Let's talk about Episode 12 (SPOILERS)

What's nice about Phantom Pain re: spoilers is that the whole thing is broken up into discrete, numbered parts. If you're only on episode 8, say, you know you want to avoid any discussion about chapters 9 and further.

With that in mind, holy crap, being pursued by the Psycho Mantis-controlled Metal Gear across open terrain was fantastic, one of my favourite things I've ever done in a video game. It's like they merged the best parts of Alien: Isolation and Pacific Rim. I was scared to look behind me during the chase, even though I wanted to swivel the camera around and soak in the sheer scale of my pursuer and the setpiece. For a brief, thrilling moment I was treated to what it would be like to be a regular old person in a world where mechs exist, and I both don't want to live in that world and really want to live in that world.

So, um, yes, The Phantom Pain is a very good game so far.

To be honest, I'm thiiiiis close to just fucking uninstalling the game due to episode 12. I was doing awesome, up until some TERRIBLE fucking checkpoints, combined with what I'm almost positive was some broken scripting (I was waiting for combat status to go down to search for about 20 minutes, then another 40 or so for the search to get called off) wasted about 2 hours of my time. But I finally got to Emmerich. Woo, mission over! Except for that thing that SHOULD be the coolest thing in the world, now I need to run from it to finish the mission.

I'm running, I'm getting away, I'm about to lose it, when suddenly, with ABSOLUTELY no warning, Kaz gives me some pissy complaint about how I'm lazy because I apparently left the mission area (which in every other episode so far, has been a way to finish missions). But THIS time?

MISSION ABORTED

Guess I get to do THAT fun mission all over again!

*I'm sorry, I just really needed to vent about this clusterfuck that happened

@davidmerrick: Unfortunately, while that moment should have been really cool, I found it a massive pain. I don't know if I was doing it wrong by sticking with D-Walker, but the mech easily caught up with me everywhere I went, it's so damn tall it was tough to hide from. Only after I run around that large rock near the edge of the area did it stop chasing, but then getting to the chopper without triggering those searchbots was extra annoying, and to cap it off I couldn't load Walker onto the chopper so I almost got spotted again as I was about to finish the mission. On the plus side, I REALLY wanted to unload with that chopper minigun, so there was some minor catharsis there. But I'm dreading coming up against that thing again.

If this sequence followed a shorter mission I would've been less annoyed, but because the rest of the mission was pretty lengthy, while being chased all I could think of was how I don't enjoy this game when it deviates from the regular sneaking/stealth gameplay. My final mission time was just under 2:30!

@bbalpert: I feel your pain. Maybe check out some side ops for a while and level up your gear? If that happened to me I would've had to take a break I'd be so annoyed.

emmerich got stepped on my first time through it. i got him out fine the 2nd. good thing it was night time. i basically just ran until i got to this empty outpost a few hundred yards from the chopper and hid us in two of the toilets until the alert level went down. then i had to slowly make it about 400 yards to the chopper while this giant fucking thing is walking up and down the road looking for me. shit was tense.

@edmundus: I took a short break, sat back down, and managed to beat it (almost alarmingly quickly) by just sprinting past as much stuff as I could. I was ignoring all of the valuable soldiers and relied on D-Horse's speed and surprisingly effective stealth mode. Russian soldiers apparently don't find it weird to see a guy hanging off the side of a horse. It still took me a few tries, but I got through in like 20-30 minutes.

All in all, I'm glad to be done with that part.

I had a pretty cool experience with it. I ran out of the base on the walker thing. Then I started running from the metal gear got to a parked truck and decided that might be faster or at least provide some protection and so I get to that, but it's facing the wrong way. So, I load up Huey and start backing away from it as it's gunning the ground in front of me. I eventually get turned around and drive the rest of the way to the LZ. Then when trying to shake the MG, I eventually get behind a rock that seems big enough to hide behind and for a bit it seems like the MG has lost me and I'm just waiting for it to get far enough away for me to hop on the chopper but then it starts slowly coming my way. Eventually it's right on top of us and I'm holding my breath hoping it will go away. Instead it seems to have pulled out its giant sword and smashed Huey and I. I can't be sure, there was a giant rock in my line of sight, but I think that's what happened.

I couldn't believe how that thing was in the same world I was in, like usually when there are massive enemies in a game they seem somehow out of place, but this Metal Gear felt like it was right there with me, as part of the game world - in the same game engine(?) - I can't explain it gahhh. There's just something about how it felt that was different than other games, and surreal is such an ambiguous word that I don't like using it, but I dunno how else to describe what it felt like. That section was definitely a gaming highlight for me.

