Support NeoGAF

[Dremark]

Maybe from 1 to 2 (though he didn't seem like the type to be devious in 1), but from 2 to 4? That was a bit of an about-face, if you ask me.

I say this even though Old Snake is clearly Best Snake

Spoiler

in worst Metal Gear

Well to be fair it's been quite a while since I played through 4 but my take on it was that his characterization was changed within a reasonable degree considering the circumstances.

Aside from the different outlook, Snake was finally put into the role of the guy who knows stuff rather than the clueless guy who gets explained everything to him because he's the player character (They do revert that in 4 and that was kind of terrible tbh) but I didn't think he was out of Charon messing with Raiden a bit. I know everyone in MGS2 is supposed to lie to Jack, but I don't actually recall Snake doing it, perhaps I'm forgetting something and knowing you I wouldn't be surprised if you refreshed my memory if I'm wrong.

Personally I like Solid 2 Snake the most.

Spoiler

I liked the game the most too.

 

[valkyre]

Having to replay earlier missions with different constraints just to advance really rubbed me the wrong way.

This is simply not true. You dont have to replay earlier (remixed) versions of missions to advance the storyline. You can finish the game get the true ending and touch nothing but only the essential (yellow) missions. No side ops no remixes nothing of that is required to finish the entirety of the campaign.

 

[horkrux]

Maybe they shouldn't have splitted the game in chapters tbh,put all the missions in the same bag and present the game as whole..it could've lessen the impact and/or make the huge nosedive in quality less noticeable.
Add a hard,extreme,etc mode for every mission(like in GZ) instead of using old missions with a new difficulty and pretend they're new ones.

I firmly believe the mission structure of the game to be a rush job, including the lack of diversity in the Side Ops. I'm sure this isn't how the game was planned to be anyway. No one could look at this and say 'that's fine', not even Kojima.

 

[Splash Wave]

Is there a semi-efficient way to get the Platinum Trophy in this game? I've been toying with the idea of going back to it, but I've only ever heard that getting every trophy is an absurd time sink.

 

[Dremark]

I firmly believe the mission structure of the game to be a rush job, including the lack of diversity in the Side Ops. I'm sure this isn't how the game was planned to be anyway. No one could look at this and say 'that's fine', not even Kojima.

It's set up pretty similarly to Peace Walker tbh. The side ops were side things to find, I think if they were called something else and just had a checklist for completionists I doubt people would complain about them.

Prior to launch, Kojima did explain that its not a 'true' open world game.

Did he explain what he even meant by that?

 

[Dremark]

Is there a semi-efficient way to get the Platinum Trophy in this game? I've been toying with the idea of going back to it, but I've only ever heard that getting every trophy is an absurd time sink.

I'm under the impression it would take ages. Maybe go look at a trophy roadmap off one of those sites and see if there's an efficient way to go about it.

 

[lawnchair]

loved 1-4 so much.

was shocked to find that 5 was better than any of them. that game was a miracle.

at some point i realized that i was putting 120+ hours into a metal gear game and loving it .. brings a tear to my eye right now just thinking about it

 

[Toa TAK]

Revisiting it, I feel like the gameplay is the best it's ever been. The depth is there and it sits alongside Chaos Theroy as the best stealth games in the genre.

It's just married to such an awful story it's hard to divorce the two because one element is fantastic and the other wasn't as good as it could've been.

 

[keltickennedy]

Revisiting it, I feel like the gameplay is the best it's ever been. The depth is there and it sits alongside Chaos Theroy as the best stealth games in the genre.

It's just married to such an awful story it's hard to divorce the two because one element is fantastic and the other wasn't as good as it could've been.

Agreed. Though I would a loved a handful a big interiors to sneak through.

I do really like the "naked missions" where you start with nothing and have to get weapons and items from enemies and pickups.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Infinite Heaven now allows for character select in-game (in the field).

 

[horkrux]

It's set up pretty similarly to Peace Walker tbh. The side ops were side things to find, I think if they were called something else and just had a checklist for completionists I doubt people would complain about them.

