That is basically the setup for The Phantom Pain: Miller and Snake are upset that a Cipher unit called XOF blew up their previous base in prologue episode Ground Zeroes, so they build up an army to take revenge on spooky leader Skull Face. The game opens with Midge Ure’s cover of 'The Man Who Sold the World' in the background, and you can find cassette tapes from the likes of The Cure and Joy Division scattered throughout the environments.) (Director Hideo Kojima really wants you to know that he likes David Bowie and ‘70s-‘80s music in general. Snake links up with old friend Kazuhira Miller and old frenemy Revolver Ocelot to build up mercenary group Diamond Dogs. The Phantom Pain’s opening hour is as outlandish and intoxicating as anything in the series to date, but the game quickly settles down into a more sober affair.

Got it?) The Phantom Pain settles down into a sober affair (Just so we’re all on the same page, with apologies to series fans for the simplification: Metal Gear Solid V is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, which was a prequel to Metal Gear Solid, which was a sequel to Metal Gear, a game in which Solid Snake, the character you play in Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 4, kills Big Boss, the protagonist of 3 and V. The sequence is as virtuoso as it is bizarre, combining wonderfully tense direction with flaming blue whales and gratuitous butt shots of a scrubs-wearing man named Ishmael. Your character, variously and inexplicably referred to as Big Boss or Punished 'Venom' Snake, awakes from a nine-year coma and suddenly finds his hospital turned into a war zone by a shady group called Cipher and a man on fire called The Man on Fire.

Things start off well enough with The Phantom Pain’s spectacular, semi-interactive introductory sequence.

Metal gear solid v review no spoliers