Game Informer's latest cover story centers on Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, a prolouge to the main MGSV game set to come out next month. In it, they reveal that they played through the main mission in two hours, with a speed run in 5 minutes being possible. This has set off a big debate over the game's actual value, reigniting a long-running argument over price-to-length ratio in modern video games.
For me personally, this debate usually misses the point. Replay value is often far more important to a game's worth than how long it takes to get through the main campaign. I've put in dozens of hours with Mega Man X--which, incidentally, you can beat in about an hour or so if you know what you're doing--because the game is just that damn awesome. And games with good multiplayer can last for decades; hence people still playing Street Fighter II to this day (myself included).
However...in this case, I think the complaints are justified, albeit for a different reason.
Kojima himself has described Ground Zeroes as a demo--a short teaser to get you acclimated to the main game, which is set to come out next year. But there are plenty of options for doing that which don't cost a dime, let alone up to $40 depending on which platform you get it on. Metal Gear Rising did a great job with this; the training VR missions and the first level give you all the basics you need to know what you're getting yourself into for the rest of the game.
So rather than being a demo in the traditional sense, this seems more like Konami breaking the game up into pieces and selling them separately to make shareholders happy. I can't think of any justification beyond that. Given how the save data for Ground Zeroes carries into the main game, and that it contains key plot information, people who want the full experience would need both games. It comes off as a cynical cash-grab, especially when the next gen versions cost almost as much as the full game despite the latter being "twenty times bigger" according to Kojima.
I just hope that this approach doesn't become a trend if both parts of the game sell well.
Comments