Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[shenmue852]

Honestly not sure what you were expecting out of it, Thief. It was clear from the start that this was going to be a much more expansive experience than before, being open-world and all. I personally went into it expecting to be patient with it. Seemed obvious from the start that that was the way to go. The personality is certainly different compared to what the series has always been before, and yeah, I am disappointed that Snake is such a mute, but none of that has lessened the fun I've had so far. I'm taking my time with it (as I was expecting to), and I'm having a blast.
And the level design is amazing. I've personally never played an open-world game that's been designed so meticulously with stealth in mind. Not sure what you've done so far, but the Honey Bee mission and the initial fight against Quiet are ridiculously well-put-together. I'd actually call the Quiet fight one of the greatest boss battles in the entire series so far, and it's precisely because of the level design.
In fact, I think that's the test I'd set for you: get to the Quiet boss battle, finish it, exfiltrate, and if none of that plus the following cutscenes keeps you hooked... then I'd call it a lost cause for you. I just finished that stuff, and I can't wait to play more. Hell, I can't wait to play the same thing over again and see what other tactics I can pull off. That feels like half the appeal for much of the game altogether: experimenting with different approaches and methods. Sure, it might get boring if you're just doing the same things over and over, but there's so much room for getting creative that I really would blame a lack of fun on the person playing. It's just that open-ended.

Anyway, what did you guys make your avatars look like? The character creation is surprisingly fantastic. I assume its only purpose is to make you look different to attacking players in FOB missions, but it's fun to play around with regardless. Gonna try more variations later on, try out a few existing characters. The only problem with it is the limited hair choices. I mean seriously, you can either have hair or have a shaved head. Kind of a pathetic list of choices, but I feel like they might patch more in later.
As it is, I made my guy look like Agent 47. Actually looks like an even better character model than his look from the new Hitman game.



And cool little detail; when Snake is sitting in the chopper and it's dark outside, if you click the right stick and look at the right window, Snake's reflection will look like your avatar. Incredible level of detail, something so easy to miss.

i haven't played mgsV yet so this isnt a comment on it directly, but i think that generally too many developers think open world means empty wilderness and rudimentary CS style maps with repetitive buildings.

open maps vs open world is what separates great sandbox games from the others.

[Henry Spencer]

It's funny, I was feeling the same as everyone else about how it takes too long to get all the way to chopper pickup points. I've been playing for... good lord, no clue. Probably 15-20 hours already, but I only just realized that you can destroy the radar arrays at the various bases to provide a closer pickup point. I was playing so stealthy that I hadn't destroyed one yet.

Also have to say, as stealth-focused as the game is, and as incredibly well as it pulls that off, I've only just found out how fun it is to go loud as well. Both styles are fun as hell. Most fun I've had with a combination of the two since Watch Dogs, I think.

Oh wow. I bet that made travelling around a bitch. Here let me give out some tips, might be some stuff people have missed (which the game never tells you):

Destroying the radio (with blue lights) inside a building at an outpost will disrupt communication between CP (the group of soldiers in that vicinity) and HQ meaning no reinforcements will be brought in if you get caught.

You can destroy power boxes that will turn off all of the lights in the area, making night infiltration much easier.

Level up your Bond level with your buddies is important as this will boost and unlock new abilities as well as unlock new equipment for them to use.

Heading back to Mother Base is kinda important too, since dotted around the area are shower units, I'd advise using these as much as possible too since not only do they clean the blood off Big Boss (if you leave it long enough, it will make Big Boss smell real bad and he will be smelt out by enemies), but it also resets Big Boss's abilities such as reflex, health (or how much damage Big Boss can take in a firefight before dying) and how quickly health can recharge among other things. So yeah, shower regularly after each mission. Sometimes heading back to Mother Base also triggers random cutscenes, some of which are missable, so I've been told (sometimes they force you to go back anyway, sometimes not).

Doing these before you do a main mission can make missions much, much easier.

Just figured out a way to fast travel, the little orange squared shaped box stands that have a sign above them.

These:



Will let you fast travel, just hold triangle/Y and you will be able to go anywhere on Mother Base without having to use the chopper. These can also be found in Afghanistan and at

Africa

at the bigger outposts, but first, before you can use those, you have to collect the "Invoices" for them, which you acquire by just approaching the sign and holding circle/B. Then voila, you've unlocked fast travel to that base! Makes travelling so much easier.

[Riku Rose]

I'm really really enjoying this game but the more I play it the more I realise it just doesn't feel like Metal Gear to me. The first hour or so I really felt like I was setting myself up for a Metal Gear experience but other than the odd quirky thing happening it feels like something totally different. I've played for about 15-20 hours and not met one memorable or interesting character (apart from Quiet but that has nothing to do with her personality) which is one of the best things about the series, even Ocelot just stays at the base and tells you what's happening before each mission. Kojima has made it clear in the past that he wanted to move away from the series and this game feels like he got as far away as he could while still sprinkling in some Metal Gear to cover the cracks. It really makes me excited for what he does next, people love Kojima but I've always been curious what he would do outside of Metal Gear since his not made anything else for so long but this is so different and well made.

This post isn't me saying I hate the game or anything as I feel quite the opposite. I just find it amazing that in every entry in the series before this one unless you had played all the previous games the story pretty much told you to go and fuck yourself. Most people could jump in to this game as their first entry point and understand the grand majority of it. Nothing seems to be happening that actually effects the series overall.

