MGS V: Phantom Pain

[Hero-of-Time]

Worth getting MGS3 for the 3DS then?

 

From what I've heard though, if you can play it somewhere other than 3DS then I would.

 

Pretty much what Happenstance said. While it is playable ( think nando and RedShell played it on the 3DS ) its by far the worst version. Ideally you want to play through the version on the HD collection.

 

Had a cracking mission last night.

 

It was the mission where you had to eliminate the hostages to stop them from talking. Having found the first guy ( I sent him back to base. To hell with orders. ) I went to the mines to nab the rest of them. I was shocked to see that they were kids! I honestly thought that BB had pulled the trigger on them.

 

The next section was amazing. I usually hate escort missions but I really wanted to keep the kids alive and done everything I could to get them to the extraction zone ( GET TO DA CHOPPA ) safely. It was very tense but very satisfying.

 

 

I done a bunch of side missions, as well. The ones where you have to take care of the tank crew have become hilarious now that I can steal tanks. There was one where the guards were all walking in front of the tank, so I snuck up behind the tank and sent it back to base. If the guards had turned around they would have been in for a shock. I was honestly giggling like a school girl, as I set up the fulton system and then shot it off up in the air.

[Happenstance]

I done a bunch of side missions, as well. The ones where you have to take care of the tank crew have become hilarious now that I can steal tanks. There was one where the guards were all walking in front of the tank, so I snuck up behind the tank and sent it back to base. If the guards had turned around they would have been in for a shock. I was honestly giggling like a school girl, as I set up the fulton system and then shot it off up in the air.

 

I was doing a mission last night where one of the side objectives was to rescue a prisoner being transported by jeep. I killed the guys transporting him but instead of taking him out and fultoning him, I thought screw it and fultoned the jeep with him still inside. Pretty sure the prisoner never made it back to mother base lol.

 

Also, turns out that bears dont like it when you sneak up behind them and try to place C4 on them. Who knew?

[Hero-of-Time]

Also, turns out that bears dont like it when you sneak up behind them and try to place C4 on them. Who knew?

 

I had a bear mission the other day. Took all of my tranq bullets to finally bring him down.

 

Just seen that the soundtrack is on iTunes. Snapped up Sins of the Father and Quiets theme. Lovely tracks.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Hero-of-Time

[drahkon]

7 hours of total playtime now.

 

I just spent 1 hour and 20 minutes with that 'Bee mission'. Lots of planning has been made. Lots of plans have been scrapped because of either miserable execution (resulting in my execution ) or miscalculations of enemy placement/movement.

 

Restarted some checkpoints, but my final run was pretty cool. I basically evaded every enemy soldier and found the target without being noticed. : peace:

 

And the shit that went down after I acquired the objective...I was on the edge of my seat

 

 

Halfway through that mission I realized how important equipment drops and supply drops are. Since you can basically carry only one secondary weapon as the second slot is always taken by your prosthetic arm, being able to have a lethal, suppressed pistol sent to you is amazing.

 

 

Phantom Pain is revolutionizing open-ended gameplay for me. The game adapts to you and you have to adapt to the game in an endless cycle it seems. It always seems fresh and new, even though you eventually have all the tools at your disposal.

 

This and The Witcher 3 are new benchmarks for basically any game of the genres they are part of (maybe even for games in any genre).

[Happenstance]

Ok....I think I have actually finished the story this time! It wouldnt be Metal Gear though if I didnt leave confused though.

 

Final time was 47 hours

[Jimbob]

Ok....I think I have actually finished the story this time! It wouldnt be Metal Gear though if I didnt leave confused though.

 

Final time was 47 hours

 

Not bad, that's good value for money.

[Happenstance]

Ok then, some final thoughts:

 

Its an incredible game, but not one without its flaws unfortunately. Those are mainly down to the story and voice acting. I think probably with any other game the story would have been less of an issue but of course, this is Metal Gear and because of that we were expecting a dense story, not one that kind of comes to you in drips throughout a 50 hour game. The voice acting is the worst part for me. Not necessarily the quality of Sutherland's work but just the amount. There are times when he feels like a silent protagonist and it actually takes you out of the moment. One mission in particular has a ridiculously long silence which feels like they wanted a reaction there but couldnt afford it.

