Holy shit I just started this game for the first time (it's also my first serious attempt at a mgs game, I've spoiled most the lore so I'm not totally lost)
I really like how it's a slice of life anime of metal gear weirdness. Also the choice to tell a lot of the story with great audiotapes is fucking rad IMO, the long cutscenes are a common complaint I see hear with these games, and I guess they could throw in some more long scenes? But I feel like because I'm spending so much time playing the game and listening to these in-depth expository conversations that when the game decides to show me skull face owning a metal gear for the first time in that long-ass scene it's rad as hell and has a ton of impact.
Gameplay wise I've dumped sixty hours into this game since I started it last week and I haven't even got close to getting tired of it. So fucking fun (I'm also excited as hell for survive, even if it's silly the gameplay looks on point so I'm more than in)
Also the soundtrack is a bunch of my legitimate favorite songs, so holy shit I love infiltrating an enemy base and hearing these songs from a different room.
I'm actually way more excited to play the rest of the series after this game, I feel like I'll know ocelot really well as a guy and I feel like I'll have spent a lot of time in a more reserved metal gear game before some of the ridiculous shit like 1/2/3 and revengeance ("not canon" but it is to me, since it makes zero difference)
I'm probably about where you're at, in progress with this game (think I'm on mission 17 or something), but based off of what I've seen so far Ocelot is a totally different character from previous games. He's basically Yosemite Sam in the old games, so to see him acting like he has a shred of sanity here (between MGS3 and MGS1 chronologically) is definitely weird.
Also, it must be weird to go from MGSV to previous entries. The gameplay is totally different and more constrained. Still great games and totally worth it for the story and experience though.