My initial thoughts on starting MGS V two and a half years late

Hey everyone,

So I started playing Metal Gear Solid V for the first time two weeks ago, and considering it was considered such an incredible release in 2015 I thought it would be interesting to share my initial thoughts through the lens of gamer in 2018.

Note: My background with MGS is through watching all of Metal Gear Scanlon except MGS V. I was too young to play MGS 1 back when I had a PS1 and didn't own a PS2 or 3 to play the other games. I am currently on mission 25 and have played for approximately 30 hours.

So first off my thoughts on the story. This is probably the most negative aspect of the game for me (don't worry, it get's much more positive after this). It seems to be purely made up of references to the greater MGS, but still doesn't feel like its going anywhere. Many of the main "story" missions feel completely inconsequential. Most of the time, each mission story can be summed up as, someone mysterious hired us, followed by a minute of exposition after the mission saying, "Hey this is totally connected to XOF!". The story of MGS is what really had me hooked going through Metal Gear Scanlon, so for me this is a let down. This is made worse by the fact that the side missions have virtually no story whatsoever connected to them. They are just there as a way to make money. If this were released in 2018 I feel like this would be considered a major knock against the game considering how far open world games like The Witcher 3 and AC: Origins have come in making those side quests engaging through the telling of intriguing side stories. Another issue is the game seems to have a few things I consider to be problematic, but I won't get into too much detail. The depiction of Quiet makes me a bit uncomfortable, especially considering I remember that Kojima really tried to justify it before the games release. I would have had much less of an with it issue if he would've been more honest like Yoko Taro regarding the 2B in Neir. My other issue is the game's use of child soldiers is a bit flippant. The opening credits of the missions including them saying "featuring child soldiers" seems to be underplaying the tragedy of a real world problem. Overall, the story is a big letdown for me.

Now for gameplay. Despite my hangups with the story, I am totally hooked. Everything about the gameplay and mechanics feels polished and tight, from the shooting to the stealth. In particular, I really love the punishing nature of the stealth system because it actually makes sense! In so many games with stealth, the detection distance for enemies is hilariously short. I don't know about you, but I can totally see a person crouching 100 yards away, yet so many enemies in games couldn't see a guy doing jumping jacks at that distance. Being so used to bad stealth in video games actually made the fact that the enemies have more realistic vision cones way more challenging at first, but so much more satisfying once I mastered it. The stealth also still retains that wacky Kojima charm with the ridiculous boxes. I also find the mechanics of the story missions to be interesting and varied. The highlight for me so far is the first mission in Africa where you must blow up an oil tank and disable a system inside a heavily guarded refinery. I retried the mission over and over because I loved the design of the facility with so many ways to approach the targets. I did this until I received an S rank, perfect stealth, and it was really one of the most satisfying things I've done in a game this year. The open world itself is good, but not amazing. Each of the main bases in Afghanistan and Angola-Zaire has great design, but they are very far apart with little in between except very simple outposts. At first, I was diligent in capturing each outpost, but I'm now totally bored of it. The side-ops also leave something to be desired. They feel like busy work now considering their repetitiveness. I really haven't gotten into the online features of the game and really don't plan on it. This far from release I've definitely missed the boat on FOB fighting, however the online features have a weird effect on the games reward curve. Immediately upon starting the game, I was given tons of S rank soldiers and money, I'm guessing this has something to do with old online things, but I don't know. Because of this, I was able to unlock a huge amount of weapons immediately which probably broke the games award curve.

One final note, wow is this game beautiful. I'm playing on a PS4 and I truly find this game jaw dropping and have no idea how they manage 60 fps. This game would still look incredible if it came out in 2018.

While I might have seemed a bit negative on MGS V, I am overall having a great time. The incredible mechanics and level design are making up for the lackluster story. The game definitely is also showing its age with the repetitive and inconsequential side ops. Despite that, the gameplay will definitely have me playing this game to the end and I am looking forward to finishing it.

Glad you enjoy it. I go back every once in a while.

I played through the game at launch and still own a physical copy. I have been thinking about going through it again when I have a lull in games.

I would agree with your assessment of the game. The story is kind of a let-down, but the gameplay and setting are fantastic.

I still have a copy of this laying around and I have a good question - how much does the online bullshit affect the single player? If I stop playing for a month and come back, am I going to find that I'm short on some necessary reaource that I had plenty of before?

Nah, it never gave me problems.

I've been tempted to restart this but man do I ever not want to go through that opening hospital sequence again. I wish there was a way to just skip that whole thing.

V has come two years late.

