Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes Launches On PC

After waiting close to a year for the game to launch on Steam, PC gamers finally have the opportunity to take part in the Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes experience. The game has launched today on the Steam store, right during the middle of the big winter holiday sale.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is the precursor to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom. Both games carry their own levels of controversial content, which have sparked all sorts of conversations across the web.

Ground Zeroes follows Naked Snake/Big Boss into a Cuban prison camp where he has to attempt a rescue of some very important individuals. The game is the first in the series to offer open-world gameplay thanks to the Fox Engine, enabling players to tackle missions in any way that they see fit, either using stealth or going in guns-a-blazin', the options are up and available for gamers to exercise to the best of their play-style.

The Fox Engine really made waves at the 2012 E3 event as well as a few other tech shows where Kojima and crew showcased how the engine could capture and recreate near photo-realistic imagery, similar to the Brigade Engine or Square Enix's Luminous Engine. The only downside is that the engine is more powerful than what today's eighth generation home consoles are capable of running. So we're likely to only see the true power of the Fox Engine if Konami decides to either do a PC exclusive or wait until the ninth generation home consoles launch.

But getting back to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for a minute... the game launched to a lot of fanfare, confusion and a bit of bitterness. You see, there was some controversy over the game's length. Some people felt that the short main mission – that some people varied to say ranged between half-an-hour to two hours in total gameplay length – and the price tag made Ground Zeroes a ripoff. The more accurate term was a “glorified demo”.

Others pointed out that the extension of the gameplay experience was found in the side-missions and other collectibles, such as the equally controversial prisoner tapes. The ability to scavenge for extra goods to extend the gameplay was something some people felt was excusing Konami for a short gameplay offering at a high price. Others felt that supporting the purchase of a $30 demo was enabling other publishers to attempt to do similar things – releasing games that are an hour or two long for $20 to $30 and then releasing the full game later on at $60 to $80. The slippery slope argument definitely has some merit, especially when you see how some companies have been abusing things like season passes, pre-orders and DLC, even though the game itself launches broken... like Assassin's Creed Unity.

Anyway, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes on PC has launched at the discounted price of $13.39. The 33% off comes courtesy of the Steam winter sale. The game's regular price on PC is only $19.99. I do wonder if some will feel as if the $19.99 price tag will justify the content and playability of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes? I mean, there was a pretty big fallout over the short amount of interactivity in Gone Home for the same price... so it might be interesting to watch the forum boards and conversations surrounding the price to game-length argument.