• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain | Review Thread | Words That Kill

wiibomb

Member
The daft thing is that there is plenty of plot and lots of cut-scenes. It's just not doled out in a regimented fashion over the 10-hour span of a linear campaign.

This is EXACTLY what I have been asking myself.. in MGS4 we got a 12 hour game with about 4 hours of cutscenes.. of COURSE it will feel heavy, this time around the game is about 40 hours, there is NO way it will feel the same, but I still feel there will be story to it more than people are telling now.
 

Moobabe

Member
This is EXACTLY what I have been asking myself.. in MGS4 we got a 12 hour game with about 4 hours of cutscenes.. of COURSE it will feel heavy, this time around the game is about 40 hours, there is NO way it will feel the same, but I still feel there will be story to it more than people are telling now.

That's a generous break down :p
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
the completion % is very misleading...a lot of people get the "true" ending before they hit 50% around the 40 hour mark

Well obviously it depends on what you're doing, and how fast you're doing it. Which is a product of skill and style. For example, I may not be particularly good at the game but I refuse to cop-out and wear the chicken hat!

The plain fact though is that this is a very big game. Anyone who's claiming they aren't getting a lot of content for their money is talking shit. Period.

Which isn't to say that everyone has to like the direction Kojima and co have taken with it, just that its going to last the average-skilled player a long time to finish if they do enjoy it. And frankly, I struggle to fault the core gameplay loop, it really is polished to perfection.
 

dracula_x

Member
How do you explain the countless people who are loving the game?
Can't you just not like something, without thinking everyone else is out there to get you?
Placebo effect? Plus "A Hideo Kojima game" and "F@#k Konami".

Sure, MGSV is a good game, but seems it's overrated by reviewers.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Placebo effect? Plus "A Hideo Kojima game" and "F@#k Konami".

Sure, MGSV is a good game, but seems it's overrated by reviewers.

You're doing MGSV a huge disservice by calling it a "good game". Its so much more than that. It's easily one of, if not the best game this year and one of the best in recent years.

Sorry you didn't get 1 hour long cutscenes and disruptive codecs jammed down your throats this time around.
 

UrbanRats

Member
It's not repetitive to me, cause the game gives you such a large toolset to toy around with, It's possibility space the game. Not since Blood Money have I played in such a rich sandbox. Unlike most open worlds, like GTA V or The Witcher 3, where mission and enouncter design doesn't allow for player agency at all.

This really is the biggest thing.
Games like GTA have sort of been getting away from encouraging player's creativity, forgetting what being open world was all about, and MGSV feels instead very strong on that front, essentially nailing what is so good about the concept of "open world".
It may not feel like a traditional MGS, and i can understand some people not liking that shift, but as a game in and out of itself, it's quite special (so far anyway, i have yet to finish it).

By comparison if i think about GTAV, they've been trying to fix the inherent looseness of the open world element, by pumping in more budget and more production values, and more scripted moments, which made for an alright campaign, but didn't really allow for any creativity.
And in a game based around "organizing heists", that is especially disappointing.

I say this as a big GTA fan, too.

Placebo effect? Plus "A Hideo Kojima game" and "F@#k Konami".

Sure, MGSV is a good game, but seems it's overrated by reviewers.

That's mighty patronizing.
If you want to believe everyone's a sheep and have been played, i won't waste too much time convincing you otherwise, but i really don't care about Kojima (nor any other game creator or company) to that point, not in the slightest.

The game does a lot of things right, and it's pretty unique in many respects, that is what people are liking, some people also don't like the direction the game has taken, and that's fine, but they don't need to rationalize it by dissing other's honest opinions, or thinking they're dumb children who can't distinguish a game they like when they play it from mob mentality.

I mean it's not like people who are liking the game are unable to put into words and elaborate on what they're liking about it.
You just don't happen to like the same things, shit happens.
 

Sushigod7

Member
Placebo effect? Plus "A Hideo Kojima game" and "F@#k Konami".

Sure, MGSV is a good game, but seems it's overrated by reviewers.

How so? I haven't read anything they exaggerated or made sound different from what it is. Maybe your letting your personal opinion effect what you think about the game?
 

Jonm1010

Banned
Placebo effect? Plus "A Hideo Kojima game" and "F@#k Konami".

Sure, MGSV is a good game, but seems it's overrated by reviewers.

I have liked exactly 2 MGS games and that was 1 and 3. 2 was decent gameplay wise but the story sucked. 4 was just ruined by a godawful story that dominated play time and I couldn't even beat 50% of it.

MGSV is perhaps the most fun I have had in a game all year. It has struck the right balance between Kojima's propensity to draw out cinematics unnecessarily and gameplay.