MGSV is some really fun gameplay and top notch systems put together with some real vision. Sucks about the story, especially since you can see what could have been. Overall, it’s still one of the best games of the last decade, despite its incomplete nature.

@justin258: I didn't have to engage with the multiplayer at all so I wouldn't worry about it. If anything, the current online breaks the curve of acquiring in game equipment because it rains money on you. That didn't bother me though.

@rorie: Literally restarted the game three days ago after seeing some Scanlon V on GBi, and stopped about 10 minutes in because of that damn un-skip-able hospital

@cornfed40: It's not great! I can probably slog through it while watching TV or something but it's damn long.

@rorie: The best part is the whole payoff for the 90+ hour game is getting to do it again!! :)

Your initial impressions are probably how you will feel when you finish it - some of the best gameplay systems ever, mixed in with one of the most inconsequential stories. Great game, but holy shit is the story terrible.

I fired it up a few weeks ago, and like OP I was awarded a TON of S rank soldiers at my FOB. However, when I went to call in a helicopter extraction I noticed it would cost $60k of the $300k I had available. So something clearly happened to my money, which I'm almost certain I had WAY more of after finishing the game. I originally played with offline mode on, but I think firing it up two years and several patches later resulted in all the FOB stuff that took place when I was offline to vomit into my game and essentially ruin my bank balance in my save file. Sadly that was enough to get me to turn it off after an hour or so.

Awwwww, stop slagging on the opening, um, experience. Sure, it's long and unskippable and ultimately teases a story that never goes very far, but that shit was the most MGS thing about that game and really, really interesting and keep-you-on-your-toes weird the first time around. With a long enough break I'd surely play it again; I played it for a girl I was dating two summers ago and she was transfixed in a way she'd never have been by the actual game, because she loves long takes and David Lynch and doesn't play video games so she was pretty shocked by everything that sequence was doing.

Something that I've always loved about MGS was its story/characters, and its settings. I mean, Shadow Moses is one of my favorite video game locations period. MGS5 in those respects disappointed. Though I think the game plays really well, it at least to me didn't escape the possibility of repetitiveness. While you can do things differently, to me it's about whether you have to, and rarely did you so the compliment to the game over being able to do anything you want never came to full fruition to me. The end story wise is interesting but feels inconsequential and unnecessary. Also, I liked the beginning of the game and I was disappointed it didn't have more aspects like that in the story. MGS5 I can't say is the best playing MGS to me (let alone best MGS, which it definitely isn't). It's certainly the most modern feeling and has the most time spent playing out of any of them, but I did appreciate the previous ones for what they were, and like all other MGS', five takes out aspects from previous ones while also improving on others. Something I think five could have kept from four is being able to go prone and aim over a ledge.

MGSV is a great story if there were another Metal Gear Solid game to follow in its footsteps. As it stands, MGSV is a fantastic demo for what could have been the backbone of a very interesting, Kojima-ass MGS story that was held back by both Konami's meddling and Kojima's inability to stick to the script and budget.

I actually found MGSV to be very replayable compared to the other MG's. It's absolute focus on gameplay and systems, and putting the story on the backburner, I actually really liked. It's the least Metal Gear of the Metal Gear games, yet it's probably the one I will go back to the most. In my opinion, it's the greatest open world stealth game ever made, and it would be a tall order to top it.

I don't think this team would have been able to do anything bigger or better for child soldiers. They're a big part of the Metal Gear story, so I'm glad they were included in an important way.

It's nice to hear someone is still having a good time with MGSV nearly three years on, there's often so much negative buzz surrounding the game that I question if I'm crazy for loving it as much as I do. I still have my own share of hang-ups (not even related to the story) but overall there's so much to love about The Phantom Pain that I just don't get how anyone could dislike it outright.

Don't write the FOB mode off completely, since Mother Base is actually the not so secret third map of the game, and it's just as well designed as any of the outposts. In fact, I'd liken it to Camp Omega more than anything since it's a lot more closed-in. The good news is you don't have to invade other players, instead every week there's a new event FOB you can take part in against non-player soldiers, which is honestly way more fun than PVP anyway, and you can also unlock new camos, base colors and emblems through it. It's kind of odd how tucked away it is in the FOB menu, I wouldn't be surprised if some people aren't even aware of it. They even patched in the ability to play as Ocelot if that's your thing.

It's a damn shame that the FOX Engine will probably die off after Survive because it is a damn great engine. This is also one of those games that I really wish had save slots, making a backup on the PC isn't difficult but it is a bit annoying. Glad that other people are still enjoy it, I still think about it fairly often.

As a side note, I really wish they would rerelease 4.