@cale: when I saw it out in the world I instantly thought that we're gonna make one and stomp around the world in it. Maybe another buddy :)

@bbalpert: This exact thing happened to me, like almost to the letter. It was incredibly frustrating and really soured my experience after loving everything I've played up until that point. That big dumb robot was just stuck standing still by the south LZ, I'm at the north LZ and the helicopter would not come down because it wouldn't leave alert phase. This is after I spent what must have been 20 minutes hiding behind a rock waiting for it to move past so I could sneak past it (all it would do was pace back and forth at that spot, scream, punch the ground, and repeat). After all of that, just as the cherry on top, I hit restart mission instead of restart at checkpoint by mistake, so I ended up having to do the whole second part of that again.

That mission started out really cool, and I was enjoying it a lot up until that bugged hide and seek sequence.

I thought it was a pretty cool mission, but I found the way they reveal the Metal Gear bizarre. I don't know if any of you guys watched the last Kojima trailer, but I wish they used that scene as the reveal.

In that scene in the trailer we the see the Metal Gear in the ordinary bipedal form, and just when you think Big Boss was able to get away, it transforms to reveal a much larger, more intimidating design.

Peoples problems with it makes me wonder if I'm on a different difficulty level. Went to the first pickup point by foot, had an ohshit experience, ran off until I lost it, told the heli to take the spot nearest to me. I think the part with Sal ruined my perfect stealth.

Great-ass mission, huge-ass area, I want to extract everybody and everything, was disappointed to see everything clamped down to the concrete. Wish I hadn't watched all those trailers beforehand.

Easily the most frustrating part of the game so far.

Forget the fact that this big robot (which looks stupid if you ask me compared to Rex and Ray) always seemed to magically know which rock I was behind and park itself on the other side staring in my direction for minutes at a time. Forget the fact that the thing killed me twice after I got in the helicopter because the chopper was swinging around like an idiot and this is the only game in the world where aiming on vehicle-mounted weapons is vehicle-relative and not world-relative, making it next to impossible to shoot while the chopper is swinging around.

No, the most frustrating thing about that mission to me was the fact that the game did not communicate at all that it's okay to leave Walker Gear behind. This is completely inconsistent with all the other buddies, and the game needs to make it clear that you don't need to extract it. D-Dog, I had to extract. Quiet, I had to extract. So naturally I'm thinking I need to get Walker Gear onto the chopper. But whenever I get close to the chopper, it lifts off saying vague things about needing to pull out. Turns out it's because Walker Gear is an obstruction in the LZ, but the whole time I'm mistakenly thinking the chopper is bugging out because Metal Gear has gotten too close. Rinse and repeat for 90 minutes.

The first half of that mission was awesome. Both the power plant and the camp were really fun environments to infiltrate, we're introduced to our new Metal Gear, reintroduced to Robo-Boss and Emmerich, get our first test drive of Walker Gear (which is more fun than I was expecting)... and then that final sequence happened. I was rage-quit levels of furious by the end of it.

I don't know if it was just a lucky string of events, but I loaded Huey onto the truck right next to me (even though I took the D-walker to get out) and drove behind the hill just past the first extraction point (so like 60m, barely even drove). After that, I took Huey out of the truck and just kind of crouched behind a rock right next to the extraction point while the Metal Gear was basically staring right at me, but never seemed to notice me. Then it sent out some robots that also couldn't seem to find me, and then I loaded Huey onto the chopper and took off. It was incredibly easy, probably lasted about 3 minutes, I feel like I missed out on the tension.

I awkwardly drove a truck int.. between it's legs and then hit behind a boulder in terror until everything was okay.

What annoyed me about the mission was that Huey did not mention using the walker to escape UNTIL I HAD SPRINTED ACROSS THE MAP TO THE CHOPPER.

I don't like the way this game ranks stuff. I did this mission with nearly perfect stealth, no combat alerts, no retries, no reflex mode, and only 2 kills, and still didn't get an S-rank because I took an hour and a half since it seems to count the side op into the main mission time.

If it wasn't for me losing the reflex bonus I would have S-Ranked that mission. The key at the end is to just ignore D-Walker and extract Emmerich on foot. The D-Walker just complicates things. But holy shit that ending!!! With the Mech jumping at you and you just going ham on the Minigun holy shit.

Wait there was a chase scene? I got away from it within 10 seconds and just hid for a few moments while it lost track of me.

I wound up just using the cigar to get things progressed to night time since there's plenty of places you can hide and do that undisturbed. Thankfully a sandstorm rolled in too so I was able to make a mad dash to get Huey. The trip out I took the long way, but across the whole mission I wasn't spotted, didn't let Huey get hit, etc. Things were going GREAT.