It rivals Bloodborne for me on a strict gameplay level and has made me stop trying to finish Witcher 3 for now. It does open world right from a gameplay perspective. It opens up more creativity and freedom of approach then any recent open world game I can think of. With solid mechanics and I enjoy the base building aspect.

I came into MGSV fully expecting to be disappointed and was 100% skeptical and I am now eating lots of crow for my assumptions. There is no placebo effect here.
 

CassSept

Member
Placebo effect? Plus "A Hideo Kojima game" and "F@#k Konami".

Sure, MGSV is a good game, but seems it's overrated by reviewers.

Eh, I'm 15 hours in and so far I'm absolutely loving the game and if asked, I'd agree with all the praises it's receiving. That comes from someone who isn't that much of a series fan (I like it, but I'm far from OuterGAF) and didn't follow the entire hype train up to the release. MGSV's gameplay is simply impeccable.
 
As a huge fan of mgs, I can understand most of the disappointment.

But, in terms of gameplay it truly is the best MGS ever. Cutcene wise... Not so great (and this is a huge let down from the franchise).

There's also another big thing, this is the best MGS to listen. The cassette tapes are amazing.
 

raven777

Member
I can understand the complaints about lack of cutscenes as someone who loves MGS cutscenes. I mean I am one of those who didn't mind MGS4's super long cutscenes.

But for me MGSV's gameplay is just so good and satisfying that I don't really mind it as much. I have been playing for over 50 hours and I have done little over half of the main stories.
 

Gurish

Member
Everything I have seen of Mad Max screams more of the same. It's basically another one of "those games," a WB/Ubisoft open world game but with a different coat of paint. I will probably still play it, but it's a prime example of playing it safe.

Read Jim Sterling's review, it actually is, it's a busy work open world game, all you do there are these activities, he also compares it to MGS5 and why MGS5 is on a different level than those fetch quest open world games like Mad Max and other Ubi's titles in general.
 

Mulgrok

Member
Really liking MGSV mechanically. I am only on the 4th mission and have little idea where the fuck the story is going other than the usual 'build army to get revenge'. So many ways of doing things makes completing similar missions more enjoyable. Game is way more fun when I learned to let go and not try for perfect scores on missions.
 

Pilgore

Neo Member
Anyone have any issues with the Ground Zeroes save data transfer? I can't get it to work, I uploaded my save in GZ. But when I try the download save option in TPP it just says. "no save data found canceling download."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

rrc1594

Member
This game is not perfect, but it's the most fun I had with a game all year easily. 26 hours in it's 9.5, not the best MGS tho. Maybe my GOTY depending how good Halo or TR is.

MGS3 is still GOAT
 
I see this claim made a lot because of the supposedly serious nature of the game and all...but no, it's just as goofy and ridiculous.

I don't see the joke guy shitting his pants all of the time marrying the former love interest of the main protagonist and declaring their undying love for one another when he locked her up in Shadow Moses or any such event in MGSV. Yeah...it's definitely less goofy than that, mate.
 

Hasney

Member
I don't see the joke guy shitting his pants all of the time marrying the former love interest of the main protagonist and declaring their undying love for one another when he locked her up in Shadow Moses or any such event in MGSV. Yeah...it's definitely less goofy than that, mate.

I don't know. Big Boss does run around mother base shooting his soldiers in the crotch with a water pistol giving them a wet patch and running away giggling.

... Wait, that was just me doing that.
 
I don't know. Big Boss does run around mother base shooting his soldiers in the crotch with a water pistol giving them a wet patch and running away giggling.

... Wait, that was just me doing that.

Well yeah, that's the kind of goofy that I like. The kind of goofy that I hate was the stuff in MGS4 like trying to turn a joke character into Meryl's love interest. Don't know what they were smoking there. Thankfully that crap was gone in MGSV.
 

Chariot

Member
Well yeah, that's the kind of goofy that I like. The kind of goofy that I hate was the stuff in MGS4 like trying to turn a joke character into Meryl's love interest. Don't know what they were smoking there. Thankfully that crap was gone in MGSV.
Why not? Love goes strange ways in real life, btu that's love for you.
 

knerl

Member
The gameplay is spectacular.

I've put in I think about 40+hrs i'm at 25%

About the same here and I'm at 28%. Great game although now I'm starting to miss a few things. For one I really feel there should have been an injury system. A real injury system derived from MGS3. The one they have now where you after taking enough damage just press Y/triangle to heal yourself is completely out of place. Bullshit really. At least bleeding should be there as a means of being tracked or to track others. Slowly draining your health. Being shot enough times in the same place should have made you limp until you fixed yourself up etc. That would have added a lot to the experience I think.

What else? I miss swimming. Rivers are never more than a foot deep which is ridiculous. Even if you wouldn't do it often the option would be nice seeing how it's open world and all. They way it is now just breaks the immersion.

