Topic: Metal Gear Solid V OT

@Kidfried Once the credits have run their course it will all become clear.

@kyleforrester87 Keither Sutherland was going to put in a good performance as Big Boss.

Yeah thats a thing.

But you havent finished the game.

So errr I cant spoil it for you.

@themcnoisy I've always been keen to find out what happens at the end, I'll probably give it a watch on you tube soon.

@Kidfried There are literal exact repeat missions in the game 2nd chapter that are just “Extreme” or “Substinence” or “Stealth” versions of the original mission - the only variance being increased difficulty. However, some of the missions are unique, and I can’t remember if the Extreme missions are required to get to Ch 46. I played every single mission, 1-50. So I can’t remember which were skippable to still make it to the true ending.

@Th3solution they are not mandatory. You only need to run the fresh missions.

Im gonna check if my save file is still on the cloud. I may have to rerun the whole game early next year.

@themcnoisy Yeah, I think I purposefully played all missions before doing the true ending one just so it would feel like closure at the end. I’m not usually one to play a lot of post game stuff after there is a conclusive final ending, so I got them all done first, as I recall.

FINISHED IT! Chapter 2 was a bit of an unnecessary grind in some places, but it was well worth it. As unfinished, sometimes incoherent and weird it is... it is an excellent part of the game.

Chapter 2 really did a few important things: adding much needed story, fleshing out Quiet, explaining a lot of lore, redeeming Venom Snake.

Thanks for all the advice on here, by the way. Really helped me get more enjoyment out of this game.

@Kidfried Awesome! Congratulations! So regarding the true ending, what did you think?
I’m having trouble getting the spoiler tags to work, which is weird. So I’ll just be vague ... did you see it coming, the true ending? Did you feel closure? Did you like how it relates and links into the Metal Gear Universe?

I was so amazed by this game, and the ending. I thought that MGSV would just fill the gap year and the inevitable transition of Big Boss into who he is at the start of the first Metal Gear. Thankfully there was a lot more to this game.

I have to admit, though, that the end didn't take me by surprise completely. Due to a lack o a spoiler-tag I put my full of spoilers impressions on pastebin: https://pastebin.com/ryFgdaJT

@kyleforrester87 I think you, as a longtime MG fan, might really appreciate the second chapter too. It's full of great tidbits for fans of the franchise.

What did you all think about the base building stuff? I've never been a fan of it. It just felt like such a grind in this one.

@Kidfried I agree with your assessment, although unlike you I didn’t see the end coming at all. But yes, all the deeper meaning stuff you mention was all very well appreciated by me as well.
As far as base building, I could see people thinking it’s kind of a grind, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless. It added a different dimension to the gameplay. Filling up the base with my soldiers was fun to me.
My biggest complaint, which I think I’ve mentioned, is the long loading screens when moving from area to area, even within Mother Base from one end to the other, with the helicopter rides. That got old quick.

@Th3solution I played it on the PS4 Pro and loading screens didn't bother me too much, they were rather quick. But yes, waiting for the helicopter to arrive, pick you up, go to the ACC, drop you off a few miles north, was cumbersome.

More annoying to me was the long intro to missions. I'm someone who often will replay a mission if things don't work out the way I want them. But man, having to watch the mission credits all over again was just dumb.

Filling up the base sure was fun in a way, but... I didn't like visiting the base itself. I would want to look at my caught animals after every mission, if the base was actually any fun to navigate. Other thing I disliked was that later on the grind gets really tedious. At which point you find out why: you can spend real world money to speed up the process. Come on...

(I can talk on and on about MGS all day by the way)

@Kidfried Ha, ha! Yes, I’m with you, man. All valid points.
Even as long as it’s been since I played it after launch, I enjoy talking about the experience too. Not a perfect game, but a really good one. One of my favorites this gen.

@Kidfried great stuff and well done. The microbs werent properley realised when i played mgs pp, there wasnt an option to double down on exp or resources etc. The multiplayer was only just out i think by the time I was on my way to finishing the game.

It's a great game and im glad you and @Th3solution have commented alot of sense. I think we all admit the story is choppy at times and the game needs some serious fat trimming from its bloated obese carcass, yet taken with all its faults its one of a handful of games which has been truly next gen. Horizon is the only other open world game on ps4 in the same league for me.

