Metareview: Metal Gear Solid 5 - Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is the amuse bouche of the bigger (and hopefully better) The Phantom Pain, which should sneak into stores sometime between October and the birth of standardized nanotechnology. Our review of this carved out experience called it "too good to be a cash-in, too calculated to be satisfying and too intriguing to spurn."

If you want to see what all the la-li-lu-le-lo is about, check out our Joystiq Streams this Thursday at 4PM ET and watch our own Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) play it for the first time.

Head past the break to see what others think of the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain prologue.

• Eurogamer (90/100): "The very best thing about Ground Zeroes is how the series has cast away so many of its cinematic pretensions and fallen in love with being a video game all over again. "

• Destructoid (80/100): "Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is not for everyone. I can't stress how underwhelming the game will be if you aren't a huge fan of the series, or you can't see yourself playing in the same sandbox enough to really get your money's worth. "

• Gamespot (80/100): "If you hope to be entertained by an equal helping of Metal Gear's typically perplexing and intriguing narrative, you'll most certainly be disappointed. There's some fat to savor here, hints of what's to come in the next chapter of Metal Gear Solid V, but once you've digested the cutscenes that bookend the main mission, it's a pure gameplay-driven experience from then on out."

• IGN (80/100): "While I'm unconvinced that Kojima is quite ready to tackle more controversial narrative material, for the most part Ground Zeroes represents a new, more sophisticated era for Metal Gear."

• Game Informer (70/100): "Even for longtime fans of the Metal Gear franchise, Ground Zeroes may not be worth playing. It spreads its strengths thin over too little space, relying on the repetition of a handful of unremarkable missions in the same area."

[Image: Konami]