games

i love the other games but I think MGSV and Peace Walker are the only two that have a well-formed political outlook. The other games are more personal, or more about scifi themes like abuse of technology, or how disinformation spreads. Peace Walker and V hit different and are very concerned with themes like racism and imperialism. Maybe by that point Kojima had a more well-baked ideological basis to work with, but who knows.

V is unfinished though. A third of the game just doesn't exist and it's why you spend the last section of the game replaying earlier missions and the story doesn't go anywhere. I've always like how clear it is that you're part of the bad guys in V. Only a few of the missions involve anything heroic, most of them have you involving yourself in both sides of a conflict while also fighting the shadowy illuminati guys. I usually have more interesting thoughts about this game but I'm tired from work and my brain is fried. Phantom Pain is still one of the most interesting games ever made to me though. It's so silly and exaggerated and yet it's got a really compelling breakdown of what revenge entails, how conflict starts and how groups form to secure resources. It's neat. Kojima is neat.