Metal Gear Solid 5: How the ending gets it all wrong

Hello. Below are some words about the ending of MGS5. This is your cue to leave if you don’t want literally every moment of it spoiled for you. Cheers.

Metal Gear Solid 5 ends as it begins, in more ways than one. Or, to put it more clearly: you find yourself crawling around that same hospital that opens the game, albeit now with little differences in the cutscenes clueing you into plot points you probably worked out 40 or so hours before. To put it even more clearly: its ending is unsatisfying, overlong, and a chore to play. As with the prologue, its final hour or so is at odds with everything else in it. Unlike its prologue, however, The Phantom Pain’s concluding missions have to somehow try and tie not just this game’s, but the series’, plot strands together. Or so you’d think.

The truth is that it doesn’t really happen, because Kojima doesn’t really attempt to make it happen. For those expecting a grand meeting of Big Boss and Solid Snake, you’re out of luck. It’s always dangerous to project your own desires on how a story should end: disappointment is inevitable when perfect, personal endings are created by players long before the credits roll. Regardless, what’s here is deeply unsatisfying, featuring an obvious twist – if you can call it that: Kojima is constantly winking at the camera – which, while in some ways interesting, is just a regurgitation of ideas he has explored better elsewhere.

Once again Kojima plays around with the notion that, with the right training, anyone can be the ‘Boss’: like in a certain James Bond fan theory, ol’ ‘Bond’ isn’t a man, but is actually a designation, for a certain individual to step into when the time and circumstances are right. The Boss in MGS5 isn’t actually the Boss: the real Boss is off elsewhere making Outer Heaven. This Boss (actually a medic on board the chopper which gets downed in Ground Zeroes, and hence badly injured and easily manipulated) simply believes he’s authentic because Ocelot and Kaz tell him he is, and give him the support to make it work. Oh and the plastic surgery. I mean, I know Kojima loves his movie/TV/pop culture influences, but did one of them have to be Knight Rider’s facial reconstruction plot device?

Say what you want about Metal Gear Solid 2, but it handles this particular story better than The Phantom Pain. Not because MGS2 is a masterwork, but because its structure, encouraging players to relive scenarios Solid Snake has encountered before, works better in slowly drawing the player to the realisation they’re a pawn. Here, you’ve guessed it – or are at least working towards it – before the opening cutscene is out. There are some satisfying elements to MGS5’s interpretation: Ocelot is again masterminding the situation, and having accomplished everything you do there’s a feeling that the player has become the Legendary Soldier, not necessarily just played as him. Perhaps this is the reason why Kiefer doesn’t speak that much. He’s not the Boss. He’s an errand boy, off collecting bills. He’s not in any position to be giving orders.

So if Punished Snake’s finale (or, at least the one on the disc, which we’ll get to in a bit) disappoints, other characters fare even worse. Entire plot threads are left hanging, including what happens to Eli, the child soldiers, and Sahelanthropus. In the main game, they stage a coup on Mother Base and escape with the Metal Gear, flying off while Snake and Kaz and Ocelot watch. All it needed was a shrug from the boys and a shot of them heading off to get some beers to underline their nonchalance at the situation.

That’s the last you hear from the child soldiers and their leaders. It’s a weird situation, given how prominent a) Sahelanthropus (and its acquisition) is in the story and b) how much time is devoted to building out the relationships between Eli, Big Boss, and The Third Child (Psycho Mantis). It reminded me, of all f***ing things, of the theatrical cut of Alien3, where Paul McGann’s character is set up for a major role and and yet just disappears partway through the movie.

Now Alien3 had a lot more problems to contend with than that, but MGS5’s reason for its odd ‘end’ is the same as why Withnail’s chum abruptly disappears into the night: it was cut. Mission 51, or ‘Kingdom of the Flies’ to give it its full title, sees Snake infiltrate an African fiefdom set up by Eli and his crew. The conclusion of which can be seen here: it’s quite good, but it’s hardly ideal to have to watch it unfinished on YouTube. Of all the interrelationships between the villains of Metal Gear Solid 5, Mantis and Eli’s is one of the more interesting offerings. Mantis can use his powers to harness (and control) people’s rage, acting as a conduit for their hatred. It’s silly stuff, of course, but having him control a zombified Volgin makes for good moments of horror, and the bond between Eli and Mantis, predicated on the fact they’re both still technically children (and both hate adults with a passion), is interesting in light of their future adventures in terrorism.

Eli and crew are positively well-rounded in comparison with other characters, however. Paz returns in a series of dream sequences where she speaks to Snake, and although her presence is meant to signify Snake’s loss, the fact she’s sitting in a hospital room with next to nothing on pretty much tells you where Kojima’s going with this. (There’s also a Ground Zeroes flashback where the chopper medic removes the bomb from her vagina. It’s not explicit, but a lingering shot of the medics hand before he does so is also not needed in the context of the scene.)

Other female characters fare just about as well. There is no real justification for Quiet’s outfit – and indeed, much of her presence – above and beyond Kojima’s weak point-scoring. Her arc broadly fits the theme of the game, but the way it is told is, frankly, terrible. Not only is she the worst assassin ever, failing to kill Snake twice, but after being captured she reverses her opinion on the whole thing, falling in love with the Boss. This is never really expressed, although a bond is formed, which leads to the incredible (and not in a good way) rain sequence where Snake and Quiet frolic. That they don’t ride off into the sunset together is a relief, but as a character she’s painfully thin, and the basis of all manner of objectification – both from other characters and the way the camera treats her – and implied rape/sexual assault scenes.

Her presence on Mother Base, and the friction this causes between the trio of Snake, Kaz, and Ocelot, is important in establishing that their utopian vision has more fundamental flaws than even they acknowledge, and these faultlines getting wider is the best part of MGS5’s lower-key brand of storytelling. Bar one very cool sniper battle (and her usefulness as a buddy), however, the game would be little different without her. In fact, given how abysmally she’s interpreted, it would probably have even been better.

Also displeasing is how Kojima handles the run up to the finale, asking players to either replay missions on harder settings, wait until new episodes unlock, or grind side ops to get the final few stages. There’s little need for it, and it sabotages the game’s pacing immensely: after the highs of racing towards the end of chapter one, chapter two is slow, eking out more playtime with filler.

It’s an odd decision and one that appears to have been made under extreme pressure to ship the game (indeed, there’s images floating around the internet of a possible third chapter to go along with the cut 51st episode). The game hits its stride, and then hits a wall. Players who were no doubt happy to explore umpteen side missions and take their time earlier in the game will recognise the endgame coming, and no doubt be disappointed when the game slows down.

The Phantom Pain remains a great game, despite its late-game missteps and flawed (and at times distasteful) characterisation. The ‘not a Metal Gear’ contingent seem to have missed the point somewhat, given that the supposed ‘whackiness’ they craved is in there, just presented differently (this is a game where the water pistol is one of the most powerful weapons available, after all). And, given Kojima’s desire to have Big Boss turn slowly into the series’ villain, rather than a Lucas-style ‘I had a dream and I’m bad now’, its slow-burn works really well.

Really well, up to a point. After 40 hours play a definite ending should have closed the loop between the earlier games and the later ones. Instead there are yet more questions. For all his faults, at least George Lucas didn’t end Episode III with the revelations that there were two Darth Vaders, but one of them was off in a jungle somewhere.