 

The missions though were brilliant. I have always been terrible at Metal Gear Solid games, never getting along with the stealth mechanics but this time it was like they finally got everything just right and with it being an open world game, I could plan exactly how I wanted things to go. Multiple times I felt like a complete badass, going through bases completely un-seen or just sitting from a distance and taking someone out with my sniper rifle. I never would have expected at all to get an S rank on a mission before I started, let alone the 5 or 6 I ended up getting.

 

Quiet probably ended up being my favourite character in the game. Once I got over her "costume" (and Kojima claiming we would understand when we heard the reasons was pretty much bullcrap) I found her to be interesting and pretty damn awesome. She was always my buddy of choice.

 

Ok then, so you dont play as the real Big Boss. Some people seem to be going crazy about this on other forums but for the most part, I did see it coming. They did a good job of having things not feel quite right throughout the game and when you first came across the AI pod when you were extracting Huey, she mentions that you arent Big Boss which set off alarm bells in my head.

 

Im not sure if it was necessarily a twist that was needed but I guess they wanted to explain away the death and return of Big Boss in Metal Gears 1+2.

 

Gonna miss Quiet

 

God I hated Huey throughout that entire game and its a shame you couldnt choose to kill him!

 

I was surprised nothing happened with Eli/Liquid Snake after he stole the Metal Gear

 

 

So yeah, great game and I'm sure I'll be sticking with it for a while to finish off all the side missions.

[nekunando]

Worth getting MGS3 for the 3DS then?

 

I played Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D with the original 3DS and the controls were far from ideal. If you have a New 3DS or a Circle Pad Pro, I imagine it will control significantly better and as such would probably recommend it if you're curious about the game or simply want to catch up on the story.

 

Personally, I played it on PS2 in recent years before going through it again on 3DS and it's possibly my least favourite in the series, though I've only played up until the end of Guns of the Patriots so far with Ground Zeroes waiting on my PS3 hard drive.

Edited September 4, 2015 by nekunando

[Jimbob]

Just fully upgraded the Fultron stuff, now can extract just about everything.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just completed the main story.

 

I........errrr........hmmmmmmm

 

EDIT:.................ok maybe not then. Sneaky Kojima!

 

Just reached this....

 

Please don't tell me I have to replay the same missions again but with just different restrictions? Seems very cheap if that's the case.

 

I didn't care for a few of the chapters in the mid 20s. Felt like I was playing Resident Evil or something.

 

How many more missions are there to do before I get the real ending?

 

[Happenstance]

Just reached this....

 

Please don't tell me I have to replay the same missions again but with just different restrictions? Seems very cheap if that's the case.

 

I didn't care for a few of the chapters in the mid 20s. Felt like I was playing Resident Evil or something.

 

How many more missions are there to do before I get the real ending?

 

There are 50 missions overall. During Chapter 2 though you dont have to do all of them. Usually just going off and doing a side mission or something and returning to Mother Base will trigger a new story point so its not that bad. I ended up doing most of the missions before I realised this but there are still 5 or 6 I didnt complete by the time I got the true ending.

 

Also, if you read my thoughts a few posts ago about the game, the moment I was talking about where the lack of VO really stood out was the car ride with Skull Face at the end of Episode 30.

 

[Jimbob]

Just finished Episode 11, and got my first "S" rank on it as well. By doing this

 

 

[drahkon]

Have done another main mission (one of the first, needed to kill three peeps).

 

Managed to extract all three, but the last one died because I forgot that fultoning people while a sandstorm is rampaging isn't the best of ideas

 

10 hours in now. Still can't believe how good this is.

[Hero-of-Time]

Im not a fan of this Resident Evil stuff in my MGS but man that mission was heart breaking. I had a hard time pulling the trigger anyway but when I opened the door and seen the soldiers saluting, as well as the Peace Walker theme playing, I got a little choked up. It took me a while before I actually started shooting. Such a powerful moment. What Boss had to do was tragic.

 

 

 

[Happenstance]

Im not a fan of this Resident Evil stuff in my MGS but man that mission was heart breaking. I had a hard time pulling the trigger anyway but when I opened the door and seen the soldiers saluting, as well as the Peace Walker theme playing, I got a little choked up. It took me a while before I actually started shooting. Such a powerful moment. What Boss had to do was tragic.

 

 

 

Yeah it was really well done, especially when I actually started recognising a few of the soldiers.

