Nice to see things progressing toward good cutscenes/story content. The game definitely has good content left to offer.
I don't think the unnecessary konami additions are nearly as invasive as people perceive or make them out to be. There are a bunch of "you could give us more money" buttons, but I think all the rewards/daily bonuses really just make things easier, since you have more soldiers/resources available than you would have before. The only thing I find really annoying is the resources that are locked away and only available while you're online.
Super happy to see this series powering on! I know it seems weird and protracted, but I think the story content in Act II will prove super worth it.
info on how to do Act II story progression (blocked just in case you wanted to stay in the dark for some twisted reason):
I can say very confidently that the only thing you need to do to open up main line story progression is play side ops. I don't know if the tapes/any other things will do it too, but having done it by just playing side ops until new yellow main missions pop or a motherbase cut scene happens, I am 99.99% positive it works this way. My suggestion to progress would be that: play side ops -- which are quick -- until new yellow main quests appear. I think it'd be the fastest and surest route for this series!
@quid_pro_bono: Yeah, you really can build out the game to play it how you want -- the tools are available to be a walking tank. Running through most levels with the sneaking suit and mainly the silenced sniper (plus fully upgraded Quiet silenced sniper) made things really fun. I could make quick work of a lot of bases without being seen, but still engaging. Once you use research enough, some missions are too easy.
The blocks of time between play sessions really seem to compound to make things more difficult.
It was a lot more trivial to wreak havoc in this base with a deeply researched sniper for Quiet and myself. I think this was supposed to be a sandbox-y mission where you could use everything at your disposal -- airstrikes, changing load outs, chopper support, etc. It's easy to see why this type of mission would be so hard when you strictly main line the story. You're expected to have (and be using) an armored chopper with missiles, the customized higher tier weapons, maybe the body armor, deploying vehicles. It seems to be scaled for that, at least. As much as you can avoid the "side" content, it's setting yourself up for a hard time. Plus, the base building, research/customization, and side ops are a lot of the meat of MGSV. Hopefully it's still fun to play this way, though. It's hard feeling like theres more fun in there that isn't being tapped. Glad to see things continue to progress!
What a mission... I was real worried when they came in to this without Quiet. I mostly set C4 traps and ran diversion so she could pick them off. It sure took a long time to realize the rules of the fight, though. "Finishing" the Skulls shouldn't feel easy, but this fight didn't mesh with how I was playing everything up to it, and it wasn't super satisfying. Looking back, it seems like the intended method of taking them out is probably to do the CQC counters.
surfincoffin's comments