Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes isn’t a long game. I will continue to defend its length, though, with the argument that it’s not the type of game to just play through once and then pawn off at your local GameStop.
No, Ground Zeroes is an innovative stealth toolbox, one chock full of options for progressing through the game. I have to agree with a statement made by my friend Julian Watkins: “the gameplay itself — the most important factor — is solid, engaging and fun.”
In fact, my second playthrough lasted almost four hours because I spent so much time just frolicking about and trying various gameplay tactics.
I’ve compiled a list of things I’ve learned from these four hours.
- When you start a new game on Normal difficulty, there are 40 guards in the camp. You can mark them by zooming in with your goggles, and they will stay marked as long as you don’t kill them. Of course, more guards will spawn in if you trigger an alarm or a story event, so be careful.
- You have the option to interrogate guards if you sneak up behind them and grab them around the neck. They will tell you useful information — like the location of weapons, patches, and important landmarks — which will be added to your map.
- Rescuing the prisoners in the camp (that aren’t Chico and Paz) can sometimes grant you additional information as well.
- Disposing of bodies is easy; just toss them off the edge of the cliff into the ocean.
- There are drainage ditches leading into the admin building that you can crawl through to gain access while remaining undetected.
- There is a switch on the main floor of the admin building. This shuts down the power to the building, which will disable most the lights and security cameras.
- You have night vision goggles in your arsenal by default. Use them to gain the advantage in dark areas (like that admin building you just disabled power to).
- There is C4 tucked away in a storage shed. Interrogate guards to find it, then use it to destroy the anti-aircraft guns near the helipad. The final section of the game will be much easier if you do this.
- You can shoot out spotlights and security cameras, though it’s really hard to do this without attracting attention.
- You can get into a truck and drive toward the edge of a cliff, then bail safely just before the thing plummets into the ocean. The resulting explosion is glorious and satisfying.
- There are tapes in your inventory — and more that you’ll find during gameplay — that explain plot elements in that detailed Kojima way. If you’re a hardcore Metal Gear nerd, you’ll want to listen to every single one.
So play around. Have some fun. Don’t just blast through the story and be done with this game.