 

[drahkon]

Oh man, I just remembered something I didn't share. I'll put it in spoilers just in case, but it's something that happens in the very first mission after the prologue (and in a mission sometime later):

 

Those "Skulls"...fuck me, they are creepy. My heart raced when they first arrived. And the second time was even worse...

 

I dread the next time they'll show up and give me the creeps

 

The first time I tried to sneak past them but missed the moment...I had no option but to try and kill (?) them. I, of course, knew that was probably just wasted ammo but there was no other way...

So I opened fire...and FUCKING HELL BROKE LOOSE. I haven't been this nervous playing a game in a long time...Escaping the mist was exhausting and when I finally lost them I was...happy

The game keeps on giving.

 

I have just finished a side-op: Had to extract a prisoner and decided to go for the good ol' drahkon-uses-a-sniper-rifle-to-exterminate-the-whole-base-approach.

But I forgot that the AI is fucking genius.

 

There I was, laying low, taking aim, shooting a guy on a watchtower. Of course, enemies noticed, they entered the "alert status" and I decided to let things cool down a bit.

What I failed to notice: The enemy had a sniper of their own. While I was scouting the base with my binoculars a laser sight happened to cross my view...and then:

 

	Audio

 

FUCK. I jumped up and relocated while a mortar was destroying my last known position.

The thing was: 6 enemy soldiers spread out, searching outside the base for me. I decided to hide behind some rocks when it hit me: 6 enemy soldiers left the base...I immediately looked for a nice way to the place where I suspected the prisoner and took a run for it.

It worked but halfway through my travel I noticed a couple of guards on patrol inside the base. So I stopped and did a little reconnaissance.

 

Then the lovely Donna Burke told me that a sandstorm was approaching. Perfect.

Waited a couple of minutes and as soon as it hit I made my way to the prisoner. Luckily he was where I suspected him to be. Grabbed him, ran outside to a safe place and fultoned him away.

 

With the sandstorm's cover I made my way outside the base unnoticed and the side-op was a success.

 

:awesome:

[drahkon]

Mission 11 done.

Obvious nod to MGS 3 there. Loved it. Such an intense mission.

 

Now I'm almost 20 hours in and have reached Africa. Done the first mission there...the ways you can approach every tiny bit in the game are incredibly varied. This time, after I've extracted a soldier with a special skill I decided to be Rambo and kill everything

 

A certain side-op just opened up:

 

Need to extract a legendary gunsmith. Maybe he/she will let me do stuff to guns? More durable supressors would be awesome.

 

Edited September 6, 2015 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

And its done!

 

That scene where the guard was killing her was brilliantly brutal. Squashing his nuts to oblivion. Ouch!

 

I got a little choked up when Quiet finally spoke so she could save Boss. I really loved her character and was glad to see her survive the end game.

 

 

HAHA! I KNEW IT! There were so many nods throughout the game that hinted that you weren't Big Boss. It's just a shame you had to play the whole of the first mission again for the full reveal.

 

 

Like you @Happenstance I was gutted that we didn't get to see what Happened with Liquid. I seen Kotaku have posted a video of mission 51 which was cut from the game for unknown reasons. It explains what Eli was up to after he left the MB.

 

 

Amazing game. Simply amazing. The amount of content and game within game stuff that's on the disc is simply insane. The variety of options that present themselves to tackle missions are staggering. Going forward, open world games like Creed, Zelda etc. have a lot to live up to now.

 

A couple of small negatives were that I didn't like the STARRING that kept popping up a the start of a mission. It gave away who was going to show up and spoilt the surprise.

 

Storywise I think it's the weakest of the main series games. The cutscenes are few and far between, but, at the same time, I think most of them do have a lot of weight and impact behind them.

 

While I didn't mind the way you have to unlock the final missions, I think a lot of people won't be happy with the grind. It was something that they introduced in Peace Walker and it has carried on over to this game.

 

One thing I love about this game is how it is a big middle finger to all those people who complained about Kojima and his team creating story heavy games.

 

 

Over the years many have called him out for not being able to create a 'proper' game. With this he has shown that he is more than capable of creating a game that puts gameplay first. Brilliant.

Edited September 6, 2015 by Hero-of-Time

[Happenstance]

And its done!

 

That scene where the guard was killing her was brilliantly brutal. Squashing his nuts to oblivion. Ouch!

 

I got a little choked up when Quiet finally spoke so she could save Boss. I really loved her character and was glad to see her survive the end game.

