch is you must have the song unlocked in single player first before getting a song someone else has made. A rating system makes it easier to sort through what you want.

Pros: high replay value, catchy songs, fun rhythm game to take on the go, tons of unlocks

Cons: uninteresting if not your preferred type of music/game, difficulty spike in harder modes, too many icons on screen can easily lead to frustration

Final Score: 9.0/10

Next week: South Park – The Stick of Truth

Agree/Disagree with the score? Have a suggestion for a game? Questions about the ratings system, or anything in general? Ask me on Twitter @AdHocMan, or on Google+ at +Zac Hockin

Review Written by Zachary Hockin

Strider for PS3/PS4/XBox 360/Xbox One/Windows - Review

Title: Strider

Format: Digital Distribution, Blu-Ray disc, DVD

Release Date: February 18^th, 2014

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Double Helix Games, Capcom Osaka group

Original MSRP: $14.99

MSRB Rating: E10+

Story: Strider opens up with our main hero, Strider Hiryu, gliding in on a cyberpunk-like glider through the mountains, while being attacked by the Kazakh army’s evil laser guns. This moment cleanly defines what the game is going to be about: a high-action, badass run through a country that really doesn’t want your presence anywhere near their base of operations.

Players that are familiar with the Strider history will feel right at home. However, newer players to the Strider series may find it difficult to keep up with what is going on. To summarize: the Kazakh army is killing Striders, as well as trying to take over the world. You, as Strider Hiryu, are to infiltrate the city, take out the chain of command, and stop evil from triumphing.

Gameplay: Strider, at its core, is a 2-D action platformer that plays similarly to Super Metroid for the SNES. In order to gain the upper hand on enemies, you’ll travel around Kazakh collecting health upgrades, weapon upgrades, passive abilities, energy upgrades, etc. It also follows the method of, once you get a new upgrade, you’ll meet a sub-boss who is designed to be weak to the new upgrade you just acquired.

What separates this game from your typical action platformer is that it’s fast. Hiryu controls pretty well, especially for a ninja. Your cipher, or sword, however, does feel like it’s lacking in power. That doesn’t mean it’s not effective. Once your cipher is infused with elemental powers, enemies who are of the same elemental color go down like melted butter. By the time I was nearing the end of the game, I backtracked through to pick up some collectables, and even though I was upgraded almost fully, it didn’t quite feel as it should when I was tearing through the fodder enemies that appear early on in the game.

As for the core element of platforming, the controls are tight. Jumping feels smooth, especially after receiving the double-jump upgrade. Maneuvering behind enemies and striking feels like it should, and the ability to grapple onto almost any wall is a great touch. On some of the smaller platforms, the controls start to falter. I was yelling at my TV more than once, trying to position myself at just the right spot to make a difficult jump onto a small ledge. Don’t worry too much though, as it was only to get an out-of-the-way collectable.

Speaking of collectables, there’s a ton. You can unlock things like character concept art and alternate costumes, but cooler still are the speedruns and Gears of War-style “horde mode” which is a ton of fun. Finding these and S-ranking the challenges add a high level of replay value to the game.

The one major gripe I have about this game is that it’s too short. I collected about 2/3 of the hidden items, and the main game only took me around 6 hours. It was a fun 6 hours, but I would have loved to have seen more. I’d easily pay $15 more for a revamp of the original Strider for the NES as a DLC add-on. The extra modes to add some more substance to the game, but I was left wanting more.

Visuals: The graphics are great. Everything has a crisp look to it. Cyborg enemies have a human-like quality to them, even when sliced open and sparks start shooting out from their abdomen. Classic enemies have had a touch-up as well. Those that are familiar to the series will recognize characters like the Tong sisters and Grandmaster Meio.

The background art is nothing to laugh at either. Everything from underground prisons, towering temples, slums, and palaces all have a good look and feel to them. No background repeats, so each area is its own separate experience, and the art directors make you respect that.

The most interesting visual characteristic would have to be Hiryu’s scarf. As you progress, his scarf becomes longer and starts to get a mind of its own. It’s constantly dancing around, similar to the inflatable arm guys that you would see in a used car lot. When you change elements, one color bleeds into the next with a clear defining line that’s just damn pretty to look at. Later on, you can find collectable items that change the color of Hiryu’s costume. Although they don’t have any perks, they are pretty cool to look at.

Audio: The soundtrack to this game is mostly homage to the soundtracks to the older Strider games, but with a modernized orchestrated sound. Although I’m not too familiar with any Strider games other than Strider 2, I found myself humming along to the catchier bits, as well as clenching the controller that much harder when the climactic boss fight music was queued up.

Voice acting is also implemented into the game, but it’s nothing like the narratives you would find in a Tell Tale game. All together, there’s about 150 lines of dialogue for the main plot, and the occasional “There he is!” from the cyborg grunt you need to slice. Personally, I think it’s great. Strider was never about the lore or voice acting. It was about kicking ass and taking names. The story does help the player figure out why Meio is trying to take over the world, and does it well enough that you‘re almost looking forward to the next back and forth between characters.

Online/Multiplayer: There’s no online multiplayer but, in the time trial and horde levels, there are leaderboards in which you can compete with your friends over who has the best time.

Pros: Good level layouts, strong soundtrack, fact ninja-action, feelings of being badass, a great homage to the original Strider games, high replayability.

Cons: tedious backtracking is required for 100% completion, the cipher doesn’t feel as strong as it should, controls are not always spot-on, too short of a game

Final Score: 8.5/10

Next Week: Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f for PSVita

Don’t agree with the review? Have a game you want me to look at? Questions about the review/scoring system? Let me know on Twitter @AdHocMan. I’m also on Google+ at +Zac Hockin

Review written by Zachary Hockin