Earlier this year, there was much controversy surrounding Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The first bit of alarming news was the fact that Hideo Kojima, who has directed games in the Metal Gear franchise since the first game, had apparently been fired or otherwise left Konami. Later in the year, right before e3, we received news that MGS V would have microtransactions at the dismay of many fans.
There is a stigma that comes with microtransactions, and that is because their track record has not been good. Free-to-play games often come with microtransactions that allow players to purchase more powerful weapons or abilities that give them an edge over their foes, leading these games to be labeled “pay-to-win.” Fans of Metal Gear do not want to see this happen to their beloved series, especially if this is to be its grand finale.
Konami reassured fans that any items that can be purchased can also be earned in game through experience or perhaps the in-game currency, GDP, or Gross Military product and that it will not give players an edge over each other. However, we must be aware that Konami may just be saying this to appease fans. All they have to do is sell the game at this point. We can think back to games such as Planetside 2, where while you can earn any weapons that can be purchased, it takes significantly longer to earn these weapons through traditional means.
In the most recent gameplay trailer, we got a good look at Metal Gear Solid V‘s Mother Base gameplay. We saw that although you can remain offline to customize and build your Mother Base, you may also expand it to other bases known as Foward Operating Bases. These are an online component of the game which for consoles requires Xbox Live Gold or Playstation Plus. These bases can also be customized like the main Mother Base, and we must speculate whether the microtransactions for this multiplayer component will be for purely cosmetic means or if they will allow for an unfair advantage over other players.
Unfortunately, developers have recently failed to deliver on empty promises or added unwanted features that weigh down otherwise great games. However, Metal Gear Solid V looks like it will be able to provide tens if not hundreds of hours of quality gameplay from the singleplayer mode alone. Metal Gear Solid has always been mainly a singleplayer series, and this new multiplayer mode is just a bonus to what already looks like an amazing game.
