Well, I finally started to play MGS V after putting it off for a long time. I think the opening intro, where you're stuck in a hospital bed for 15 minutes, was what really dissuaded me from playing. Not a lot of gameplay there.

So yeah, that part wasn't so great. But then you get out of the hospital bed and... it's a lot more cutscenes. Jesus Christ. You know it's a Kojima game. Lots of cinematics going on, with very little actual game. I also gotta say, these black ops soldiers searching every room and executing every patient... they'd do a much better job if they just leaned down and peered under the curtains, like when you check for occupied bathroom stalls. They never do that. Instead, they just walk around and totally miss Boss crawling around on the ground. Such a silly thing.

It's pretty funny how crazy the game is, with a giant fire guy strolling around and blowing everything up. Taking out helicopters left and right. But a little sprinkler is enough to extinguish him. What was that all about?

Then you get to the actual gameplay and it's surprisingly fun. The gunplay feels fun, as long you're actually using Aim Down Sights. The headshots are easy to pull off and feel satisfying. This was a pleasant surprise.

Revolver Ocelot rescues you and uhhh... oh boy, the overwrought and cheesy dialogue is just overwhelming. A lot of talk about "returning as a legend" and "we must have the conviction to return to glory" and "Boss, time to show who you truly are" and uhhh... just terrible bizarre writing. What we've come to expect from Kojima, I guess. It's so awful and awkward and funny at the same time. I will say, I've only played MGS 1 and about half of MGS 4, so the talk about Cipher went completely over my head, I had no idea what the hell Cipher was or why they needed to fight it or anything. I guess maybe that's supposed to be meaningful to hardcore MGS fans?

So now the game drops me off in Afghanistan and it's a huge big open sandbox to play around in. Again, it's surprising how much fun this gameplay is, after that incredibly tedious and off-putting opening intro sequence. The attention to detail with every aspect of the game is immediately noticeable. This can be both good and bad in a few ways though. For example, the fact that your gun will actually lower if you stand too close to cover is realistic, but awfully annoying in a gameplay sense, and something you'd never expect in a shooter like Halo or Battlefield. Yet it happens a lot in MGS unless you account for it. It felt frustrating the first few times I tried to shoot someone, only to find my gun lowered because I was too close to a surface.

But in other aspects, the realistic detail feels very cool and refreshing, like trying to Fulton a guy who's inside a hut, and having the balloon hit the ceiling and pop and fail. Or Fultoning a guy in a sandstorm and having that fail. These are things that you'd never see in other mainstream games, because the developers just wouldn't think to actually acknowledge the details in such a realistic manner. Same thing with having a suppressor wear out and eventually become ineffective. The little intricacies of the game stand out and feel meaningful.

Of course, in some ways, the game's extreme details are a little confusing. I went and started tranqing every soldier to Fulton them back to Mother Base, but the Staff Management menus are completely confusing to me. I get the feeling that you're supposed to match different staff to their individual strengths, but I have no idea how to do that, or how to even read their personal attributes. I've also filled out the two departments with 30/30 staff, and now have 28 guys waiting in the Waiting Room, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with them. Guess maybe now I can stop fultoning people and just kill them?

I do like the weapon upgrade system, and can tell that they actually feel substantive. For example, upgrading the Wu tranq pistol to Grade 2 actually does improve the accuracy to the point where the ADS scatter is a lot lower and headshots that used to take 2-3 shots can now be nailed in 1. That was such an important part of the game for me and grabbing the upgrade now makes me anxious to get up to Grade 3. Though since I have 28 guys in the Waiting Room, I suppose I can switch to buying and upgrading the 1911 for lethal kills?