Opinion: Ground Zeroes, And Its Questionable Value Proposition.

With Metal Gear Solid V, series creator Hideo Kojima has chosen to ditch funneled environments and non-interactive plot lines in favour of an altogether more open ended approach. It would seem he's discovered, however, that to present players a convincing blank canvas with which to craft their own experience takes a lot more time and effort than laying out everything on a pre-scripted plate, and as such has elected to split Metal Gear Solid V into two parts to be released as separate products. The first installment, subtitled Ground Zeroes and due to hit stores shortly, offers players a chance to sample a few missions in a modestly sized open area known as Camp Zero in order whet their appetite for the upcoming vastly larger second part, entitled The Phantom Pain, pegged for 2015 and beyond.

Snake's never looked better, but such wanton eye candy doesn't come
cheap.

This isn't the first time a Metal Gear title that has been split up as such - back in 2001, Metal Gear Solid 2's first fifth or so was released alongside ultra Japanese mech-fest Zone of The Enders, and it's fair to say that many a series devotee paid full price just to be one of the first to experience Solid Snake's Playstation 2 debut. With Ground Zeroes, however, Konami has not even bothered masquerading the newest Metal Gear's inaugural public airing as a freebie, instead overtly charging budding operatives between £20 and £30 depending on their platform of choice, for what early reports suggest is very little gameplay indeed. 

The main mission can apparently be finished in less than an hour. Although Snake's newfound freedom does give Ground Zeroes a limited amount of replay value in of itself by offering myriad options for completing tasks and getting by obstacles, and console exclusive content for each version add to the game's longevity at least a little, to expect gamers to drop that kind of money for so little content reeks of unbelievable hubris. A cynical man might say that in buying Ground Zeroes, you're effectively buying into Kojima's own private Kickstarter project; that he's dangling a metaphorical carrot in your face to persuade you to part with your hard earned early and fund the completion of the full fat experience.

Although the gameplay itself has received universal praise, the criminally limited longevity of what's on offer here is troubling. It's important that such an approach not become an industry trend. Gamers of the world. I implore you -stay well clear of Konami and Kojima's cynical cash grab and show them the errors of their ways.