The action began with - what else? - a lengthy and very cinematic cutscene, 'filmed' from a strange perspective - a free-floating camera that hung about at eye-level but never looked straight at whatever you were most interested in.

In my demo, I was tasked with breaking into a military compound to rescue Chico and Paz, characters who ought to be familiar to series fans as they were prominent cast members in Peace Walker (a game franchise creator Hideo Kojima once described as 'Metal Gear Solid 5' if you haven't played it, correct this oversight).

It's probably the best-looking and smoothest game I've played or seen on PS4 so far. Happily, you'll only need a minute or two in-game to be completely au fait - the water, the lights, the animations, the physics, the silky frame rate are immediately apparent. Kojima Productions doesn't do nearly enough talking about its new Fox Engine - not near as much as Epic, Square Enix and Crytek do - and I don't have the knowledge or the language to explain what makes it so brilliant. Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is a feat of technical wizardry. Do your eyeballs a favour and get a next-gen version - although the more humble consoles offer lower price tags. Ground Zeroes hits PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on March 18 in North America and March 20 in Europe. Nevertheless, Koijipro expects you to get a full game's value out of it.

Ground Zeroes exists to give fans something to chew on while Kojima Productions labours over its first true next-gen release. It is a prologue, and a tutorial, for the full game - Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is not the full MGS5. Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes takes the patented Kojima formula and polishes it until it shines - leaving it with a slick, frictionless surface, punctuated by jagged spikes of shock content.

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