Game Informer revealed their cover magazine, and stated that they have had an exclusive play of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, the prologue to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. “We had four hours of exclusive hands-on time with Ground Zeroes,” says Game Informer, continuing “which we used to play through the main mission and experiment with extra modes”. So, that’s four hours for the main story campaign and playing a few modes? Basically, the whole game (including the side missions and extra modes for consoles will be 40 minutes!!!) okay, but that’s not really long, not long at all. However, we have a better news for you, Kotaku’s new article will make you shiver, as they have stated that MGS: GZ is less than 2 hours! LESS THAN 2 HOURS!!! WHAT? WHY? Kojima, why would you give out Phantom Pain’s prologue if the prologue is shorter than most demoes these days!!!

Let me clarify that we are not taking the side missions and/or the exclusive console missions (Playstation: Classic Snake mission, Xbox: Raiden mission), and the game is supposedly an open world, so it would still probably take you more hours to play it (probably the 4 hours, as it was stated by Game Informer). However, the length of the main mission of the game is a complete disappointment. Many people were anticipating for this game (including me, you could see this game on my Top 17 Most Anticipated Games of 2014), but this news is just disappointing! However, this could be at least a little more acceptable considering how long every cutscene in the MGS franchise is (PLEASE BE LONGER THAN 2 HOURS!!!). Lets refer back to the last Metal Gear Solid game, Metal Gear Solid 4, that game was 10-20 hours long (10 hours if you skipped cutscenes, and 20 hours if you watched them). However, lets not get carried away from the main subject. I have made a top 10 list of really short games that are still longer than MGS: GZ.

IMPORTANT: We are estimating the length of the main story of these games (excluding the side missions, or open world)!

Most Add-On content these days!

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragon Keep, Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea and … They were all good quality add-on content and DLC to full retail games. Why am I talking about these DLC’s? Because their range of length is from 5-8 hours long! Longer than the whole Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (including main story, side missions, and exclusive console mission!). Also, the DLC’s are both longer and less expensive, with their price ranging from $15-$20. Keep in mind that MGS: GZ’s price on Xbox 360 and PS3 is digitally $20, in retail $30, and for Xbox One and PS4, it is $30 digitally, and $40 in retail. I can sense the burning smell of rip off!

Most First Person Shooter Games!

Have you seen how reviewers are always saying that FPS games rely on multiplayer and that their campaigns are incredibly short, ranging from 4 hours (very short) to 6 hours (mediocre length). Now this is the sad reality, MGS: GZ’s main story is only 2 hours, and it doesn’t have any multiplayer to rely on. Even though Quality is better than Quantity, it doesn’t mean that you can just make a 2 hour game with amazing gameplay and storytelling.

Movie Tie-in Games

You know how everyone says that movie tie-in games are so bad! Well, they are … but have you asked yourself why? Well, one of the factors aside from the other thousand factors of why those games suck is because they are incredibly short, ranging from 3-4 hours. So if you want to finish the main story of MGS: GZ, then you will finish it in just one sitting (unless the cutscenes are like always, incredibly long!).

Downloadable Games

Braid, Portal (The original), Bastion, Dust, Hotline: Miami, and Limbo which all have lengths ranging from 2-6 hours. This means that most of these downloadable games which have prices ranging from $5-$20, are longer than a game which costs $20-$40 in retail. So the prices match. A 6 hour arcade game is $20, and a 4 hour (the whole game’s length) AAA title is $20 if you get it on last-gen consoles (Xbox 360, PS3) digitally, and only digitally (retail is $30).

Conclusion: The only way this game could be worth its price tag is if only the game is downloaded digitally on a last-gen console. YEAH!