Then Metal Gear squished me repeatedly and my score went to hell :V Didn't bug me though because I thought the encounter was really cool, didn't realize so many people would be upset by it, it was a really tense game of hide and seek. It's a shame that I wasn't able to S-rank it due to dying a bunch but whatever. There's equipment you get later on that can shut the Metal Gear down, letting you essentially dash to the LZ.

@liquidprince: I also lost him in about ten seconds, just started running toward the LZ and he really didn't even follow me

@bbalpert: had the exact same thing happen to me just now. The warning time between "you're leaving" and "you left" was waaay too short. I had stealthed that level so hard, too :-(

Yeah, ESPECIALLY if you're sprinting full speed on D-Horse.

I should mention I really love this mission, it's some of the most tense stealth I've ever experienced in a game. I just wish the game didn't punish you so much for taking your time. I got a C just because I took too long. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter since I know I'll have to replay with better gear to S rank everything anyways, but it's frustrating to do fantastic on a mission and then the game is like "YEAH THAT'S A C"

I managed to get away from it in about 20~ seconds by just sprinting behind rocks and stuff. It eventually lost me after a minute or so.

And then it came to that powerline tower I was hiding next to, screamed, bashed the top half of it off so it fell over (got stuck on the cliff so it didn't crush me), and then just fucking stood there staring at me but not being alerted for like 5 minutes. Turned around for about 5 seconds (enough for me to run behind some rocks), then turned to the rocks I had just gone behind and immediately walked up to it and started walking around it for like 3 more minutes until I revealed myself on accident (saw me through a dip in the rock) and then bashed the fucking rocks into pieces. And then killed me.

Barring it knowing where I was (seriously, it looked away for a grand total of like 10 seconds over 5+ minutes) all the time somehow, it was pretty cool (and terrifying). The second time it took me longer to lose it, but I sent the helicopter to the further LZ and the MG followed it, so I was able to set C4 as a distraction, call the chopper to the closer LZ, and detonate as the MG walked back to give me time to hop in as it looked away.

The minigun bit was satisfying.

I wonder if there are platform differences here. I am playing on PC and that dude was on me non-stop. What platforms were folks on where he just gave up?

I wouldn't advise worrying about ratings at all on your first run through of a mission. There are some later levels which are near impossible to S rank if you intend on watching the cutscenes. (the timer still ticks during them)

@sunbrozak: yeah, I'm noticing that. It also seems impossible to S-rank some based on equipment, like I don't think the mission where you have to blow up all the tanks (Mission 9 maybe?) is possible to S-rank without a really good launcher. I blew up 6 vehicles and extracted the prisoner from the jeep and extracted right at 15 minutes and got a B, haha.

That mission is a nightmare. Basically there is one solution I could come up with and it involves sitting in the one piece of road that all the vehicles eventually drive on, using decoys to distract the vehicles, then fultoning them out. The annoying thing is if you miss a vehicle or your spotted, you have to start the whole 15 minutes again.

@sunbrozak: I had a blast blowing everything up from the back of D-Horse, but yeah I can see trying to S-rank it being a huge pain in the ass. I haven't actually picked up a transport specialist yet so I can't fulton vehicles/cargo containers yet, but I've been seeing the containers in main mission areas so I'm assuming that I missed a prisoner somewhere. I'll probably head back in to a mission with a transport specialist with a combat unit dude to mop up that trophy and grab the fulton upgrade.

I couldn't figure out how to lose it so finally I called in an air strike after it lost sight of me and sure enough it wandered off in that direction just long enough for me to "get to da choppa"

I really, really loved that whole mission and had an amazingly cinematic chase/escape from Metal Gear at the end. Just spectacular. Was the first time I was really pushed to build an awesome infiltration plan.

*sigh* I wish I was at home right now...

I hid behind a large rock and distracted it by throwing grenades at the road behind me.

@quid_pro_bono: Minor spoiler for the location of a Transport Specialist, if you're interested (if they're not random, anyway): Mission 10, one of the guys held prisoner in the first area you sneak up to. You gotta be quick though, the guards eventually...'liquidate' them. I skipped to it out of order from the previous batch of missions simply because I saw there was a Transport person listed, and I really wanted that upgrade.

Edit: So I just realized it's not much of a spoiler because this is a thread on mission 12 and the guy is on 10.