 

Didnt you find it weird though that there were no consequences to her talking? I mean Big Boss's Phantom (:P, nice to be able to talk to someone else about that now other than the people moaning on Neogaf) should have been infected or Quiet should have been dying. But there was just nothing.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Didnt you find it weird though that there were no consequences to her talking? I mean Big Boss's Phantom (:P, nice to be able to talk to someone else about that now other than the people moaning on Neogaf) should have been infected or Quiet should have been dying. But there was just nothing.

 

Yeah, as she kept calling the co-ordinates out I thought she would have started to die or something. I imagine she is alive thanks to nanomachines or something.

 

Are there any theories kicking about as to why nothing happened?

 

[Happenstance]

Yeah, as she kept calling the co-ordinates out I thought she would have started to die or something. I imagine she is alive thanks to nanomachines or something.

 

Are there any theories kicking about as to why nothing happened?

 

Nope I've not seen any theories for that. Most people are just blaming Kojima/Konami for basically rushing the whole of Chapter 2 and cutting too much content. I still think its a brilliant game but I cant help but agree with them that the second chapter just doesnt feel right. I mean the true ending has absolutely no build up and comes out of nowhere.

 

[RedShell]

Wow, so I'm not even halfway through the game yet!

Did mission 18 last night...

 

That was some seriously intense stuff throwing those kids into the mix.

I can't even look after myself on the battlefield! Needless to say I failed multiple times, this has happened on a number of missions now actually and the game has started offering me the Chicken Hat a lot.

 

I stubbornly refuse to use it each time though, really hope I can get through the entire game without needing to use that.

Actually, despite still being a bit clumsy I do feel like I've also improved at the stealth thing quite a lot. It's really starting to click now, and I'm much more aware of the distances and how much I can get away with around enemy soldiers.

 

Have also maxed the bond with all buddies.

Definitely think D.D. is the most useful though. His ability to mark items/animals/enemies etc... is so handy. :awesome:

Quiet is awesome as well, and obviously very nice to look at but she can be a bit annoying at times. Like once when I was about to grab a soldier, but accidentally triggered Reflex Mode. Managed to get to him in time, but she shot him anyway (when he was already in my grip) alerting everyone else in the process. He had really good stats too, so I wanted him alive.

 

BTW, even though the music tapes included in the game are so rad (gotta love those 80's tunes ) I still had to chuck in a few MP3s for even more awesomeness, some of my helicopter/battle music of choice:

 

 

 

 

 

The Predator theme is particularly awesome during missions in the jungle area on the Africa map. And for when you just really need to GET TO DA CHOPPA!!

[Happenstance]

Quiet is awesome as well, and obviously very nice to look at but she can be a bit annoying at times. Like once when I was about to grab a soldier, but accidentally triggered Reflex Mode. Managed to get to him in time, but she shot him anyway (when he was already in my grip) alerting everyone else in the process. He had really good stats too, so I wanted him alive.

 

That happened to me a few times as well. Got a bit better when I upgraded her sniper rifle to one with a silencer so she at least stopped alerting everyone. Quiet was my favourite buddy. She basically had D Dog's tagging but was much more helpful when you got spotted. Ended up taking a lot of the heat off me in certain missions.

[drahkon]

Done the side-op missions that I mentioned in my last post.

 

I now have a silenced tranq-sniper rifle. My life is complete.

 

Need to complete - or rather start - mission 10. Have been absorbed in base management, side-ops, dispatch missions, gathering material, completing missions 11-13, looking at Quiet's boobs, developing gear, listening to tapes (they are awesome, Sutherland - and all the other voice actors - really shine during those dialogues/monologues), extracting soldiers, capturing animals, ...

 

Oh my...so much to do and it hasn't been boring once in the 21 hours so far.

[Babooo]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who is completely absorbed in this amazing game. All I think about nowadays is when I can game next. It's like a drug - when I play other games I get bored after half an hour or so. With this, I just keep going and going. Even ended up playing it until 2AM on a work night. I'm sad that I'm out this coming up weekend so won't be able to play!

 

And blimey this is how all big releases should be launched - haven't come across any bugs (yet), barely any slow down at all and overall really smooth performance. Other studios need to sit up, take notice and get in the habit of making great games run buttery smooth like this.

 

*Bows down to Kojima*