For kojimas next game if it follows a similar template I want less unclimable mountains, stupidly long on foot journeys and less management sim.

I also love the fact the game is about language and the fact snake rarely talks. It all makes sense in the end.

@themcnoisy I fully agree on the game being one of the few real "next gen" games. The reinforcements are a great example. All reinforcements are actual soldiers from other bases, instead of newly spawned NPC's. And the changing of the guards at nighttime blew my mind too. Such a great experience.

@KratosMD I would 100% play mgs 3. Its ace. The story line is great, the cast are great, 2 bosses are best in class (the end and the sorrow) Ive also noticed loads of easter eggs that are not listed anywhere online. Certain scenarios and mission points mirror locations looks from mgs 3.

However I really struggled to enjoy it on vita, the missing triggers really make the game hard work.

If you stick with it for long you could probably work it out especially as you wouldnt know the difference.

@KratosMD You may have seen this online but thought I’d share just in case —

The order of the Metal Gear Solid Series timeline is as follows:

1964: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
1970: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
1974: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
1975: Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes
1984: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
1995: Metal Gear
1999: Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
2005: Metal Gear Solid
2007 - 2009: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
2014: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
2016 - 2018: Metal Gear Rising: Revengance

Personally, I had played MGS4 and Peace Walker prior to MGSV (never played Rising), but I don’t think it’s essential. Peace Walker does relate directly, both story-wise and gameplay wise. Peace Walker is a good game, better than Portable Ops imo. But honestly, it had been long enough since I played PW that I didn’t really remember much of the story when I played GZ and it quickly brought up incidents and characters from PW which reminded me sort of, but the MG stories are so confusing anyways, but yes, PW’s story is pretty important. So I guess my answer is don’t worry about MGS4 for now (I would recommend to play it later though), and play PW before 5 if it interests you or if you have it in your backlog. If you aren’t interested (ie plan to never play PW) then read a summary of the story online then play GZ, followed by TPP. As you probably know, GZ is essential to TPP, so don’t skip it.

@KratosMD - I just read @themcnoisy response and I didn’t realize you havent finished 3 yet either. Definitely 3 is worth a play, mostly because it is probably the best Metal Gear game.

@KratosMD Although PW is a huge upgrade from PO, it does have some of that repetitive nature to the missions, with small limited stages and restricted exploration, if I recall correctly. It incorporates other more fun mechanics from other MG games and is much deeper than PO , but I feel like you wouldn’t care for the game nearly enough to warrant the 30 or so hours it might take to plow through just to get the story. And fultoning / recruiting soldiers is a big part of its gameplay, and also a large part of TPP as well, but it is much more fun in the larger open world setting of TPP.
I forgot about the ‘backstory’ option in GZ. Given Peace Walker’s poor sales, I assume that the vast majority of people that played MGSV didn’t play PW, I think you’d be fine just using the backstory mode to learn about how Snake starts off in the position he’s in, who Paz and Chico are, etc. MGSV is the much, much better game, so I’d advise to skip PW, in my opinion. When you finish MGS V, I would recommend to go on to play MGS 4 at some point, but just be ready for a lot more cutscenes. It wraps up the story and the game plays very well in the parts where you actually get to “play” rather than watch

@KratosMD Well, I think it is just the limitations of the PSP that those games were developed for. In MGSV you really see more of the full vision of what the gameplay was intended to be. The open world is much funner to muck around in, and building Mother Base I found to be a nice distraction as well. Despite TPP’s open world, the missions are more limited, but the way they can be approached is quite varied.
Also, GZ is very, very small compared to TPP, so don’t fret if you don’t enjoy it. The gameplay is a lot more limited too, but it’s not that long of a game and so even if it doesn’t seem fun, finish it out to its climactic conclusion before moving on to TPP. You won’t regret it.

Well I may be in the minority but I liked both PO and PW. I played them on their release dates on PSP though and I understand that they may not have aged well. Anyway both are Vita compatible and look good on its screen. For PW there is an HD version on PS3 also.

I liked the story and characters in both games. I also loved the way the cutscenes are presented! PO and PW suffer from this recruit thing but this is present in TPP as well. I don't particularly recommend PO and PW as "requirements" for GZ and TPP, just watch the cutscenes online.