Boss battles so far haven't been very satisfying. For those having played as much as myself I'm at chapter two and so I've come across one pretty neat boss battle. This particular one however was not without issues. Certain actions from the enemy that can't be anticipated that just ended with several retries.

Will have to see what awaits. Summary so far is that it's a fantastic game, but with missing mechanics that I took for granted.
 

Imm0rt4l

Member
I don't see the joke guy shitting his pants all of the time marrying the former love interest of the main protagonist and declaring their undying love for one another when he locked her up in Shadow Moses or any such event in MGSV. Yeah...it's definitely less goofy than that, mate.
Real talk.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I played through MGS4 again just prior to MGSV's release. Act 3's ending cutscene, followed by the briefing, then the opening cutscene of Act 4, totals around an hour and fifteen minutes. The ending cutscene goes for almost as long. Most cutscenes between Acts, if we count the briefing (and we should), borderline on an hour. Numerous mid-Act cutscenes encroach on the ~20-30 minute mark.

A part of me does miss heavier narrative in MGSV, but there's a line and MGS4 squat and shit all over it. I'm so happy MGSV is nothing like that.

I dunno. We didn't produce a review out of the review event. I feel all reviews that came from it come with a bias, which isn't a criticism of the reviewers but just the nature of the environment (Sterling touches on this really well). But, you know, reviews are subjective and all that, and one fan's objectivity is another's subjectivity.

If MGS4 can be awarded 10/10's across the board then I'm not surprised this is too.
 

Anth0ny

Member
I played through MGS4 again just prior to MGSV's release. Act 3's ending cutscene, followed by the briefing, then the opening cutscene of Act 4, totals around an hour and fifteen minutes. The ending cutscene goes for almost as long. Most cutscenes between Acts, if we count the briefing (and we should), borderline on an hour. Numerous mid-Act cutscenes encroach on the ~20-30 minute mark.

A part of me does miss heavier narrative in MGSV, but there's a line and MGS4 squat and shit all over it. I'm so happy MGSV is nothing like that.

I dunno. We didn't produce a review out of the review event. I feel all reviews that came from it come with a bias, which isn't a criticism of the reviewers but just the nature of the environment (Sterling touches on this really well). But, you know, reviews are subjective and all that, and one fan's objectivity is another's subjectivity.

If MGS4 can be awarded 10/10's across the board then I'm not surprised this is too.

3 was the perfect balance. Kojima went to the extreme in one direction with 4, and in the other direction with V.

For that reason alone I could never give 4 or V a perfect score. Both games have very clear flaws imo.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
The difference between these two gargantuan flaws on both sides of the equation is that I vastly prefer cutscene-heavy over cutscene-light, even at the expense of gameplay. Does that make me a super-niche gamer? Of course! But... yeah.

Balance is optimal, but I can't see myself ever liking V more than 4.
 

Jarmel

Banned
I'm not completely done with the game but the story itself is by far the worst of all the Metal Gears. Not only is it lacking in content but the delivery is piss poor at times.
 

Lingitiz

Member
I'm not completely done with the game but the story itself is by far the worst of all the Metal Gears. Not only is it lacking in content but the delivery is piss poor at times.

The story alone is bad by any standard. It's disjointed, doesn't have a clear arc, the villains are piss poor and undeveloped, and the entire second act has no clear narrative or really any reason to continue on.

Kojima gets a lot of flack for putting together overwritten and incomprehensible stories, but you always felt like it was a full story. MGS5 is like a bunch of disparate parts and scenes that they tried to stitch together in time for the release.
 

Anth0ny

Member
The difference between these two gargantuan flaws on both sides of the equation is that I vastly prefer cutscene-heavy over cutscene-light, even at the expense of gameplay. Does that make me a super-niche gamer? Of course! But... yeah.

Balance is optimal, but I can't see myself ever liking V more than 4.

Agreed. I'd take cutscene heavy over cutscene light any day of the week. But I can totally see why someone wouldn't like the MGS4 style and prefer the MGSV style.

I'm especially disappointed because this was supposed to bring an end to the story arc of Big Boss that started with MGS3, closing the gap between it and the original Metal Gear. I was expecting a ton of story, almost like MGS4. Clearly I fucked up with those expectations :p

Though I haven't finished the game quite yet... maybe Kojima will surprise me.
 

MMarston

Was getting caught part of your plan?
The story alone is bad by any standard. It's disjointed, doesn't have a clear arc, the villains are piss poor and undeveloped, and the entire second act has no clear narrative or really any reason to continue on.

Kojima gets a lot of flack for putting together overwritten and incomprehensible stories, but you always felt like it was a full story. MGS5 is like a bunch of disparate parts and scenes that they tried to stitch together in time for the release.

