Metal Gear Solid. The Phantom pain.

[FoxEye]

In certain respects it is repetitive, but if you've only played the first 10 missions you won't have seen much of the weirder and quirker side of the game.

But those first 10 missions can be 20 hours of gameplay, if you're trying to be stealthy.

And during that time I've seen 1x 60 second cut-scene (after Honey Bee).

Also there has been no character interaction to speak of. Miller only talks to me via cassettes or mission briefing audio. Big Boss doesn't speak at all, barely.

In MGS3 I'd have had at least 2 hours of cut-scenes and story development by now

I'm sorry but V is pretty much all gameplay, and the story is (almost) AWOL. And that really serves to highlight the repetitive nature of the game.

Lots of consecutive missions taking place in the same building/area. You go in, extract someone, then go back in, extract someone else, ad infinitum.

I'm not saying it's a bad game from a gameplay standpoint. But it's hardly an MGS game. It could be a totally different franchise.

 

[Borsch]

There are 4 and a quarter hours (!) of cutscenes in the game, many are incredibly well choreographed and shot (Quiet vs the Harrier jet, first metal gear Rex etc), so I wouldn't complain
Old MGS's could get unbearable with all the cutscenes and codec convos, especially on a second playthrough. Not to say that there were no incredibly well choreographed cool cutscenes there of course - there were many of course. But, MGS5 is no worse in cutscenes, and much better in gameplay imo.

All MGS5 cutscenes (spoiler alert of course)

 

[Random Guy]

Must say after 10+ missions I've lost the desire to carry on playing.

This is how it went for me:

Up to Mission 5 - amazing!
Up to Mission 12 - losing desire to play and getting very bored. Near to un-installing it
Up to Mission 21 - as more unlocks and options come into play, stuck with it somehow. Not convinced it is not a grind
Up to Mission 31 - Game speeds up drastically and culminates in end of Chapter 1. 60 hours playtime and I have to say that I have never played an open-world sandbox game quite as good as this one. Attention to detail in gameplay is stupendous. Story is not very Metal Gear, but just Metal Gear enough to keep me there (trust me, some very nice moments for long-time fans of the series await, imo).

This is the kind of game where just one tweak in your overall strategy (weapons, using the ground roll move, going in all-guns blazing, knifing every last guard) when playing a mission yields amazingly different results. Approaching with the cookie-cutter mentality that most open-world games provides leads to unlimited boredom. The freedom on offer here is stupendous. Having said that, I have not started Chapter 2 for a few weeks now, as I was feeling a bit over-saturated.

Edit: Just to update on this one - actually decided to uninstall after playing the first mission on Ch 2. Can't be bothered grinding out side missions for unlocking the remainder of the story missions - actually think it is unreasonable to structure the second part of the game in such a way. Don't get me wrong - its a great game but I feel like I have got my money's worth and if I ever feel like coming back to it I can always do so. For now, time to move on to more worthy titles which are unplayed on my backlog.

 

[UberGinge]

How's the multiplayer on the PC holding up? I haven't had a chance to give it a go yet so I have no idea if it's any good.

 

[FoxEye]

Totally stuck on Mission 17. The first mission with a timer that fails the mission if it runs out. I just can't rescue the guys in time, before they get executed.

Due to the number of enemies in later missions, I can no longer shoot my way out of trouble; I just get my ass handed to me in a firefight. So I only ever beat missions by moving really slowly and cautiously everywhere. Get spotted and I just restart; it's quicker

So I'm doing OK with this slow, crawling everywhere stealth approach, and now Mission 17 wants me to rescue two guys within about 8 mins. And stealth past 20 guards to do it.

There is just no way in hell it's possible for me and my playstyle. I think that's going to be as far as I can get in this game. There's no way to skip the mission, or turn the difficulty down.

