The arrival of Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes is upon us! The latest instalment in the ground breaking stealth-action series from Konami sees the return of Snake, or Big Boss as he likes to be now known, voiced now by actor Kiefer Sutherland. Ground Zeroes acts as a prequel to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where Kojima Productions want you to experience all the changes in both the gameplay and the environments, and no it’s not just a way to make money by releasing a demo. Throughout the Metal Gear series we have been flung back and forth in time, been introduced to countless characters and have been involved in some of the most intricate story telling in gaming history, all thanks to creator Hideo Kojima.
Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes centres around just one map, a Cuban prison camp, heavily guarded and patrolled by soldiers. Your mission is to infiltrate the camp and rescue Chico and Paz from the Peace Walker game, all other prisoners are expendable which means it is entirely up to you if you want to rescue them or leave them to rot in their open cages. The first obvious change in the system that you will notice, even before you attempt to enter the camp, is the ability to tag enemies, allowing you to plot their movements or just keep your good eye on them while you sneak past into the shadows. The mission that has been given to us in Ground Zeroes is very clever, yes there is a new open world where nothing is right or wrong, but the setting itself allows you to formulate countless scenarios to achieve the same end result. For instance, if you want to play Metal Gear as it was meant to be played, as a true stealth title, you can, but be careful as the silencer on your gun will only take so many shots before it becomes obsolete alerting the guards to your presence. On the other hand if you want to go down the shooter route there are aids available to you across the map in the form of gun placements and vehicles, either way you 
must extract the targets, the way in which you do it is up to you. Every inch of the map has been meticulously planned to provide you with hiding spots that will allow you to just miss that approaching jeep, or for you to grab and drag the nearest guard into the dark while you choke him into submission. For every action there is also a reaction, and the AI is neither dumb nor blind, but if spotted you will have a couple of seconds to react to the situation, shoot him in the head or duck out of sight, you choose, but do it fast. They can be choked, held up at gunpoint – interrogating them reveals ammunition stashes and hidden items – or they can be made to call a nearby friend to lure them over. Guards can be disabled with a shot to the knee and their wailing can lead other guards into a classic sniper’s trap.
All of the three missions available to you are varied, but all centred on the camp. One has you extracting a familiar-looking Japanese agent from the camp while defending him from the skies, another asks you to assassinate two war criminals hiding on the base, and a third sees you meeting an informant and recovering an audio cassette. Each one has different weather systems, time of day and rules added into the mix, in one you may think you have it planned, until suddenly something unexpected is thrown into the mix. All of these effect how you play the game, rain may disguise your footsteps somewhat, but hiding in the day is a lot harder to do, for each scenario 
you will find yourself planning and planning again, and in the end you will still need plan B. The twists and turns that have been dished up to the players, even in this short game, are as memorable as any I have experienced in gaming to date.
Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes, is truly showing off the power of the new Fox engine, from the impeccable lighting and truly glorious graphics, right down to the weather system and smart AI. It is the first game I have played that has actually started to show us what playing next-gen can actually look like. Some may complain about how short the game is, or how much they have to pay for it, but I won’t. You get what you pay for and them some, as the many different scenarios for completing each mission will give you hours of gameplay. Is it the perfect game? No, but if this is an introduction to what is to come in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, then tell me – where do I sign up?