@davidmerrick: Just beat this mission last night. Thought this post was going to be shit-talking this chapter. Super glad it isn't. Hiding from the Metal Gear in that scene was legitimately scary for me, probably assisted by it being midnight and me getting sleepy mixed with the adrenaline. That evasion sequence seemed pretty lax once you "lost" MG, which is okay because doing that more than, let's say twice, would ruin the awesome effect. Also when Sahelanthropus (great name, by the way) stands up it is fucking TALL. Like, it almost saw me multiple times by looking over the cover I was pressed up against. I changed the copter pick up spot to one further East down the road, and while running towards it, I could look back and see Sal peeking over the rocks. Fucking terrifying. What a great, tense scene.

In fact if there's one thing I've been surprised by, it's how much I'm enjoying the gameplay/story balance. Yes, TPP has less cutscenes FOR a Metal Gear game, but the way some story elements are melded into gameplay makes it come together very nicely, I think. And if I know Kojima, it will only get better from here.

Also on PC. All he did for me was be confused at the rock I hid behind and shot explosives at a few times and then started looking elsewhere.

It's almost a requirement once you start using buddies other than D-Horse, since you'll want to deploy with a car that can drive you places. (also fultoning a tank doesn't get old)

This episode is easily the worst thing I've experienced in this game so far.

If you sprint the moment you gain control it won't have the chance to follow you because it hasn't been alerted to your presence yet, which is a really weird way to start off a sequence, I let it chase me on purpose to see it stomp around the field, it's not all that hard to shake off once you're ready to complete the mission, it'll shoot sentry pods that try to seek you out but it's fairly easy to sneak past them.

@doctordonkey: I did the same thing. The mission was tense and I loved slowly working through it, but the ending part felt pretty minor.

Seems I missed out on some Jurassic Park T-Rex pursuit stuff. *shrugs*

First half of the episode was sweet. Tons of enemies with a huge area to sneak around. Then they ruined it with the "boss" fight. I still made it out without a retry but I got caught by those stupid fucking search bots like 5 times and it totally fucked up my S rank.

Tbh, the Quiet boss fight was prety rad but I think that the rest of the boss fights in this game have been poor so far.

@capum15: I realized I actually had already picked him up on my first run through that mission and never realized it! I guess when I checked on my cargo 2 upgrade I didn't pay close enough attention, I just needed another level in R&D and Support.

You guys know you can just drop smoke grenades and then hide behind a rock, right?

@quid_pro_bono: Cool! That upgrade was almost my sole focus until I got it and it's been great.

Oh, so you have a tank? Don't you mean I have a tank? *balloon*

Don't see how you guys had issues with the chase. I ran right through its legs and then to the left of the rocks along the road. It followed but didn't know where I was, so I had to wait for it to turn before I could cross the street to the LZ.

Pretty awesome scene. Love the gameplay/story balance so far. Can't wait to see where this ride goes

Running away from him was extremely short for me, but yep, I thought it was very cool, just finding an area to hide behind and then it walking past. It kind of reminded me of the tripods in War of the Worlds. Yeah, the game is awesome. As for any issue with that moment, I'm not sure why others had any. For me, it was run up left over a hill towards him, not directly back, and through an area he can't reach, onto the road near the extraction point; he shoots out his search bots, so you simply keep running, those go away shortly after, and then you hide behind something as he walks past to then run back and get in the helicopter. I did half expect it to just bash through rock and trees to easily get to me, but when I looked back, I didn't see him. I think the only thing I regretted at first was not going even faster by jumping in the little mech. That wasn't a boss to me, the only thing I would consider bosses so far was the short fight with the skulls, and even more so, Quiet.

@capum15: I am about to play again after doing some staff shuffling and unlocking Cargo 2, and I am making it my first priority to beeline for the Afghan Central Base to steal the ten to fifteen giant crates of resources they have there. I'm assuming it's a pretty large GMP cost though, so I'm going to go diamond hunting on Mother Base first.

Well this is the level that made me hate metal gear. Uninstalled.

I guess I missed the chase too. I hid behind a rock, then ran serpentine through a bunch of boulders.

I didn't like how you had to go all the way back to another location after reaching the power plant, but the mission was pretty cool overall. I managed to get to Emmerich with perfect stealth but the allure of D-Walker was too strong and I ended up getting spotted from miles away trying to escape. The Metal Gear chase was kind of weird mechanically and I kept getting spotted getting onto the helicopter because apparently you can't extract with D-Walker. As soon as I got off D-Walker it let me escape.

Not sure what people are talking about when it comes to having to replay whole missions. The checkpoint system is pretty good (or has been for me).

I actually really liked this mission despite receiving a lovely D ranking on it. I got through the power plant section nearly flawlessly, but at the base I messed up real bad and ended up having the place (including the gunship) on full alert several times before managing to hide in a bush, which was when I discovered the whole support strike system. I spend a lot of GMP on bombardment. A lot. I finished the mission with a loss of over 300K GMP.