****ing timed missions suck, in all games.

Edit: Just to update on this one - actually decided to uninstall after playing the first mission on Ch 2. Can't be bothered grinding out side missions for unlocking the remainder of the story missions - actually think it is unreasonable to structure the second part of the game in such a way. Don't get me wrong - its a great game but I feel like I have got my money's worth and if I ever feel like coming back to it I can always do so. For now, time to move on to more worthy titles which are unplayed on my backlog.

Think I'm with you there. After 80 hours I'm still only on Mission 17, but I've done all the side missions along the way. But it really is a grind, that's very true.

 

[FoxEye]

Tried Mission 17 again. No joy. There is just no way I can make my way through the entire base before the hostages are executed. You get something like 5 minutes to rescue the first one and then 3 minutes to haul ass to the second one, evading 15-20 guards at the same time.

There were no timed missions in other MGS games

But then this one is absolutely nothing like the other MGS games at all.

 

[rubberduck]

Why not look for a youtube walkthrough or such like of the mission you are stuck on?

 

[UberGinge]

There were no timed missions in other MGS games

I can think of a couple of "race against the clock" type missions in other MGS games.

Final fight in Metal Gear Solid. Defusing the bomb in strut A in MGS2. First fight against Volgin in MGS3.

 

[jakspyder]

With MGS5 you need to strike a ballance. For a timed mission like this with lots of baddies going full aggressive isnt an option and full stealth isnt either. You must be quite familiar with the baddies now, so try and focus on which handful you can eliminate to open up a corridor and snipe them out. You often can make yourself a path just by killing 2-3 key guards. Move quickly cover to cover.

I don't remember mission 17 specifically, id have to look it up, but consider trying vehicles to move around quickly.

 

[iamtheoneneo]

Tried Mission 17 again. No joy. There is just no way I can make my way through the entire base before the hostages are executed. You get something like 5 minutes to rescue the first one and then 3 minutes to haul ass to the second one, evading 15-20 guards at the same time.

There were no timed missions in other MGS games

But then this one is absolutely nothing like the other MGS games at all.

You need to get into fire fights on this mission, its just too much to deal with to attempt to sneak all the time if your not 100% on point. Equip assault rifle, launcher and go ham.

Its actually still tough, because their are a lot of enemies but yeh I found it impossible to not get into gun battles on this mission.

Edit: Just to update on this one - actually decided to uninstall after playing the first mission on Ch 2. Can't be bothered grinding out side missions for unlocking the remainder of the story missions - actually think it is unreasonable to structure the second part of the game in such a way. Don't get me wrong - its a great game but I feel like I have got my money's worth and if I ever feel like coming back to it I can always do so. For now, time to move on to more worthy titles which are unplayed on my backlog.

Have to say that Chapter 2 was some of the most fun I had with the game, Yes some are repeat missions but subsistance missions force you to play the game differently, and extreme ones are great with all the new gear you have available.

 

[FoxEye]

Why not look for a youtube walkthrough or such like of the mission you are stuck on?

I've found they're mostly useless.

Either they are about how to "S" rank the mission in full end-game gear (silencers that never run out, silenced sniper rifles, wormhole fultons, etc).

Or they abuse the hell out of reflex mode.

Reflex mode is the single worst addition to an MGS game, ever. It's broken as hell. You can run around a base, getting seen by everyone, enter reflex mode and shoot them in the face, and remain "stealthy". It's laughable.

Here's an example of reflex mode being rubbish:

It's fair to say that if I turned godmode reflex mode on I'd be playing a different game.

 

[UberGinge]

Speed and aggression got it done for me early on. I didn't spend too much time sneaking around early game, I waited until later on when you have some of the later unlocks to do the full stealth S rank runs.

 

[FoxEye]

Going in all guns blazing doesn't feel right in an MGS game... but you're probably right in that that is how it's supposed to be done now.

Slow and silent is just not possible in these missions with super strict timed objectives.

 

[VincentHanna]

There's no real achievement for total stealth, so why constrict yourself by turning Reflex mode off?

I played with it on, but it didn't activate that often I as I was pretty careful anyway.