To repeat myself from another thread, it really feels Kojima tried to put in too much of a good thing into one basket and things ended up starting to spill out of said basket, story being one of them.

Like it's a mostly great gameplay experience for me so far (sans certain missions) but you could definitely feel an "Oh shit, I forgot to expand the story" vibe from it. What makes it more of a shame is that with what I've played so far, there are definitely glimpses of brilliance in some of the scenes I've seen, especially in Mother Base.

Unfortunately, they're either too brief or bogged down by the fact that Snake became a man of very few words. So yeah the intent seems to be clearly there, but not the appropriate effort.
 

Yopis

Member
Been a fan from the beginning. Feel kojima went out with gameplay as he came into the series. Mgs became cutscenes and fluff which I enjoyed. This games goes back to the roots I love them all.
 
So I beat the game the other night and think I've had some time to process my thoughts on it and let everything sink in.
My final playtime for completing 50% and getting the 'true' ending was 60hrs.

Pros:

- The story for the most part was actually pretty decent and far from the worst in the series. Some genuinely moving moments and disturbing themes explored relatively well. Cut scenes are well directed.

- Visuals and audio were both fantastic. The soundtrack, while not to the standard of 1-4, felt very well composed and fitting. The 60fps open world gameplay was a thing of beauty. Voice acting was mostly very strong and I even managed to enjoy Kiefer's Big Boss.

- The prologue was straight up amazing.

- A couple of decent boss fights.

- Gameplay. Stealth or action. Fantastic. Nearly faultless and when it clicks after a few hours and you begin to master all the functions it feels incredible, even if you're simply doing a standard side op.

- Side Ops. They are actually really fun thanks to the finely tuned gameplay systems. And there are 157 of them!

- The game is long, and for the most part, highly addictive!

- The open world is fun to explore and gives you plenty of different options to tackle your objectives.

- The buddy system is great. I found something to love about each of my sidekicks. All are well balanced and upgradable.

- The fulton system and Mother base management actually becomes very addictive and feels almost like a separate game unto itself.

- Guns and enemy hit reaction are great!

Cons:

- The intro and outdo credits for every mission were pretentious, at times spoilery and felt highly unnecessary.

- Not enough memorable boss battles compared to previous entries.

- More variety in locations would have been nice.

- Reliance on cassettes, over explaining things during cutscenes felt lazy at times.

- Some of the later missions felt a little unfair, you could get one shot killed far too easily.

- Having to replay around 10 previous missions again during act 2 on Extreme difficulty mode was straight up filler bullshit.

- Massive plot point setup with an epic cutscene and then never resolved.

- The ending while clever felt a little bit forced and unnecessary. It was a cool idea but didn't quite resonate with me personally.

So overall I'd say the game is far from my favourite Metal Gear, but as a game in it's own right it's very rewarding, deep and highly recommended to fans of stealth and action games alike. It can feel overwhelming to begin with but after a few play sessions it all clicks and becomes like second nature. Probably my favourite game this year after Bloodborne.
 
I think it's worth pointing out that the mission-based structure and the reduced amount of cutscenes are two different changes. I haven't beat MGSV, so I don't know how I feel about the amount of cutscenes in it (clearly MGS4 went overboard, but it sounds like MGSV went too far in the opposite direction), but I think the mission-based structure is unambiguously a good thing, and would still be really useful even if combined with more cutscenes. I would have loved the ability to replay and experiment with specific segments of gameplay from MGS4 without having to replay through the whole story up to that point.
 

Alienous

Member
MGSV feels like an 8 hour story stretched out to provide a 30-40 hour game.

It just doesn't have a story to match its scale in every other aspect.
 

knerl

Member
Cons:

- The intro and outdo credits for every mission were pretentious, at times spoilery and felt highly unnecessary.

- Not enough memorable boss battles compared to previous entries.

- More variety in locations would have been nice.

- Having to replay around 10 previous missions again during act 2 on Extreme difficulty mode was straight up filler bullshit.

This. Sick of Afghanistan and Africa now. While both areas may be HUGE there are far too many missions taking place at the same location in each region. Some of the missions are also plain duplicates (except for a couple of parameters) which feels lazy.
This game really should have had a third location besides MB. A larger forested area would have been nice.

-Choppers should be more controllable. Hate having to wait for the chopper to return to the ACC. Give me an option to do it instantly after jumping in a chopper. Also. Give me the option to choose another LZ straight away after using the pick up. Not being able to do this feels tedious.
 
-Choppers should be more controllable. Hate having to wait for the chopper to return to the ACC. Give me an option to do it instantly after jumping in a chopper. Also. Give me the option to choose another LZ straight away after using the pick up. Not being able to do this feels tedious.

You can return to the ACC instantly from anywhere. Hit select and choose return to ACC.
 
Top Bottom