I'm not talking about the split main ops/side ops, but the general structure of what missions you get in Chapter 2 (why are only a select few missions available as Extreme/Subsistence? This should have been a mode) and the diversity of side ops mission types. There was all this cool shit in Peace Walker, like taking photos of ghosts etc. In TPP you basically only have a handful of rather dull Side Ops repeated a bajillion times.

There's still a lot of stuff left to tie up after Chapter 1, so there was no reason to have such a barebones Chapter 2. To me all this looks like they didn't have the time to flesh this out at all.

 

[Future PhaZe]

Would have been a much better game as a more linear experience where certain encounters were better crafted. As it stands they just throw a bunch of shit at you and say have fun--which is great but it feels like there's zero reason to do anything other than use a silencer and cheese the A.I.

A good stealth game needs to force you to mix things up and MGSV doesn't do that

 

[Skel1ingt0n]

MGS sits firmly as my favorite series of all time - by a large margin.

And I can't express how much hype I had for V. But with that said, I have to admit I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong - the player agency and gameplay is the tightest I've seen in any stealth game, and that's a hell of an achievement.

But I come to MGS for the story and the bosses, and as the conclusion of my favorite series, it woefully disappointed.

Factor in funny side-ops, poor multiplayer, a confusing first several hours, repeated missions, a lack of indoor environments, and so on... and each disappointment reduces my favoritism toward the game knick by knick.

 

[antitrop]

It's my favorite Metal Gear, but I'm not, and have never been, a fan of the series. I've played all of them when they came out and V was the only one I didn't find painfully boring.

Even as a non-fan, I was still impressed how much worse the story was than all the previous MGSs, but the gameplay is just leaps and bounds over anything they've done previously.

 

[yellow submarine]

Vaaaaat is it snake?

/plays in my head repeatedly

 

[Purdy]

My personal GOTY

My personal let down of the year

 

[Lionheart1827]

it also gave us the best video game trailer ever :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_8Qi-I4o9E

I'm gonna have to disagree and say the 2013 trailer was more amazing with Sins of the Father. WHOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL4ZxDWLwpM

I was upset with the way that song was used in the game, so much potential.

 

[Arttemis]

People saying "The story is underwhelming and the ending is bad" undermine the real core conceptual problems with the game.

The story doesn't make it so you go to the same eight locations for 60 hours.

The story doesn't make it so that there are only four or five objective types spread out through the whole game in main missions and side missions. Fulton this thing, shoot this thing, trail this dude and then fulton or shoot him, or blow this thing up.

The story doesn't make it so the boss encounters and huge combat set pieces are all completely fucked. The skulls were awful and the mission where you have to fight off the tank brigade with Quiet is one of the most infuriating times I've ever had with a game, because it breaks it's own rules for the sake of a lame combat encounter.

Speaking of, the story has nothing to do with how Quiet is maybe Kojima at his most misogynistic. Every time she was on screen I was disgusted. I don't care what kind of lame ass story justification there is, Quiet is there and is the way she is because Kojima is a gross horny old dude.

The story has nothing to do with the fact that there were locations and scenes teased in trailers that were nowhere in the final game. Where's the return to Guantanamo? Where's the scene of Big Boss covered in blood screaming? Where's the scene of Big Boss walking through the burning wreckage of a village? It wasn't enough to show all of the cool story moments in the trailers beforehand, you literally had to make up scenes that weren't in the game?

The story has nothing to do with having to randomly repeat the slow ass tutorial beat for beat just to see "The Truth."

The story has nothing to do with how the fulton mechanic and the need to use it takes any and all tension out of the stealth.

MGSV is a bad game that controls well. I wanted to love it so bad, but it broke my heart. Ground Zeroes is a fucking mess for a host of reasons, but I'd still call it a better game than V.

To add to the list of missing elements, there is the inability to find and interact with key characters at Mother Base, or the ability to customize the layout of Mother Base structures as shown in gameplay a year prior to release.

Nor can we go to the other side of the ravine near the tiny jungle area in Africa like we were told in preview videos.

I'm going out on a limb, but I suspect the rebel fighters in Afghanistan that are only mentioned in dialog were supposed to be present as a separate faction, and OKB0 was going to have an interior section connecting to the power station, and its removal led to the infamous Jeep monologue.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Well to be fair it's been quite a while since I played through 4 but my take on it was that his characterization was changed within a reasonable degree considering the circumstances.