Suffice to say I think I did S-rank most missions.

 

[FoxEye]

There's no real achievement for total stealth, so why constrict yourself by turning Reflex mode off?

I played with it on, but it didn't activate that often I as I was pretty careful anyway.

Suffice to say I think I did S-rank most missions.

The thing is, with reflex mode on you can never lose. It literally is an "I win" button. As long as you deal with the people who spot you (very, very easy with slo-mo headshots), you stay "concealed" afterwards, and there is no limit to the number of times you can use reflex mode.

If I turned it on, with my current stealthy playstyle I would simply faceroll the game. It's the most over-powered safety net I've ever seen in a game.

Did you watch the vids I linked above? With reflex the game is trivial.

 

[UberGinge]

The thing is, with reflex mode on you can never lose. It literally is an "I win" button. As long as you deal with the people who spot you (very, very easy with slo-mo headshots), you stay "concealed" afterwards, and there is no limit to the number of times you can use reflex mode.

If I turned it on, with my current stealthy playstyle I would simply faceroll the game. It's the most over-powered safety net I've ever seen in a game.

Did you watch the vids I linked above? With reflex the game is trivial.

I forgot to turn it off, but I think there was only 3 instances were it kicked in for me. All 3 of those instances were around the snipers that tend to show up if you start sniping the enemy yourself.

 

[SonniLombardi]

I'm at mission 22 now where you get your motherbase attacked and the first FOB missions etc.. I picked it up again a few days ago, but I really can not sustain playing it for long, it's just so repetitive now! I wish it wasn't.

It's definitely not like any of the olders Metal gears which is so unfortunate

 

[FoxEye]

I forgot to turn it off, but I think there was only 3 instances were it kicked in for me. All 3 of those instances were around the snipers that tend to show up if you start sniping the enemy yourself.

You were only spotted 3 times in the whole game? And only by snipers?

You must be Big Boss himself. That is nothing less than incredible.

 

[FoxEye]

Finally finished this, minus Quiet's ending and some other bits and bobs. But have completed Mission 46, "The Truth".

Safe to say I must have enjoyed something about it, or I wouldn't have put in 100+ hours. But there was also a huge amount of frustration, annoyance, and more grinding than your average MMO

The game does waste the player's time in many different ways, and I hate it for that. Making you return to the same location to do very slightly different versions of the same mission, four, five or six times to the same location.

The story is very thin on the ground and utterly unsatisfying, and I hate it for that. Most of the story was contained in the trailers, meaning we'd already seen most of the story cut-scenes before we'd even started After watching many hours of cut-scenes in MGS3 and 4, and loving (mostly) every minute of them, this was a huge let-down.

The 2nd chapter is a complete mess, and the whole thing seems like it was hastily finished for a release deadline. It's jarring to be expected to replay old missions, and I'm sure this wouldn't have been a thing if Kojima had had more time. It smacks of last-minute desperation.

I'm not at all bothered by the twist ending. For some reason I didn't see it coming, despite how clearly the game signalled it with hindsight. And I'm not bothered that it doesn't bridge the gap between MGS3 and MGS1. What /does/ bother me is that as a self-contained story it is sorely lacking. The new characters are very weak. Visually interesting - yes, but beyond that they are lifeless. The Skulls are the least exciting enemy of the series, being essentially zombies. Skullface himself is barely fleshed out before he leaves; same with Eli. The way it ends - the final mission - is a massive anti-climax. I can't think of a worse final mission, tbh.

So now I'm just left asking myself why I didn't quit after the first 40 hours. I should have. I kept willing the game to turn into a Metal Gear game, but it never does. As someone else said, "MGS5 is the best Far Cry game yet." But it's overly-long, repetitive, frustrating, boring, bland and disastrous at the same time.

I want those 150 hours back

 

[Epoch]

Foxeye, did you look up the cut final mission on youtube? It explains a little more and shouldn't have been cut (or rather they should have let the team finish the game instead of rushing a release).