This week, getwestlondon writer John Shammas casts his eye over Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes in Geek Speak's regular video game column.
Here we are. The wait is over... sort of.
It is impossible to not address something straight away. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes isn't a full release per se. This is the prologue to The Phantom Pain, hence the reduced price... and the reduced game time.
Game director Hideo Kojima's explanation as to why he and his Konami colleagues opted to take this route of a mini-release before the main installment is because he has reinvented the mechanics of the Metal Gear world to such an extent that he wants gamers to adapt to the new, open-world mission format as opposed to the series' previous on-the-rails approach.
Whether you swallow this, or take the more pessimistic (and more probable) explanation that Konami do rely on Metal Gear to pay the bills and The Phantom Pain was taking a little too long to complete, is immaterial because Ground Zeroes provides a magnificent insight into Kojima's vision for the upcoming title and for hardcore fans that will be well worth coughing up the money for.
Picking up where previous game Peace Walker left off, Snake is sent to save young ally Chico from a secret Cuban prison camp ran by the United States which is more than just loosely based on Guantanamo Bay.
After the opening credits sequence finishes, you are instantly presented with something that Metal Gear titles have previously not given gamers: choice in how you complete your objectives.
Hijacking vehicles, sneaking and snooping or just blasting your way through the base are all options to explore in this new open-world format which boosts your desire to replay and discover more again and again.
Gone are the lengthy cut-scenes which characterise much of the franchise which disrupt the flow of game play and make the series feel more like a film than a video game.
Instead the new game play mechanics, which include scrapping codec conversations, ditching freezing play when selecting a weapon and no in-play radar make this title that most immersive in the series yet with the tension level higher than ever.
The only problem? The length.
Yes, this is a prologue release but we are still being asked to pay up about £20 for it across console formats, but reports that the game can be completed in two hours or less is misleading.
It took Geek Speak just north of three hours to complete the main mission, but once completed, a host of side missions are then available to you, which are designed as non-canon set plays to get you more used to the new open-world game play that will be unleashed fully in The Phantom Pain.
However beyond that, what is more startling is that the length of the game has become such a talking point among the gaming community when there is so much more on offer here.
More than ever, Kojima has addressed the reoccurring theme of children in war and the loss of innocence through warfare with a maturity not yet seen in the Metal Gear franchise.
The level of violence the prisoners have been subjected to in Camp Omega give you a taste of how far Kojima is willing to push the boundaries of the video game format.
We are left wanting more, of course, but Ground Zeroes assures us that this is a mere taster of something that is certainly going to be worth the wait.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is available of PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One from £19.99.