I think it was the move from the optimistic MGS2 summary speech to the more nihilistic, death-obsessed characterisation of 4 that was jarring. Didn't matter too much, just an example of the leaps in character between games.

Aside from the different outlook, Snake was finally put into the role of the guy who knows stuff rather than the clueless guy who gets explained everything to him because he's the player character (They do revert that in 4 and that was kind of terrible tbh) but I didn't think he was out of Charon messing with Raiden a bit. I know everyone in MGS2 is supposed to lie to Jack, but I don't actually recall Snake doing it, perhaps I'm forgetting something and knowing you I wouldn't be surprised if you refreshed my memory if I'm wrong.

Well, on the minor side of things you have his whole Plisken persona. On the larger end of the scale:

"You're changing sides now?"
"I don't recall saying I was on yours."
[GZZZZZZZT]

Personally I like Solid 2 Snake the most.

Spoiler

I liked the game the most too.

Yeah, he's awesome in that.

Good choice! 2/3 are my joint favourites for very different reasons, followed closely by 1/V.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Called it my GOTY15 back then, and it still is. Easily.

Yep.

Gameplay amazing. Overall plot was actually very enjoyable.

There are a handful of things i hated i could list but aint nobody got time for that

A worthy finale to the series.

 

[Dremark]

My personal GOTY

My personal let down of the year

I hope this year you're able to play more than one game.

Spoiler

 

[Screaming Meat]

Did he explain what he even meant by that?

Yeah.

"MGSV is an open-world "free infiltration" game, as opposed to a linear game. This doesn't just mean that the maps are big; infiltration routes, approach to intel gathering, time of day, equipment, means of transport - these are all up to the player. We have to ensure there is freedom that is not only logical but allows for spontaneity."

“The term ‘open world’ is often misunderstood by people,” says Kojima. “[Metal Gear Solid V] won’t be a game where you can spend an entire day fishing with Snake, or one that allows him to change his career in order to start a new life, or anything like that.”

“Rather, while the fields will be in an open world, and you’ll have plenty of freedom, in Metal Gear Solid V it will always be clear when it comes to knowing what you need to do,” he elaborates. “For example, you’ll have things such as ‘help this person,’ ‘destroy ____,’ ‘gather information here,’ and so on. There will also be missions with time limits.”

“Up until now, we’ve mainly only been able to make infiltration [missions] for Metal Gear Solid,” says Kojima. “There would be a demo scene that showed how to get there, and the players would start right in front of the entrance. If they safely cleared the mission, there’d be another cut-scene, where you’d see something like a helicopter appear, as you made your escape.”

"I think that being able to check the infiltration map, then listening to the mission’s details, deciding when to go, what to equip, and then how to take on the mission, will be a fun way of thinking of things,” says Kojima.

“Not just during the missions, but we want the before and after to also be similar to an ‘information-gathering style of play’,” he emphasizes. “For this reason, we’ve come to the conclusion that having an open world would be most ideal. The maps are wide, and the time and weather will also be changing.”

“You can compare it to making a survival game,” continues Kojima. “While it is fun to shoot in survival games, it’s also fun to split into teams and think about ways to overcome enemies and strategize, which I believe is just as fun. That’s the kind of play we’re aiming for while making Metal Gear Solid V.”

 

[SuitedforGaming]

As an mgs fan this was one of the worst games in the series for me, with the exception of the gameplay.I really wanted the game to be good but it just disappointed...

I made a fairly lengthy review of the game roughly a year ago and i still feel the same today.


https://youtu.be/nm58lLkAW1s

 

[Huge Succeeded]

An utterly disappointing game with some of the best gameplay concepts and execution that I've ever seen

A game that's actually been getting worse since launch instead of better

I'm good on MGSV I don't even wanna remember MGSV. Which is good, because aside from the smoothness of the controls and a few tricks I was able to pull off within that sandbox, there ain't shit to remember anyway

 

[Hellshingu]

MGS sits firmly as my favorite series of all time - by a large margin.

