Just got MGS V, should i download any update or play in vanilla or offline?

The question is basically in the title, but yeah, i heard the game turned to shit after a few updates so i was wondering if i should just play it offline.

They added a bunch of stuff, arguably for the worst, when it comes to the currency in the game, which you need to build more platforms, buy equipment, upgrade weapons/tools, etc. If you go in the red, some negative things could happen, like your squad starts leaving and stuff like that. I imagine the servers are incredibly stable by now, by virtue of there not being a ton of people playing this game compared to September/October 2015.

You are going to get more reminders about buying coins (which you never need to do), insurance (which you don't need), and multiplayer (which you don't need to engage with). The biggest concern based on watching some of Drew and Dan play through MGSV is the end missions pop-ups seem to have increased a lot.

Overall I don't think this is a big deal. MGSV ended up being many thing. Thankfully one of those involves being a stable videogame, so you don't need anything patched to fix the framerate or even any open world mess. I think you are fine either way. People had legit issues with the servers going down and how that impacted their economy and whatnot, but I highly doubt you will experience these issues today.

I remember one of the updates automatically puts an percentage of your credits, resources, vehicles and turrets onto a non-existent FOB (forward operating base) that you can't access. It made it very frustrating when the servers went due to maintenance and my offline credit balance went in the red but I still had like a hundred thousand credits on the FOB. I had to keep reminding myself not to play on Maintenance Day every week as a result.

It's fine updated. If anything, you'll earn more stuff as you progress with the rewards system that was patched in later. The online bank isn't a huge deal - you'll make enough cash that it won't matter after a bit. Focus on the stuff you want to research and ignore the stuff you won't even touch. I don't think I used a single shotgun the entire time I played or SMGs other than the riot stun gun, until I realized it was garbage later on. That SMG worked for Drew, though, so pick whatever fits your play style. I played it from release up until Fallout 4 came out and was never invaded a single time, so I wouldn't worry about that either.

Enjoy - despite what peoples hang-ups are with it, it's still a fantastic game.

I wouldn't say it turned to shit (the core experience remains, effectively, the same as it ever was), but the management stuff eventually became a bit out of control. If you're just in it to play through the story and side missions, you're fine either way. You'll just have to button through a couple of extra tutorials if you patch, and you get a whole rewards system that helps minimize the (already not that bad) grinding.

I think you're fine to play with the most recent updates. I started a new game on PC in July, and have been slowly chipping away at it since, and I do like some of the additions they've made.

My favorite new thing they added you can see implemented near the tail end of Metal Gear Scanlon, where they basically added little challenges like "Fulton 100 people" or "Finish Mission 6 with an A ranking" and then they give you some money, or some resources, or 5 trucks, or a few S rank soldiers, its all over the place what you get, but its certainly useful.

The other thing I enjoy is the daily login bonuses. launch the game this day and you get 30 MB coins, or 100K, or whatever. and while MB coins do suck, and I hate them, I have been able to afford two FOBs with just the free MB coins I've gotten each day over the course of 3 or so months (And I haven't been logging in Nearly every day) so now I've got 3 damn bases giving me more troops, better equipment and such. Where when I played on PS4 at launch it took a Loooooooooong damn time for me to afford one extra FOB.

And if you're into this kind of thing, they do have constantly changing online challenges where you can invade FOBs, gain points for killing dudes/stealthing, and you can use your points to buy new weapon skins and Mother base Paintjobs. I want a pink tiger stripe Motherbase dammit! But I have no interest in invading FOBs. But its there!

I'd say go for it online, its not that bad, and has gotten better since they initially fucked everything up.

Like someone else said, the rewards system is actually pretty useful for getting extra cash you didn't have access to in the vanilla game and you earn all of it pretty organically, and I personally never really had issues with the servers so I wasn't without the money they stash server side more than one or two times across hundreds of hours of play.

I played it obsessively in two distinct spurts, one when the game came out and the other this past March. The second was mostly grinding out every side op and trying like hell to trigger the final story missions and unlock all the weaponry (one strong critique I have of this game is that it hides some of the really cool stuff behind a TON of in-game currency) and well after all the server-side / multiplayer focused patches had been installed and I can't say I noticed too harsh of a difference. It was still the same lovable super fun game it was when it first released.

I played through most of the game during the first week when the online was unstable at best and it was fantastic. As soon as the servers were fixed and I connected online, I kind of hated everything they shoved in your face that is not at all essential to the core game? I can only imagine it has gotten worse since then.

I would recommend just playing offline, you won't lose anything of value.

i think you need to update since really close to release day there was a game breaking bug in one of the later missions

The updates are VERY in your face, and will force you to acknowledge them at times. That being said, they started to just dump various currencies on you.

Play vanilla first until you have enough resources to upgrade everything and buy the guns you like. Didn't do it when I played the PS4 version and regret it but then got the PS3 version for cheaps a few months latter and did it completely online. Performed with no issues and had a much better time.

Update. The FOB nonsense comes relatively late in the day and the challenge rewards are much nicer to cash in as you do them, rather than in bulk retrospectively.

If anything try to get the s100 stun shotgun that weapon equipped with a silencer is op. Works well against those heavy armored soldiers. As for the skulls get the heavy sniper rifle.

The fob stuff never bothered me and i beleive you only get invaded if you invade someone. They also added some challenge stuff where you can invade npc bases, didnt try much simce it was after i had beat the game.