Although I now that I've typed all this I know that the end of the game will be typical Kojima off the wall craziness with Ninja vampires fighting giant robot cows.

Also:

Konami has revealed there's a risk of your Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain save becoming corrupt and unusable if you bring Quiet with you as a buddy on Mission 29 or Mission 42.

An update on the company's support site explains that the only way to currently prevent this from happening is by not bringing Quiet with you on either of these missions. The issue affects The Phantom Pain on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC and a fix is being worked on.

[Henry Spencer]

^Fear not, Mission 18 onwards feature lots of story and cutscenes. It does go a large stretch without any story though, so it is incredibly different in the presentation sense from previous titles.

It's basically the antithesis of MGS4, really. People argue that he should have ended the series ages ago, but it's pretty obvious that decision was out of his hands and all of this is just supplementary/extra stuff for us, the fans. At least he went out with a bang and will no doubt make something else incredible. He's no doubt had ideas cooking inside his head for decades now, I look forward to seeing what else he can bring us. Open world stealth is pretty much a new concept, there have been sandbox stealth games in the past, but not on this scale.

[redline]

something i just learnt. if you capture all 3 legendary gunsmiths you can customize your weapons (colours, scopes, barrels etc)

http://www.gamespot.com/gallery/18-thin ... 900-313/9/

Customize Your Guns

Contrary to what you might think, it's possible to customize guns with different parts and color schemes. All you need to do is complete a series of of three Side-Ops involving extracting a so-called Legendary Gunsmith. To start the process, you need to complete Mission 13, which will unlock Side-Op 107: Extract the Legendary Gunsmith. Upon completion, you'll trigger Side-Ops 108 and 109. Once you've finished, return to the ACC, open up your iDroid, and choose Customization under the Mother Base tab to find a Weapons option available. (Note: If the Legendary Gunsmith Side-Ops aren't appearing, try completing other available Side-Ops on the map until you unlock them.)

[OL]

^^Just did that yesterday. Loving my assault rifle now that I could add a longer barrel for accuracy, a bigger magazine, a laser sight, a sniper scope, and a suppressor.

EDIT: So I only just now checked my playtime on it...
I'm at, uh... 67 hours. Only 20-something percent completion. And some of you other guys are crazy; I'm still not bored.

[redline]

/\ OL, how do you pull up how many hours you have played?


i also unlocked it last night. does the different muzzle breaks on the guns change the sound?

[Thief]

how do you pull up how many hours you have played?

You pull up the pause screen (not idroid) and select records. You can see all sorts of things in there.

[Henry Spencer]

Think I'm nearing the end now. It's been a ride. Hope the ending doesn't suck.

[Thief]

This is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Click spoiler if you've already scene Quiet's rain scene.

phpBB [video]

[OL]

I only just led the

children

out of the mine cell. Great mission, but I was trying to go full stealth (no kills, no nothing, just sneaking past) so I could earn the Foxhound emblem, but the end of that mission is hard as shit to stay quiet on. Good cutscenes though. I've been playing for a zillion hours already, but I think the cutscenes in that mission are the first place where I really felt like Kiefer was just about perfect for Big Boss.

[Riku Rose]

^Just did that mission yesterday. Earlier in the mission I thought I had my tranquilliser in my hand and accidentally shot a machine gun so the mission turned into an Uncharted mission. I led everyone out at the end shooting everyone like a badass and then when the helicopter landed I got on so I could use the gatling gun and the helicopter just took off leaving 4 people behind, I thought they would get in on their own.

[OL]

Yeah, I thought the same at first, but then as soon as I hopped on, Miller said "You're leaving them behind?" I guess they can trek over rocks, past guards, and over swamp land, but climbing into helicopters is their weakness.

I was trying to go full stealth, no alerts, but I'm not sure that's even possible what with the soldiers who come up the other side of the hill shooting at the chopper and all. And I think the alert status that happens when the guards find the prisoners missing is scripted, but I'm going to try setting sleeping gas mines near the cell next time and see if that can hold it off.
Lot of experimenting to do.

[Henry Spencer]

NOT YET! THE GAME ISN'T OVER FOR ME YET!

I love just building up my base since it speaks to me on a strategy level with the RTS and management stuff that's on a whole other level than what we got with Peace Walker. Spent all day today just playing this game. Can't stop.

[Thief]

:lol:
Yeah, I thought the same at first, but then as soon as I hopped on, Miller said "You're leaving them behind?" I guess they can trek over rocks, past guards, and over swamp land, but climbing into helicopters is their weakness.

I was trying to go full stealth, no alerts, but I'm not sure that's even possible what with the soldiers who come up the other side of the hill shooting at the chopper and all. And I think the alert status that happens when the guards find the prisoners missing is scripted, but I'm going to try setting sleeping gas mines near the cell next time and see if that can hold it off.
Lot of experimenting to do.

There's a extra mission objective that has you extract them without being discovered so it definitely is possible, but that initial one may be scripted. I think that mission is one of my favorite so far -- my heart was literally racing as I was shoving them on the helicopter while being shot at by guards.

The story really picks up around mission 20, I'd say. I made a decision to just absolutely STOP doing side-ops until I had finished doing the main story, and it helped tremendously with the pacing of the story. I was just doing waaaaay too much extra shit -- which I love to do, but I need to experience the story first (personally). Anyway, just finished Chapter 1 last night and really like the story so far, some of those missions were really damn good (and I finally had a really good boss fight). Can't wait to see Chapter 2.