And I can't express how much hype I had for V. But with that said, I have to admit I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong - the player agency and gameplay is the tightest I've seen in any stealth game, and that's a hell of an achievement.

But I come to MGS for the story and the bosses, and as the conclusion of my favorite series, it woefully disappointed.

Factor in funny side-ops, poor multiplayer, a confusing first several hours, repeated missions, a lack of indoor environments, and so on... and each disappointment reduces my favoritism toward the game knick by knick.

This is pretty much exactly where I stand as well. Maybe after some years I look more fondly upon it as the gameplay really is something else. Sad to see the series go out this way.

 

[Reckless Abandon]

This is simply not true. You dont have to replay earlier (remixed) versions of missions to advance the storyline. You can finish the game get the true ending and touch nothing but only the essential (yellow) missions. No side ops no remixes nothing of that is required to finish the entirety of the campaign.

Interesting. Thanks for the correction. I guess it never occurred to me to just do the yellows.

 

[silentQ]

Truthfully I played 40 hours of this game and loved my time with it. The thing with it though is I felt it was too long. That would be usually fine but after a while the game just made me feel like I was making zero progress. I have played and finished every single MGS game so I am not sure what that says about MGSV. I usually feel too long is not a valid complaint but something about how my experience was didn't feel right in the end.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

The gameplay mechanics are refined and allow for creativity, but it's probably the least focused entry in the series. A lot of the content feels more like padding than anything designed all that meaningfully. There are some memorable moments or cutscenes, but they're floating in a narrative that just isn't very compelling at all, imo.

Honestly made me kind of skeptical regarding Kojima as a creator. I know it's unfinished, but it felt like he was prioritizing scale and style over a cohesive experience.

Yeah, it's so baffling to see them perfect controls and combat the way they did, only to not bother making at least a halfway engaging experience and world to apply it to. I still feel like they should have just made a new set of VR missions instead of V. At least then it would have been a competent and complete package within its own scope.

I know there are people that love it, and that's great. But despite what Konami and the packaging say, this is not a Metal Gear game. Certainly not one that belongs up there with the first four at least.

 

[Saven]

Still my GOTY 2015, and I played through it again recently and thought it was even better than before.

 

[pa22word]

I still feel the only difference between the reception of 4's story vs V is that people were 7 years older when they played V.

4's story was pure dogshit too, almost to the point of self parody. So much so that at times I find myself actually thinking the fan theory that Kojima did it intentionally because he was tired of working on the series to actually hold weight.

I've been a fan of the series because of the gameplay since I played MGS1, so it was exactly what I was looking for out of an MGS game. Kojima's always been a mediocre at best writer and the MGS games have always been poorly written, so V having a mediocre plot was par for the course on that one. Just because the story was more sparse in V vs the other games doesn't mean the quality really changed that much.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

I still feel the only difference between the reception of 4's story vs V is that people were 7 years older when they played V.

4's story was pure dogshit too, almost to the point of self parody. So much so that at times I find myself actually thinking the fan theory that Kojima did it intentionally because he was tired of working on the series to actually hold weight.

It was aboslutely ridiculous but was still an amazingly fun plot if you're willing to tolerate silliness. It also had some legitimately hype moments like the tunnel crawl, the fight at the end, the various cool boss introductions, not to mention all the amazing throwbacks to the previous games.

V was painfully barren and when it wasn't, it gave us Quiet. :/

 

[Ban Puncher]

Have played it every day since release.

1025+ hours of play time.

I seem to like it.

Spoiler

Have not opened MGO once/

 

[Newman96]

A year on I still can't bring myself to finish it..got far too repetitive in the latter stages for me.

 

[Sora the Cat]

The game just never gets boring, it's so fun to do every mission and try out all the ways you can complete it, the design truly is amazing,

 

[Hellwarden]

It was interesting for around 4 hours, then it turned into a boring slog with a dull meaningless story.

 

[Kindekuma]

It was interesting for around 4 hours, then it turned into a boring slog with a dull meaningless story.

edit: never mind misread your post, sorry!

 

[Besthelboy]

One of the best games ever.

 

[Lord Phol]

Still haven't completed it :7. The gameplay is fine (except for the obnoxious online stuff) but there's just so little Metal Gear there for me to enjoy, the story is doing nothing to make me want to continue playing. The weakest entry in the Metal Gear series IMO. Not an awful game, but like so many others have said before not a very good metal gear game. I'll give it points for not having the awful MGS 4 version of Johnny which almost ruined that game for me (not really, but he did annoy the hell out of me and felt so out of place).

 

[Lumpy Onion]

Possibly the greatest game I have played in 30 years of gaming. Controls have never felt this right. Even during the most hectic of firefights and situations I felt like I was in control. Currently on my third playthrough and having a blast.

 

[Krakatoa]

Its one of those games I can jump back into after a few months break and play. The side opps get a little grindy after time though....

Are you going to extract him

 

[Grisby]

Its one of those games I can jump back into after a few months break and play. The side opps get a little grindy after time though....

Are you going to extract him

Oh man.

"You're going to extract him!?"

Yes, shut the hell up Miller. Goddamit, gonna throw your ass off mother base you whiny piece of shit.

 

[Greddleok]

I just got the Platinum. Fucking incredible game.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

No. The reason most of us are calling it unfinished is that the entire second half of the game is mmo style filler grind content, and huge amounts of repetition.

Uhhh no, most people say it's unfinished because they feel the story is incomplete. You do not have to participate in any of those remixed missions. The game altogether has 37 unique missions. That's far more content then the vast majority of games offer.

Metal Gear Solid was never about this before. I'm all for games evolving, but the disappointment is valid.

Was never about what? Gameplay? Kojima creates his ideas for a game and then builds the story around them. I mean, I get that people want their cinema, but that stuff was never perfect in previous MGS games. Their is a reason Kojima is often called a bad writer, he goes on and on while saying very little most of the time. Again, MGSV suffers the same problem, but at least the player can interact with the gameworld while experiencing the story. I consider that an improvement.

The helicopter says otherwise..

I don't understand what you mean here? The ACC drops you into any open mission or side op location in the open world with very little delay and without load times. You don't even have to go back to the ACC a lot of the time. You can simply leave a mission area and travel to the next mission on foot.

I know there are people that love it, and that's great. But despite what Konami and the packaging say, this is not a Metal Gear game. Certainly not one that belongs up there with the first four at least.

What exactly would you qualify as a Metal Gear game? I don't understand how anyone couldn't see it as one.

From top to bottom, It's got KojiPro's finger prints all over it. Like other MGS games, it has a very unique identity that most AAA games do not have.

 

[Kindekuma]

"You're going to extract him!?"

lol

 

[Toa TAK]

I can't believe it, but I'm finally building a Nuke.

Spoiler

And I did it by putting my GDP in the red by 400000!

 

[Itchy//Tasty]

Been replaying it recently, partly to digest the story again and partly for a perfect stealth run, and I came across a flaw that really pisses me off: You can't replay Important Side-ops i.e stuff like finding and extracting the Man on Fire's body, retrieving the kids or the one that leads up to Huey's extraction (the side-op before Hellbound). Unless you start over, it makes story-only playthroughs incomplete, in an already partly incomplete game.

I adore every iota of it by the way, but little things like this are baffling to me. It's a masterpiece that was about 80-90% done, and therefore can't really be defined as a masterpiece.

 

[Kindekuma]

I can't believe it, but I'm finally building a Nuke.

Spoiler

And I did it by putting my GDP in the red by 400000!

Go to Mother Base if you're still in the red!

 

[Liamc723]

This is simply not true. You dont have to replay earlier (remixed) versions of missions to advance the storyline. You can finish the game get the true ending and touch nothing but only the essential (yellow) missions. No side ops no remixes nothing of that is required to finish the entirety of the campaign.

That is absolutely false.

You have to play side-ops to progress the story in chapter 2.

 

[213372bu]

Aside from the lackluster story and potential, that's cut back due to development issues, the gameplay is absolutely perfect.

One hour in and I was able to play the game as second-nature as an FPS, despite all the complexities.

I've tried returning to it on PC, but the crawl back to where I am on PS4 is going to be a long one. Best to return to it in a year or so.

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

A year on I still can't bring myself to finish it..

Don't feel too bad; neither could the developers.